Inclusion
ODIOM values inclusivity and believes it’s important that everyone feels at home in the association. To ensure that all activities are inclusive and to advise the board on inclusivity, an Inclusion Structure was established in the 2021-2022 association year. This structure advises committees and helps ODIOM remain inclusive.
ODIOM also has five confidential counselors. Two are from the board: this year, Lieke Hegeman (vertrouwenspersoon1@odiom.nl | 06-43201769) and Joost Bruins (vertrouwenspersoon2@odiom.nl | 06-18443037). The Inclusion Structure also has a confidential counselor, Sanne Ligthart, who can be reached at the following email address: vertrouwenspersooninclusie@odiom.nl. The Advisory Board also has a confidential counselor. That’s Rosa van Kempen, and you can reach her at vertrouwenspersoonrva@odiom.nl. Finally, there’s also a confidential counselor from outside the association; you can reach her by emailing vcsocietas1@gmail.com.
What does ODIOM do for inclusion?
Besides considering mobility during activities, an ID is placed under each post on social media. An ID explains the image in the post. If you add [ID] before the image explanation, phones can read it out. This allows people with low vision or blindness to also know what the image says. Furthermore, posts relevant to international students have an “English Below” description. Activities related to these posts are also posted separately on ODIOM’s English website.
ODIOM also has Year Representatives who monitor the quality of education. The forms used by the Year Representatives are also available in English.
Within a committee, the chair is responsible for inclusion. As chair, it is important to monitor whether an activity is inclusive. If the committee finds this difficult to decide, they can always contact the Inclusion Structure. Furthermore, as a board, we strive to write as inclusively as possible. For example, members are addressed in emails with: “Dear all” or “Dear ODIOMers.” Below are also some tips on how you can write inclusively. Finally, we also highlight important days, such as Purple Friday or Coming Out Day.
Tips for inclusive language use
- Instead of “dear ladies and gentlemen,” you can write “dear all” or “dear all.”
- If you don’t know how someone would like to be addressed, you can start your salutation with “hello + name.”
- Instead of “he/she,” you can write “they.”
- Instead of writing about him/her, you can also use the person’s first name.
- Within ODIOM, there is also a Gentlemen’s Committee. If a piece is being written about this target group or an activity for this group, it is best described as “members who identify as gentlemen.”
- Sometimes it’s not necessary to specify a gender at all, so you can certainly omit it.