Inclusion has always been a big topic, but this conversation has been greatly amplified lately in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. All over the globe, people are looking at the content that they consume and asking – is this inclusive?
As an agency, we have a habit of advising our clients – advising them on what to do. However, quite often we might talk the talk, but not walk the walk ourselves. And this has to change.
To that end, at Croud we decided that it wasn’t enough to just sit on the sidelines. We had to strive valiantly and jump into the arena. We had to dare greatly to look at what happens inside our own company and ask ourselves how could we make it better?
Casey
In our efforts to start ensuring our own content is inclusive, we developed Casey – a gender-inclusive language checker. It is named after the feminist author and advocate of non-gendered language, Casey Miller. Casey works like spell check, but for inconsiderate use of language instead of misspelt words.
The need for Casey was clear. We needed a scalable, robust method for checking that the work we produce is inclusive. And with access to tools, in-house, that can check for spelling mistakes at scale in 29 languages, checking for inclusive language should be a walk in the park.
And it was. We found a javascript application that we could host on our site, although it wasn’t very intuitive to use – which made it more of an imposition than a useful tool. However, with some tweaks, it was made accessible for all, and it was just a case of integrating it into all our copy creation workflows to make sure that the content we create is more inclusive.
So while we don’t quite have the dust, sweat and blood that Teddy Roosevelt said we should, we still stepped into that arena and strove to do the deed. While it might seem small to some, these small changes like inconsiderate word choices, allow everyone, regardless of their gender, ability, sexuality, race or religion, to engage with a piece of content, and feel seen, heard and understood.
To find out more about Croud and how we can help, get in touch.
