Re[2]: Employment Discrimination and Tech Communication

[Jane Torpie <Jane_Torpie_at_III-HQ -at- RELAY -dot- PROTEON -dot- COM>]

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Jim, Saul, Ann, et al. -

I've been lurking around this conversation and have yet another opinion of
the situation.

Perhaps some of the message-writers (I include myself) are unconsciously
acting out the set of values to which we are exposed every day in our work.
It's not that we don't want to change things for the better, but that we
are usually not in policy-making positions with the power to make large
changes.  We feel like we have our hands more than full just doing our
jobs. (And most people have probably experienced a situation in which even
bringing up the situation, rather than "sticking to the task at hand," was
problematic.)

I would venture an educated guess that most technical communicators do
their best to address all of their audiences.  Sometimes we suffer from not
knowing who our audience is.  (How many of you have wished you could get
your hands on some sort of profile of the customer or user base?)

Like everyone else has said or implied, awareness of all these issues is
key.  I know from visiting training classes that a significant portion of
our customers are women, non-white people, folks for whom programming is
not their first career, etc.  The first time I learned how much of our
business is from outside the US, I was surprised.  It's worth the effort to
get this information, even if the people you have to ask think you don't
need it.

If nothing else, try the profit motive ...
- I've always used "he or she" in my work and have suggested (successfully)
  that other writers use it.  ("All of our executive users aren't
  men, and executive women who have climbed the ladder are sensitized to
  this issue; our company can't afford to take a chance on alienating women
  who are prospects or customers.")
- In the last two days, I've brought up two issues about international
  issues with printed documentation and the screens in an installation
  program.  ("We can't afford to give inaccurate support information to
  customers outside the US.")

The theme here is that, while we might not necessarily feel like we want to
or can discuss the situation outright, we can and should consider it as the
way to do good business in the present and future.  Yes, the best case is
when people can and do discuss it.  But that doesn't mean you can't take
positive action on your own.

I'd be interested in hearing about anyone else's experiences along this
line ...

Jane Torpie