Examples of inclusive language and communication

Audio-described transcript.

Jane Britt:

Audio description: A blonde woman with pink glasses, earrings and jacket. She is wearing a white shirt and holding a cane. She is standing in a foyer.

Transcript: When I’m included in society as someone with disability, when someone else takes that into account – it feels like I belong, that I’m a member of that community that is valued, ah that I’m respected and that you know I have a valuable contribution that I can make to society. So if someone else… you know, I’m deaf blind and they come in and say ‘let’s see how we can make this so you can see it, and hear it’ then I feel like they have respected me as a person and my entire identity.

Audio described transcript:

Peter Tully

Audio description: Peter is a man with short brown and glasses. He is wearing a blue shirt and black pants. He is sitting in a wheelchair with a purple folder on his lap.

Transcript: Basic, very simple communication can make a big difference to people's lives.

Dr Talitha Kingsmill

Audio description: Talitha has red hair and is wearing a black and white jacket. She is standing in front of a large window.

Transcript: if we're reading things digitally, we could look at alternate text, we could look at captioning. We could look at the size of the font that's used, also look at the type of font and be really aware that for people with vision disability different colours are better than others.

Jane Britt

Audio description: Jane is a blonde woman wearing a hot pink jacket and holding a cane used by people with vision impairments.

Transcript: A lot of times it's thought that the things that need to be done to make something accessible are really extensive or that they might be you know quite costly to implement. But realistically there's some things that can be implemented without much you know outlay or without much uh you know need to do something practical like you know get the materials ready.

So, for me that might be that you enlarge the document to font size 16 then hand it to me and with my assistive technology which is magnification I can use it over it and read the documents. So that's not something that takes much to do but it's something that makes me be able to participate in, you know, whatever it is that they're asking me to engage with. And again, it makes me feel really valued as someone, as a member of the community.

Dr Sharon Boyce

Audio description: Sharon has short blonde curly hair and is wearing a hot pink an orange dress. She is sitting in her wheelchair in front of a large window.

Transcript: We don't always have to communicate in a verbal way. We can use picture, we can use the sharing of ideas through, I guess, different types of technology.

Peter Tully

Transcript: Leave all the jargon out of it, leave all the acronyms out of it. Just make it really simple and straightforward and keep your key messages short so the people get a chance to capture them.

Audio-described transcript

Jane Britt:

Audio description: A blonde woman with pink glasses, earrings and jacket. She is wearing a white shirt and holding a cane. She is standing in a foyer.

Transcript: When I’m included in society as someone with disability, when someone else takes that into account – it feels like I belong, that I’m a member of that community that is valued that I’m respected and that, you know, I have a valuable contribution that I can make to society.

I’m deaf blind and they come in and say ‘let’s see how we can make this so you can see it, and hear it’, then I feel like they have respected me as a person and my entire identity.

An example for me was that a local café asked me how it would be most accessible for me to pay. So we decided between ourselves that they would bring the terminal to me so that I could tap and pay at the table without me having to use my cane and navigate a space where I don’t know what obstacles are there and, um, go to a counter and potentially use a terminal where I don’t have the vision to be able to use the touch screen. So it was a way of making me feel like I was part of my community, that I went back to that café every day because they specifically decided to address my needs as someone with disability.

Audio-described transcript

Dr Sharon Boyce (00:00):

Audio description: Woman in a bright orange and pink stripey dress is sitting in a wheelchair. She is sitting in a foyer, with green trees behind her in the background.

Transcript: I think if we really can look at what good communication is, it is about giving everybody an equal seat at the table and being able to communicate in the way that suits them best. We don’t all communicate in words and speech, but everybody should have a chance to be able to communicate.

Peter Tully (00:20):

Audio description: A man, wearing glasses, wears a button up blue shirt and is in a wheelchair. He is holding an orange folder and is in a foyer at a function.

Transcript: Having accessible communication is so important both verbally as we talk day to day and in the digital space, online world because that way we can have more people engaging.

Fiona Lawton (00:35):

Audio description: A woman with dark hair, blue eyes and a red, orange and black dress. She is standing in a foyer with trees in the background.

Transcript: A lot of people feel a little bit anxious about communicating with someone who may have a communication disability because it feels a bit different but the most important thing we can do is to try. Because communication isn’t just about having our needs met – it’s about connection, it’s about being involved and included, it’s about being seen and understood. It’s being part of community and it’s also having your rights met.

Dr Sharon Boyce (01:10):

Transcript: It’s about being able to share ideas, share life, share ah I guess a common goal.

Audio-described transcript

Dr Talitha Kingsmill (00:00):

Audio description: A smiling woman with brown hair that is tied back. She has a black and white jacket on, over a black shirt. She is standing in front of glass windows. Trees are in the background.

