MEMORANDUM

Date: December 6th, 2022

To: Active Minds
From: Norli Servin
Subject: Active Minds Website Disability Inclusivity Suggestions

The purpose of this memo is to assist the Active Minds non-profit organization on their official
website to integrate inclusive language.

Summary
This report offers information about the non-profit organization Active Minds and their
involvement with schools around the nation. In the introduction of the report, I touch on my
personal connection with the organization and why I think there is some room for improvement.
My methods section details my approach to my research and why I decided to use my chosen
references. With the help of my conducted research, I have compiled my knowledge under the
findings subheading. Followed by my recommendations that will improve the contents of the
site. All of my research is found at the end of the report, under the references title.

Discussion of the problem

The Active Minds “Understanding Anxiety” tab of their website includes language that may be
harmful towards individuals who have mental health conditions and/or are disabled. In addition,
the site lacks depictions of disabled people on their site. As well as testimonies of people who
have mental health conditions and are directly involved in Active Minds.

Recommendations
I have recommended Active Minds to analyze and rewrite some of the content under their
“Understanding Anxiety” tab on their site. By editing some of the wording on the site, it will
minimize the ableist rhetoric presented. In addition, I have recommended for Active Minds to
incorporate the use of lived experiences on their site to allow users to gain knowledge about
anxiety through the perspective of someone with anxiety or other mental health conditions. Both
recommendations will enhance the contents of the site while strengthening their core mission of
mental health awareness through disability inclusivity.

Thank you for taking the time to read this memorandum and report over the Active Minds
website. If you have any other questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to reach me,
Norli Servin, at nts016@shsu.edu. I look forward to hearing from you very soon.

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Recommendation Report for “Understanding Anxiety” for Active Minds

Figure 1: Activeminds2021. (2021). Active Minds Logo 2021 [image/png]. Wikimedia Commons.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Active_Minds_Logo_2021.png

Prepared for: Active Minds

Prepared by: Norli Servin

December 06, 2022

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 Table of Contents

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………4

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….….5

Methods………………………………………………………………………...….6

Findings………………………………………………………………………...….7

Recommendations……………………………………………………………..…..9

Conclusion………………………………………………………………..……….11

References……………………………………………………………….……..…13

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 Abstract

Mental health has been a popular rising subject amongst college-aged students. Organizations

like Active Minds have established their mission to raise awareness on the topic for the last two

decades. Due to the increased conversation on the topic, they have grown immense popularity

through their online sites. Allowing various people to consume their content and develop their

own knowledge based on that information. However, the “Understanding Anxiety” tab of their

site exhibits language that disregard people with disabilities. Therefore, making changes like

revising and editing their wording and including people’s testimonies will enhance the site’s

disability access. It is significant to learn about ableist rhetoric through the use of language to

depart from ableism.

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Introduction

The purpose of this report is to inform readers of the conducted research regarding the

inaccessibility of the Active Minds organization website.

Active Minds is a non-profit advocacy organization that supports mental health awareness and

education. Its mission is to decrease the stigma surrounding the topic of mental health along with

finding ways to open the conversation on the topic. The organization was founded in 2003 and

has established over 600 chapters on campuses around the nation. Sam Houston State University

established its Active Minds chapter in 2015 and continues to recruit members each semester. I

joined Active Minds Fall semester of 2020 and have served as the Chapter President for over a

year. Due to my involvement with the organization, I had to analyze the site with an unbiased

perspective to examine its quality adequately. As a result, I found that the site’s “Understanding

Anxiety” tab displayed ableist commentary thus creating inaccessibility to disabled readers. The

Active Minds site produces harmful rhetoric as it insinuates that anxiety is curable. In addition,

the online space also disregards disabled people when highlighting tips that will aid one’s

anxiety. Subsequently, establishing inaccessibility through ableist language towards people with

invisible disabilities and visible disabilities.

In this report I will discuss the various methods I pursued when conducting research for this

report’s topic. In the same section, I will also elaborate on the site’s components as I review the

displayed issues. Afterward, I will share my findings on the problem along with supported

scholarly information. I will then present two recommendations based on my findings that will

aid the site’s problems, best supported by additional research that I have conducted. Lastly, I will

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conclude the report with additional final thoughts that contribute to the greater significance of the

matter.

In the following section, I discuss the research methods and recommendations I have developed

regarding ableist language found on the National Active Minds website.

