Equity and inclusion glossary of terms

While there are many versions of this acronym, at UBC, we place Two-Spirit (2S) first to recognize that Indigenous people are the first peoples of this land, and their understanding of gender and sexuality precedes colonization.

Disability justice endeavours to eliminate ableism in all its forms by recognizing and addressing the historic and intersecting forms of discrimination; improving the accessibility of spaces, processes, and information; creating opportunities for the meaningful participation of disabled people in change efforts; promoting the rights and perspectives of disabled people; attending to the diverse and intersectional positionalities of people who are disabled.

At UBC, the policy of reference is LR7 Disability Accommodation Policy (PDF). 

Built on the foundations of procedural, social, restorative, and transformative justice, UBC’s conflict engagement framework offers structured adaptable processes tailored to meet a variety circumstances and may include coaching, training, dialogue, mediation, restorative circles, shuttle diplomacy, and/or investigation.

Read more about UBC’s Conflict Engagement Initiative (PDF).

Take UBC’s self-directed course Conflict Engagement: An Introduction.

In the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion, conflict literacy inevitably relies on some measure of EDI competencies.

The skill set at this level of competency includes (but is not limited to):

• solid understanding of policy landscape, including formal and informal processes,
• acting as a third-party to support others who are in conflict,
• providing conflict coaching to others, and making referrals as needed,
• guiding strategic decision-making about the appropriate approach to conflict engagement,
• advanced capacity for attending to one’s own feelings and the feelings of others,
• prevention of conflict escalation through strong team leadership practices, and
• identifying and addressing systemic issues that reproduce persistent and historic conflicts.

The skill set at this level of competency includes (but is not limited to):

• awareness and conscious expression of emotions,
• active inquiry and ability to listen to understand,
• articulation and advocacy for one’s own views,
• perspective taking,
• effectively exchanging feedback,
• awareness of rank and power, and
• offering and receiving apologies.

Reflecting this complexity are the different approaches to understanding the experience of disability. Disability justice invites everyone to view disability as value-neutral differences and a natural part of society. Ableist structures, processes, attitudes, and stigma create barriers for people with disabilities that prevent or hinder their full participation in society.

Identity-first language (external link) (e.g., “Deaf person”) places the disability-related word first in a phrase. It is used primarily by disabled people who consider their disability as an important part of their identity. It is also a way of showing pride in the disability, rather than minimizing it. Scholars in Critical Disability Studies argue for identity-first language because person-first language can contribute to the common belief that disability is the result of an individual impairment rather than disability being a result of social and environmental structures. (Source: Colin Cameron (2015), Disability Arts Online (external link)).

Identity-first language arose as a counter-argument to person-first language (external link) (e.g., “a person who has asthma”). In the late 1980s, disability advocacy groups in the United States started advocating for person-first language because, by mentioning the person first, this language was seen as avoiding perceived and subconscious dehumanization of people with disabilities. This language has become common in Canada and is used by Statistics Canada, the Canadian government, and major advocacy organizations such as the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.

Each person has the right to define how they are described. – listen to and follow the lead of individuals in terms of what language they use for themselves.

According to UBC’s Policy LR7: Accommodation for Students with Disabilities, a person with a disability or disabled person is someone who:

• has a significant and persistent mobility, sensory, learning, or other physical or mental health impairment, which may be permanent or temporary;
• experiences functional restrictions or limitations of their ability to perform the range of life’s activities; and/or
• may experience attitudinal and/or environmental barriers that hamper their full and self-directed participation in life.

Interpretation varies widely among these terms, and they are commonly used incorrectly. When using the word diverse, it should only be applied to an entire collective (e.g., the entire student body is diverse), and not for a subset of a collective, nor as a euphemism for historically, persistently, or systemically marginalized people (e.g., “diverse students were less likely to feel sense of belonging” is unsuitable). The latter usage assumes that the other part of the collective is “not diverse”, which is rarely accurate and can imply that certain identities or aspects of diversity are fundamentally different from the rest of the group. (Source: SAGE Reference Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education (external link))

Diversity is a concept meant to convey the existence of difference. Each person’s unique combination of differences contributes to their experiences in ways that can be both positive and negative. Diversity is not a spectrum or a measure. One person cannot be more diverse than another. Diversity exists when people who are different from one another come together, and it includes everyone and all differences in the room.

