Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

ACM's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council is an essential resource for SIGs, conferences, boards, and councils looking for best practices to improve diversity in their organization and develop programs with a broader reach in the computing community. Our guide provides examples of both inherent and acquired characteristics, which should be taken into consideration when looking at ways to improve the diversity of your team.

As part of ACM’s efforts to combat exclusion in the computing profession, ACM's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council has launched an effort to replace offensive or exclusionary terminology in the computing field. They have developed a list of computing terms to be avoided in professional writing and presentations and offer alternative language. The Council plans to expand this list in the future and invites the community to submit suggestions for consideration.

In this Tapia Conference panel, ACM CEO Vicki Hanson moderates a discussion with ACM Awards Committee Co-Chair Roy Levin and Awards Committee members Stephanie Ludi and Timothy Pinkston concerning the need to nominate deserving and diverse individuals for Awards and ACM Advanced Member Grades. This panel provides an understanding of ACM’s Awards process from submission to selection, with specific tips for working as a community to develop nominations.

The open exchange of ideas is central to ACM’s mission. This requires an environment that embraces diversity and provides a safe, welcoming environment for all. ACM's Policy Against Harassment applies to all ACM activities, defines expected behavior and explains how to report unacceptable behavior.

The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct arose from the experiences, values and aspirations of computing professionals around the world, and it captures the conscience of the profession. It affirms an obligation of computing professionals both individually and collectively to use their skills for the benefit of society.

ACM-W is the ACM Community of Support for Women in Computing. ACM-W supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women.

ACM recognizes the achievements and efforts of the Asian and Pacific Islander community in the computing and technology field. In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, ACM will be highlighting 2023 ACM Fellow recipients from the AAPI community. Their career work has led to groundbreaking contributions that helped improve the computing field and left an outstanding impact on how technology is used. Follow the series via #CelebratingAAPIMonth and leave us a message on X, Linkedin, Facebook, Mastodon, or Instagram.

This Women's History Month, ACM proudly commemorates the groundbreaking achievements of women in computing. Join us in celebrating their contributions with a curated selection of past People of ACM interviews, ByteCast episodes, TechTalks sessions, and clips from previous diversity panels which will be showcased on ACM's social media accounts throughout the month of March. Additionally, in partnership with Rob O'Connor's podcast, The Machine, ACM Fellow Nuria Oliver discusses her career journey as a woman in the computing field.

ACM is celebrating 2024 Black History Month with an interactive Q&A video series! Join us for an enlightening journey as computing students around the world pose burning questions to Black experts in tech, and watch as they share their wisdom and experiences as they address questions such as what role does technology play in addressing social issues, how can a diverse perspective enhance the impact of technological issues, how do you envision the future of computing in terms of inclusivity and diversity, among others.

This talk was a follow-up to the April 19, 2023 webinar with Mehran Sahami of Stanford University, "Confronting Ethical Challenges in a High-Tech World." Sahami and a panel of AI-ML experts from industry and academia—Tulsee Doshi, Susan Epstein, and Kush Varshney—explored some of the ethical questions raised in that session including the role of human values in AI algorithms, bias in AI-ML and the impact of diverse teams in reducing bias, and data privacy. The talk was moderated by Fay Cobb Payton and Susan Reiser of the DEI-CE.

Machine Learning has tremendous potential for developing tools to improve efficiency and accuracy in decision-making. However, ML also has the potential to lead to outcomes that reinforce human biases, disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, and violate notions of privacy. Mehran Sahami and moderators Fay Cobb Payton and Susan Reiser as they explore some of the promise and perils that arise from Machine Learning to understand both some of the ethical issues and competing value trade-offs at stake.

View the webinar, “Language Matters: DEI and the Question of URM,” featuring Nicki Washington of Duke University and Tiffani L. Williams of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in discussion on the importance of language to promote inclusive environments for work and study. The webinar was organized by the ACM Education Board’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Computing Education Task Force and ACM’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, and was moderated by DEI-CE co-chair Fay Cobb Payton.

Co-authors Hemangee K. Kapoor and David A. Patterson reported on the reaction to a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshop conducted at a computer science education conference in India. The workshop aimed to raise awareness of DEI topics and promote inclusion within the computer science industry. Audiences were provided analogies to better understand DEI and presented strategies to support and integrate DEI initiatives into the technology development. Read the authors' full report in the April 2024 Communications of the ACM issue. 

In "An Analysis of Black Faculty in CS Research Departments," Juan E. Gilbert, et al. thought it would be enlightening to do a case study on one marginalized group in the US in the hopes that the lessons learned could be helpful to other groups and in other regions. This particular case study is on the education origins of African-American faculty members in Computer Science (CS) at US universities. Learn about the results and the authors' conclusions in the February 2023 issue of Communications of the ACM.

The first regional special section debuted in the Communication of the ACM in November 2018. The regional special on China exhibited the technological advances conducted by innovators from the region. Since then, CACM contnues to celebrate the many innovations from across the global computing community through a collection of articles curated by a regional team accessible for all to read.

View the ACM TechTalk, "Reskilling to Build Diverse Tech Teams," on demand. Panelists include Sue Black, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Marlene Mhangami, Tan Moorthy, and Brad Voeller. Continue the discussion on ACM's Discourse Page.

View the ACM TechTalk, "The Evolution of Accessibility," presented by Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft. Eve Andersson, Senior Director of Product Inclusion, Equity, and Accessibility at Google, moderated the following question and answer session. Continue the discussion on ACM's Discourse Page.

View the ACM TechTalk, "Building a Culture to Support Inclusive Design," on demand. The talk was presented by Jen Devins, Google Accessibility UX Lead and Nithya Sambasivan, Senior User Experience Researcher at Google. Continue the discussion and checkout further resources on ACM's Discourse Page.