As someone who sees great value in #DEIB, Paula's words here are deeply important.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/legal-exchange-insights-and-commentary/dei-is-still-a-priority-abroad-global-gcs-must-walk-a-tightrope

I received a good question:

“What’s the biggest challenge in #PublicSpeaking for tech?”

Back in 2017, working with underrepresented voices, the hurdles were:
- “I’m not an expert”
- “What would I talk about?”

My #DEIB work focused on re-framing expertise (#ImpostorSyndrome) + finding topics.

Now, coaching all voices, challenges are:
- Writing engaging talks
- Managing nerves
- Speaking clearly

What would it take for you to give your first talk, or your next talk, in 2026? :)

Treat your speech like it’s a podcast! 🎙️

Don’t just show visuals... describe them. Not everyone can see the screen (#accessibility), so talk through the image or your tech demo as if your audience were listening to a podcast.

Tell me in the comments, have you ever closed your eyes in a talk and missed a slide? Or perhaps listened to a talk recording later without watching it?

P.S. I did this technique in my keynote: https://wordpress.tv/2025/11/18/from-canada-to-the-world-10-lessons-from-working-with-50-countries/

#PublicSpeaking #DEIB #InclusionInTech

Why Diverse Teams and Early Accessibility Matter in Web Development

https://openchannels.fm/why-diverse-teams-and-early-accessibility-matter-in-web-development/

My #WCEH keynote is up! I'm so excited to share it with you.

In this speech, I talk about the 10 lessons I learned as a polite Canadian working with 50 countries.

https://wordpress.tv/2025/11/18/from-canada-to-the-world-10-lessons-from-working-with-50-countries/

The sound is rough, but captions are available in the settings in the bottom right corner.

#WordCampCanada #WCCanada2025 #wceh2025 #PublicSpeaking #DiversityAndInclusion #DEI #DEIB #DiversityInTech

On August 10, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg #RBG becomes the second woman to serve on the US Supreme Court.

Ginsburg herself experienced how tough it could be for working mothers. She lost her job as a typist when she became pregnant with her daughter. This firsthand knowledge of workplace discrimination against pregnant women and mothers would later inform her groundbreaking legal work advocating for gender equality and women's rights in the workplace.

#dei #deib

„Besonders perfide ist dabei, dass einige Führungskräfte diesen Rückschritt als Befreiung verkaufen. Frei von angeblicher „Cancel Culture“, frei von „ideologischen Zwängen“. Doch wovon sprechen wir eigentlich, wenn Freiheit bedeutet, wieder ungehindert ausschließen zu dürfen? Wer heute #DEIB zurückfährt, entscheidet sich nicht für Neutralität, sondern für Rückschritt.“

https://digitaletanzformation.wordpress.com/2025/07/28/zugehorigkeit-braucht-entschlossenheit-warum-ein-deib-backlash-kein-zukunftsfahiges-fuhrungsverstandnis-reprasentiert/

DEIB strategies evolve: 32% of companies report high effectiveness amid political complexity. Organizations adapt, prioritize inclusion while managing legal risks. Strategic approaches emerge in workplace diversity efforts. #DEIB #Inclusion

T-Mobile in den USA kündigt nun also DEI-Initiativen auf.

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/nach-dei-anordnung-von-trump-telekom-tochter-t-mobile-gibt-inklusions-initiativen-in-den-usa-auf-13492684.html

#DEI #DEIB #Inklusion #Diversität #telekom #tmobile

Great article on the dual nature of outsider #innovation and its implications.

“How can organizations remain open to the fresh perspectives that outsiders bring? The challenge lies not only in identifying original thinkers but also in empowering them - amplifying their voices, supporting their efforts, and fostering environments where atypical ideas can take root and thrive.”

It’s crucial to combine #constructivenonconformity #psychologicalsafety #DEIB

#leadership

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/lessons-learned-from-outside-innovators/

DEIB and Their Adversaries

What are diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging? What are their narrative adversaries? We provide a glossary of terms below. Follow the links for deeply sourced reference materials.

DEIB

diversity = a range of differences; variety

equity = the process of redistributing access and opportunity to be fair and just; the state of being free of bias, discrimination, and identity-predictable outcomes and experiences

inclusion = the act of extending fellowship, membership, association, and connection—agnostic of rank, status, gender, race, appearance, intelligence, education, beliefs, values, politics, habits, traditions, language, customs, history, or any other defining characteristic

belonging = the extent to which we feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others; the experience of being at home in ourselves as well as the social, environmental, organizational, and cultural contexts of our lives

