The Catalan Agency for Health Quality and Assessment (AQUAS) of the Catalan Ministry of Health together with the Girona Biomedical Research Institute Dr. Josep Trueta (IDIBGI) and eight research institutes in Catalonia have produced the guide Recommendations for inclusive communication in health research to promote inclusive communication in health research. Josep Trueta (IDIBGI) and eight research institutes in Catalonia have drawn up the guide Recommendations for inclusive communication in health research, to promote the inclusion of a language that promotes the visibility, equality and representativeness of all people and to avoid situations in which the language may contain language or forms that make people invisible or discriminate against them.
This instrument - which has been produced in both Catalan and English - contains recommendations applicable to written, oral and visual communication in order to be a support tool for inclusive communication in health research institutions, complementary to the official language guides and the institutions' style manuals.
Inclusive communication is essential to ensure that everyone feels represented and valued. In full recognition of this need, the guide contains examples and strategies for preferable and non-recommended uses, to show its practical application and with the aim of providing resources and raising awareness and contributing to the full, respectful and non-discriminatory inclusion of any group and diversity. For this reason, as the authors explain, the document not only includes examples of the treatment of gender, but also of other diversities, such as the communicative treatment of disabilities, illnesses and cultural groups.
At the same time, an infographic with the key messages has also been presented in order to provide a more accessible resource. Both documents are addressed to both scientific and administrative staff of these institutions, as well as to their management, research staff, journalists and other interested people, in order to offer them simple and direct recommendations in a visual way to explain and disseminate research in an inclusive way, as well as specific advice in different formats and in two languages.
These publications have been produced within the framework of the Hipatia Community, which works to update management policies and practices, eliminate the unconscious bias and promote cultural change and the incorporation of a gender perspective in research. Specifically, for this initiative, a working group has been created, coordinated by AQuAS and made up of professionals from the Institute for Biomedical Research of Girona (IDIBGI), the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC), l'Institut de Recerca Hospital del Mar (IMIM), l'Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (IRB Barcelona), l'Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Lleida (IRB Lleida), l'Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IIB- Sant Pau), l'Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT) i el Vall d'Hebron Institut d'Oncologia (VHIO). The guide has also benefited from the linguistic advice of the Department of Health's Language Planning Service. The graphic design of these materials has been carried out by the social communication agency La Sembra.
Consult the guide and all the materials through these links:
Catalan version:
Catalan summary:
English version:
English summary:
