Explainer Video To Empower Refugee Communities
Helping people with disability from refugee backgrounds access the right support.
The Challenge for Deakin University
Refugees from Syrian and Iraqi backgrounds face a myriad of challenges as they resettle in Australia. For those living with disabilities and their families, these challenges are compounded by a lack of accessible information in their native Arabic language. Navigating disability services and overcoming cultural stigmas can feel insurmountable without clear guidance and support.
So how do you communicate important research and findings to the identified audience, in their own language, with illustrations that reflect their lived experience?
At a Glance
- Project: Deakin University – Refugees With Disability
- Client: Deakin University
- Delivered: 2023
- Duration: 6 months
- Category: Community, Community Engagement
Our Approach for Deakin University
When Deakin University reached out to Sketch Group, their request was as heartfelt as it was challenging:
“I’ve been working on a co-design project with refugees with disabilities and their carers. They want to make a video about disability, hope, and stigma for the Arabic-speaking community… We just saw your video for Women With Disabilities Victoria and were blown away.”
The team at Deakin, alongside co-researchers and community members, had undertaken extensive co-design work. They had engaged deeply with Syrian and Iraqi refugees with disabilities, their families, and service providers, gathering rich insights. However, they needed a way to distill their findings into a format that was accessible, relatable, and actionable for their target audience.
Together with Deakin University, we crafted a script that was authentic and based on their research and actual language captured from their conversations with those with lived experience. People with disabilities and their families who face stigma and shame and feel unsupported and hidden in Australian society. This approach ensured the content was relatable and resonated deeply with the audience.
Our visual approach complemented the script. Each illustration was thoughtfully designed to represent the community’s lived experiences, capturing nuances in culture, family dynamics, and day-to-day scenarios. This was tested with the researchers and those with lived experience before committing to the final storyboard.
Our Solution for Deakin University
We created a sketch video, voiced in Arabic that delivered a clear and empowering message: In Australia, people with disability have the same rights as people without disability. This includes rights to education, social relationships and employment. There are services to help those with a disability, and their carers.
We created an additional version with English captions, enabling service providers to better understand the community’s needs and experiences.
But the main focus is perhaps summed up in the final line of the video, spoken in Arabic from the point of view of a refugee mother of a child with disability. Her words encapsulate the video’s impact:
“I don’t feel as isolated. I feel like there is hope.”
The Outcome for Deakin University
The explainer video has become a cornerstone of Deakin University’s outreach efforts, shared widely among Arabic-speaking communities and service providers. Its ability to bridge the gap between complex research findings and real-world impact is a testament to the collaborative process behind its creation.
By using visual storytelling and lived experiences, the explainer video not only informs but also uplifts. It has sparked conversations about disability, hope, and stigma within the Syrian and Iraqi refugee communities in Australia. Moreover, service providers now have a valuable resource to better engage and support these communities.
