The tip of the inclusive speaking iceberg

We’re all familiar with the image of the iceberg, and how it shows only a very small portion of its mass above water, while what is unseen below the surface is incredibly massive and so much bigger than what you can see with the naked eye. The iceberg metaphor applies perfectly to the landscape of disabilities and inclusive communication, as the disabilities that are easily noticeable make up for only a portion of the situations that affect how audience members will experience our content.

According to the Invisible Disabilities Association, invisible disabilities refer to symptoms such as debilitating pain, fatigue, dizziness, cognitive dysfunctions, brain injuries, learning differences, and mental health disorders, as well as hearing and vision impairments. These are not always obvious to the onlooker, but can sometimes or always limit daily activities, range from mild challenges to severe limitations, and vary from person to person. Up to 74% of audience members who have disabilities will fall into this category, meaning that you wouldn’t be able to tell that these people are disabled just by looking at them. But make no mistake, these issues are real, and affect many of your listeners.

Research shows that everyone has certain preferences as to how we like to learn, and will primarily operate as a visual (65%), auditory (30%) or kinesthetic (5%) learner. Most people will in fact tend to shift from one learning style to another based on context, which is why we often talk about the learning styles being on a spectrum. As an inclusive speaker, you need to be aware of how you layout your material to ensure that it resonates with all learning types.

But on top of learning styles, we have previously established that up to 40% of any audience will either show up with a disability or will experience disabling circumstances based on context or situation.

While we can never tell how many people in our audience on any given day will show up to your event or content with these particularities, we know some of them are likely to. It’s just math and statistics, after all. Below are a few examples of disabilities that are not easily noticeable, but that are systematically impacting your attendees in unsuspected ways.

Examples of what lies beneath the surface

Colourblindness, or colour perception deficiency, is a fundamental consideration to keep in mind when creating content. Pay attention to the colours that you are using and how you combine them, so that you always rely on strong contrasts. Some colour combinations simply don’t sufficiently stand out to those who are colourblind, and this may make all the difference in whether they can even take in your information.

Be mindful of those with learning disabilities or dyslexia, and folks who struggle reading written text. Do your best to limit the number of words you use on each slide. Keep them at a minimum whenever you can, and instead rely on speaker notes to keep your ideas top of mind. Doing so will not only save people from having to expend energy trying to read out that content, but audience members are more likely to pay attention to what you are saying, as their attention is less likely to be divided between the words coming out of your mouth and those presented on your slides.

Another form of invisible disability will include mild vision and hearing issues, which are also very prevalent, especially in audience members who are ageing. We’re not talking about total blindness or deafness here, but all types of conditions that affect a person’s ability to perceive content or information from a visual or auditory standpoint: text size, font choices, use of colour, content layout, animations as well as audio and visual cues are just a few examples of areas where you can control the narrative and better support individuals who may otherwise feel left out when the content proves inaccessible to them.

Tailoring your material to include different modalities that will satisfy audience members with different needs and expectations will go a long way to creating a more pleasant learning experience. Just think of people who struggle with attention deficit disorders for example. Go out of your way to minimize the number of distractions, in order to keep people’s focus on what you’re presenting. Be aware of how the lighting, your location, your surroundings or even the positioning of the screen might affect their ability to focus on you as the speaker. Go out of your way to get rid of anything that may attract unnecessary attention. Declutter.

Do you ever make provisions for those who have cognitive challenges? Embrace predictable structures as a way to keep your ideas in a logical sequence that is both easier to follow and predictable. Keep your vocabulary simple. Stick to one concept at a time. These tips, as well as many others, will help people who deal with cognitive disabilities or disorders stay on track with you and your content.

And then what about attendees who are non-native speakers? While not a disability per se, anyone who’s ever attended a presentation in a language that is not their mother tongue will tell you that contextually, this is still a potentially disabling experience. Every culture has its own idioms, sayings, metaphors and figures of speech that don’t make sense or don’t translate literally into the correct context. Keeping these expressions out of your speech will ensure that everyone has a good grasp and understanding of what you are trying to communicate.

As professional communicators, we are constantly doing our best to keep everyone engaged and able to process all of the material that we have worked so hard to create. Our success depends on our audience’s ability to consume and appreciate the thoughts and ideas we share with them. One great way to do that is to be mindful of how some of those invisible disabilities might affect the lived experiences of the many people who will show up to our events.

From an inclusive speaking point of view, our job is to do everything we can to block the exits that can lead our audience members to Fadeout Town. Do this well, and you increase your chances of producing a new client or a new raving fan. At the very least, even if nothing pans out from your efforts that day, you will still get to leave your platform knowing that you made everyone in the audience feel like they mattered that day, and that is a fantastic win in its own right.