IEEE Std 3400-2025: A Milestone for Inclusive Technology

As part of the #BlackLivesMatter protests of Summer 2020, I looked to the IETF to recirculate a draft on racist terminology in technical standards that I had co-authored in 2019.

This work had both resonance and pushback . Regardless, momentum grew and along with many others in 2021, I joined the Inclusive Naming Initiative , a cross-community effort to move beyond harmful terminology like “master/slave” and “whitelist/blacklist” and toward alternatives rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion principles in corporates and technical communities. I joiend the INI Standards WG to catalyze conversations across standards bodies, like the W3C, IEEE, ISO and others to create space for change. By 2022, the IEEE Standards Association launched the P3400 working group , each month bringing together engineers, editors, companies, and advocates to write the first dedicated standard on inclusive technical language. I was honored to join that group that had been chartered by leadership at the IEEE-SA.

This summer, this work has come full circle. On 19 June 2025, the IEEE SA Standards Board approved IEEE Std 3400-2025 , the Standard for Use of Inclusive Language in Technical Terminology and Communications. The document sets requirements and recommendations for inclusive language across all IEEE standards, policies, reports, and even machine-readable languages. It establishes clear principles — avoiding biased or violent terminology, using people-first language, ensuring accessibility — and provides a list of deprecated terms and recommended alternatives (such as replacing “whitelist/blacklist” with “allow list/block list,” or “master/slave” with “primary/secondary”).

I am so proud to have contributed to this milestone. But most of all, I’m grateful to everyone who has believed so deeply in the intersection of technology and social justice. Change in standards is incremental, sometimes contentious — yet it’s how we reshape the very foundations of our digital future.

Mallory Knodel is the Executive Director and Founder of the Social Web Foundation and an Advocate of the Inclusive Naming Initiative.