Tools To Empower You To Be A Difference Maker#


These resources will give you knowledge, understanding and ability to help combat discrimination and champion social justice and inclusion.


Belonging & Access Newsletter Series: Terminology 101 

As a coach, one of the easiest ways to start fostering a culture of inclusion among your athletes and teams is to adopt inclusive language. In the first iteration of this newsletter series, we're teaching common terminology associated with Belonging & Access.

 

Belonging & Access Newsletter Series: Terminology 101 – General Terms

  • Diversity - A range of people with various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds and various lifestyles, experiences, and interests.
  • Equity - Fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people, while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups.
  • Inclusion - The behaviors and social norms that ensure people feel welcome.
  • Underserved - Having inadequate access to services or facilities. 
  • Underrepresented - represent in numbers that are disproportionately low.

 

Belonging & Access Newsletter Series: General Terminology 102 

In the second iteration of this newsletter series, we're looking at part two of general terminology associated with Belonging & Access. This month, we are focusing on some of the common terms that are associated with discrimination:

  • Ableism - The discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities.
  • Discrimination - The different and unfair treatment of certain groups of people based on specific characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability.
  • Harassment - unwelcome conduct that is based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability.
  • Homophobia - A fear, discomfort, anger, resentment, hostility, etc. toward lesbian, gay, and/or bisexual people, often expressed as discrimination, harassment and violence against anyone not acting within socio-cultural norms of heterosexuality.
  • Oppression - The systematic subjugation of a group of people by another group with access to social power, the result of which benefits one group over the other and is maintained by social beliefs and practices.
  • Prejudice/Bias - Prejudice; an inclination or preference, especially one that interferes with impartial judgment.
  • Racism - A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.
  • Sexism - The cultural, institutional, and individual set of beliefs and practices that privilege men, subordinate women, and denigrate values and practices associated with women.
  • Transphobia - The fear, hatred, or discomfort of transgender people or otherwise gender variant, often expressed as discrimination, harassment and violence

Belonging & Access Newsletter Series: General Terminology 104

  • Accessibility – is giving equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience. Accessibility encompasses the broader meanings of compliance and refers to how organizations make space for the characteristics that each person brings.
  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - Signed into law on July 26, 1990, the ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal.
  • Architectural barriers - Obstacles or other features in the built environment that impede individuals with disabilities from gaining full and complete access to the goods and services being provided.
  • Equal Opportunity - An opportunity for people with disabilities to participate and benefit from programs and services that is equal to and as effective as the opportunity provided to others.
  • Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) – This is the effort of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that pursues accessibility of the Web through technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.

If you have any questions or if you would like any additional information about USA Triathlon’s commitment to Belonging & Access, please reach out at diversity@usatriathlon.org.