Case Study: Posters with Perspective!

A practical example of inclusive research communication using Public and Patient Involvement (PPI).

Click here for a downloadable Infographic Summary of this Case Study!

Summary

This project brought together vision researchers and people living with sight loss to co-design scientific posters that are accessible, inclusive, and impactful. Through Public and Patient Involvement (PPI), the team improved how research is shared with wider audiences – especially those living with sight loss.

Why this project was needed

Scientific posters are often not designed with accessibility in mind, making it challenging for people living with sight loss to engage with research at conferences and often leaving them out of important scientific conversations. A team of vision researchers from the Farrar Lab, supervised by Prof Jane Farrar at Trinity College Dublin, wanted to change that by partnering with people with lived experience of sight loss to hear their perspectives on how best to present key scientific findings in an accessible way to a broad audience.

With support from Fighting Blindness, they teamed up with people living with sight loss to co-design accessible scientific posters for the Retina International World Congress 2024 (RIWC24). Their aim was to make research communication more inclusive through meaningful PPI.

What were the overall goals of the project?

• Make scientific posters accessible to people living with sight loss and the wider public
• Develop a meaningful partnership between researchers and PPI contributors
• Encourage inclusive research communication practices for vision research

The Co-Design process – What steps were involved?

Step 1– Ask for Support

The research team engaged with Fighting Blindness to discuss their poster development process and learn how best to implement PPI to make their posters more inclusive. 

Step 2 – Invite PPI Contributors

They drafted a plain-language invitation to members of the V.I.P. Network, explaining the project and inviting people with lived experience to get involved. The Fighting Blindness V.I.P Network brings together individuals affected by sight loss who are interested in getting involved in PPI and research activities.

Step 3 – Introductions

An informal introduction Zoom meeting sparked the beginning of this PPI partnership. The virtual format was chosen by the research team and the interested PPI contributors to support accessibility, ensuring that everyone could participate from the comfort of their own space. Zoom was chosen as the most accessible virtual meeting software for the PPI project.

After briefly getting to know each other over friendly conversations, the team gave a lay summary of their work, describing their research projects in plain, non-technical language. This allowed contributors to fully understand the context and purpose of the project and ask questions in an open, two-way discussion.

Contributors shared their lived experiences of sight loss and offered insights into what would help make a scientific poster more accessible, engaging, and meaningful to members of the public. This included increasing the contrast of the content on the posters and making text as large as possible. Additionally, a PPI contributor presented the idea of using NaviLens barcodes which many of those using assistive technology would be already familiar with.  These conversations laid the foundation for effective collaboration in the co-design process that followed.

Step 4 – Review and Feedback

After the initial discussions and idea sharing in the introduction session, the research team prepared draft scripts for their scientific posters. These scripts provided reader-friendly summaries describing their research and key scientific findings in clear, plain-language and avoiding jargon. The goal was to ensure that the information would be accessible to a broad audience, especially people living with sight loss.

The draft scripts were shared with PPI contributors in Word document format, which is compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. The research team and PPI contributors continued to collaborate via Zoom and email to provide feedback on the clarity of the poster lay summaries and develop a format and final script together to communicate the research in the most inclusive and accessible way.  

Step 5 – Co-Design!

Through continued exchanges, all involved worked closely together to refine the layout, language, and format of the posters, ensuring PPI contributors were active partners in shaping the final product.

Results – Posters with Perspective! 

The co-designed posters incorporated a dual-layered approach. The layout appeared like a standard scientific research poster; however, the innovative element came with the decision to incorporate NaviLens Accessible QR Codes.

NaviLens is a visual signage technology designed to make environments, information, and materials more accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. This involves the use of specialised QR codes, engineered to be easily detected from a distance and without the need for precise alignment – a key benefit for users who rely on screen readers or cannot see where to aim their phone camera.

This technology was co-selected by the group after discussions about what formats would offer independence and flexibility to users with sight loss. When scanned with a smartphone, the individual QR codes on each poster lead to a dedicated webpage containing:

• A plain-language text summary of the research poster
• An audio version of the summary, recorded and edited for clarity

What was the Impact?

The accessible posters produced from this project have helped transform a traditional scientific communication format into one that is more inclusive and engaging for the wider public. Poster sessions are a major feature of scientific conferences, yet people living with sight loss are often excluded from fully participating in and benefiting from them. Through this project, PPI partners with the lived experience not only had their voices heard but were also acknowledged as co-authors of the posters to recognise all their work that went into them.

By introducing a dual-layered design, combining standard visuals with accessible text and audio, the posters not only opened up access for individuals with sight loss, but also improved understanding and engagement for non-specialist attendees and the general public.

This pioneering approach has since gained traction, with the concept being shared and adapted by other scientific conferences. Overall, this impactful project has helped to spread awareness and action around the importance of accessibility and inclusion in research communication.

Hear what the team involved had to say about their experiences:

Des Keaney, PPI partner

“I found the whole process very encouraging and was impressed by the willingness of the scientists to listen and adapt. As my vision loss progresses, I am increasingly aware of the societal barriers and the attitudes behind them which exclude people with sight loss.”

Gillian Stafford, PPI partner

“I found it really interesting helping to make the posters accessible. I found that my voice was heard when I was bringing ideas up and they took what I was saying on board. I thought it was great that they were willing to listen and learn from us as patients with the lived experience.”

John Delany, PPI partner

“It is evident that the research team listened carefully to participants contributions and incorporated them to maximum effect in the final document. Their openness and willingness to work in this unique way is to be complimented and is a great example to their colleagues worldwide. It was a truly inclusive process.”

Anna Ridgeway, Vision researcher, Trinity College Dublin

“Input from the VIP Network members was amazing. It helped us to disseminate the key scientific findings from our studies in a way that was accessible for researchers and those with vision loss. I learnt so much from all involved and hope to find more ways to incorporate PPI into our ongoing projects.”

Dr Naomi Chadderton, Vision researcher, Trinity College Dublin

“Working with the VIP Network members was a really enjoyable experience and I learnt so much. The posters were so well received and I’d love to do this for every conference poster.”

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all involved for sharing their experiences from this project, including the research team of the Farrar Lab: Dr Laura Finnegan, Anna Ridgeway, Dr Naomi Chadderton, Ella Kopčić, and PPI contributor partners: Gillian Stafford, Des Keaney, Wiktoria Kaminska, and John Delany.