Transcript: It is about having a conversation and saying what would make this easier for you as an experience and then listen and find out and be informed because it’s different for everyone.

Peter Tully (00:12):

Audio description: A man, wearing glasses, wears a button up blue shirt and is in a wheelchair. He is holding an orange folder and is in a foyer at a function.

Transcript: Just begin a conversation and see where the conversation goes. It’s amazing what we can all learn from one another just by starting the conversation and seeing where it leads.

Andrew Pope (00:24):

Audio description: A man with short brown hair, a black button up shirt and black and purple checked tie. He is standing in a foyer with trees in the background.

Transcript: That is true inclusion when we start with the conversation of ‘what can we, not I, do together’. We need the space to bring people along on the journey to make that ‘what we can do together’ possible. So part of that is recognising that people have a right to communicate and communicate in different manners.

Audio-described transcript.

Fiona Lawton:

Audio description: A woman with dark hair, blue eyes and a red, orange and black dress. She is standing in a foyer with trees in the background. While talking on camera, Fiona demonstrates communication boards, including one developed by Queensland Health. She also demonstrates Key Word Sign.

Transcript: For some people it may be as simple as Key Word Sign which is sign language which is used for people with intellectual disability that is simple to use, uses natural gesture and something as ‘hi, how are you? It’s great to see you, I’m happy that you’re here.’

Audio-described transcript

Fiona Lawton:

Audio description: A woman with dark hair, blue eyes and a red, orange and black dress. She is standing in a foyer with trees in the background. While talking on camera, Fiona demonstrates communication boards, including one developed by Queensland Health. She also demonstrates Key Word Sign.

Transcript: Complex communication disabilities can involve people who aren’t able to speak or need to receive information in different ways. So they can use a range of tools to help them communicate and help them receive information. It might be easy read tools, but also might be communication boards, chat boards and some high-tech devices like an app on your mobile phone.

A lot of people with intellectual disability can have a communication disability but people without intellectual disability can also have some speech production challenges that might just make it a little bit harder for people to be able to be understood and to express their desires, their wishes and their needs.

A communication board can be a low-tech thing such as symbols on a page that people can point to express their wishes or to have a conversation. So, another example, could be a communication board used to access health - to talk about how you’re feeling, if you’ve got an injury etc. So this one’s been developed by Queensland Ambulance Service and the Queensland Government around emergency health care access. Some people use what’s called a high-tech device which is like a communication board but it’s built into an app and it can be hosted on a mobile phone can be hosted on an ipad and again, just functions in a way that the person can express their wishes, their dreams, their needs, their ideas to others.

If I can encourage people just to do one thing it’s to try. It’s to try to use all the tools or techniques or strategies that are available. They may be chat boards or communication boards or for some things, for some people it may be as simple as Key Word Sign which is sign language that is used for people with intellectual disability that is simple to use, uses natural gesture and something as ‘hi, how are you? It’s great to see you, I’m happy that you’re here.’

Audio described transcript:

Andrew Pope:

Audio description: A man with short brown hair, a black button up shirt and black and purple checked tie. He is standing in a foyer with trees in the background.

Transcript: Sport is important to accessibility and accessibility is important to sport. But in my own lived experience, as a person with disability, having accessible sporting opportunities can open up so many avenues for self-confidence, leadership, it can take you places where you never thought you would go. And the confidence and the friendships that you build, especially that I built, were so vital for my development as a person and development as a professional and I wouldn’t have had some of the opportunities that I now have had if I hadn’t been involved in sport.

Slide that reads: What can sporting organisations do?

Transcript: I think they need to develop the opportunities and the knowledge of how to communicate with people with disabilities and just ask because if you don’t ask, you don’t know what the question is, and what the answer is.

We always think we know and we always think that those sporting organisations think ‘oh we need to do this, this and this’ to include people. But actually, they just need to ask and start developing their conversation with people with disabilities. So within those conversations, the solutions may actually come and these might be innovative because they’re designed with the person, not for the person.

Audio described transcript:

Dr Talitha Kingsmill

Audio description: Talitha has red hair and is wearing a black and white jacket. She is standing in front of a large window.

Transcript: The more accessible we can make an event, or a function means the broader reach and outreach we have for community.

So, if we're actually think about our accessibility in terms of Universal Design, in terms of thinking, not if people with particular needs are going to be there but actually plan on the fact that a community involves people with the broad range of needs.

And therefore, in our planning if we actually make accessibility something that is at the Forefront and not ‘if’ but actually something that occurs every single time then that allows people to attend events that are inclusive. And they're not even seen as inclusive because they're just seen as the norm, and that's really, I think what we're aiming for. We're aiming for that Universal Design where everybody has an opportunity for Equitable social participation.

And when we actually have events and forums that have true accessibility that allows that to happen.