CompTIA Is Changing the Language Used on All Certification Exams: Here’s Why

The language used on CompTIA certification exams is becoming more inclusive. Find out why and how CompTIA is making this change.
Man with headphones studying. Text: CompTIA Is Changing the Language Used on All Certification Exams Here’s Why

Inclusive language has been a hot topic this year, and rightfully so. Leaders across all sectors are aware of this and recognize their organization’s use of language that is unintentionally exclusive and/or promotes bias. In the IT industry, as well as many others, the use of language that is not inclusive is changing.

“There’s a big adjustment happening in our industry toward using more inclusive language,” CompTIA Senior Director, Exam Services, Carl Bowman explained. “Large and small vendors alike are reconsidering what terms they use to describe technical functions.”

Exclusive language is wording that promotes inequality. It undermines humanity by minimizing the worth and capabilities of individuals from marginalized groups.  

Such language creates a culture of exclusivity and can lead to individuals consciously or unconsciously diminishing the contributions, talents and potential of individuals from underrepresented groups. By making the language used on certification exams more inclusive, CompTIA is ensuring every individual in IT is seen, validated and welcomed. 

Changing the terms used to describe technical functions isn’t an easy or quick process. The Academy of Software Foundation said that making code and documentation inclusive can be tough and that deploying change across entire repositories often requires a unified team effort.

“What’s more, without a certain level of self-awareness, it may be hard for some people to recognize terms that others may find offensive or disrespectful,” Barathy Rangarajan of DreamWorks Animation wrote. “Language that may not stand out to some people at first glance could provide discomfort to others, such as the formerly common naming convention of ‘master’ and ‘slave’ processes.”  

The Wired article “Tech Confronts the Use of the Labels ‘Master’ and ‘Slave’ stated these terms have been in use for more than a century in technical contexts to reference instances where one process is in control of another process.

“The ‘master/slave’ metaphor in technology dates back to at least 1904...organizations have more recently revised language that could be seen as rooted in racism,” Elizabeth Landau wrote. “Sometimes the metaphor is less precise: A ‘master’ may simply lead, serve as a primary resource, or be considered first.”

CompTIA is undergoing the complex exercise of changing the language used on its certification exams to be more inclusive. This change is in line with what is happening within the IT industry at large, so it’s in good company.

Bowman said CompTIA is taking the necessary steps of changing out traditional tech terms for alternative, inclusive language that is bias-free and more culturally aware. For example, “master” and “slave” have been replaced with “primary” and “secondary.”

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Making Certification Exam Terminology Inclusive

The overhaul CompTIA is giving to the language used on certification exams has been happening for quite some time and is an ongoing project. A key part of the project is complete: Making appropriate substitutions for words used to describe technical terms on the exams.

This may sound simple, but Bowman described it as a thorough, exhaustive process. He explained that each term went through a review by a panel of CompTIA Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) that comprise the CompTIA Certification Governance Committee. The committee spent a month deciding on most of the key replacement terms. Five months later, they continue to finetune the new terminology that will be used on CompTIA exams.

The purpose of the committee is to ensure CompTIA certifications remain fair, accurate and current by providing support and expertise in a timely fashion during the development of CompTIA’s entire certification exam portfolio. Read more about this committee and the individuals who comprise it.

Examples of Inclusive Technology Terms

“Master” and “slave” aren’t the only terms CompTIA replaced with more inclusive terminology. “Blacklist” and “whitelist” have also been changed to “blocklist” and “approved.” This is an example of how color-related terms were being used in a metaphorical way to describe a feature of functionality. But technical terms don’t have to refer to color to be understandable.

“A stop sign is red, but it is not referred to as a ‘red sign,’” Bowman pointed out. “While ‘stop sign’ is a more inclusive term than ‘red sign,’ it also makes more sense.”

There are better, less metaphorical ways to describe technical functions. It’s not only about equity and inclusion, but also ensures that technical phrases are not open to interpretation and thus confusing.

