Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
60 lines (28 loc) · 2.43 KB

inclusion_tips.md

File metadata and controls

60 lines (28 loc) · 2.43 KB
Raw

Hackathon Inclusion Tips

##Why does this guide exist?

Several hackathon organizers have come forward and asked how to make their hackathons more inclusive. This is a really tough question, as we want hackathons to be accessible to everyone, but it is impossible to know what everyone’s needs are. We started this document to be an aggregation of ways to make hackathons more inclusive, and we welcome pull requests to the document with any tips you may have.

Before the Event

  • Have a strong code of conduct that is distributed to all event attendees and sponsors.

  • Order female shirt sizes

  • Recruit members of underrepresented in hackathons for judging panels & organizing team

  • Encourage sponsors to bring diverse mentors options

  • Avoid gendered language in official hackathon announcements (continues throughout event)

  • Be sure the people in your marketing pics/videos are diverse

  • Do not market female-geared talks/things in pink or perpetuate other stereotypes

  • Do not create award categories that encourage the commodification/objectification of minority groups ('Best Team with Female Leader Award'). They are not there to be collectable 'tokens' for the privilaged to use, in order to increase eligibility for prize winning.

  • Actively recruit minorities by reaching out to their universities' groups and listservs

  • Have non-binary gender sign-ups

  • During the application process or otherwise before the event, ask your participants about any allergies they may have (e.g. to food) and accomodate them through out the event.

Day of the Event

  • Enforce bathroom genders (do not turn female bathrooms into male restrooms) and if possible have a gender neutral restroom (this is for trans* folks).

  • Actively disallow sexist and otherwise discriminative hacks

  • Have publicized procedures by which people can report code of conduct violations, and have a point person to handle complaints.

  • Refrain from asking things like "what does it feel like to be a girl at a hackathon?" You should not be saying things that make anyone feel like they should not be at your events.

  • Have showers and other ways to stay groomed.

  • Provide safe sleeping areas.

After the Event

  • Collect data that gauges how well you did, share that data to help other organizers. Iterate, improve.

Misc. Tips

  • There is currently a code of conduct in place at all MLH hackathons. Enforce it.