Why smaller businesses should consider inclusivity to be an essential part of their work

As a deaf person dealing with government funded services, most of the time when you request support you receive it. Perhaps not always how you want, or as quickly as you need it, but there is a general understanding that in order to access services, deaf people have a right to reasonable adjustments.

The problem I’ve seen, however, is in smaller organisations or businesses that don’t have any desire, understanding of or feel any obligation to be accessible to deaf communities.

We’ve spoken a lot in the last year about the deaf community and the mental health crisis. Since then some great things have been implemented which can support those who are in need.

Yet I still feel that a whole lot more needs to be done to ensure deaf people can access the wealth of resources and self-help material that hearing people have the luxury of viewing online.

For hearing people who aren’t comfortable speaking to professionals about their mental health they can choose to peruse a vast range of books, listen to free podcasts, thousands of YouTube videos and even sign up to online webinars, e-courses and the like.

For a deaf person who wants to improve their mental wellbeing alone, the choices are limited. They can read a book – that’s if English is a language they are comfortable using or they can browse YouTube videos and hope the auto-captions are correct (!) In short, there really isn’t enough accessible material out there.

As a mindfulness practitioner, I often attend holistic festivals or workshops and I’ve been stunned by some of the attitudes by mainstream professionals when I bring up the topic of accessibility.

Once, I attended a workshop with two other deaf people and the organisation hosting it had provided an interpreter – which was great. The workshop leader gave a lecture about their work and finished off by saying they had free podcasts and an audio course that everyone (!) could sign up to.

I raised my hand and asked – via the interpreter – whether they would provide captions for their podcasts, a transcript or whether they would ever consider providing information in BSL. The workshop leader looked offended to even be asked such a question and responded  “I don’t have the time or money for that” before swiftly closing the questions and leaving the room without giving me the chance to respond.

Later on in the year I met another holistic practitioner who I found to be highly informative and pioneering with her writing on mental wellbeing. I wanted to access the CPD training she offered yet when I enquired about a course, I discovered that 80% of it was audio materials.

Once again I asked about transcripts and the words I received were “I do not provide transcripts and it is unlikely I ever will. I advise you to seek another practitioner who has the money to do so.”

In other words, jog on.

The final straw for me was when I recently contacted a meditation centre about setting up a group for BSL users, and I enquired as to whether any of their tutors would like to be part of this. I was told, “This is not something we would like to provide ” and from their emails I could tell they weren’t comfortable with teaching or working with BSL users.

These experiences have left me baffled. Why wouldn’t you want to be accessible? Why would you turn someone away who wants to train with you and just needs a few adjustments?

My first thought is that it’s most definitely concerns about money. Does it take longer to write up a transcript after recording an audio? Does this cost a business money? Could it not generate more income to a business by reaching wider communities?!

Captioned videos or courses actually do better on YouTube because they can reach much more people. And I’m well aware of several apps that can transcribe your online videos – for free.

Secondly, they could be worried about how complicated it all sounds and stepping out of their comfort zone. Yet, if a business or practitioner chats to a deaf person about what they need to access services, it actually becomes very simple.

Does the deaf person need transcripts? Do they need to bring someone to a workshop with them? Do they need to sit in a different place when they come to a talk? Just ask. Maybe you can’t provide everything they need but the fact that you’re willing to find out does an enormous lot to break down walls.

The third reason, and probably the most concerning one, is the sense that a business or person feels they don’t need to cater to ‘special audiences’ or that ‘it’s not ‘their job.’ Usually, I get an instinctive feeling when this is the case and so if I meet a professional who has no desire to be inclusive and seems to be primarily fixated on profit and ease for their own good, I walk in the other direction.

Mostly, businesses aren’t always aware that they could be deaf friendly in the work that they do. Sometimes it’s the first time they’ve ever spoken to a deaf person when I approach them. So I understand the apprehension and uncertainty. But by being willing to open your doors to a new community, you’re expanding your work to a whole new audience – not limiting it.

Perhaps we need more funded projects to ensure self-help materials online are encouraged to be inclusive and praised for being so. Going further, maybe we need to share news of mainstream businesses that are ensuring their resources are accessible?

This could be incentive enough for mainstream companies and professionals to see that inclusivity should be an essential part of your work and not just an added bonus. The little extra time it takes to transcribe, caption or discuss access with a deaf person will go a great way to reap rewards for you and your business.

Have you used any mainstream services by small businesses that are inclusive and accessible? Let us know what these are!