CompTIA is also looking at terms related to gender. Gender-specific pronouns like he/him/his and she/her have always been avoided - both for gender-neutrality and for clarity - by referring to the job or position itself, such as technician, systems engineer or cybersecurity professional Now, CompTIA has taken it further to use terms like “person hours” instead of “man hours.” Thaisa Fernandes made this point in the Medium article “Inclusive Language Guide for Tech Companies and Startups.”

Here is the full list of CompTIA’s traditional technology terms versus new, more inclusive terms.

Old Term

New Term

DMZ

Perimeter network

Master/slave

Primary/secondary (or host/client if used in a network context vs. drives)

Hang

Become unresponsive

Blacklist

Network context: Blocklist or deny list

Software context: Unapproved list

Whitelist

Network context: Allow list

Software context: Approved list

Specific countries considered enemies of a country

Foreign adversary

Native

Built-in, default, inherent, standard

Black-box testing

Unknown environment testing

White-box testing

Known environment testing

Gray-box testing

Partially known environment testing

Black hat

Unauthorized

White hat

Authorized

Gray hat

Semi-authorized

Blackhole

Sinkhole, process vacuum

Black screen

Blank screen

Blackout

Power loss/power failure

Brownout

Under-voltage event

 

Inclusive Language Adds Clarity

As noted above, being culturally aware isn’t the sole purpose for CompTIA changing the terminology used on certification exams. Besides being more inclusive, technical terms that are not focused on color, gender, age or other characteristics are often easier to understand. They can be really helpful to a new IT worker or anyone who wants to learn more about IT.

“Changing the terminology we use on our exams is both culturally aware and clarifying of the terms themselves,” Bowman said. “It benefits everyone who takes an exam.”

Wondering when all CompTIA certification exams will include this new terminology? While the process of updating every exam is well underway, substituting the terms in our more than 50 exams worldwide will be an ongoing initiative and one that CompTIA is committed to. 

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Kat C.
Kat C. Wed Jun 29 2022

Being fairly new to IT terminology, the new terms make a whole lot more sense to me because they are

Being fairly new to IT terminology, the new terms make a whole lot more sense to me because they are actually describing the function itself- instead of using the color that we are supposed to associate with something. I am white, but have never understood why the color black has generally been used to describe something negative or excluded. Put yourself in another person's shoes and it shouldn't be hard to see how that would make you feel. And I'm Not siding with those who are offended by "Mr. Potato head!"- these things Can go too far. Lol but sad. ��Read full comment

Mike Moyer
Mike Moyer Mon Nov 22 2021

Changing terms is taking care of 1% of the issue. Changing the heart is the 99 % of the problem. If

Changing terms is taking care of 1% of the issue. Changing the heart is the 99 % of the problem. If the term changes, it can still be said with the same undesireable emotion (with nothing changed). Responses are right. Colors to describe things are important and not the problem. For instance, Blackhole in space is that, round and with no stars or light. It looks as described because of physics. We need to use our language 'properly' without this nonsense, because otherwise we are in danger of not progressing in science as fast. Again, change the heart and the problems/issues go away. Oh btw, a good engineer/scientist looks at the technical issue, without regard for this nonsense. If you were to confront this same individual, they would look at it you with an "I don't understand what I did wrong look", because they were solving a problem. Read full comment

Eric
Eric Sat Nov 20 2021

Master/slave I can understand, But the rest I can’t understand the point of changing those terms. If

Master/slave I can understand, But the rest I can’t understand the point of changing those terms. If colors refer to people, I’ve never met a black or white person. I’ve met light beige and dark brown But not black or white. So I don’t see the point in changing those terms.Read full comment

Joseph
Joseph Tue Nov 02 2021

I've been CompTIA certified since I passed my A+ exams on Windows 95 and currently hold several