Methods

As mentioned prior, this report will spotlight the “Understanding Anxiety” tab of the Active

Minds website. This section of the space makes an effort to highlight the topic of anxiety and

how one may differentiate it from stress. I decided to focus on this section of the site as this is a

matter that is widely recognized amongst most college students. Additionally, I also chose to

focus on this section since anxiety can oftentimes limit an individual’s daily activities, as a result,

classifying anxiety as an “invisible disability” or a “non-visible disability.” After thoroughly

analyzing the contents of the Active Minds website along with additional information that

contributed to the site, I assembled an outline to assist the manner in which I planned to assess

my research. I began my research by going to the engine orange database offered by the Sam

Houston State University library, and I looked up keywords such as “mental health” and

“ableism” which led me to a variety of articles regarding the mental health effects of ableism.

Another set of keywords I used in the databases was “ableism” and “non-visible disabilities.”

After I had a substantial amount of articles from the databases, I went on Google and searched

“mental health ableism” which led me to other credible articles and research conducted on the

matter. I chose to conduct most of my research on the databases since I knew that the majority of

the information on there would be credible and written by professionals in the field. However, I

thought it would also be a good idea to find resources on Google since the topic of mental health

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has grown in popularity in the last decade, causing a lot of new platforms and writers to write on

the topic with supported credible sources.

Findings

● Identified the consequences of microaggressions towards people who experience

non-visible disabilities.

Language is a critical factor to inform others of important information. Everyone has different

backgrounds, dialects, and cultures that impact the way they convey and receive a message.

Therefore, it is essential for Active Minds to deliver information that considers the various

influences that may cause your audience to differ from their preconceived ideologies. Being that

the vocabulary on the site reveals subtle aggressions towards a demographic that can cause a set

backwards from the Active Minds mission.

According to Barber, “microaggressions are brief, everyday slights, snubs or insults, which may

be subtle or ambiguous, but communicate a negative message to a target group based on their

membership of a marginalised group…” (Barber, 2019). Microaggressions differ from an act of

aggression due to the subtle commentary/actions that go along with it. Even though

microaggressions come in a variety of comments and actions that vary on a wide scale of

severity all microaggressions deliver the same kind of prejudice towards that directed group. The

“Understanding Anxiety” tab of the Active Minds website attempts to offer resources to people

struggling to differentiate stress and anxiety. However, some of the language on the retracts from

the messaging, as it may come off as ableist through the connotations on curability of anxiety, its

direct cause being from stress, and erasing the disabled community from your aimed audience.

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Figure 2 showcases the amount of times a word/statement contributed to a factor that may be

interpreted as ableist or contribute to ableist rhetoric. Given that the page is not extensive, the

amount of times that the site provides these misconceptions and lack of inclusivity is

inappropriate. “Why You Need to Stop Using These Words and Phrases,” (2020) states that

ableist language impacts the public in three ways, “it reveals our unconscious biases…makes us

internalized harmful biases about disability…(and) stigmatizes already marginalized people.”

Therefore, language and the interpretation behind it provides your audience an idea of how to

intake information and how they may feel after they consume the knowledge.

● Examined the effects of establishing lived experience in mental health research

associations.

Your home site offers resources on how to get in contact with speakers along with the statistics

on how your organization has made change happen. Towards the end of the “Understanding

Anxiety” site you also offer additional resources such as “when it’s more than a bad day,”

“spread awareness about stress & anxiety,” and “check in on someone using v-a-r.” Even though

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these are great resources to include for people learning about anxiety, I began to wonder how

other people’s shared experiences could fit into the contents of this site.

According to Hawke, “When lived experience is fully recognized within mental health research

spheres, an opportunity is afforded to pair POR approaches with the recognition of lived

expertise at all levels of research, including research leadership…” (Hawke, 2022). Health

advocacy sites, like Active Minds, would gain another level of credibility by integrating lived

experiences in the site's contents. For example, you can add testimonies of people involved in

Active Minds and how they experience mental health. Implementing an interpersonal perspective

of someone who is involved with the organization will help decrease the stigma around mental

health. According to NAMI, “Stigma can also result in misperceptions that those with disabilities

are not proactive about seeking care to make their conditions better,” (2019). If an individual is

browsing through your site and gathering information that can harm a specific group of people,

then they will leave the site with that newfound knowledge. Hawke also states, “[that it] could

reduce stigma by acknowledging the universality of lived experience and breaking down the ‘us

versus them’ dichotomy the epitomizes stigma…” (Hawke, 2022). The topic of inclusivity has

stigma that surrounds it as well. Therefore, your organization’s site would strive if you

incorporated statements from real people.

Recommendations

● Rewrite language displayed on the site to a more inclusive vocabulary.

