Gaining stakeholder buy-in is essential to the success of all government communications
To involve stakeholders constructively we need to be clear who they are and what their interest in our project, program or initiative is likely to be.
While disabled people or particular groups of disabled people may be among your target audience, your stakeholders could include disability organisations that may have an interest and a view about relevant programmes. They could tell you a great deal about that segment of your audience - or form a significant channel for communicating with them.
Audiences
The target audiences for government campaigns are often so diverse that it is difficult to capture everybody's needs with one message.
Segmenting your audience breaks it down into smaller groups that you can target separately.
Why you should consider disabled people as part of the segmentation process
Reaching disabled people can be a useful way of helping to reach government objectives. For example, a `five a day' campaign on fruit and vegetables should target those on lower incomes with less access to diet information. We know disabled people tend to be poor and have reduced access to information, so a disproportionate number of this group will be disabled people.
Segmenting can help you to identify parts of the population that less targeted campaigns have found hard-to-reach in the past. For example, take-up of cervical screening services is lower among women with learning disabilities.
Segmentation allows you to make the best use of resources. Rather than create a single-message campaign that might alienate some of the people you want to reach, you can set different objectives for different groups depending on their experiences and expectations. For example, encouraging people to move back into work should take account of the different barriers and attitudes faced by particular groups of people - such as transport, lack of skills or low self-esteem.
The UK is an increasingly diverse place. According to the 2001 Census, more than 300 languages are spoken within the UK and ethnic minority communities account for more than 8 per cent of the population, an increase of 44 per cent since 1991.
In some communities, there is a higher than average incidence of impairments and long-term health conditions, for example, due to poverty or problems experienced by asylum seekers in their country of birth.
Effective communications means considering what is known about particular groups and bringing the information together to set priorities.
For example, employment rates are low for disabled people and for the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. The group in the UK with the lowest employment rates of all are disabled Pakistani and Bangladeshi women (Multiple disadvantage in employment, Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2003). For a campaign about education and training, employment opportunities or out of work benefits, finding channels and crafting messages that work for that audience segment could be crucial.
Sometimes you will want to conduct primary audience research to generate highly specific data about particular audience segments. You should consider that around one in five people has an impairment or long-term health condition in any quantitative work that you do.
It is also helpful to conduct regular desk research about particular audience segments, which involves gathering and analysing secondary data. This might be found within your own department or published elsewhere.
There is a wide range of information available about disabled people in the UK, including statistical and survey data commissioned by government and information about particular groups of disabled people from third sector organisations.
Guidance on best practice in disability and communications
This guidance was produced with the help of an advisory group, which included disabled people with knowledge and experience of communications and government communications staff who are its potential users.
,