✅ Communicate for inclusion. Increase reach.
How to make your communications as accessible as possible.
Claire Munro’s latest book review for the Wadds Inc. blog is Accessible Communication: Create Impact, Avoid Missteps and Build Trust (Kogan Page, 2025) by Lisa Riemers and Matisse Hamel-Nelis.
Riemers is a London-based accessibility consultant with experience working across the public and private sectors. Hamel-Neils is a professor of public relations at the University of Durham, a communications and digital consultant, and a past chair of the diversity committee for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
The book makes the business case for accessibility and provides practical advice about how to deliver communications to the broadest possible audience.
Why it matters
Accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do - it’s smart business. The authors highlight evidence showing exclusion can cost economies dearly, while accessible comms expand your reach.
1 in 4 people in the UK has a disability, and 1 in 3 of us will need assistive tech in our lifetimes. Designing for inclusion is designing for life.
What’s inside
A clear explainer of what accessibility is, who faces barriers, and how to influence your organisation to act from a structural and cultural perspective.
Plain-English guidance (no jargon, no overwhelm) and practical steps you can use.
A substantial, tactical how-to on auditing, designing and producing accessible outputs across websites, documents, social, digital and print assets, video, audio, and even physical spaces.
The mantra of the book is “progress over perfection.” You don’t need to do everything at once; start where you can make an immediate impact.
Have a good week ahead.
Media
🚀 STARTUP SHIFT: Mike Butcher, former TechCrunch editor-at-large, has launched Pathfounders, a new tech startup title on Beehiiv, aiming to spotlight underreported innovation. In a market saturated with content marketing, Butcher says Pathfounders will prioritise editorial integrity and global investor insights. Source: Press Gazette
📉 AUDIT EXIT: National World, one of the UK’s largest regional publishers, has pulled all its 200-plus titles from the ABC. Malcolm Denmark, who acquired the company in May and is rebranding it as Iconic Media, argued that ABC data fails to capture the full picture of audience engagement across platforms. It’s a significant move that leaves a gap in future industry benchmarking. Source: Hold The Front Page.
👑 ROYAL REVELATIONS: Emily Maitlis has accused Prince Andrew of lying in their 2019 Newsnight interview, after a newly surfaced 2011 email revealed ongoing contact with Jeffrey Epstein - contradicting Andrew’s public claims. The fallout adds fresh scrutiny as new allegations emerge in Virginia Giuffre’s forthcoming book. Source: The Observer.
Social Media
🔥 REDDIT RISING: Reddit, once overlooked by communications practitioners, is increasingly important for brand visibility and AI training, with 100 million daily users and tools such Reddit Pro reshaping engagement. Practitioners must learn subreddit culture to authentically contribute and earn trust in this influential, fast-moving space. Source: Axios.
🎙️ STREAMING SYNERGY: Netflix and Spotify have struck a landmark deal to co-host video podcasts on screens in early 2026. This move deepens Netflix’s push into personality-led content and signals the rising power of video podcasting in the battle for viewer attention. Source: Netflix.
Management
🌿 GREEN GONE: The UK’s advertising watchdog has ruled that Red Tractor, the farm assurance scheme, misled the public in a TV ad by implying its standards ensured strong environmental practices. The two-year ASA investigation signals rising scrutiny of implied green claims, urging brands to look beyond compliance and engage transparently on environmental impact. Source: Slavina Dimitrova.
🧭 BOARDROOM SHIFT: Public relations firms are evolving into strategic advisers as IPOs and dealmaking dry up, offering everything from crisis communications to AI insights amid rising stakeholder pressure and geopolitical complexity. With boards seeking guidance more than ever, the industry is trading press lunches for boardroom strategy, reshaping itself in response to economic turbulence and the demand for multi-disciplinary counsel. Source: The Financial Times.
Artificial intelligence
👁️ VISIBLE CHANGE: AI’s historical failure to recognise disability is beginning to shift, as demonstrated by Paralympian Jess Smith finally seeing her likeness - a woman with one arm - accurately rendered by ChatGPT. The broader lesson is inclusion must be built in from the start, not patched on later, if AI is to reflect the real world, not reinforce its biases. Source: BBC.
🧠 MISPLACED BETS: Silicon Valley’s fixation on general-purpose generative AI is proving both misguided and costly, with little return on investment and growing safety concerns. An OpEd in the NY Times argues the industry should refocus on specialised, problem-specific AI systems such as driver tech. These tools are already delivering tangible results in science and industry. Source: The New York Times.
The Wadds Inc. blog made the Vuelio top 10 UK PR blog list for the tenth year and the seventh year in the number one slot. Thanks to all our readers for your ongoing support.
Blogging is one of the oldest forms of social media. I maintain that, alongside LinkedIn and Substack, it remains a brilliant way for students and practitioners alike to get ahead and build a network.
What‘s notable is that many of the blogs listed this year have appeared in the list over the last decade. Therein lies a lesson: turn up regularly, work out loud and share your thinking.
Thanks to Vuelio and congratulations to Famous Campaigns, Comms2Point0, Rachel Miller, Dan Slee, Ronke Lawal, Neville Hobson, Amanda Coleman, Jessica Pardoe and the UK Black Comms Network.
Thanks to Slavina Dimitrova, Ben Lowndes, Alan Morrison, Sarah Waddington, and everyone who shares and debates the stories in the newsletter via our Facebook and LinkedIn communities.
The Wadds Inc. newsletter is trusted by 4,500+ practitioners seeking clarity on issues such as artificial intelligence, diversity and societal polarisation, from a management and communication perspective. We distil news, research, and industry developments twice a week into actionable briefings to help you enhance your work.