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Online meetings are a fact of life in 2022: since Covid-19 drove us all remote for lockdown, people are working more and more from the comfort of their own homes, and whether you love or loathe them, this means that the online meeting is here to stay.
As business recovers from the pandemic and the world opens up again, many workplaces are finding themselves busy, and this means in most companies that the frequency of meetings has to be adjusted accordingly – if there are more things happening to discuss and present, that means more discussing and presenting. But sometimes people with dyslexia can struggle with some aspects of the online format- or indeed, with meetings in general, and it can lead to stress and anxiety at work.
Luckily, there are a few things we can do to keep these meetings inclusive for everyone.
📩 Many meetings rely on slides to get data across in an easy format- however some people may not find these formats easy to work with at all. Busy graphs and wordy annotations can cause problems for people with dyslexia, and as we tend to use slides as a time-saver, we progress through them quite quickly, meaning that people may not be having adequate processing time to understand them or make notes. One thing to do is try to go through slides at a more sedate pace, but another, more helpful option that can be done in tandem is to make sure that every set of slides gets emailed to the meeting participants after the meeting. Although the reading aspect is still there, things people may have missed can be checked and processed at a reader’s own pace.
🎨 There are also ways to make sure that presentation slides are as easily readable as possible for people who have dyslexia. Choosing an off-white background and a simple, sans-serif font can make text easier to read on the screen for some people with dyslexia- there are even specific dyslexia-friendly fonts available for use that might be able to make things easier too. And keep slides as clean as possible - .gifs, moving text and images can make pages feel crowded and more difficult to read from.
⏰ Try to keep meetings on the shorter side. They can be intense and demanding for people with dyslexia, and a two-hour meeting might feel impossible for them to maintain their motivation and attention in. Try to keep them on the shorter side, or even consider taking a break in between sections so that people have a little while to recharge and clear their head.
📷 Some people with dyslexia find having their camera on distracts them from the body of the meeting. They might feel observed, on edge, or feel exposed as they’re asked to read slides and respond to questions on a live video feed where their peers can see them struggle. If a meeting is social, it’s great to pop cameras on and connect. But if it’s an important meeting where people are going to need to take in information, respond and make notes, they’re not as vital as feeling comfortable and calm enough to get done what you need to do, so allowing folks the option to switch off is important.
🔊 Recording your meetings is also a great tip for making things more dyslexia-friendly- and more neuro-inclusive all round. Some people with dyslexia struggle to take in spoken information at speed, and some may even have a co-occurring condition called Auditory Processing Disorder that affects how aural information is responded to processed in the brain- some information might be missed, some may take longer to process. Having a recording to listen back to can be helpful to people who sometimes don’t fully process what they hear, and it can also go a long way as to allay their anxieties about missing something important.
Many people with dyslexia thrive in a corporate environment. And many prefer meetings as opposed to being stuck in constant instant messaging exchanges, or having to read through extended email chains to understand what’s required of them; but that doesn’t automatically mean that the meeting format is perfect for their needs. It’s easy to implement some of these strategies into your online meetings and calls to make them more inclusive and accessible for everybody- not just people who have dyslexia, but those with ADHD/ADD, Autism and APD too. And if you’re ever unsure, it’s always best to ask – liaise with HR about best practice guides if you can, and always offer an open platform for people to contact you about the meetings you co-ordinate and if there are ways to make them easier for them to participate in.
