How can you make your communication channels accessible to everyone on your team?

Interactive Accessibility Workshops: Conduct workshops that focus on individual preferences and requirements. Allow team members to explore and choose communication tools and features that best suit their needs, fostering a personalized and inclusive approach. Buddy System for Tech Assistance: Establish a voluntary "tech buddy" system where team members pair up to share expertise in using various communication tools. This promotes mutual support and encourages the exchange of knowledge, making technology more accessible to all. Visual Communication Style Guide: Develop a style guide for visual content to ensure it aligns with accessibility standards. This includes guidelines for creating inclusive graphics, charts, and presentations.

Evaluate your communication channels to detect accessibility issues. Take into account physical, language and technology needs. A multi channel approach that supports varied communication styles is essential. Use systems with screen reader compatibility, language choices and written content alternatives. Provide explicit instructions for using these features to improve comprehension and involvement. Get team feedback often to address accessibility issues quickly. Inclusive communication training can help team members use tools better. When you actively evaluate and change communication methods, every team member, regardless of needs, can fully engage and contribute.

Flexibility and diversity in choosing communication channels is very important. This is because some messages are informal and may not need to go through formal channels. There are also cases where formal communication channels are required because of the nature of the interaction and the documentation needed. However, having a balance of both and knowing when to employ both types of channels increases efficiency and also builds great relationships within the team.

When you communicate the guidance, ask some questions to ensure everyone profoundly understands the guidance. In my case, once, I provided a task to one of my team members, and he said yes many times, but when the time came, nothing happened. I asked him why and found he did not capture what he had to do, but he still said yes. Until now, I still remember that learning experience.

If there are channels that are working better than others from data and feedback from team members, then more focus should be on these channels. Communication is dynamic so monitoring and adjusting the communication channels should be always on.

Consistent training and offering support to the team ensures that everyone is on the same page and also build rapport. It makes it easier to have clear and transparent communication which reduces instances of misunderstanding.