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The mechanisms you need to use to engage and involve disabled people will depend upon the area of work you are undertaking. There are a number of high-level questions that you need to ask before you involve disabled people. For example:
The scale of the project will influence how you go about involving disabled people. Large communication campaigns may require separate involvement mechanisms, while smaller ones may require a joint approach - for example, inviting one person from each of a range of voluntary sector organisations with different interests to join a steering group.
The nature of the audience is important. You might not involve young people in a campaign aimed at older people. On the other hand, grandchildren can be a useful influence on their grandparents. In some campaigns, young people could form an intermediary audience.
If you want to reach specific groups of people, it is important that they are considered from the start. For example, if an evaluation has shown that a campaign did not reach people with learning disabilities, then it is worth ensuring that people with learning disabilities are involved in planning future campaigns.
Before you begin to involve disabled people you must consider if the involvement mechanisms are accessible. You must always ensure that disabled people get any access support they need when involved in the process.
Disabled people are not a homogenous group. It is important that an involvement mechanism for a general departmental communications strategy or campaign includes people with a range of identities: age, gender, geographic location, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation.
For a specific campaign, for example targeted at younger people, you will want to involve disabled people who are part of that target audience.
For practical tips, visit the top tips section of this guidance.
Page last reviewed: 11 August 2008