Scholars have identified some key competencies for advancing EDI across the following domains in social systems:

• Individual level – Self (e.g., individual awareness and / or education)
• Interpersonal level – Relationships (understanding, valuing and working with others in groups)
• Organizational / institutional level – Systems (understanding inequity and demonstrating skills that foster equitable and inclusive policies and practices to contribute to systems change)
• Cultural/Societal level – Context (critical consciousness and understanding of power structures to contribute to social justice)

(Source: Ramsey & Latting (2005), The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (external link))

In the university context, equity requires the creation of opportunities for historically, persistently, or systemically marginalized (HPSM) groups of students, staff, and faculty to have equal access to education, programs, and growth opportunities that are capable of closing achievement gaps. This requires recognizing that not everyone is starting from the same place or history, and that deliberate measures to remove barriers to opportunities may be needed to ensure fair processes and outcomes. (Sources: Association of American Colleges and Universities (external link), University of Southern California Center for Urban Education (external link))

The Equity & Inclusion Office prefers using the term “Historically, Persistently or Systemically Marginalized (HPSM)” to refer to groups that experience significant collective barriers, but you may come across these other terms.

While the three terms are essentially synonyms, their focus differs. “Equity-seeking” suggests that it is HPSM groups that must be active to reach equity – they must actively seek it. “Equity-deserving” focuses on the fact that HPSM groups are deserving of equity. Finally, “equity-denied” emphasizes that the responsibility to remove collective barriers and create more equity does not belong with groups who have experienced these barriers, but rather with the groups who have contributed to equity being denied to certain groups by establishing and maintaining barriers to full participation in society.

This phrasing is used to acknowledge that:

• UBC and other institutions throughout Canada were created at a time when societal norms privileged and included some groups and disadvantaged and excluded others.
• This history entrains a legacy of day-to-day barriers that contributed to past, and perpetuate current, inequities which compound over time.
• Our systems, in the form of policies, practices, culture, behaviours, and beliefs, continue to maintain these barriers in the ways that they continue to create the institution. It is often not an individual intention, but rather a systematic process that discriminates. It is an unconscious, unrecognized practice of doing things as they have always been done (and recreating the historical exclusions).

This language was intentionally and carefully chosen during the development of UBC’s Inclusion Action Plan and is re-affirmed in the StEAR Framework and Roadmap to Change. However, this does not preclude recognition of the historic, persistent and systemic marginalization of groups on the basis of numerous other characteristics, including, for example, those protected grounds established under the Canadian Human Rights Act, such as national or ethnic origin, socio-economic status, religion, age, marital status, etc.

Though it is useful to talk about HPSM people as a whole in some contexts, in others it is important to take a disaggregated and intersectional approach to understanding barriers to equity, and to consider what specific interventions might need to be tailored to the unique experiences of groups such as, for example, racialized women, Indigenous disabled people, and queer Black men.

At UBC, IBPOC is used (rather than BIPOC, an acronym originating in the USA around 2010) in efforts to recognize ‘First Peoples first’ because of the unique history and context of colonization, displacement, and cultural genocide enacted upon Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the ongoing national conversation about reconciliation. It is appropriate to use the term when referring to issues or groups that related to Indigenous, Black and People of Colour, however, if the subject of discussion does not relate to all three groups, then it may not be appropriate to use IBPOC as a shorthand as that can conflate distinct experiences and realities of each of these groups.

While usage of the term ‘People of Colour’ dates back to the late 18th century, its contemporary usage is rooted in the 1970s when it emerged as an alternative to the then common, and highly contested, terminology of “non-white” to describe all racialized people. In response to critiques that ‘People of Colour’ (abbreviated as ‘POC’) erases or conflates the particular histories of Black and Indigenous peoples under colonialism, the additional letters are placed before ‘POC’ by those who aim to recognize those distinctions. (Source: Sandra E. Garcia (2020), The New York Times (external link))

It is important to note that inclusion and Indigenization/Decolonization are two seemingly related concepts with distinct histories, contexts, and frames of reference. It cannot be assumed inclusion is a substitute for Indigenization/Decolonization.

A frequent critique of inclusion when the concept used alone (instead of in conjunction with other concepts such as equity or justice) is that it centers dominant groups, who have the power to include HPSM groups (or not) instead of questioning or seeking to transform the power structures that give more power to some groups more than others.

