Inclusive, Accessible Tech: Bias-Free Language in Code and Configurations

Anne Gentle, Developer Experience Manager, Cisco
CodeMash
January 12, 2023
Bias-Free Language in Code and Configurations
Inclusive, Accessible Tech:

© 2023 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 2
© 2023 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
The presentation today will touch
on sensitive topics, including
language that may be harmful to
some audience members.
We will be sharing our efforts to
remove this language from our
products, content and culture at
Cisco.
If at any point you feel
uncomfortable, please feel free to
exit the session, and reach out
directly with questions, or requests
for more information in a format
that works for you.

Hi!
I’m Anne Gentle, a Developer Experience
Manager at Cisco.
We make Cisco APIs better for developers.
We treat docs like code for over 1000 code
repositories for multiple products and platforms
at Cisco.
I play tennis, kayak, hike, paddleboard, and
work in Austin, Texas.

Check out my book:
Docs Like Code
Third Edition

Social Justice Journey
Overview
Policy to Practice
Code and Config Examples
Resources and Questions

Power an Inclusive
Future for All
We must help bridge gaps of
inequity by using our technology,
extended ecosystem, and the
expertise of our teams, while
creating more opportunities
for more people, and acting
responsibly to drive change.
- Chuck Robbins

Cisco’s Social
Justice Actions
1. Influence Ecosystem
2. Increase Representation
3. Expand Pay Parity
4. Increase Board Diversity
5. Deliver Anti-Discrimination Legislation
6. Connect Leaders and Employees
7. Supplier Engagement
8. Commit to HBCUs
9. Support Black-Owned Companies
10. Diversify Partner Ecosystem
11. Invest in Innovation
12. Human Rights in Technology Solutions

Human Rights by Design
Advise & Train Product Teams on
Human Rights throughout the
Product Development Lifecycle
Accessibility by Design
Advise & Train Product Teams on
Accessibility throughout the Product
Development Lifecycle
Inclusive Naming
• Implement Cisco’s Inclusive Language Policy
• Build Employee Awareness about Inclusive Language
• Drive Compliance across Cisco’s Functions
• Engage Community and share Best Practices
• Embed a Culture of Belonging via Governance Models
Social Justice in Product Development

Inclusivity encompasses multiple aspects
• Gender neutrality including
pronouns, non-binary typing
• Respectful language without
drawing upon stereotypes
• People first, humans are humans
not abilities or diagnoses
• Inclusive representation and
avoiding idioms like "up in the air"
• Accessibility including screen
reader experiences

Policy to Practice

Policies on Inclusive Language
Goal: Promote and facilitate replacing harmful and exclusionary language in tech
Term
Recommended
Replacements
master / slave
primary/secondary
or
primary/subordinate
or
control/data (for clustering)
whitelist /
blacklist
permit (list)/block (list)
or
allow (list)/block (list)

Tier 2, Tier 3
Word Lists

No Change
Word List

Word Lists like an
API Contract
• Version-locked; users
know which version to
expect the change.
• Documents the dates to
expect the change.
• Backwards compatibility
means no breaking
changes due to a word
change.
• Communicates a roadmap
for future word changes.

Driving compliance requires that we know what
compliance means
input output
Internal Code
APIs, GUI, CLI, etc. Logfiles, telemetry,
etc.
Product
documentation
Automated checks in CI/CD

Our goal is to build and foster community for best practices
and iteration with:
People
Key Stakeholders with a
disproportionate amount of
influence:
• Platform leads
• Tech program managers
Roles impacted:
Product Managers and
Engineering Leaders who
are struggling to keep up
with their backlog
Communities:
Internal & External
community to share best
practices
Process
Sequence:
1. Inventory Report
2. Create Change Plan
* What will you change and
by when?
* What won’t you change and
why?
* What is still TBD and why?
3. Tracking &
Communication
Tools
Tools, Code, and Programs
to enable engineering
compliance:
InclusiveNaming.org
Content sharing via Internal
Github repository &
SharePoint
Inventory Helper Tool
Automated mitigation via
open source: “get woke”
inclusive linter rule checker
Engineering playbook
Monthly Best Practice calls

