SIS has recently worked with a research team at the University of Sussex on their Digital Inclusion Lab project to help them make their research more inclusive for people with language needs.
We met with the team to share our knowledge and experience;
- providing information on local language communities and the most effective methods to reach out and engage
- making recommendations on what resources to translate and how to make them more culturally appropriate
- supporting recruitment of participants via trusted lived experience linguists who called potential participants to ensure the project has been adequately understood and agree the date and time for their interview
- advising on best practice for using interpreters such as, including pre and post-sessions, duration of interviews, seating arrangements, use of 1st person etc
19 Service Users speaking Arabic, Cantonese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish were supported by interpreters to participate in the study.
Researchers were looking at how people get on with everyday online public services. Participants chose a task to try, for example booking a GP appointment, using the council website, checking benefits or job sites, or using library services. The participants talked through what they were doing as they went along, discussing what was easy, confusing, or could be improved. Importantly, the researchers offered practical help and support if participants got stuck. The focus was on accessing the digital service not on the confidence or abilities of the participant.
The sessions we conducted with interpreter support generated very rich data, and SIS involvement was invaluable in helping us reach participants who would have been difficult to access through other channels. It was also particularly helpful that the interpreters and participants already knew each other, as this supported rapport-building and helped participants feel more comfortable. Dr Maja Golf-Papez, Research Lead
Results from the full study have been published in a Digital Inclusion Evidence Lab at https://www.digitalinclusionframework.co.uk/, where you two key resources can be explored;
- The Barrier Library – 125 barrier themes and 1,487 documented barrier instances drawn from 130 testing sessions across 30+ public digital services, each with recommendations grounded in participant evidence, research and best practice
- The Personas – twelve evidence-grounded profiles capturing the full range of ways people experience digital services.
The headline findings for SIS’s Service Users were:
- language comprehension emerged as one of the most prevalent barrier themes across all tested public services,
- 44+ documented instances of services being available in English only, relying on jargon, or providing no plain-language support
- participants navigating services in a second language – particularly immigration, visa and benefits-related services – faced compounded barriers with direct consequences for entitlement and status
The research team are currently in the process of writing an academic paper on the methodology and findings.
