Inclusive comms resourcing for Professional Services staff

Bryony Makin (Disability Services)

Project overview

Inclusive communication – intentionally constructing the form and content of messages and comms in a way that reduces barriers to understanding, interpretation and navigation – and how its best practice can be effectively shared with Professional Services staff. While important work is taking place across the university interrogating the concept of inclusive language and equipping academics to critically review and transform their practice, there is limited crossover and subsequent impact on the frontline work of Professional Services staff. The Fellowship will explore what effective inclusive comms entail, the challenges staff face in providing them and respond with a Resources Toolkit tailored to a Professional Services context.

Working in Disability Services I have experienced repeat queries, confusion over processes and a lack of support uptake from students despite prior (often numerous) communications from our teams. This led me to try and critically consider the accessibility of our comms as a contributing factor, but I discovered a lack of comprehensive guidance available for the sort of email-based, administrative (rather than academic) context of our work, or that existing resources focused on individual aspects but couldn’t provide a holistic approach for a diverse range of support and access needs. I saw a need for resources taking a Universal Design style approach to inclusive comms, tailored specifically for a Professional Services staff audience without prior linguistic knowledge.

The research approach

I will carry out a literature review and create an annotated bibliography of resources and materials currently available to University staff to gain a clearer picture of existing inclusive comms best practice. I will then undertake exploratory workshops with two teams in Disability Services to gain an understanding of their experiences and perspectives on inclusive comms, with a focus on challenges and barriers and any solutions they think would help support them in this. Using thematic analysis I will then draw out key concepts to address in the creation of a Resources Toolkit, which will then be delivered and trialled with participants from those teams, collecting feedback on its usability and effectiveness.

If you would like to find out more about the project contact Bryony Makin

Each fellowship has a project sponsor that helps the fellows achieve impact across the institution. The sponsor for this fellowship is Jas Brogden

Project start date: September 2025