Tier 2: Strongly Consider Replacing

Terms in this list should be replaced whenever possible, barring major breaking changes. Terms included in this list have one or all of the following:

Are terms from Tier 3 that have undergone through external review by underrepresented minority groups and outside consultants
Terms which would otherwise be in Tier 1 but have dependencies on language set by standards bodies, or are deeply embedded in low-level systems and thus difficult to change

Terms

Word List: Tier 2

Term: sanity-check

Definition

Recommendation donated from the IBM Inclusive IT Language Initiative Words Matter working group

sanity-test

Usage Context

Recommendation

Replace

Recommended Replacements

confidence check
coherence check
test
verification

Unsuitable Replacements

Rationale

This term might be derogatory to neurodiverse people. Jargon, such as “sanity test”, is difficult to translate and is difficult to understand by readers whose first language is not English.

Note: The original recommendation via IBM’s Words Matter group included different recommendations, but INI liked [Twitter’s recommendations][twitter-recs] of “confidence check” and “coherence check” and have opted to use them instead.

Term Status

N/A

Supporting Content

[twitter-recs] ( https://www.mediaite.com/news/twitter-bans-sanity-checks-company-announces-plan-to-make-code-more-politically-correct/ )