7 steps for more inclusive internal communication

The trend toward increasing workplace diversity is not only an ethnic and religious matter; consider how your organization eases interactions for vision- and hearing-impaired staffers.

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The Royal National Institute for the Blind recently tweeted about a Twitter setting that describes images for the visually impaired. It’s a brilliant idea, yet most people didn’t know it existed, nor had they considered it something missing from their lives.

How often do we do that internally? Chances are, IC practitioners will be aware if they have an employee with specific visual or hearing needs and will accommodate that. Still, if we’re to be truly inclusive organizations that attract a diverse workforce, should it not form a part of everything we do, ensuring that future employees can access content we share inside our organizations?

Molly Haynes is a content manager in the oil and gas industry, and she was born with severe hearing loss. She relies on hearing aids and lipreading to follow conversations. Haynes’ professional life is conducted purely over email, text messages and video Skype/Zoom calls.

The organization she works for has been hugely accommodating, and she has taken an active role in educating colleagues. It’s something she believes more organizations should do.

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