I've been CompTIA certified since I passed my A+ exams on Windows 95 and currently hold several others. Your certification homepage says your certifications "test different knowledge standards". You are not doing that with these changes. Rather, you are removing yourself from industry-standard terminology and simply promoting a political agenda which will not help your certification candidates or the people who want to hire them. What is absolutely ridiculous about this entire thing is you actually believe you can somehow change some words in your materials and that will impact the entire industry. I mean... we're talking about an industry that refers to TLS as 'SSL' even though TLS was introduced in 1999. Do you plan on going to the RFCs and changing the terminology there? What about hardware documentation? While IDE drives have been obsolete for years, I actually had a tech run into one within the last year and he had to troubleshoot the master/slave pins on the drives. While the process you've outlined for these decisions seems extremely comprehensive, it is amazing to think such a process would yield such simplistic results. For example, you simply equate the term 'black' to be referring to something negative as related to the color black with no regard to the actual meaning or origin of the word. The term 'black box' refers to a system whose behaviors are defined by input/output rather than the internal process because the internal process is not observable. You know... like when you turn off the lights and can no longer see because everything is black. This has nothing to do with the color black; it has to do with the absence of light - with opacity. The same holds true for 'black hole'. In networking, a black hole refers to dropping traffic without notifying the sender. The name is in reference to the interstellar phenomenon of the same name and has absolutely zero negative connotation. For power, a blackout is when all the lights go out - again, black is the absence of light. A brownout is a voltage drop which causes the light to dim which creates a 'brown' visual effect. Now that I think about it, I wonder why you guys associate so many negative things to the color black? I now wonder if CompTIA is a racist organization. A 'black screen'... so, let me ask you this: When you turn off your LCD display, what color is the screen? Obviously, the correct answer is 'black'. However, you guys must have answered that question with the 'N-word'. Why else would you think this state of the screen is racist? Just because you (apparently) have racist thoughts doesn't mean you should assume everyone else does, too. What's next? We can't use Red Team/Blue Team exercises because that would equate Republicans as the enemy and the Democrats as the defenders? Oh, wait... yeah... we can do that. But God forbid we have the White Team as the moderators because that would mean anybody who wasn't Caucasian can't, by definition, be part of that team. Because.. you know... color. Obviously, the racism within CompTIA is running pretty rampant. I mean, take a look at the word 'hang'. Non-racist people see that word and think "suspend". At CompTIA, the thought is 'lynch', so you rush to make sure nobody else thinks of that word the way you do. Let's not forget Native Americans. When non-racists like us see the word 'native', we think it means something that is indigenous to a system or place. You guys must be wearing feather headdresses and war paint and assume the rest of the world is, too. Please don't pretend this has anything to do with "Inclusive Language Adds Clarity". This is insulting as you are assuming those of us who have these certifications or teach these classes are stupid, naïve and/or gullible. If you're going to put this change in place, simply state you are attempting to be inclusive and leave it at that. What is absolutely heartbreaking about this is how this is going to impact candidates who are attempting to change careers. I can't imagine interviewing a cybersecurity analyst candidate who is Security+ certified, but doesn't know what black/white/grey box, black/white/hat, blacklist, whitelist, etc. are. They will be completely out of their depth because they won't understand the basic terminology. By caving into the woke political agenda, you are hamstringing the very thing the learning centers are trying to sell - the fact these certifications will help someone get hired in a new career. CompTIA certifications are already considered to be the 'light' versions of the 'real' certifications. Now, we run the danger of the industry regarding them as simply irrelevant. Once the students become certified using woke terminology, CompTIA certifications simply won't be taken seriously and neither will those students.Read full comment

Wayne Seavolt
Wayne Seavolt Fri Oct 29 2021

Some of the changes are ambiguous and in the case of grey hat just wrong, either you have permission

Some of the changes are ambiguous and in the case of grey hat just wrong, either you have permission or you do not. I fear this will confuse people even more. Where do we go to seek clarification or have input in this. Read full comment

Richard
Richard Thu Oct 28 2021

So, you are going to take known terms with definitions that are not offensive, virtue signal, use ne

So, you are going to take known terms with definitions that are not offensive, virtue signal, use new longer terms with same definitions, and this accomplishes what exactly? I truly do not understand how anyone can be so offended to warrant this change.Read full comment

