This National Inclusion Week, Amy Ahmed-Dolphin, our senior account director, shares four pointers to help make sure your comms are inclusive for all.
It’s National Inclusion Week, with this year’s theme being ‘Impact Matters’ and a key message of Inclusive Employers’ awareness campaign reminding us:
“Each one of us holds the potential to make a profound and positive impact in this arena.”
As communications professionals, we know that comms plays a vital role in achieving impact. But are your comms as tailored for inclusivity and accessibility as they could or should be? A new guide has proven helpful to Whistle in this area, offering advice on all the different ways people might wish, or be able, to engage with written and digital content.
‘Make It Your Business’ is a best practice guide on accessible and inclusive communications developed in a joint venture by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).
Engineered as a means of promoting ‘Disability Confident’ to communications professionals (the Government campaign created to challenge negative attitudes and improve employment opportunities for disabled people), the short guide seeks to encourage CIPR members to make their comms as inclusive as possible. As stated in the guide’s foreword by DWP director of communications Richard Caseby and CIPR president-elect Rob Brown:
“We know that good communication plays a key role in changing attitudes, and we believe that using our collective voice as communications professionals will make a real difference for disabled people in society and the workplace.”
The guide sparked a meaningful discussion internally about the importance of inclusive communication and how to help our clients run more inclusive campaigns. What we learned is that truly inclusive communication goes beyond simply using the right language or sourcing a representative image from Shutterstock. It’s all about creating content that everyone can engage with. And we do this by ensuring that every message, every visual and every interaction is accessible and respectful to all audiences, including those with certain health conditions and impairments.
Some of the key learnings included:
- Language counts: the words we use can either empower or marginalise. We explored the importance of collective terms and labels (e.g. ‘wheelchair user’, rather than ‘wheelchair-bound’ or ‘confined to a wheelchair’), as well as avoiding terms or phrases that may unintentionally perpetuate stereotypes, e.g. referring to a ‘seizure’, as opposed to a ‘fit’, ‘spell’ or ‘attack’).
- Accessibility in design: inclusivity is about more than language; it also encompasses design. We discussed how digital and visual content – whether a social media post, website content or a digital asset – should meet accessibility standards, such as offering alternative text for images, ensuring correct levels of contrast for readability, using clear, large fonts (e.g. Arial or Trebuchet, not Courier or Times New Roman) and page layout (left-aligned, not justified), and making content easily navigable for screen readers.
- Representation and diversity: inclusive communication means that everyone sees themselves reflected in the messaging and content we create. During the session, we explored how important it is to portray people with disabilities in a positive and authentic light, whether in images, videos or case studies.
- Empathy over compliance: it’s not enough to meet basic accessibility guidelines. True inclusivity comes from creating comms which are empathetic and thoughtfully consider the diverse needs of the audience. Whether we’re developing a press release, social media content or video assets, all elements should be accessible, engaging and resonate with individuals of all abilities.
Inclusive communication isn’t a quick fix or one-time effort, it’s an ongoing commitment and a cultural point, intrinsic to our values.
From Whistle’s perspective, our established Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) policy embeds DEIB principles in Whistle’s values and operations. However, we do now have a task ahead in reviewing our own comms channels to enhance them in line with what we’ve learned from ‘Make It Your Business.’
From a client perspective, we’re dedicated to helping them not only meet accessibility standards but also champion inclusivity in their respective industries. Whether through inclusive messaging, design or representation, our goal is to make sure every audience feels seen, valued and understood.
If you’ve read this far, I invite you to access the guide yourself by clicking on the link below and consider what you can apply from a best practice perspective within your own business or daily doings.
Click here to view the ‘Make It Your Business’ guide
Ready to make your communications more inclusive? Contact us at to learn more about how we can help elevate your brand with truly inclusive strategies.
