Mindful Messaging: A Call for Inclusive Communication
For this Inclusive Growth Show interview, my guest is Ettie Bailey-King, Inclusive and Accessible Communications Educator. We’ll have an interesting conversation about how language can shape the behaviour of individuals and promote inclusivity when done right.
Before we get into the main questions, I asked Ettie to start by telling us a bit more about her background, and the work that she does as an Inclusive and Accessible Communications Educator.
‘My job title, Inclusive and Accessible Communication Educator, is a bit of an unusual one. I haven’t come across another one yet. Essentially, I help people make their content as inclusive and accessible as possible, whether that is helping individuals communicate better when writing emails, putting together written reports, making presentations, or even creating social media content.
As to how I got into it, my background is working in the charity sector in communications and content roles. I came to working for myself out of frustration with mainstream communication practices as they are often harmful and unethical. I saw them creating a lot of ableism, racism, sexism, and more. It made me feel frustrated with the seemingly mainstream practices, so I knew I wanted to set something up and do things differently to help people who want to be as inclusive, accessible and equitable as possible.’
My next question for Ettie was, ‘What are some of the key principles behind inclusive communications? How do we approach topics like age, gender, disability, race and sexual orientation in a respectful way?’
Ettie responded, ‘I think one of the key principles behind being an inclusive communicator is recognising that the way we communicate can do harm. Lots of experiences of discrimination happen through communication. They can happen through somebody misgendering you in conversation, commenting on your appearance in a gendered way or expressing ableist stereotypes. It’s very easy for harm to be caused through our communication, but just as easily, it’s possible to avoid that harm.
We can follow the principle of being anti-oppressive, which is just not being racist, sexist, ableist, and so on. It’s about challenging all of that in how we communicate. It often comes down to a collection of different principles, such as needing to be specific in how we communicate. That’s because big sweeping generalisations about different groups of people can have a harmful impact. If we group people into massive umbrella terms, we are mixing together people with lots of different needs, wants and perspectives.
We need to watch out for using those umbrella terms when we’re actually talking about a more specific group. Be accurate and watch out for any kind of hidden assumptions in what you’re saying. I’ve got an education client at the moment, and they found it interesting that they were talking for a long time about the attainment gap between students of different races. When they looked into it more, they found there was a lot of systemic racism influencing how the students work was being evaluated, they realised it’s not an attainment gap. It’s an awarding gap. It’s these moments where we can be more accurate and specific about what we’re really saying.
Another important principle is to ask questions. Ask people how they talk about themselves. For example, most disabled people in the UK use identity first language. We say, “I am disabled.” However, lots of individuals in other countries say that they are a person with disabilities. You need to find out how people like to talk about and refer to themselves. Mirror people’s language and be respectful by using the terms that people want you to use when referencing them. There are plenty of other principles to follow, but I think it comes down to quite simple and intuitive things like being specific, accurate and respectful.’
I love what Ettie is saying. As a disabled person myself, I often hear inaccurate, sweeping statements that refer to the millions of people living in the UK with a disability or long-term health condition. I run a workshop called ‘Everything You Wanted To Know About Disability But Were Too Afraid To Ask’. One of the topics that I discuss is about personal preference and whether somebody uses disability or person first language. It does vary around the world. I know in the UK, there tends to be a preference for disability first language, as per the social model, in terms of individuals being disabled by barriers that are created by society. However, one person’s preference doesn’t speak for another’s.
Building on that, I was curious as to how Ettie thinks the words that we choose in our communications can impact people’s actions, perceptions and behaviours.
‘There’s a whole host of research on this, which mainly comes out of cognitive linguistics, psychology, and also management. Lots of different fields are looking into this. When I’m teaching and taking people through the background of why language matters, I often discuss these studies. For example, in my 12-week course on inclusive and accessible communication, we start off with, “Why are we bothering to do this? It’s not just because it’s nice, kind and respectful, right?”
It comes back to deep foundational issues about justice. That’s because language shapes how people behave. The research by Lera Boroditsky at Stanford University found different reactions from people depending on very small tweaks in the words that they were presented with. One of her studies has two groups of people that are similar university students. In one group, they’re presented with a case study of how crime is spreading through their local area in the city. It uses a metaphor where it refers to crime as being a beast stalking the city.