Their Adversaries

meritocracy myth = a widely held but false assertion that individual merit is always rewarded; the myth of meritocracy is one of the longest lasting and most dangerous falsehoods in American life

lowering the bar = a racist, sexist, and ableist narrative with no basis in reality that represents diversifying hiring pipelines, attracting candidates from underrepresented groups, and supporting them in the workplace as “lowering the bar” by hiring less-qualified individuals

politics of resentment = manipulations of status anxiety; organization of interest groups based on perceived deprivation or the threat of deprivation

sameness-based fairness = notion of fairness where everyone gets the same thing rather than each getting what they need

fundamental attribution error = to underestimate the impact of situational factors and to overestimate the role of dispositional factors in controlling behaviour

conquering gaze from nowhere= the interpretation of objectivity as neutral and not allowing for participation or stances; an uninvolved, uninvested approach that claims objectivity to “represent while escaping representation”

scientism = the belief that science is the only route to useful knowledge

epistemic injustice = where our status as knowers, interpreters, and providers of information, is unduly diminished or stifled in a way that undermines the agent’s agency and dignity

behaviorism = a dehumanizing mechanism of learning that reduces human beings to simple inputs and outputs

ableism = a system of assigning value to people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, desirability, intelligence, excellence, and fitness

deficit ideology = a worldview that explains and justifies outcome inequalities by pointing to supposed deficiencies within disenfranchised individuals and communities

better get used to it = preparing people for oppression by oppressing them

Name the Systems of Power

• Neoliberalism
  • Respectability Politics
  • W.E.I.R.D.
  • Meritocracy Myth
  • Policing
  • Predatory Inclusion
  • Burnout
  • STEM
  • Ableism
  • Harm Reduction Theater
• Conservatism
  • Resentment
  • Southern Strategy
  • Lost Cause
  • Segregationist Discourse
  • Meritocracy Myth
  • Minority Stress
  • Policing
  • Toxic Masculinity
  • Bodily Autonomy
  • Biological Essentialism
  • Stigma
  • Shame
  • Ableism
• Precarity
  • Extractive Abandonment
  • Artificial Scarcity
  • Collective Risk Shift
  • Burnout
  • ”Better get used to it.”
• Oligarchy
• Sadopopulism
• Rot Economy
  • It’s not DEI’s Fault; It’s the Rot Economy
  • Enshittification
  • Metric Fixation
• Fantasy Economy
  • STEM
  • Metric Fixation
• Metric Fixation
  • Efficiency
  • McNamara Fallacy
  • Enshittification
• Objectivity
  • When you measure include the measurer.
  • Scientism
  • Epistemic Injustice
  • Scientific Essentialism
  • Fundamental Attribution Error
  • Conquering Gaze From Nowhere
  • Scientism and Epistemic Injustice: On the Problems with “Science of Reading”
• Tech Ethics
  • Techno-solutionism
  • Technoableism
  • Algorithm
  • Roaming Autodidact
  • Enshittification
  • Disability Dongle
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Luddite Sensibilities
  • Hear me out a bit before the future comes around.
• Ableism
  • Neuronormativity
  • Pathology Paradigm
  • Behaviorism
  • Deficit Ideology
  • Empire of Normality
  • Sameness-Based Fairness
  • ”Better get used to it.”
  • Inspiration Exploitation
  • School-Induced Anxiety
  • Toxic Positivity
  • Burnout
  • The Road to Neuronormative Domination.
  • Education Technology and the New Behaviorism
  • We’ve Turned Classrooms Into a Hell for Neurodivergence
  • 10 Obstacles to Neurodiversity Affirming Practice
  • Double Empathy Problem
  • Double Empathy Extreme Problem
  • Triple Empathy Problem
• Harm Reduction Theater
  • Bikeshedding
  • Wellness
  • Mindset Marketing

#ableism #behaviorism #belonging #betterGetUsedToIt #conqueringGaze #deficitIdeology #deib #diversity #epistemicInjustice #equity #fairness #inclusion #meritocracy #power #resentment #scientism

I think possibly what has given some people such a bad impression of #DEI / #DEIB / #DEIA is that some proponents of it, largely intersecting with social media keyboard warriors, have taken it as a license to act like bullies at work.

DEI is not a pass to bully your coworkers.

I have had someone try to bully me solely because I'm a white guy (and she wrongly assumed heterosexual). She thought this made me fair game to "call me out" for daring to participate in a DEI community. Note that I had said nothing even remotely offensive: she just thought I shouldn't be there.

Her attacking me in direct messages nearly reached the point where I was going to tell her if she wanted to continue the conversation, we could do it with HR present, but I was able to disarm her by telling her we simply weren't going to agree on the subject.

Birgit Pauli-Haack discusses her journey in WordPress, emphasizing the evolution of the block editor and strategies for engaging younger contributors in the community and future developments.

Gibt es Unternehmen die Vorbildlich im Bezug auf #Diversity sind ?

Und wie misst man das? Verdacht/Idee: schauen, wie WENIG weiße able Männer (mensche wie ich also) dort sind , in Führungspositionen, Belegschaft und vielleicht auch Eigentümerschaft... ?

Kann sicher nicht die alkeinige Metrik sein, aber vielleicht ein gutes Indiz?

#deib

In this episode of The WordPress Way, host Birgit chats with accessibility expert Anne Mieke Bovelett, discussing her ADHD journey, digital accessibility importance, and inclusive web design practices that benefit everyone.

I’m humbly asking any white #BlueWave citizens who feel qualified to defend #DEIB programs between now and November to actually learn how to show up in diverse spaces with a little more knowledge of what DEIB actually means.

Here’s a place to start: it’s NOT about you. Use Google for the rest.

Thanks.

🔄 Reorganizing initiatives in #WordPress: Should #DEIB, #5ftF, and Mentorship move to the Sustainability team?
🌱 How can we educate that Sustainability is broader than just the environment, including social and economic issues?
🌍 https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2024/06/28/addressing-overlapping-initiatives-and-improving-collaboration-across-teams/