Identify activity characteristics

What to consider when planning an activity or project

When planning any activity or project, several different aspects need to be considered to fully include any potential participants with disability. These include your intended:

• overarching goal
• depth of public participation
• level of participant contribution
• level of staff involvement
• audience
• structure.

Table 1 is a summary of how these aspects may be categorised for a range of activities; however, it is not designed to be prescriptive nor exhaustive. More details on these categorisations can be found below.

Overarching goal

When you work with people with disability, you will aim for your engagement activity to meet one or a combination of these goals:

• Informative: to give people information about something.
• Discovery: to get information or find something out.
• Testing: to identify participants’ reactions to something.

Depth of public participation

The IAP2 Spectrum is designed to identify the depth of participation by the public in any public participation process. These guidelines use the IAP2 Spectrum to define how deeply the decision-making for your project or activity will be guided by public participation.

The IAP2 Spectrum places activities on a five-level spectrum as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Levels of the IAP2 Spectrum

Level of participant contribution

Consider how participants will contribute to your activity or project and to what level. This could involve multiple different ways.

No contribution

Your activity does not ask for participant contributions. An example of this could be a poster or a social media post as outlined in the inform section of the IAP2 Spectrum.

Individual contribution

The aim of the activity is to learn about individuals’ perspectives, experiences, or knowledge. You are not asking participants to generate ideas together as a group, nor watching how participants work together. Many activities that fall within IAP2 Consult and Involve may need individual contribution. Examples of this could include a survey, an interview, or membership of an advisory group.

Collaborative contribution

The aim of this activity is for participants to generate ideas together or otherwise work as a group. Some activities in IAP2 Collaborate and Empower may have collaborative contribution. Examples of this could include a focus group, a co-design workshop, or including people with disability on your project team.

Level of staff involvement

While all projects or activities will require facilitation, not all will need a staff member to be present at the activity.

Activities or projects can be classed as either:

• Facilitated: a staff member is present. Examples include a presentation, an interview or a town hall meeting.
• Unfacilitated: no staff member is needed. Examples include a survey, a newsletter or a co-design of the project.

Audience

It is preferable to know who the potential or confirmed participants are for your activity. There are times where your activity will be with a specific group of people – an identified audience. At other times your activity is available to a broader, more general, unidentified audience. You may not know if people with disability are participating.

Identified audience

When working with an identified audience of a select group or number of people, you have some control or understanding of who will participate. You may do one or more of the following:

• Invite certain people to participate in the activity.
• Recruit specific participants.
• Contact participants before the activity to ask about their accessibility needs.

Examples of activities with an identified audience include:

• a ticketed activity
• a focus group
• an interview.

Unidentified audience

In an activity with no official invitees, anyone could potentially participate. You will not have an opportunity to contact participants before the activity to ask about their accessibility needs.

Examples of activities with an unidentified audience include:

• publishing a poster
• holding an information stall
• deliberative democracy
• an open access activity.

Structure

How a project or activity is structured is also important. While this can be flexible, and is often on a spectrum rather than being definitive, there are two main categories:

• Fixed: these activities are rigid in their design, and the plan and agenda are usually confirmed before the activity starts. Examples include a presentation, a conference, a deliberative democracy, or a workshop.
• Flexible: these activities may follow a loose plan, but their agendas are flexible and can change during the activity. Examples include an interview, a co-design workshop, or when co-creating a project.

Table 1. Examples of how an activity could be characterised

Relevant pages

Context: Define the level of participation

IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum

IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum © International Association for Public Participation