The other group are told the exact same story, but crime is compared to a virus spreading through the city. That’s the only difference between the two texts. That tiny difference in language has a drastically different effect on the types of policies that those people then say they support. The group that had crime compared to a beast, tend to support tough on crime solutions. They see people who commit crimes as bad people. They are preying, they are choosing to do harm, and they are vicious. People in the group with the virus metaphor, tended to support much more compassionate, public health style approaches. They tend to think crime happens due to a variety of complex factors.
There are loads of other studies I could mention, many are to do with perception. For example, you show a group of people a video of some cars travelling at a certain speed, you then ask them how fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other. People answer significantly higher speeds. However, if you rephrase the question by asking, “How fast were the cars travelling when they contacted each other?” They give answers of much lower speeds.
This tells us that seemingly small changes can shift our actions, our perceptions of reality and our behaviors. The majority of people participating in those studies can’t differentiate between the metaphors and language used in the stories when asked to do so by researchers. No one can remember the specific language because, often, we don’t pay attention to the precise words that are being used towards us. However, we do feel the impact.
We see this at scale in terms of how people are talked about. There are all these social scripts that pile up creating a taboo, stigma and inaccurate beliefs about disabled people, racial minorities and LGBTQ+. We need to develop the skill of paying attention to each of those little words and phrases so we can then begin to shift them.
We need to be using more specific, accurate and respectful language. I know it might be sounding like you’ve got to panic about every single word you use, and you mustn’t speak freely or spontaneously, but this doesn’t have to be tricky at all. It’s about noticing and consciously choosing our words, but not in a way where we’re constantly editing and second guessing ourselves every second. Try to practice being more thoughtful.’
I really like what Ettie is saying about being mindful with your word choices. It reminds me of a few circumstances. In my public speaking training, I was taught that people remember how you made them feel, rather than what you said. The other thing that came to mind was when I interviewed somebody on this podcast a while ago about bias within language. She was talking about some research about gendered language in Europe.
For example, in Spain, a bridge may be feminine, but in Germany, a bridge may be masculine. She was saying that often influences how people then describe the object. In Spain, they might say it’s elegant and beautiful, but in Germany, they might say the bridge is robust and strong. It’s interesting how that language can have an influence over our perceptions of something and how we might then describe it.
When we communicate, we’re bound to make mistakes. I wanted to know what Ettie believes is the best way to acknowledge and correct mistakes when they happen, and how do we handle apologies?
‘Mistakes are so normal and so common. It’s important that we have self compassion and compassion for others. We all say things that we don’t mean and that’s because as humans, we respond in the moment. We speak emotively. We might just say the wrong word, a word that we didn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that we are bad if we slip up.
Bias is encoded deeply into our language. We’ve learned a lot of biased concepts from our earliest ages. When you’re listening to language, you’re picking up on different patterns and that can run so deep. One example that I pick up on all the time is when individuals, often white people, will describe someone as being diverse. They’ll say, “We’ve got a new hire and her name is Laura. She’s diverse.” That pattern reflects a deep white centric bias in language because one individual can never be diverse. Diverse describes difference across a group.
If Laura’s the first black woman joining the team, we can say the team is more diverse. When we say an individual is diverse, it means we’re measuring them against an imagined standard, as though a white person or a man is neutral.
It doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad about you if you carry this bias with you. I think it’s normal and human to have that bias, but it’s what you do with it.
The reason humans are alive is because our ancestors were quick at making snap judgments and forming biased conclusions about the world. That’s how we survived. So, holding the bias or saying something you don’t mean, isn’t a big deal. The important thing is what do you do when you notice it. That’s where we have the opportunity to express what our true values are.
There’s often some tension the moment you make a mistake, but I see it almost as a paradox. Treat it equally as not a big deal but also really important. It’s not a big deal in the sense that you can swiftly notice what has happened and then take action. I typically will acknowledge, apologise and then act.
Sometimes it might not be appropriate to call the conversation back to what just happened in a public setting, as you may distress the person further. It might be more respectful to speak with them one on one afterwards. It depends on the context, but always apologise.
