I had feedback today on a course, that I thought was quite well done, that made me take a step back and get my back up a little as well. During a recent time crunch and with limited resources I put together a course for Accessibility and Customer Service Standards. I found a set of clipart that I thought looked business like enough without being too formal. I work in a health care setting and it is difficult to find (free-cheap) clipart that isn’t just doctors and nurses.
Regardless of that, I took this set of clipart and tried to include as many of the images of people facing forward as I could (they were “speaking” to the learners), as many different ethnice backgrounds as I could. I looked for different levels of mobility, and I also included what I thought were different roles. Some of the more interactive pieces included real pictures of people in other roles and situations as well.
Was it one person who commented? There didn’t seem to be a concern about it being the only man, just a doctor. I think no matter what you do, you won’t appease everybody! But you can take the suggestion and incorporate it into the next slide set, etc. And who’s to say the others weren’t doctors, just because they didn’t have on a lab coat and stethoscope? Or he could have been a nurse or tech for all we know!
Basically it seems to me that people will read into images what they want to, regardless of your intention. So just keep doing what you’re doing and chilax 😀
James
Had a similar situation a few months ago with a “game” I created where the learner had to answer questions from a news reporter. I had no budget for clip art/photos so I had to use the free ones we’d already purchased which featured a blonde woman in a lacy blouse & suit. Turns out if you looked closely, you could see a hint of cleavage under the lace. A few people freaked out and I told them to deal with it – cleavage happens. When it turned into a consensus, I ended up using my limited GIMP skills to conceal the cleavage.
I’ve also worked with a client in the medical industry with a diversity hang-up. I had a situation come up where the only image available featured a caucasian nurse and the client kept complaining about the female nurse cliche and the lack of diversity in the training (never mind all of the other modules…). I ended up giving them the option of providing me with suitable images, or hiring a photographer to do a custom shoot. Knowing the significant price tag associated with those options, suddenly, the stock images I provided weren’t so bad!
My advice in these situations is to tune out a few complainers, but take heed of the many and never fear giving stakeholders options to blow the budget – that’s their choice.
Good luck!
P.S. Try FLICKR creative commons licensing to see if they have anything you can use – although those will mostly be photos.
The answer? Any person reading a content reads from their own context and there could vary greatly. Do what you do well given the constraints.
Idea to consider:
If you can and when you can, pick images with characters that strongly states a message. The reader looks at the message more than the character. Stale and static characters without expressions or actions may mistake the to read the person and not the message.
For example, a man chopping off someone’s head (yikes), the reader looks at the action and behavior more than the color of his skin.
Have fun!
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I had a situation come up where the only image available featured a caucasian nurse and the client kept complaining about the female nurse cliche and the lack of diversity in the training
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I created where the learner had to answer questions from a news reporter. I had no budget for clip art/photos so I had to use the free ones we’d already purchased which featured a blonde woman in a lacy blouse & suit Como enamorar a una amiga
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n a lacy blouse & suit. Turns out if you looked closely, you could see a hint of cleavage under the lace. A few people freaked out and I told them to deal with it – cleavage happens. When it turned into a consensus,
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