Christopher Ross
Christopher Ross Thu Oct 28 2021

Great PR stunt CompTia

Root
Root Wed Oct 27 2021

CompTIA was already inclusive without making any language changes. CompTIA allows anyone of any colo

CompTIA was already inclusive without making any language changes. CompTIA allows anyone of any color or background to take and pass their exams, without prejudice. Now, CompTIA is making me feel marginalized and excluded by bending-the-knee to woke politics. Next, you will be changing the term 'root' so as to not offend the branches. In the real world there are masters and slaves. There are also the free or independent. When the mode that one device must adopt in its action is entirely dependent upon the mode of another device, then the second device is obviously the master in terms of mode determination and the first (or primary?) device is enslaved to the master device's mode. Without this simple allowance in the language, understanding becomes much more difficult and convoluted. So, in my example above the first or primary device is actually the slave device and the second device mentioned, the so-called secondary device is the master device. Don't you see how confusing even exchanging Primary/Secondary for Master/Slave becomes? Primary/Secondary makes sense when one follows the other in sequence. But, is less descriptive and less precise than master/slave when on device's state dictates or limits the choices available for other related devices. I grant you that black-list and white-list involves the use of color to describe a situation. But, it is stupid to jump to refusing to use colors to describe a situation just because human skin also has different colors. Ink is generally dark colored so that it can contrast with the light colored paper that historically has been used to create lists. the first lists made were probably blood (dark or black) on tree bark or woven dry grass (light or white). Ink is not made black nor is paper made white to make any kind of political or social statement. Ink and paper are black and white to increase contrast, making reading and discerning the meaning easier. So, why are you trying to force this perception that the natural colors of objects are somehow racial slurs when it is so obviously racist to force the perception? The French word for white is blanc which gives rise to the English word blank, meaning without content. So, must we all now learn French so that we can create the appearance that we are color-blind or non-racist? If you want to create inclusion, start by being inclusive to our brothers of all colors instead of playing racist word games to pretend that you are not racist. I recognized that others are not the same color as me. I also realize that those others are valuable sometimes because of and other times in spite of the fact that they are another color or have another view point. Why must we drag this idiotic divisive ideology of "diversity and inclusion" into every single domain? If "social scientists" want to play these racist games, do not let them dictate the language of the hard sciences. But, in the hard sciences and technical fields, we need to use terms that make real sense instead of "political" sense. What a waste of time and energy. The points that you make in support of this "inclusive" ideology actually alienates people and makes it harder to clearly think through the technical concepts being addressed by diverting attention to political ideology instead. Read full comment

Justin Valentine
Justin Valentine Wed Oct 27 2021

Hi Doug, Thank you for reading and for expressing your opinion. Changing technology language is one

Hi Doug, Thank you for reading and for expressing your opinion. Changing technology language is one way for the IT industry to be more inclusive. The words we use matter, and we do not want anyone to feel that they don't belong in IT because of the language we use. CompTIA exams reflect what is happening in the industry, and using inclusive language is one of those things. Read full comment

Stephen
Stephen Sat Oct 23 2021

I applaud CompTIA for addressing this issue. I have always had a problem with the "master/slave

I applaud CompTIA for addressing this issue. I have always had a problem with the "master/slave" metaphor for such things as hard drives. The word or prefix "black" in technology (and elsewhere) historically refers to something negative or bad. It's time to change some of these archaic references rooted in slavery or negative associations with people. In many workplaces, when "system administrator," "engineer," or "programmer," are mentioned, people still assume this is a "he." That bias is built into the perception of a male-dominated industry, as it historically was for so long. This bias must also change. Inclusion through action, policies, and yes, phrasing, is a great thing !Read full comment

Anthony Rosa
Anthony Rosa Sat Oct 23 2021

Yikes. Ministry of Truth has now come to technology. How pathetic. Gray hat is “non-inclusive”???? W

Yikes. Ministry of Truth has now come to technology. How pathetic. Gray hat is “non-inclusive”???? Why am I paying hundreds of dollars for these goofballs to reinvent established technical language. So pathetic.Read full comment

