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Table of Contents

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Background

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The UXW team is writing microcopy for the finEQUITY website. Team members have questions about the language of “justice-impacted individuals.” UXW recognizes the need to use language that respects the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals. Still, they wondered, “would returning citizens looking for resources know that “justice-impacted’ refers to them?”

In one interview, a participant noted,

“‘Services for reentry partners’ I think, shouldn't even be there. If, if I'm recently released, I see that reentry, that's who I think I am. So if that's just for the partners that should be a separate spin off, or something, you know, where the partners know to to hit that button, or whatever to go to, whereas it's pulled out to. I should just, you know, pull up the website and see services for justice impacted click on it. And when, unfortunately, I still don't think most people would know that they're justice impacted. so I don't know how you could reword it. you know. Maybe services offered to returning inmates and people dealing with the criminal justice system, or something of the lines. And then from there, you know, page by page, it's kind of, you know, keeping it less collegiate when when possible.”

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Research Objectives

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  1. Understand the history of terms used for people involved with the justice system and identify current perspectives on appropriate and respectful language for people involved with the justice system.
  2. Compile a list of current and outdated terms used to speak about people involved with the justice system.
  3. To design a website that upholds values of equity, progress, and community-based re-entry

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The Set Up

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The UX Research team set out to explore terms used for justice-impacted individuals, with the goal of understanding current thoughts on appropriate terminology and compiling a list of terms that could be used for website copy and search engine optimization (SEO)

To create an expansive list of terms, researchers noted language considered inclusive and respectful as well as language considered outdated. While UXW SHOULD NOT use outdated language for copy, users may still utilize these outdated terms when searching for resources, and should be considered for SEO.

Researchers were tasked with reading 2-3 articles or blogposts about language around incarceration. Researchers documented sources in a table in the UXR Figjam. Before reading an article, UX researchers made sure no one else has read that article. Outdated and appropriate/inclusive language were written on sticky notes. If a recommended term had been added to the Figjam board, researchers added a +1 to that sticky note so we could track how commonly advocates suggested (or advised against) that term.

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Findings and Recommendations

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Findings and Recommendations

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ℹ️Resources