EDI glossary

Understanding the language of equity, diversity, and inclusion is essential for fostering respectful, inclusive, and culturally safe healthcare environments. This glossary provides definitions of key EDI concepts to support your learning and engagement with issues of identity, power, privilege, and systemic inequality.

Accessibility: The quality of being easy to reach, use, or understand, particularly for individuals with disabilities

Accountability: The obligation to accept responsibility for one's actions and their impact

Advocacy: Active support for a cause or policy

Affirmative Action: Measures aimed at increasing opportunities for historically marginalized groups

Ageism: Discrimination and stereotypes based on a person's age

Allyship: The practice of supporting and advocating for the rights of marginalized communities

Anti-colonialism: Resistance to the control or exploitation of one country by another.

Anti-racism: Active efforts to combat racism in all its forms

Belonging: The sense of being accepted and valued in a group

Bias: A preference or prejudice for or against a person, group, or idea

BIPOC: An acronym for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color

Cisgender: A term for individuals whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth

Classism: Discrimination based on social class

Code-switching: The practice of alternating between languages or social norms based on context

Cultural Appropriation: The adoption of elements from one culture by members of another, often without permission or respect

Cultural Awareness: Recognition and understanding of cultural differences

Cultural Competence: The ability to interact effectively with people from diverse cultural backgrounds

Cultural Humility: A lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and respect for other cultures

Cultural Responsiveness: The ability to learn from and relate respectfully with people of your own culture as well as other cultures.

Decolonization: The process of undoing colonialism and its lingering effects

Emotional Labor: The management of emotions as part of one’s professional responsibilities

Equity: Fair treatment that accounts for individual needs and circumstances

Gender: Social and cultural roles, behaviors, and attributes associated with being male, female, or non-binary

Gender Affirming Care: Health care that supports a person’s gender identity

Gender Bias: Prejudice or discrimination based on gender

Gender Expression: The outward presentation of one’s gender identity

Gender Identity: One’s personal sense of their gender

Harassment: Persistent and unwanted behavior that demeans or intimidates

Health Disparities: Differences in health outcomes across populations

Health Equity: Ensuring fair access to healthcare resources

Heteronormativity: The assumption that heterosexuality is the default sexual orientation

Homophobia: Fear or dislike of individuals who identify as homosexual

Implicit Association: Unconscious connections or links in the brain between concepts

Implicit Bias: Subconscious prejudices that affect decisions and actions

Inclusion: The practice of ensuring equal access and opportunities for all

Institutional Racism: Discriminatory policies embedded within organizations

Intersectionality: The interconnected nature of social categorizations as they apply to an individual or group

LGBTQ+: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and others

Marginalization: The process of pushing certain groups to the edges of society

Microaggressions: Subtle, often unintentional acts of discrimination

Micro-affirmations: Subtle acts of inclusion that boost morale and make people feel welcome

Neurodiversity: The concept that neurological differences are natural variations of the human brain

Neurotypical: Having a pattern of thought, behavior, or learning that is considered typical

Non-binary: Not exclusively male or female

Prejudice: Preconceived opinions not based on reason or experience

Privilege: A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people

Queer: An umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender

Racialization: The process by which a society gives racial meanings to groups of people

Representation: The action of speaking or acting on behalf of someone or the state of being so represented

Restorative Justice: A system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large

Safe Space: A place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm

Sexism: Prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex

Social Justice: Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society

Solidarity: Unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group

Stereotype: A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing

Systemic Barriers: Obstacles rooted in the way systems or institutions operate that create inequitable outcomes for certain groups

Systemic Inequality: Inequality that is embedded within the structures and systems of society

Systemic Racism: Racism embedded as normal practice within an institution or system

Tokenism: The practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups.

Trauma-Informed Practice: An approach that recognizes the effects of trauma on individuals

Transgender: An individual whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth

Unconscious Bias: Biases held at a subconscious level

Xenophobia: Fear or dislike of people from other countries