The Inclusive Excellence (IE) model is grounded in work from the American Association of Colleges & Universities (Source: Williams, Berger & McClendon (2005), Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Post-Secondary Institutions (external link)). Universities Canada adopted Inclusive Excellence principles in 2017. IE appears as a key strategy in Shaping UBC’s Next Century: 2018-2028 Strategic Plan.

The term was coined by lawyer, civil rights advocate, and critical race theory scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the “various ways in which race and gender intersect in shaping structural and political aspects of violence against women of color”.

This term describes a social process, so as not to imply a lack of agency. Marginalized groups or people are those excluded from mainstream social, economic, cultural, or political life. Examples of marginalized groups include, but are by no means limited to, groups excluded due to race, religion, political or cultural group, age, gender identity or gender expression, sexuality, or socioeconomic or financial status. To what extent such populations are marginalized, however, is context specific and reliant on the cultural organization of the social site in question.

The expression recognizes that racialization is a social construct (rather than an objective biological reality) and that it is no longer apparent who is a “visible minority” as the diversity of UBC’s campuses and broader community increases. This term is intended to be more inclusive of the various ways individuals may identify themselves, including individuals of mixed heritage and those who may be less familiar with the Canadian context and terminology.

The term ‘racialized’ may sometimes include Indigenous people, depending on the project and the perspectives of Indigenous people consulted as part of that project. For example, in UBC’s Employment Equity Survey, the term does not include Indigenous peoples.

You may also see the term “gender-diverse” used as an umbrella term to designate this community. This can be an acceptable alternative term when applied to a group, though it usually does not apply to individuals (diversity is the attribute of a group, not an individual).

Each person has the right to define how they are described. Listen to and follow the lead of individuals in terms of what language they use for themselves.

Here are some websites, glossaries and resources if you’re looking for more information on additional terms and concepts such as: anti-Black racism, Black, biracial, culture, cultural background, cultural humility, cultural safety, multiracial, systemic and institutional racism, race-consciousness, racialized/racialization, racism, whiteness.

• Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence at UBC
• Universities Canada’s Building a Race-Conscious Institution (external link)
• Canadian Race Relations Foundation (external link)
• Racial Equity Tools’ Glossary (external link)
• Resilience BC’s Anti-Racism tools (external link)
• Project 1907 (external link)
• Challenging Racist “British Columbia”: 150 Years and Counting (external link)

Here are some websites, glossaries and resources if you’re looking for more information on additional terms and concepts such as: ableism, accessibility, access needs, disability justice, universal design, universal design for learning.

• Designing for Accessibility: An Introduction to Universal Design for Learning
• Open Education Accessibility Toolkit
• Critical Disability Studies Collective’s glossary of terms (external link)
• National Disability Authority on Universal Design (external link)
• Disability Language Style Guide (external link)

Here are some websites, glossaries and resources if you’re looking for more information on additional terms and concepts such as: asexual/aromantic, bisexual, cisnormativity, heteronormativity, intersex, lesbian, gay, gender expression, gender identity, misogyny, non-binary, sexuality, sexism, trans or transgender, Two-Spirit.

• Positive Space: Foundations course
• Qumunity Glossary (external link)
• Trans Care BC Intro to gender diversity course (external link)
• Trans Care BC Glossary (external link)
• Egale Canada Glossary (external link)
• Introduction to GBA (Gender-Based Analysis) Canada (external link)

Here are some websites, glossaries and resources if you’re looking for more information on additional terms and concepts such as: Aboriginal, colonialism, cultural humility, cultural safety, decolonization, Indigenous, Indigenization, Two-Spirit.

• UBC Indigenous Language Guide
• UBC CTLT Indigenous Initiatives
• UBC APSC’s Weaving Relations
• UBC 23 24 Indigenous Cultural Safety Program
• UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan
• San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training Program (external link)
• University of Alberta’s Indigenous Canada course (external link)

Here are some websites, glossaries and resources if you’re looking for more information on additional terms and concepts such as: Anti-oppression, Cultural Humility, cultural safety, power, systemic bias/institutional bias, self-determination, trauma-informed, unconscious/implicit bias.

• UBC Vice-President Finance & Operations’ EDI Glossary
• UBC Equity & Inclusion Office’s resource on inclusive language
• UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion’s Key terms and concepts
• Canadian Race Relations Foundation EDI Glossary (external link)
• Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion Glossary of Terms (external link)
• Culturally Connected (external link)