Sustainability v accessibility: Tensions in designing public involvement events
Written by Katie Porter, Project Manager at Agora Digital Centre
We are living in a climate emergency. Many organisations have responded by creating sustainability strategies and policies, including the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK who developed the Greener NHS programme. The drive for sustainability can and should also impact on how we do patient and public involvement in health and social care research. However, when developing environmentally sustainable solutions we also need to consider equity of access to involvement opportunities.
What environmentally sustainable options are there?
One common, environmentally sustainable option is to host patient and public involvement events/meetings online. Spurred on by the large-scale move to remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many continue to use online options. The move to online working and events has many benefits, for example: you can invite many people from across the UK and the world without the need for them to travel; you save on potential food waste that comes from the coffee breaks or lunches; and there is a reduction in paper waste that comes from signage and handouts.
Another option is to create sustainable in-person or hybrid events and meetings. For example, encouraging people to use public transport to the venue, choosing a green venue (i.e. a venue that works to meet particular sustainability guidelines and benchmarks), minimising use of single-use products (such as plastic packaging), and encouraging attendees to use an app to access event information or materials.
Both these options sound great, right? And they are! But how does this affect the accessibility of these events and meetings?
How can sustainable options affect accessibility?
Encouraging people to use public transport is not always ideal for everybody as buses may not have enough space for wheelchair users and neurodivergent people may struggle with busy services. Also, some green venues do not use carpet which contributes to an increase in noise in the room (less absorptive material) which can cause pain and discomfort for people with hearing impairments. There is a push towards creating apps for the event or using online registration, but these are not accessible to all. Some people don’t have access to smartphones, and some find it difficult to navigate online materials or apps.
Talking about online events and meetings, they are not always accessible either. Automatic captioning is often gibberish, PowerPoint presentations can’t be read by screen readers, and some people find looking at a screen for a long time uncomfortable.
It seems that in a move to be more sustainable with our approaches, there is a risk that we leave some people behind.
So, what can we do about it?
First off, talk to the people you want to involve. Involve the public in co-creating sustainable events. Looking to an example from the music industry, a collaboration between Attitude is Everything, Julie’s Bicycle and A Greener Future recognised that people from the disabled community were being left behind in efforts to improve the sustainability of live music events. Discussions between disabled people and event organisers resulted in the development of a toolkit which identifies challenges and solutions to making events both accessible and sustainable. For example, festival organisers can engage with local communities who help design their accessibility and sustainability plans, even doing walk-arounds of the area to make sure that it meets different access needs. Here, the community are being engaged throughout the whole planning process.
Moving back to the world of research, you can also speak to potential attendees to find out their access requirements and try to meet these. Are additional resources needed to enable them to feel included and able to contribute? If you’re working online, you could use a live captioning service (i.e. pay for a real person to caption your live event). In the event registration form, you can ask people to provide information on what they need to allow them to feel comfortable e.g. a sign language interpreter, quiet room. Ask the attendees if they will be bringing a service dog or a carer with them and consider them in your planning processes e.g. an additional chair for the carer to sit on, a relief area for service animals.
When you are identifying the access requirements you need to meet, think about how you can make your event or meeting more environmentally sustainable. Some examples include:
- If everyone is comfortable with meeting online, do this.
- If meeting in person, avoid overordering food to reduce the amount of food waste at the end of the event.
- Encourage people to bring their own water bottles or mugs to avoid use of single-use plastics.
- Match the size of the room to the number of attendees, so if there will only be five people attending, don’t book a room that seats 30 people. Larger spaces will require more lights and heating.
- Reduce the number of materials you print and only print what is necessary.
- Before you bin the materials you didn’t use, think about whether you can re-use them for future events. If not, recycle if you can!
These are just a few examples, but whatever you decide, make sure that alongside considering your sustainable solutions you also consider accessibility. We need to achieve a balance between the two. Accessibility needs to be a part of the discussions on how to design sustainable public involvement events and meetings moving forward.
Do you want to find out more about patient and public involvement and engagement?
In our new online course ‘Nothing about us without us,’ you can learn about what makes good patient and public involvement and engagement in health and social care research. Register your place on the course today!