Integrating practices and processes that ensure equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA) is crucial when evaluating policy impact. Applying EDIA principles helps to ensure that evaluations are reflective of diverse perspectives, experiences and needs. Doing this not only enhances the quality and relevance of the evaluation findings but also promotes social justice and equality in research and policy-making.
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To integrate EDIA into your policy engagement evaluation, you can consider the following points:
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The Curb Cut effect. This concept refers to policies initially designed for vulnerable groups, like disabled individuals, which ultimately benefit a broader segment of society. The curb cut effect underscores that disability is a socially constructed category with evolving meanings. What might be the equivalent of curbs in your research or policy engagement work? Identifying and addressing these “curbs” is crucial across all aspects of our work as researchers, including within institutions, teams, and external engagements with relevant parties, to ensure inclusive and effective policy implementation.
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Designing to the edges. In 1952, the U.S. Air Force encountered a decline in pilot performance. They realised that designing cockpits based on average dimensions did not fit any pilot well enough for optimal access to instruments that require split-second precision. This forced manufacturers to accommodate a broader range of pilot sizes, showcasing the widespread advantages of inclusive design practices. What are the “adjustable seats” in your field that could make your work more inclusive and effective?
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Universal design. Using universal design principles to guide the design of your impact evaluation and policy engagement processes will ensure that you are designing experiences for the widest possible range of users. The broadest application of universal design is digital accessibility. Digital access is especially important due to the widespread use of digital technologies, and increasingly legal mandates regarding digital accessibility. The most important set of guidelines for the U.K. is the ISO 30071: 2019 Digital Accessibility Standard (which replaced British Standard BS 8878).
Positionality reflection activity​
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The relational concept of positionality has to do with how we are positioned relative to others within often intersecting social categories, specifically in terms of power dynamics (Sorrells, 2023). As a researcher, it is important to become aware of your positionality, because positional blind spots will impact the scope of your research and consequently groups who are positioned differently than you. Your positionality can affect your default policy engagement approaches and assumptions, as well as the way you approach evaluating and evidencing policy impact.
Take a moment to think about how you fit into the following social categories. The closer you are to the centre, the more likely that the category will be a blind spot unless you seek out alternative viewpoints and access information about that category from a different position.
As you reflect on your positionality as a researcher seeking to develop policy impact, consider how your assumptions and approach to evaluating and/or evidencing policy engagement may be affected.​
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Reproduced under CC-BY Attribution 4.0 International from Elsherif, M. M.,et al. (2022). Bridging Neurodiversity and Open Scholarship: How Shared Values Can Guide Best Practices for Research Integrity, Social Justice, and Principled Education.