Inclusivity Style Guide
Welcome to the ACS Inclusivity Style Guide
This guide aims to help American Chemical Society staff and members communicate in ways that recognize and respect diversity in all its forms.
- Involve a diverse group of people in the creative process
- Be appropriately specific
- Avoid labeling people by a characteristic
- Ask people how they want to be described, and respect that language
- When to include personal characteristics
- Recognize words that assume a cultural norm
- When to use “diverse”
- General resources
- Recognize frames and narratives that uphold inequities
- Avoid problematic frames and narratives
- Avoid false balance and false equivalence
- Provide context
- Choose sources thoughtfully
- Consider what information to include
- Order information strategically
- Use metaphors carefully
- Use active phrasing
- Avoid an undefined “we”
- Recognize overlapping identities
- Recognize negation’s flaws
- Compare thoughtfully
- Resources on inclusive narratives, framing, and sentence structure
- When to mention body size
- How to mention height
- How to mention weight
- How to describe antifat oppression
- Body size movements
- Recognize intersectionality in body size
- Avoid using "fat" to mean something negative
- Don't conflate weight and health
- Avoid healthism
- Critically examine the evidence and sources, and provide context
- Avoid problematic frames of weight
- Don’t glorify dieting, weight loss, or thinness
- Resources on inclusive language for body size
- When and how to mention someone’s health
- People-first language and identity-first language
- Capitalization of health conditions
- Neutral language for disabilities, disorders, and diseases
- Avoid euphemisms related to disability
- Avoid metaphorical uses of disability-related terms
- Avoid using disability-related terms to describe something negative
- Person versus patient
- Drug use
- Resources on inclusive language for health
- When and how to mention gender and sexual orientation
- Gender-neutral language
- Not implying that gender is a binary construct
- When to use "female" and "male" versus "woman" and "man"
- Singular “they” when gender is not known or not important
- Singular “they” for people who use that pronoun
- Discussing pronouns
- LGBTQ+
- Queer
- Transgender
- How to discuss bodies
- How to describe relationships
- Resources on inclusive language for gender and sexuality
- When and how to mention race and ethnicity
- People of color
- Minorities, non-White
- BIPOC, BAME, POC
- Capitalization and spelling of races, ethnicities, and nationalities
- Races and ethnicities as adjectives
- Brown
- Hispanic, Latino, Latinx
- Multiracial, mixed race
- Recognize the diversity of Indigenous peoples
- Use language that respects Indigenous people’s autonomy
- Avoid language that perpetuates racial or ethnic stereotypes or is rooted in violence against these groups
- Cultural appropriation and misinterpretation in language
- Avoid associating “black” or darkness with bad, and “white” or lightness with good
- Use language that accurately reflects events harming people of color
- Avoid euphemisms for racism
- Enslaved people, slaves
- Tribe, tribal
- When and how to mention nationality and locations
- When and how to mention immigration status
- Resources on inclusive language for race, ethnicity, and nationality
- When and how to refer to socioeconomic status groups
- Avoid deficit-based language for socioeconomic status
- Acknowledge systemic factors that affect socioeconomic status
- Show variety within socioeconomic status groups
- Do not use racially coded terms for socioeconomic status
- How to refer to occupation
- How to refer to housing status
- Avoid outdated and generalizing terms for countries
- Resources on inclusive language for socioeconomic status
- Ask for only what you need
- Consider your audience
- State the purpose of the request for information
- Disclose who has access
- Affirm ACS’s commitment to nondiscrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect
- Give users the opportunity to opt out
- Allow for multiple responses rather than a single choice, where applicable
- Order the responses in alphabetical or numerical order
- Avoid the term “Other”
- Common questions
- Example form
- Resources on inclusive language for forms
This guide is reviewed at least three times a year. It was last updated July 7, 2023.
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