Hello, my name is Jennifer Borland. I am the Director of Research Programs at Rockman et al Cooperative, a research and evaluation firm that specializes in the evaluation of educational programs and media in formal and informal settings. I’ve been working as an evaluator for more than two decades, but I always enjoy discovering new ways to ensure that my evaluative efforts are as effective as possible when working with a wide variety of would-be participants.
Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with scholars and practitioners who strive to make educational products as accessible as possible. Their efforts have, in turn, fostered a need to ensure that my evaluative work is also as inclusive as possible. This is especially the case in the formative work that I have done with children (with assistance from their parents/caregivers) on behalf of PBS KIDS. In this post, I share a few of the strategies that I’ve adopted over the years as a means of making evaluation experiences as accessible as possible for all would-be evaluation participants.
Hot Tips
Tip #1: Provide a detailed description about what the evaluation experience will entail, so everyone can make informed decisions about participation.
Approximately how long will a survey take to complete and is it doable on a phone, or would it be advisable to use a device with a larger screen? In what language(s) can an interview be conducted? Are there any other elements of the study that may make it difficult for someone to participate in if they have limited mobility, vision and/or hearing and, if needed, what additional supports are possible? Answers to the questions above can help a would-be participant determine if they can participate successfully and comfortably.
Tip #2: Ask (rather than assume) what else someone might need in order to participate successfully in a study.
I’ve incorporated a statement like the one below into our recruitment messaging for youth media studies as a means of inviting parents of would-be participants to share their recommendations for making everything go as smoothly as possible during a testing session: “Please let us know if there is anything you’d like us to know about your child ahead of time or if there is anything we can do to make the participation experience as comfortable as possible for you and your child.” A simple statement like this can, for example, give the parent of a child who is autistic or has other forms of neurodiversity an opportunity to share recommendations for communication that will better enable us to meet the needs of their child during a study. Based on the requests that have been made by several parents in response to this question, I now regularly offer “social stories” (i.e., a tool, like the one shown below, that helps people understand and prepare for different experiences that involve social interaction).
Hot Tip #3: Consider multiple ways for participants to provide responses.
Whenever possible, and especially when working with children who are pre-literate, I try to incorporate images as a way to help participants understand what I am referring to when asking questions. I also use images that can help participants make sense of different response options (e.g., a set of different smiley faces rather than a set of like/dislike terms). And rather than requiring or relying on verbal responses, I often invite youth participants to point to the image that is most like how they feel. This simple strategy is an easy way to make a testing session more accessible to participants who have limited verbal skills, may be shy, or might have other reasons to be hesitant to say a response out loud.
There are, of course, many other ways to meet the needs of diverse participants, but the three recommendations listed above are a great way to get started if you aren’t already thinking about ways to make your studies more accessible.
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