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Body confidence coach Michelle Elman recently tweeted on the topic of diversity, and what people involved in social media and blogging can do to make the world around us more inclusive. For instance, she suggested that if you’re invited to be on a panel, you can ask about the other panellists and refuse to take part if it’s not diverse.

Aren’t we all inclusive now anyway?

Yes, in theory, most people you ask will acknowledge that inclusivity and diversity are important. In fact, you probably won’t have to look too far to find someone who thinks that the pendulum has swung too far and straight white cis men are now an endangered species (cough, Piers Morgan)! But there’s a difference between agreeing vaguely that inclusivity is a Good ThingTM and actively working towards it.

If you’re part of the majority, inclusivity can be an after-thought. Organising events can be stressful, for example, so it can be easy to look for speakers among people you already know, or people you think are likely to say yes, and get your schedule filled up without worrying about equal representation. Then you publicise your event and get mercilessly lambasted for epic fails such as an all white-men panel on ethnic and gender stereotypes.

It’s important to realise that inclusivity doesn’t just happen. Quite the opposite, and there are two factors at play here.

First, unconscious bias. We all hold beliefs about our groups and other groups, which can influence our actions unless we guard against them. These are not limited to big overarching beliefs about categories such as race or religion, and they tend to promote a more positive response to people who are more similar to us.

Imagine you’re on an interview panel, and one of the candidates reveals that they come from your hometown, or went to the same university as you, or you’d both previously worked at the same company. None of these things tell you anything about how the candidate can do the job, but now you’re likely to feel a stronger connection with this candidate and judge them accordingly. (Or if you have negative memories of those places, it could go the other way).

Second, the rich-get-richer hypothesis. This commonly refers to economics, but also applies to attention and recognition. One bit of success tends to have a snowball effect and lead to a person getting more and more opportunities. This generates a small and highly successful group at the top of a field, with a much larger group of people below who can’t even get a foot in the door.

So what can I do?

I’m glad you asked! If you’re a solopreneur, you might think none of this applies to you. You’re just hustling away by yourself day-by-day, and you can’t afford to insist on a diverse range of clients. Inclusivity is out of your hands. But think again!

Online presence

You probably use stock images in some parts of your website, maybe illustrating blog posts. Take a scroll through and look at the people in those images. Are they all white? Are they all thin? Are they all able-bodied? Here’s an easy way for you to increase your website’s inclusivity. As an added bonus, more people are going to land on your site, see people who look like them and feel a stronger connection to you. Even free image sites like Unsplash have some diverse options, and if you have a budget for stock photos, you can go to a diversity-focused site like Representation Matters.

Use the alt text box on all your images to enter a description that will be read out by a screen reader, so blind and visually impaired people also have an idea of what you’re trying to illustrate.

Social media

Who are you following and sharing? Can you widen your range? Even in fields like body positivity, many of the well-known names are people with thin privilege, for example, so it can take effort to go beyond and find bloggers who need a seatbelt extender on a plane.

#CapitaliseEachWord in hashtags, so that screen readers can recognise and read each word separately, rather than spelling it out letter-by-letter.

Add an image description to social media images. You can enable this in Twitter or do it manually, and you can add a manual image description in a comment in Instagram.

Content

Do you do podcasts or interviews? Who are your guests? When you look back over your list, do you find that you have a type? Remember, according to the rich-get-richer hypothesis, if you give someone a platform, they will probably be able to leverage that to get more opportunities. Who do you want to give those opportunities to?

If you produce videos, add captions. If you produce podcasts, provide transcriptions. Rev can do both of these for $1 per minute of content. This will help not only deaf and hearing-impaired followers, but also followers whose first language is not the same as yours, and followers with auditory processing disorders.

Events

Are you going to a conference? Email the organisers and ask what accessibility measures are in place. Even if you don’t need any accommodations to take part, at the very least it forces the organisers to consider accessibility and get an answer ready, which is going to make life easier for disabled people who contact them. You’re also saving the organisers the embarrassment of the French national conservatory Cnam‘s conference team, who ran a conference on discrimination and access, didn’t respond to emails about access and then were thoroughly dragged on Twitter by Elisa Rojas, a wheelchair-using participant, who turned up to find that nobody from Cnam could locate the lift or a ramp to get her into the room.

An inclusive world won’t magically appear, and there will always be a (hopefully small) group of people who are actively trying to prevent it. By taking a few small steps, you can play a part in making everyone feel welcome and valued.

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Tips to make your business presence and practice more inclusive and accessible.

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