“How does Student Health 101 ensure that the content is inclusive and sensitive to our school’s diverse audiences?”
Recently a health educator at one of our client universities asked us this question. The short answer is that our editorial approaches are based in best practices in health communication and public health, including cultural competence. Our content is developed with substantial input from our Professional Advisory Board, Student Advisory Board, client schools, the students we survey every month, and representative data from YRBS and other sources.
For the longer answer, read on. We welcome your questions and suggestions in the comments section.
SH101 content is based in a social justice perspective that honors diversity of race, ethnicity, age, religion, socioeconomics, sexuality, gender, body type, academic level, family circumstances, geography, and access to supports. Our editorial and design policies prioritize diversity in the students and experts we feature in our content. Our writers work from detailed assignment outlines that include guidelines on diversity.
Students have major roles in our content creation. Our Student Advisory Board is recruited with diversity as a priority. These students are involved in generating topic ideas, previewing and improving our draft content, and creating certain content elements (e.g., app reviews). We are continuing to recruit Student Advisory Board members this academic year. If you know of a student or students who are interested in joining, please contact your school’s relationship manager.
Choosing article topics that appeal to diverse audiences
We have the dual goals of creating inclusive content while also speaking to our specific student and client audiences. We routinely survey students for their opinions on the most effective and useful ways to address certain upcoming themes. In addition, we gather students’ feedback on our current and recent coverage.
Our common themes have broad appeal: fitness, nutrition, time management, stress management, etc. The challenge is content dedicated to certain student populations, e.g., students with disabilities, and students’ varying racial and ethnic experiences. We are exploring ways to more directly address specific student communities while keeping their peers engaged—for example, by applying a bystander-interventionist/how-to-be-an-ally approach.
Some examples:
- Our January 15, 2015 issue included an article on understanding depression. The piece featured a young man’s story about navigating depression and his ongoing recovery. The article is designed to reduce stigma around depression and mental health issues and provide resources for finding support.
- Our March 15, 2015 issue included a feature on the fluidity of gender and sexual identity. It aimed to help students understand the many terms that are used when describing gender and sexual identity (e.g., gender nonconforming, asexual), while also helping them understand and respect people’s varied identities.
- Our October 1, 2015 issue includes a feature on eating disorders among males. This piece aims to break the stereotype that eating disorders and body image issues only affect girls and women. Author and eating disorder expert Brian Cuban shares his struggle and recovery from an eating disorder. The piece also discusses how male eating disorder symptoms can be different, how the media plays a role in male body image, and where to get help.
- Our October 15, 2015 issue includes a feature on social inclusion. The goal of this piece is to increase diversity awareness and prevent bullying and social exclusion by encouraging students to be empathetic toward others. Experts explain the emotional, physical, and social benefits of kindness and inclusion and students share what they’ve learned from their experiences with social inclusion and exclusion.
Best practices to ensure inclusive language
This is a rapidly evolving issue and an ongoing discussion at SH101. We are very conscious of the need to avoid language that perpetuates stigma around race, ethnicity, body type, emotional health, and disability. Some examples:
- Sexuality and gender: We use featured students’ and experts’ preferred terms and pronouns. We try to avoid the male-female gender binary (last year we faced our grammatical demons and switched from “he or she” to the singular “they”).
- Disability: We acknowledge the tension around person-first vs. identity-first language (e.g., an autistic person vs. a person with autism). We avoid the flip use of formerly clinical language (e.g., “crazy”) and conflict-based metaphors (e.g., “the battle against depression”).
- Families: We acknowledge the diversity in many students’ family structures. When talking about families, we use the singular form of “parent” and sometimes “parent or guardian,” or we speak about family members more broadly to include the many people who may be involved in caring for our student readers.
Choosing photos
Visual diversity is among our highest design priorities. Our design and editorial teams work closely on this. Our images reflect diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and body type.
Questions, comments, concerns…? We want to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.