Yiming Chen
Yiming Chen Sat Oct 23 2021

The intent is fair on what they want to do, but it's near-sighted and smacks of the same imperialism

The intent is fair on what they want to do, but it's near-sighted and smacks of the same imperialism they strive to eliminate. Do they not see the horrible irony? This appears like inclusivity, but actually it is far far worse. It'a American hegemony of mores, morales, and constructs. How dare Americans tell the rest of us how to think and talk. American imperialism at its worst. In Chinese we translate "shifu" as "master" because mastery of a topic rates the individual at the highest level. Why is "native" a bad word? Beijing native to an area is a mark of respect and honor. In America it's bad to be a native? That's America's own provincialism at its worst. Hang is a bad word? Something that hangs in the air is neither falling or rising. it is hanging, like decorations hanging on a Christmas tree in America. Is someone triggered by the word "hang"? Again, how dare Americans take their ideology and create hegemony around the world. They do it already with their military and Hollywood movies, and now they take their own provincial attitudes and spread it to us too.Read full comment

Doug
Doug Sat Oct 23 2021

What confusion to add on the already difficult glossary terms to memorize. Now you are telling me th

What confusion to add on the already difficult glossary terms to memorize. Now you are telling me that I must unlearn the very words CompTIA, CompTIA authorized professors, and the industry has been teaching for 20+ years just to appease political correctness? Also, which political theology class is CompTIA being forced to undergo? I can understand master and slave, but the other 80% is plain nonsense… “A stop sign is red, but it is not referred to as a ‘red sign,’” Bowman pointed out. “While ‘stop sign’ is a more inclusive term than ‘red sign,’ it also makes more sense.” You know what makes more sense, Mr. Bowman? That a STOP sign is referred to as a STOP sign, because it has the word STOP printed on it in the boldest font possible. I will be removing all my CompTIA affiliated certifications from my LinkedIn and resume. I will no longer encourage young infosec students to study for CompTIA certifications either. I will no longer have CompTIA certifications hold influence while hiring either. It took me 15 minutes on my Friday night to write this. I might’ve felt a little different if CompTIA just bluntly said, “We are replacing ‘bad’ words with inclusive words to appease the woke mob’ and I probably just would’ve went about my day. Instead CompTIA published some bogus reason why they are making this change without an actual logical or practical reason and with poorly tied bow-tie of terrible metaphors. It shows a lot how much thought you all really put into this.Read full comment

Richard Hughes
Richard Hughes Fri Oct 22 2021

This is so sad. Colors were used to describe what was seen. Those affected by colors must not wear a

This is so sad. Colors were used to describe what was seen. Those affected by colors must not wear any clothes because clothes have colors and that can be offensive. See, this is stupid. The new, woke, terms will be harmful to the test, the profession, and the society in the long run because we won't be able to properly describe what is going on. But, I suppose this comment will go into the blackhole of comments, leaving me with a blackscreen of a response. Leave the option of using the current terms OR the new, woke terms. I will continue to use the current terms because this wordsmithing is just stupid.Read full comment

Richey
Richey Fri Oct 22 2021

Curious. Although this totally makes sense for some terms (black/white list vs. allowed/dis-allowed

Curious. Although this totally makes sense for some terms (black/white list vs. allowed/dis-allowed -> because quite literally what it is doing is allowing or dis-allowing a connection/processing, etc. where as "black" or "white" in and of itself is not directly related with what's happening), there are other terms I don't get. Such as "master" and "slave" (which in the way i think things should be defined- is in fact what is going on). How is "primary" and "secondary" any less "inclusive" than "master" "slave"? Secondary is still exclusive. What if we call something a "secondary country" or call soembody a "secondary human being"- how inclusive is that? I'm not after CompTIA with this- I know you are just complying with the "new IT slang" (why do we always have to keep changing the darned slang every few years????). But man- this is getting ridiculous (the lenghts) society is going to. So this is more feedback/reaction to those special few that insist on changing everything for no reason at all (no effective / productive reason).Read full comment

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