Reclaim Your Name: How a Vancouver-Based Volunteer Group is Normalizing Non-English Names in MS Word
Key Highlights :
For too long, people with non-English names have been subjected to subtle microaggressions and a lack of recognition. Last year, a Vancouver-based volunteer group called Elimin8Hate came up with a solution to this issue: a plugin called Reclaim Your Name. This plugin is a .dic file — a dictionary that can be added to MS Word, which contains thousands of non-English names. Once the plugin is installed, all the names uploaded into the dictionary are automatically recognized as correct, eliminating the red squiggly line that flags them as typos.
Thanks to the groundswell of support from the community, Microsoft heard Elimin8Hate’s plea and is now incorporating their dictionary into the 365 updates going forward. This means that non-anglicized names will be recognized as correct, not typos. Executive Director Audrey Wong says this is a huge step forward in fostering a sense of belonging for those with non-English names.
“Anytime there are these types of initiatives, it’s tough to get to that level of Microsoft recognizing it,” Wong says. “I think that we just had such a great response to this campaign — we had over a hundred million impressions — that it led Microsoft and a team member of Microsoft that worked in their speller to reach out to us to ask about incorporating it.”
The program currently recognizes about 8,000 non-English names, and Elimin8Hate is taking submissions for more on their website. Wong says they’re looking forward to working with Microsoft to determine how to operationalize this, and ensure that it continues eliminating red lines on more names.
In addition to the plugin, Elimin8Hate also offers workshops to work with organizations to cultivate anti-racist workplaces. The goal is to address practices or behaviours that may not seem obvious, but do immense harm. These workshops help people become more aware of microaggressions, and provide tactics on how to stop them in a way that continues the dialogue in a harmonious workplace.
Elimin8Hate’s Reclaim Your Name plugin is an important step in normalizing non-English names in MS Word, and in creating an inclusive workplace. With the help of Microsoft, this plugin is now global and the default, making it easier for people to reclaim their name and be recognized for who they are.