I might say, “Oops, I didn’t mean what I said there. I’m sorry.” Then by act, I mean to move on. Carry on as you were and say what you were going to say. Obviously, if it’s a major slip up, then you might need to make amends in a more meaningful way than just marking it, apologising, and moving on. Sometimes you’ll need to repair that relationship privately. I think the key idea for me is remembering that a genuine mistake is not that big of a deal. It doesn’t have to be the end of everything.
It doesn’t have to make you think you’re a bad person, but, simultaneously, it is a big deal. For example, if we use the wrong pronouns for somebody or forget somebody’s name, that can be incredibly harmful. It’s important to fix the mistake, but I also think it’s important that we don’t overload it with symbolism and think that it means we’re awful, terrible people. Everyone’s making mistakes.
There’s a linguist called Lal Zimman, who I absolutely love. He writes well, particularly about pronouns and gender in language. Lal Zimman says pronouns are a lot like names. There are a few different ways in which that’s true. One being that there are more than two names, just like there are more than two pronouns. You can’t guess someone’s name from looking at them, just as you can’t guess someone’s pronouns from looking at them. You can guess someone’s name if you want to, but you’ll probably be wrong. You can guess someone’s pronouns, but you may well be wrong. What Lal says is, just as getting someone’s name wrong is not the end of the world, so long as it’s handled well, it’s the same when getting someone’s pronouns wrong.
I would extend that thought process to any mistake. If it’s handled with grace, kindness and you acknowledge, apologise and act, it doesn’t have to be a big deal.’
What Ettie is saying about pronouns is so important. There’s a recent podcast interview that I did with somebody called Pronouns Save Lives. We talk about the importance of pronouns and respecting pronouns that people use. That’s an episode worth digging out and listening to.
I asked Ettie, ‘How can we make sure that communications are accessible for everybody, regardless of their experience? Can you clarify the difference between accessibility and inclusivity for the audience?
‘A lot of people define accessibility as ensuring that disabled people can experience something as easily as not yet disabled people. For example, a website or an app. That’s not the definition that I work with, although it is a common one. I believe accessibility is getting people what they need. That’s not intended to erase disabled people by any means. It’s intended to say that if we focus purely on the idea that accessibility means making sure your website works better for blind and deaf people, or making sure that your mobile app is accessible for people who have some kind of motor condition, I find it can narrow our focus a little bit.
When we focus on making sure people get what they need, I think we can have a more nuanced perspective which recognises as disabled people, we almost always have multiple conditions. Most neurodivergent people are multiple neurodivergent. There’s also loads of us, like me, who only realised that a lot of my conditions constituted disabilities relatively late in life. Others have intermittent health conditions or conditions related to energy or pain levels, which fluctuate all the time
So, when we are making something accessible, I would say we’re making it work for people as they are. When I’m writing a long and detailed email or sending out my weekly newsletter, I compose that on my laptop. I sit there focused with no other distractions. I’m looking at the text on a big screen and I’m writing in my ideal working environment. It’s tempting for me to think that my reader is engaging with it in their ideal situation. That they’re well rested, they’re relaxed, they haven’t just had an argument with anybody. They’ve recently had a meal, life is good and they’re looking at it on a big screen when they read it.
The reality is, people are on the run, they’re reading emails on their phone and they’re only getting through it for 30 seconds before the baby cries. Then they’ll come back to it later, if they remember, and by then they’re stressed, and they are worried. So, I take that broader perspective on accessibility and say that it’s about thinking how you make content work for everybody wherever they are, whether they are blind, deaf, dyspraxic or autistic. All disabilities and neurodivergence are so important.’
Ettie’s answer made me think back to when I worked in usability and accessibility at the BBC. One of my key learning points was about how we are disabled or impaired at different levels. I always assumed that accessibility was for people like me, born with a disability and using assistive technology. I use speech to text software on my laptop, for example, to write documents and emails. In reality, there are multiple levels. Some people are temporarily impaired, like going on a holiday and breaking your leg, or situationally impaired.
It could be holding a baby in one arm whilst trying to cook at the same time or out on the beach with the sun glaring on your device and therefore you find it difficult to read the text. When I started to think about accessibility on those three levels, permanent, temporary and situational disability, it was an eye-opener for me.
