Listening First: Why Inclusion Begins with Hearing What We’ve Missed
By Anmol Harjani
Every March, Listening Awareness Month invites us to slow down and reflect on something we often assume we’re already good at: listening. In communications, we spend hours refining the perfect message, debating tone, and optimizing reach. But how often do we pause long enough to truly hear the people on the other side of that message?
For this year’s feature, we wanted to explore listening not as a soft skill, but as strategy, not a checkbox, but a responsibility. Not a reactive exercise, but the foundation of inclusive, accessible communications. We connected with Matisse Hamel-Nelis, ADS, CPACC, an award-winning communications and digital accessibility consultant, professor at Durham College, and founder of PR & Lattes, whose career has been built around a simple but powerful idea: the people we communicate with are the experts on their own lived experiences.
In our conversation, she challenges the industry to rethink what listening really means. It’s not collecting feedback only to defend decisions. It’s not consulting one voice and calling it representative. And it’s certainly not treating accessibility as a separate, compliance-driven function. As Matisse puts it, accessibility is listening. When it’s approached as an afterthought, we’re not just missing best practices, we’re missing people.
We spoke with Matisse about what active listening looks like in professional communications, where organizations fall short, and how small, everyday practices can shift teams from performative consultation to meaningful inclusion. From closing feedback loops to being honest about barriers, her insights offer a practical and necessary reminder: you can’t communicate effectively if you’re not prepared to change based on what you hear. Here is what she had to share.
We often talk about messaging in communications, but not enough about listening. How do you define “active listening” in a professional communications context?
Active listening in communications means actually hearing what people are telling you, not just waiting for your turn to talk. It’s about being curious, asking follow-up questions, and being willing to change your approach based on what you learn.
For me, it means pausing before I respond. It means checking my assumptions at the door. And most importantly, it means being comfortable with the fact that I don’t have all the answers. The people we’re communicating with are the experts on their own experiences. Our job is to listen and learn from them.
From your work in accessibility and digital inclusion, where do organisations most often fail to truly listen to their audiences?
Organizations often make the mistake of asking for feedback but then explaining why they can’t implement it. I see this constantly with accessibility. Someone will say, “I can’t access this,” and instead of listening, the organization jumps straight to justifying their current approach or defending their decisions. That’s not listening; that’s deflecting.
Another big one? Only listening to certain voices. Organizations will consult with one person with disability and assume they’ve “checked the box.” But disability is diverse. One person’s experience doesn’t represent everyone’s. A blind screen reader user has different needs than someone who’s D/deaf. Somone with a mobility disability has different needs than someone who’s neurodivergent. True listening means actively seeking out different perspective, especially from people who’ve been historically excluded.
I also see organizations treating accessibility feedback as a nice-to-have instead of a need-to-have. They’ll listen politely, nod along, and then prioritize everything else first. Or they’ll only listen when there’s a complaint or legal pressure, which means they’re being reactive instead of proactive.
And here’s a subtle one that drives me up the wall – organizations that listen selectively. They’ll hear the feedback that easy or cheap to implement and ignore the stuff that requires real change. That’s not listening. That’s cherry-picking.
Real listening means being willing to hear hard truths. It means sitting with discomfort when you learn you’ve been excluding people. It means understanding that “we didn’t mean to” doesn’t erase the impact. And it means being brave enough to actually change based on what you hear, even when it’s inconvenient.
How does accessibility connect directly to listening, rather than being treated as a separate or compliance-driven function?
Accessibility IS listening. When we treat it as a checklist or a compliance thing, we’re not actually hearing what people need. We’re just checking boxes.
Real accessibility happens when you listen to how people actually use your content, your platforms, and your services. It’s when you hear someone say, “I struggle with this” and your first thought isn’t “but we followed the guidelines,” it’s “tell me more so I can understand.”
Accessibility built through listening feels different. It’s thoughtful. It anticipates needs because you’ve actually talked to people about their experiences. Compliance might get you to a baseline, but listening gets you to be truly inclusive.
