Avoid "Diversity Dressing," and Other Actions for Allies

Each week, Karen Catlin shares five simple actions to create a more inclusive workplace and be a better ally.

1. Avoid “diversity dressing”

In an article for Fast Company, best-selling author and chief diversity officer Mita Mallick wrote about “diversity dressing.” She defines it as “showcasing, presenting and amplifying diversity of representation when your workforce, products, or services aren’t actually inclusive and are lacking in diversity of representation.”

Here are some examples of diversity dressing:

• Including photos of employees from underrepresented groups in performative social media posts, especially after a company has substantially downsized its investment in DEI.
• Using photos on your careers website that give the illusion of more workforce diversity than you have.
• Using stock photography as a substitute for employee photos. (Realize that job candidates can easily do an image search online and find that your “employees” are models who appear on many job sites. In researching my book Belonging in Healthcare, I spotted a stock photo of a diverse group of people featured as employees on a large managed healthcare provider’s career page. I found the same photo on a software company’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page. Here are the side-by-side screenshots.)

As allies, we have the power to make a difference. Let’s hold our organizations accountable for using photos of our employees, students, and community members in a way that truly represents our demographics. If we have only one (or a small number of people) of a given demographic, let’s not feature them as though they were the norm.

Share this action on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or YouTube.

2. Host a storytelling session

Out & Equal , a nonprofit organization working exclusively on LGBTQ+ workplace equity, inclusion, and belonging, created a 2024 Pride Guide for members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies alike.

While the guide contains many suggestions, I’ll focus on just one: Host a storytelling session.

Out & Equal encourages LGBTQ+ employee resource groups (ERGs) to organize such a session and extend an invitation to other ERGs. As the guide explains,

“Sharing your personal story can make a great impact on someone’s life and provide a sense of empowerment within yourself. Celebrate identities by hosting either small groups of four to five people for a more intimate connection or consider a Ted Talk-style presentation where a few people share with the rest of the ERG. Need help crafting your story? Use the Out & Equal storytelling guide to learn how to share authentic stories at work.”

And if we learn about such a storytelling session at our company during Pride month, or anytime during the year, let’s plan on attending and supporting our colleagues.

3. Don’t use emojis as bullet points

In a previous newsletter, I shared the guidance to avoid excessive use of emojis because screen reader users will hear each one read out loud. For example, if you use the “Face with tears of joy” emoji 13 times in a row, some people will hear “Face with tears of joy” read aloud 13 times.

This week, I learned about another concern with emojis from disability advocate Holly Tuke who posted:

“Can we all agree to stop using emojis as bullet points. I beg. They’re a nightmare for screen reader users. Not only is hearing the description of each emoji being read out before every sentence annoying, it’s also quite distracting. Just add line breaks between each point or use dashes for bullet points instead.”

I’m guilty of doing this. At the end of my newsletters, I have a list of actions (e.g., follow me on social media, form a Better Allies book club, etc). And I used to start each with an emoji. Starting with today’s edition, it’s now a simple bulleted list.

If you use emojis as bullets, please use an actual bullet list. Or a simple dash if your app or social media site doesn’t support formatted text.

Keep reading for another accessibility action for better allies.

4. Review visuals for readability

Newsletter subscriber Emma Batchelor, who is a Digital Inclusion advocate, gave me some helpful feedback on my recent infographic:

“There were some design choices in the graphic of the 7 ally archetypes that may be unintentionally excluding the neurodivergent. For example, using caps for the titles, and the colour combinations of background and text for the 7 archetypes which have low contrast ratios.”

I hadn’t known that using all caps for titles caused readability issues. Here’s what Harvard’s Accessibility site explains: “Readability is reduced with all caps because all words have a uniform rectangular shape, meaning readers can’t identify words by their shape.”

To analyze the contrast ratio of text and background colors, Batchelor recommended I use this Color Contrast Checker tool. As I explored the color combos in my infographic, I was somewhat mortified by the “very poor” rating the tool reported. Perhaps not surprisingly, when I switched to using black text on the same background colors, the tool gave me a “super” contrast rating.

Here are some other readability tips I’ve shared in previous newsletters:

• Avoid large blocks of italics, which result in a decreased reading rate and can be challenging for individuals with vision and neurocognitive disabilities.
• Use a hyperlegible font such as this free typeface from the Braille Institute of America to help increase character recognition, which ultimately improves the readability of a document for low-vision readers.
• Check visuals using apps that simulate color vision deficiencies, such as Chromatic Vision Simulator, which uses your camera phone to show you how something appears to someone who is colorblind.

5. Community spotlight: Actually use their new pronouns

This week’s spotlight on an ally action from the Better Allies community is from subscriber Ash, who wrote,

“I had a coworker privately tell me that they were nonbinary and had been experimenting with they/them pronouns, but were still okay with he/him. I asked if they were comfortable with me using those new pronouns in front of others at work, and they said yes.”

Yet, Ash kept using he/him for this coworker’s pronouns, explaining, “As a trans person, I was disappointed in myself. I realised I was afraid of how others would react because of the many, many awkward conversations I had to have during my own transition.”

I love how Ash ended his message to me: “I recently used their new pronouns for the first time during a lunch with some close colleagues, and… no reaction. I’m so happy that I put aside my fears because they were unfounded after all.”

Thanks so much, Ash, for sharing this story.

If you’ve taken a step towards being a better ally, please reply to this email and tell me about it. And mention if I can quote you by name or credit you anonymously in an upcoming newsletter.

That’s all for this week. I wish you strength and safety as we all move forward.

— Karen Catlin (she/her), author of the Better Allies® book series

Copyright © 2024 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.

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