Five things you can do to be more inclusive (November 2022 edition)
November is definitely settled in by now, so it’s time for another edition of “things you can do to be more inclusive”. In this monthly series of posts, I want to expand on yet a few more ideas you can explore to radically change the way you approach the creation of your materials and the assets you produce. These tips are meant to help you prepare your next presentation, your next piece of content, or your next workshop activity so it becomes that much more inclusive of everyone.
So today, let’s look at 5 simple ideas you can start implementing, to create a more inclusive experience for your audience from the platform, especially those who have disabilities or can easily be left out.
Let’s dive right in.
Make sure colours used for meaningful text, graphics, and icons in your printed and digital content are sufficiently contrasted against their respective backgrounds (Colorblindness & visual disabilities)
As soon as your content is not purely decorative in nature, but does, in fact, convey information relevant to understanding your message, you must ensure that said content provides a sufficient degree of contrast against its background. This typically applies to text, icons and other visuals that convey significant or meaningful information, not content that is purely decorative. Without such consideration, people who are colourblind will easily miss out on your information.
You can determine if the contrast ratio between your foreground information and its background is sufficient, by running both colours against one another using a colour contrast checker. There are many such tools available for free online. My recommendation is to use Adobe’s Color Contrast Analyzer, and make sure the contrast ratio is at least 4.5 to 1.
Always provide alternate, audio description tracks for your videos, so that audience members who only rely on hearing can still fully understand the content shared (Blindness & visual disabilities)
You understand the value of synchronized captions for video in order to better support those who are deaf or hard of hearing. But what about the needs of people who are blind or have low vision, when it comes to perceiving information only presented through the visual track of a video? While it might be easy for someone who has a vision impairment to perceive dialogues and sounds in a video, it’s a different story when important information is only conveyed visually, without clear audio references.
To make the visual track of a video accessible to those who have vision impairments, offer an alternate version of the video (called audio description), where information only conveyed visually is captured through a voice over track, in order to fill in the blanks.
Keep screen animations and other scrolling effects to a minimum in order to protect audience members who are more susceptible to motion sickness triggers (Vestibular & seizure disorders)
Animations are great, and can certainly spice up a presentation or a web page, but be careful not to go overboard, and seriously inconvenience audience members who suffer from vestibular disorders! When using animations, scrolling effects, or other types of screen movements, less is more! Use animations in moderation, and whenever possible, provide your audience with a way to opt-out of the experience, if it will prove detrimental to them.
A lot of people with vertigo or other vestibular disorders can easily get dizzy, or suffer from massive headaches when confronted with intense animations. Before you use animations in a presentation or on your website, warn your audience, so no one is taken by surprise, and people are offered a chance to look away, should they need to.
Don’t rely on jargon, abbreviations, acronyms, or other technical terms, unless you also plan on clearly explaining what they mean or stand for as part of your delivery (General considerations)
Many organizations, as well as technical experts, are notoriously gifted at using specialized language to communicate ideas or discuss various matters. Unfortunately, such language is exclusionary of anyone who does not share the knowledge or culture required to understand the references, connect the dots, or even appreciate the subtleties conveyed through what may oftentimes appear to be a secret language.
To ensure everyone in your audience can clearly understand you, avoid the use of such specialized terms, and be extremely clear in the way you communicate your ideas. When such jargon is unavoidable, then use it, but be sure to provide the necessary context, so non-initiates can still keep up. You might even offer your audience a glossary of specialized terms to help off-set the gaps.
Capture all instructions relevant for hands-on or workshop activities in an accessible written format, so audience members can refer back to them as needed (General considerations)
We’ve all been there: sitting in an in-person or virtual workshop or training, listening to the instructor while they explain the next activity. Slides are up on the screen, explaining the steps or instructions. You are then sent, along with others, in a breakout room or a small group to execute on the ask, only to find that none of you are particularly clear on the expectations. What appeared to make sense in context, no longer does without those slides.
This type of confusion happens more often than we care to admit. To help your audience be successful with guided activities, make sure you guide them well by providing text-based instructions that they can still refer to on their own, once you are done with your own explanations.
As we keep exploring new ideas to create more inclusive experiences, these five additional considerations will help you bridge some of the gaps that might be experienced by some of the people in your audience. Of course, there is a lot more to consider and keep in mind to create and provide a more inclusive experience to all of your audience members, without discarding or dismissing those who may have disabilities, and we will keep exploring these ideas monthly as more posts are shared on this platform. We hope you’ll give some, or all of them a try in your next presentation! If you do, be sure to reach out to us to let us know how that went!
And as usual, if you are looking for even more tips and tricks to add to your arsenal, then head over to the Inclusive Speaking Tips section of our Info-Hub pages. You’ll find a lot more over there!
Until next time, inclusive speakers!
About Denis Boudreau
Denis Boudreau is a consultant, trainer, coach, and speaker specializing in inclusive leadership and inclusive communication. He works with leaders and executives who are no longer willing to overlook disability inclusion and want to transform their leadership approach from “inclusive-ish” to truly inclusive by championing accessibility. A Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA), Denis has trained thousands of professionals over the past two decades and has delivered hundreds of workshops worldwide in both English and French. He has helped leading brands like Netflix, Salesforce, Victoria’s Secret, and many more embed disability inclusion into their business strategies, empowering them to break down barriers and create deeper, more meaningful connections with their target audiences while also meeting legal obligations.