Tech Inclusion Code of Conduct

Support, uplift, and create space for underrepresented groups in tech industries and tech education.  

All Tech Inclusion events and activities are intended to be spaces where all involved can come together around the ideas of access to meaningful tech education and community connection, in a fun, welcoming, and inspiring environment. Tech Inclusion aims to foster an atmosphere of trust, openness, support, and safety where all delegates respect the diversity of each other’s talents, abilities and experiences and value the input of others.

Tech Inclusion is committed to the ideals expressed in our values:

• Fun

• Challenging

• Social

• Aspirational and relevant

• Diverse

• Network

We ask all our members, volunteers, and participants to adopt these principles and to strive to learn and grow to best enable our community to accept, respect, and welcome people from all backgrounds.

We value your participation and appreciate your help in realising this goal.

Be respectful

Respect yourself, and respect others. Be courteous to those around you. If someone indicates they don’t wish to be photographed, respect that wish. If someone indicates they would like to be left alone, let them be. Our event venues and online spaces may be shared with members of the public; please be considerate to all patrons of these locations.

Be inclusive

All presentation material should be suitable for the intended audience, with consideration for the need for child/family appropriate language and trigger warnings, when necessary. 

Any public presentation or communication which is part of any event and/or other spaces associated with the conference, is subject to this code of conduct and thus may not contain:

• sexual or violent imagery;

• exclusionary language;

• insults or ad-hominem attacks.

If the subject matter of the presentation cannot be presented adequately without including language that could be considered offensive, this should be pointed out in advance, at the beginning of the talk and in the schedule.

If presenters are unsure whether their material is suitable, they are encouraged to show it to the Executive or volunteers in charge of events. 

Be aware

We ask everyone to be aware that we will not tolerate intimidation, harassment, or any abusive, discriminatory or derogatory behaviour by anyone at any event or online.

Complaints can be made to the organisers by contacting the registration desk or mailing list/forum moderators by contacting the relevant email addresses. All complaints made to event organisers will remain confidential and be taken seriously. The complaint will be treated appropriately with discretion. Should event organisers or moderators consider it appropriate, measures they may take include:

• the individuals may be told to apologise

• the individuals may be told to stop/modify their behaviour appropriately

• the individuals may be warned that enforcement action may be taken if the behaviour continues

• the individuals may be asked to immediately leave the venue and/or will be prohibited from continuing to attend the event

• the incident may be reported to the appropriate authorities

Be Proactive

We work to facilitate people of all ages, including children/young people and people who face oppression due to their personal identity. To create a welcoming and safe environment for everyone to engage with technology in a meaningful way, we ask all volunteers and participants to be proactive in protecting the safety of all participants (particularly of children), and the culture of support for all demographics that Tech Inclusion works to cultivate. 

Volunteers should recognise their position of responsibility and authority, and they:

• Should be aware of the mental and physical well being of others, particularly children who they are working alongside

• Should be aware of their obligation to report suspected risk of significant harm to a child/children, to a member of the Executive or Tech Inclusion Board.

• May be the first point of contact if a child is distressed, but are never solely responsible

• Should ask for help if they have any concerns or questions

It is expected that any concerns that you have are brought to the attention of a superior who will take appropriate action.`

What does that mean for me?

All participants, including event attendees and volunteers must not engage in any intimidation, harassment, or abusive or discriminatory behaviour.

Here are some examples of behaviours that would be considered not appropriate:

• offensive verbal or written remarks related but not limited to gender, sex, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion;

• sexual or violent images in public spaces (including presentation slides);

• deliberate intimidation or bullying;

• failure to report deliberate intimidation, bullying, or other harmful misconduct that you witness or become aware of.

• stalking or following;

• unwanted photography or recording;

• sustained disruption of event activities;

• intoxication at an event venue;

• inappropriate physical contact;

• unwelcome sexual attention;

• sexist, racist, or other exclusionary jokes;

• unwarranted exclusion from events based on attributes such as (but not limited to) age, gender, sex, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion - bar efforts and events that specifically set out to create safe spaces for those often excluded. 

• Not alerting a superior when the safety of a child is at risk.

We want everyone to have a good time at our events and within our community. 

Making a report

If you see a Code of Conduct violation and you’re comfortable doing so, let the person know that what they did is inappropriate and ask them to stop. That person should immediately stop the behaviour and correct the issue.

If you need to report a potential breach of the Code of Conduct, each event will have at least one person designated as a Community Conduct Officer, to whom matters should be reported so they can assess the situation and determine an appropriate response or escalation. If the Community Conduct Officer is unavailable, or your concern includes the Community Conduct Officer, you can always report a potential breach of the Code of Conduct to any of the Tech Inclusion Executive, in particular the Chief Community Officer, Chief Executive Officer, or the Chief Operations Officer.

If you believe that the Code of Conduct is lacking in any way, or written such that it leads to a behaviour you observe which you believe is unfitting of the Tech Inclusion community and values, please notify the Tech Inclusion Executive so your comments can be considered for future adjustments. 

Consequences of Unacceptable behaviour

Participants who are asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. This applies to any Tech Inclusion event and platforms, either online or in-person. If a participant engages in behaviour that violates this code of conduct, the organisers and/or the event Code of Conduct Officer may warn the offender, ask them to leave the event or platform (without refund if any payment was made), or engage the Tech Inclusion Executive  to investigate the Code of Conduct violation and impose appropriate sanctions.

Questions?

If you’re not sure about anything you’ve just read please contact the Executive or the Tech Inclusion Board.

This document is available to be re-used or modified under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia licence, available from CreativeCommons.org

This Code of Conduct was created from original Tech Inclusion materials and existing materials from Linux Australia and Code Club Australia.