Can you share an example where better listening led to a more effective or inclusive communication outcome?
I worked with an organization that was creating a virtual event. They asked me to review it for accessibility. Instead of just running an audit, I suggested they talk to members of the disability community about what would really make the event work for them.
What they learned surprised them. Yes, they need captions and screen reader compatibility. But people also told them about Zoom fatigue, about needed real breaks (not just five-minute transitions), and about wanting materials in advance so they could prepare.
By listening, they didn’t just make the event accessible, they made it better for everyone. People were more engaged, less exhausted, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. That’s what happens when you listen instead of assuming.
What are some small but meaningful practices communications teams can adopt to become better listeners day-to-day?
Start with your comments and direct messages. Actually read them versus just responding. You want to take a moment to understand patterns in what people are asking for or may be struggling with.
Create feedback loops that are easy use. Don’t make people jump through hoops to tell you something isn’t working.
Diversify who’s in the room when you’re planning. If your communications team all has similar backgrounds and experiences, you’re going to have glaring gaps in understanding and experiences.
But the biggest one, in my opinion anyway, is when someone gives you feedback, say thank you! Don’t get defensive. Don’t explain, just genuinely thank them for taking the time to help you improve.
As communicators, how do we ensure we’re not just collecting feedback, but actually acting on what we hear?
This is such a good question, because it’s the hard part. We’re really good at surveys and focus groups. We’re not as great with proper follow-through.
I think we need systems for accountability. When you collect feedback, document it. Share it with your team. And most importantly, decide what you’re going to do about it and communicate that back to the people who gave you feedback.
Even if you can’t implement everything, tell people what you heard and what you’re working on. That closes the loop. It shows people their voices mattered.
And be honest when you can’t do something. Explain the real barriers, not just “that’s how we’ve always done it.” People respect honesty way more than excuses.
If you could change one mindset in the industry around listening and accessibility, what would it be and why?
I’d love to shift us away from seeing accessibility as this separate, specialized thing that only “accessibility people” need to worry about it.
Accessibility is just good communication. Period. When we listen to people with disabilities, or any other historically underrepresented group, we learn how to communicate more clearly and effectively with everyone. We learn to write in plain language. We learn to structure information logically. We learn to think about different ways people might consume our content. These aren’t “special accommodations.” They’re fundamental communication skills.
I want people to understand that accessibility isn’t about doing extra work for a “small group.” It’s about being better communicators. It’s about actually reaching people. And that’s small group, isn’t actually that small. Statistics Canada found that 27% of Canadians identify as living with a disability. That’s before we even talk about aging populations, temporary disabilities, or situational limitations like trying to watch a video in a noisy coffee shop or reading a website on a sunny day.
When we treat accessibility as an afterthought or a favour we’re doing, we’re essentially saying some people don’t deserve to be part of the conversation. That’s not just bad ethics, it’s bad strategy. You’re literally choosing to exclude to exclude potential customers, clients, employees, and community members.
I also want to challenge this idea that accessibility is expensive or complicated. You know what’s expensive? Retrofitting. Fixing things after they’re built. Dealing with complaints and legal issues. What’s way more cost-effective is building accessibility in from the start, which only happens when you’re listening from the beginning.
When we start from a place of genuine listening and inclusion, accessibility stops feeling like a burden and starts feeling like what it actually is – the foundation of effective communication. It becomes an opportunity to innovate, to reach new audiences, and to build trust. It becomes a competitive advantage.
The mindset shift I want to see if moving from “how do we accommodate these people?” to “How do we make sure everyone can participate?” That’s a fundamentally different question, and it leads to fundamentally better outcomes.
Anmol Harjani is a Client Servicing Manager working with a remote company and a recent graduate of York University’s Public Relations and Communications program. She is especially interested in strategic communications, social media behaviour, and how PR practitioners adapt within a rapidly evolving digital landscape. She currently serves as the Communications Co-Chair on the CPRS Toronto Board.