Communication access to organisations: Inclusionary practices for people with aphasia

Abstract

Background: When speech and language therapists/pathologists talk about inclusion, they are usually referring to a client being included in events outside the clinic or the organisation that provides the speech and language therapy services. This article describes ways in which those providing services for and with people with aphasia can work to involve service users in their own organisations. A communication access pathway to inclusion and user involvement in organisations is presented. This draws on established methods in the field, as well as on methods and underpinning frameworks that require a shift in views about the nature of service provision. The pathway involves (1) targeting situations in which the “business” of the organisation takes place and then (2) designing ways of achieving communication access to those situations.

Aims: The overall aim is to present ways in which an organisation can become more communicatively accessible to service users with aphasia and communication disabilities. We describe a range of involvement contexts and communication access conditions at Connect, a charity in the UK, where we have attempted to increase the engagement and power of people with aphasia in our organisation's business.

Main contribution: In order to show how organisations can create more inclusive practice, we present some of our own projects. We describe four different contexts in our organisation that we targeted for inclusion: (1) making therapy choices, (2) delivering therapy services, (3) providing courses to service providers, and (4) employment practices. For each of these contexts we present methods used to support the involvement of people with aphasia. Some types of support are tried and tested methods arising out of established theories, others are newer to the field and require a shift in thinking and values.

Conclusions: In order to attain authentic communication access for people with aphasia, service providers need to look beyond established theories and practices. The result, judging from anecdotal evidence as well as evidence from qualitative evaluation, suggests that creating communication access in a service organisation can serve as a powerful means for involving people with aphasia and in so doing can improve on the services provided to them.