Your site demonstrates a good foundation of inclusivity with its focus on mental health

awareness. However, if you edit or reword some of the language on your site, then it will

enhance your message while removing language that can come off as microaggressions towards

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the disabled community. Barber states, “Microinsults are more subtle and convey rudeness or

insensitivity…” (Barber, 2019). Even though your tone in the site is not deliberately rude,

suggestions like “had nourishing meals” or “moved my body” may be insensitive to people who

have eating disorders or a mobility disability. It is essential to encompass all people of different

disabilities when making suggestions on how to improve their mental health. In addition,

language that suggest productivity align with the Western culture ideology. Cherney expresses,

“...central ideas have spread so extensively throughout Western culture that it operates in

contexts well removed from disability, which helps explain why ableism is powerful and difficult

to confront,” (Cherney, 2019). Disregarding cultural customs may be difficult, but conveying an

ableist message towards a marginalized group continues that cycle of oppression. That is why it

is important to recognize who your audience is, and how they can be severely impacted through

the contents of your site. Therefore, it is better to “Acknowledge the disability around

you…[and] Don’t try to fix disability, instead fix the oppression,” (2020).

● Incorporate more inclusive visual representation along with testimonies of people who

struggle with mental health.

I think the site would benefit from the integration of people’s lived experiences. Allowing your

audience to see how others experience and live with anxiety. Hawke states, “Recognition that

lived experience exists among academic researchers may have the power to dismantle stigma by

demonstrating that lived experienced and academic success are not mutually exclusive,” (Hawke,

2022). Testimonies from other medical professionals along with popular advocates would suffice

as they have previous to ongoing knowledge on the subject. In addition, they will be able to

express their personal feelings tied to credible medical research on the topic. However this is not

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limited to people who experience anxiety along with other non-visible disabilities, but family

members of the person as well. Hawke expresses, “Family members can also be included in

definition of lived experiences, given the important role they can play…family member

contributions should not supersede the voice of people who have personally and directly

experienced mental health conditions,” (Hawke 2022). Alison Malmon is a perfect example of

someone who shares her brother’s lived experience. Your founder has created this foundation as

a way to commemorate her brother’s life and to raise awareness for others who may experience

the same. Therefore, adding stories like Alison’s will remind people of the importance of mental

health awareness and why it is important to recognize the difference between anxiety and stress.

Due to your organization’s compelling messaging, the non-profit has increased audience

numbers and their retention. As a result, the Active Minds website gains a lot of traction from

people who are interested to learn more about the organization, mission, and impact. In fact, your

organization’s integration with the internet opens additional opportunities for other people to

engage with your site. Moeller states, “The logic is that if such a large number of people support

this organization, everything that comes from that organization must be trustworthy,” (Moeller,

2015). For this reason, your organization would continue to help a range of people as they will

already find your site trustworthy while reinforcing your mission to change the way people

perceive mental health.

Conclusion

The objective of this recommendation report is to give suggestions based on research data that

will enhance disability accessibility to the national non-profit organization Active Minds’

website. In this report I have recommended the site to revise and edit their wording to encompass

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people with non-visible disabilities and visible disabilities. I have also recommended

incorporating the use of lived experiences to show users their experiences with mental health and

why Active Minds’ message is important to convey. By taking these steps, Active Minds will

enhance their messaging of advocacy with the premise of inclusivity.

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 References

Am I Stressed or Anxious? (n.d.). Active Minds.

https://www.activeminds.org/about-mental-health/stress-or-anxiety/

Barber, S., Gronholm, P. C., Ahuja, S., Rüsch, N., & Thornicroft, G. (2019). Microaggressions

towards people affected by mental health problems: a scoping review. Epidemiology and

Psychiatric Sciences, 29. https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796019000763‌

Cherney, J. L. (2019). Ableist rhetoric : how we know, value, and see disability. The

Pennsylvania State University Press.

Hawke, L. D., Sheikhan, N. Y., Jones, N., Slade, M., Soklaridis, S., Wells, S., & Castle, D.

(2022). Embedding lived experience into mental health academic research organizations:

Critical reflections. Health Expectations, 25(5), 2299–2305.

Moeller, M. (2015). Pushing boundaries of normalcy. Communication Design Quarterly, 2(4),

52–80. https://doi.org/10.1145/2721874.2721877

People with Disabilities | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2019). Nami.org.

https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Identity-and-Cultural-Dimensions/People-with-Disa

bilities

Why You Need to Stop Using These Words and Phrases. (2020, December 15). Harvard Business

Review. https://hbr.org/2020/12/why-you-need-to-stop-using-these-words-and-phrases

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