Ettie said those examples resonated with her, adding, ‘This is something I explore in one of my newsletters. It’s a deep dive into the difference between temporary, situational, and permanent impairment. As a disabled person, I normally hate the word impairment because I feel like it brings negativity and stigma. I found out about combining that with the social model of disability and how the challenges of disability are produced by these mismatches. In a real sense, disability isn’t the condition of having a sensory, physical or cognitive difference, it’s actually the mismatch between that trait that we have and the environment we find ourselves in. I found it liberating when I realised that. I’ve found it so helpful and hopeful.
80% of disabilities are acquired in adult life between 18 and 65, which a lot of people forget. They think it’s always from birth. I think that whilst disability mustn’t be erased, we mustn’t act as though if you’ve got captions on your video, everything’s fine and all the problems go away, or if the venue is wheelchair accessible, then everything’s perfectly accessible and we can just stop worrying about disability. I want to caution against that simplistic thinking, which does occasionally come up.
When we think about the spectrum of ways in which people can be inconvenienced, harmed or disabled by experiences, it comes down to quite simple practises. It’s things like short words, short sentences, short paragraphs and having options. If you’ve got a piece of written content, try to also record a voiceover for it or ensure that the way it’s written and formatted is compatible with software like assistive technology or browser extensions which read that content out. If you’ve formatted your subheadings properly, it means they’ll be read out properly as subheadings.
Sometimes people just increase the text size, which isn’t always helpful, especially if you are navigating with a screen reader and you’re trying to jump to the next section. It’s about slowing down and doing all the standard stuff in the right order. Format your webpage in a normal and consistent way with your headings. Short words, paragraphs, sentences, and bullet points can be transformative. Whether we are experiencing chronic pain or whether we are finding menopause symptoms are interfering with our focus, a shorter sentence structure can be brilliantly helpful and make it easier to digest information.’
I agree with Ettie, providing communication in a variety of formats is only going to help you get your message across. Some people might just have a visual or auditory preference, so if you take a piece of written content, and then you turn that into an audio and a video format, it’s going to widen your reach.
I then asked Ettie, ‘In addition to keeping it simple, what are some of the other general principles for creating inclusive communications? Have you got any tips that you can share with us?’
‘All of my tips often come back to not overthinking or overcomplicating stuff. For example, if you are building webpages, be careful when experimenting with dramatic animations or incredibly varied colour combinations. This all may look gorgeous if you’re sighted but could be a real challenge for people who are visually impaired. That animation could be difficult for autistic people, or it could be epilepsy triggering.
Sometimes I think it’s about pulling back from the urge to overcomplicate. Of course, things can still look beautiful. You can still have a video on your website, but just make sure you’re doing all of the basics. Check the colour contrast and make sure whatever you create can be easily resized.
Watch out for PDFs. I’m on a mission to get rid of PDFs because they are always inaccessible in my experience. Yes, you can have a very well tagged PDF, which is more accessible, but there’s just a whole host of factors which make them inaccessible. Keep things simple. Work with Google docs or plain text documents and then make it available in other formats if you want.’
To wrap things up, my last question for Ettie was, ‘What does inclusive growth mean to you? How can you link that to inclusive and accessible communications?’
‘To me, inclusive growth means recognising that we can all get so much more out of our lives, professional performances and our personal enjoyment when we’re able to break out of that very narrow script of what it looks like to be a certain way. At work, I often see a script of professionalism, which is a not yet disabled white heterosexual man. It means you show up, you are always full of energy, you are well, you look polished and groomed, and you don’t bring in any “political topics”. For so many years, that was my script of what it was to be professional, valuable and a proper grownup person.
Inclusive growth, to me, means recognising that one script doesn’t exist, and it doesn’t benefit us. There are so many more varied ways of being a person. Professionalism can look like millions of different things and accessible and inclusive communication can look like millions of different ways of communicating. It’s more responsive to the individual. It’s recognising how most of us live our lives. We bring all kinds of identities, differences and disabilities and so on. Accessible and inclusive communication expands the idea of what’s normal so that we can all have an authentic and meaningful connection through communication.’
Ettie advises you can connect with her on LinkedIn and also sign up for her newsletter, where you’ll get weekly, practical updates full of tips, tools and tricks that you can apply everyday in life so you can be more accessible and inclusive.
For further information and resources from Toby and his team, head on over to our website at Mildon.
