Being Inclusive and Global

W3C is a global organisation. People come from very different cultures and environments, and have very different levels of comfort and skill in english - the primary working language. People are used to using different kinds of technology, working in different kinds of structures and using different kinds of procedures, for fundamental things like talking to each other, and reaching joint decisions.

Much of the content 'so far' is written by User:charles, some of it resulting from Advisory Board and Advisory Committee discussion or discussion in groups focused on this issue. This needs to be updated, and there is important material from e.g. the Inclusiveness and Diversity CG and the Professional Work Environment CG. 'Please feel free to edit this page', even with "half-formed" ideas - this will allow other people to consider and help develop them.

Introduction and Goals

There are some ways we can behave, and organise our work, that make it easier for more of our community to participate more easily and effectively. Implementing these practices and working with these tools can help us to achieve several things:

• Get considered input from different parts of our community
• Avoid having parallel development efforts just because people do not realise that what they are working on is also being worked on somewhere else
• Ensure people do not feel excluded or unfairly treated in the work of W3C

Simple ways to do better:

Personal Communication

• Respect the
• Speak slowly. Say each word carefully. Even among english speakers, the difference between accents make it hard to be sure everyone understands you.
• Listen carefully, and respectfully. If you don't understand what somebody said, politely ask them to repeat it so you do.
• While it is valuable to ask people who have not spoken what they think, be aware that "putting them on the spot" may not be a situation in which they are comfortable saying what they think.
• Listen carefully to people. Especially if they have an accent you find hard to understand, be aware that they probably find you hard to understand, so you need to put in extra effort.

• Trust that people are not laughing at you, and that they respect your opinion.

Group procedures

• Ensure that a small subset are not given the ability to dominate the discussion as if "by right".
• Be thoughtful about tools that are used - accessibility, availability without requiring people to accept a new set of licensing and behaviour requirements, ...
• Keep trying tools that might improve inclusivity, and share your results with the rest of the community, through (umm, add something here)