Code and Config Examples

Category #1
Variable names
or comments that
are internal to
code. No impact
to customers and
no external
visibility.
Asset Categories
Category #2
CLI (config, show),
API, or schema
use. Deprecate
the old use and
create a new one
with a text alias.
This is complex
and customer-
facing; new and
old must work.
Category #3
Logs, telemetry,
monitoring:
Support old and
new (don’t break
customer scripts).
Deprecate the old
but cutover to
new.
Category #4
Documentation
changes: Simple
cases are easy to
do. Complex cases
(like documenting
a CLI) must follow
product changes.
Code and Configuration Examples

https://github.com/CiscoDevNet search for “slave”
Category 1 example

Inventory tool:
github.com/cisco-open/
inclusive-language
Requires a GitHub
personal access token.
Refer to the GitHub
docs for creating a
personal access token.
Scope the token for
read-only access.
Scripts
gh_search.py
Creates an inventory of which files contain keywords that you no
longer want to use, creating a comma-separated listing that you
can use for further analysis.
gh_default_branch.py
Looks for repos that have the default branch set
to master instead of main. You could modify that script to create
an Issue automatically in any repo that meets that criteria, or
simply run the script as a report for analysis.

https://github.com/cisco-open/inclusive-language

Thanks to Python and GitHub! An Excel inventory

API Example:
API field name
changes
Firepower Management Center
REST API v7.1
Field Names (returned JSON)
Category 2 example

Example:
DevNet Associate
Fundamentals Course
Category 4 example

Mitigation Example:
Ruleset for “woke”
linter and
Jenkins job

Visual Studio Code:
AlexJS Linter
Extension

How can I check my
code and user-facing
documentation against
our policy?
How do we know if our
code base is compliant?
Scanning & Reporting
Scenarios for Tools
What data can tell us
when it’s critical to add a
term to our policy?
How do we quantify our
risk exposure based on
the current policy?
How do we measure the
amount of change
needed for today’s
policy?
How do we measure the
impact of a change in
our policy?

Looking Forward:
New Terms and Impact on Code vs. Culture
Goal: Centralized governance for policy and language decisions
Begin New
term
Culture
or Code?
Engineering Change
Process
General
tool/documentation
update
End
Questions that keep us up at night:
1. Governance structure – Which terms are critical enough to justify a company-wide
change in code, and why? And How?
2. US vs. Global intake process – Why wouldn’t we include global terms in our policy?
3. Scale - How do we meet all language needs for all roles?

Resources and Questions

Inclusive Language Resources
Inclusive Naming Initiative
Language recommendation lists
https://inclusivenaming.org/word-lists/
Example Public Policy on Inclusive Naming
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/
social-justice/inclusive-language-policy.html
Inventory Tools and Example Ruleset
https://github.com/cisco-open/
inclusive-language

What can you do to advance Inclusive Language?
Take an inventory of your engineering assets (code,
log files, telemetry data, standards).
Take a moment to reflect on your own use of language.
Consider what you can do in your role, and with your
unique skills, to advance this work.
Take a Linux Foundation training on inclusive speaking
(LFC101) and inclusive open source practices (LFC102)

Thank you!
Inclusive, Accessible Tech:
Bias-Free Language in
Code and Configurations
Anne Gentle
Developer Experience, Cisco
Twitter: @annegentle
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annegentle
https://github.com/cisco-open/inclusive-language

Inclusive, Accessible Tech: Bias-Free Language in Code and Configurations

Inclusive, Accessible Tech: Bias-Free Language in Code and Configurations

More Related Content

Similar to Inclusive, Accessible Tech: Bias-Free Language in Code and Configurations (20)

More from Anne Gentle (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Inclusive, Accessible Tech: Bias-Free Language in Code and Configurations