1 link 22 March 2015

[sasha_feather]

From June 27 2014

Coral Sheldon-Hess: Conference Inclusiveness

A report about inclusivity at AdaCamp and Open Source Bridge conferences.

Comments

[davidgillon]

Some really good points there, though I would have worded those toilet signs as 'All people who identify as male/female' rather than explicitly put trans-folk in an others category (and even that's inadequate for complete genderqueer coverage - not sure what the ideal would be).

(And I just realised I should be sharing links like this on my FB feed not jut commenting here as I've got a whole bunch of people over there that they're relevant to).

[sasha_feather]

That's a good point; you could consider leaving that feedback on the blog itself or to Open Source Bridge using their hashtag on Twitter.

[davidgillon]

Done! (On the blog at least).

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, I'm Coral (the blogger who wrote the post :)), and I saw your comment, but I'm not an OSB organizer.

I wanted to let you know: people did give the organizers that feedback (generally with a "look, this is better than most conferences do, but it would be better if..." kind of approach--OSB and its attendees tend to be on the chill side :)). I am not sure whether they plan to make their own signs to cover the venue's (the venue came that way), or pass the feedback along to the venue, asking for a change.

Since I was previously used to American Library Association conferences, where there haven't even always *been* trans-inclusive restrooms (something that has now been added to our CoC, thank goodness!), this still seemed like a step in the right direction.

But point taken: one step isn't the whole journey.

Thanks for your comment :)

[davidgillon]

I figured you probably weren't, but I figured putting the reply up should catch the eye of anyone interested enough to read your article (which is great), potentially including OSB folks,and let them know there are better ways of wording those signs. Hopefully one of them can come up with even better wording to cover non-binary trans-folk.