Language Style Guides Resources

Guidelines for Age-Inclusive Communication – We can intentionally change how we communicate verbally and visually to be more inclusive and tell a more realistic story about aging and older adults. We created a short guide to get you started.

Reframing Aging Initiative Guide to Telling a More Complete Story of Aging – The Gerontological Society of America created this guide to Reframing Aging. The guide is based on work by FrameWork Institute and discusses the “why” reframing as well as the “how”.

Associated Press – The Associated Press, a nonprofit, international news organization, publishes the AP Styleguide, one of the main resources for journalists, teachers and other professionals on writing style (you do have to subscribe). Their approach to writing about older adults was updated in 2021 and you can hear about it around minute 30 of this video.

The Conscious Style Guide – This regularly updated website covers a wide scope of topics and guides for inclusive language. There is a section on age, as well as other identities and inclusive language topics. 

Disability Language Style Guide – This guide is organized alphabetically by term and explains how to discuss terms and topics related to differences in abilities. Published by the National Center on Disability and Journalism.