Young Carers Action Day – Supporting Young Carers Through Inclusive Communication

Young Carers are children and young people who give care and support to a disabled person, often somebody from their family. But it is important to remember that carers can also be disabled people, and may need support themselves.

11 March 2026 is Young Carers Action Day. This year’s theme is Fair Futures for Young Carers, highlighting the importance of ensuring young carers have the same opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive as their peers.

Young carers all over Scotland work hard to balance their caring responsibilities with other parts of their life – like learning, leisure, and friendships. For disabled young carers this can be really complicated, as they need to understand their own support needs too.

Last year our Training team wanted to know more about how inclusive communication is important to young carers and the people that work with them. Inclusive communication means using:

• easy to understand language
• accessible formats
• options and choices for how to communicate
• inclusive language and attitudes

so that everyone can join in and take part. Many disabled people benefit from inclusive communication. And so do many non-disabled people!

We spoke to the team at Carers Trust Scotland who were organising a 2025 summer festival for young carers. There were lots of exciting activities at the festival. One part of this event aimed to find out more about young carers’ lives, by capturing their voices and experiences.

This was a difficult task for the Carers Trust team: they were working with young people aged between 9 and 18 years old, from lots of different backgrounds, with lots of different communication needs, styles and preferences.

Amy Marshall from Carers Trust Scotland told us how they developed an area called the Feedback Factory.

“We set up a range of interactive stations with different activities to encourage young carers to share their thoughts. These included a mix of table-based and wall-based exercises designed to be simple, engaging, and accessible.”

“Some tables featured Jenga-style games, while others used jars and tokens for young carers to respond to questions in a playful, visual way.”

“In one area we ran a support circle activity where participants placed stickers next to the people or services they trusted most for emotional support. There was also an open question inviting ideas on what could improve their mental health, using stickers and post-it notes to collect responses.”

“Additionally, worry monsters were available for young carers to leave anonymous messages about things affecting their mental wellbeing.”

“We also had young peer researchers speaking with young carers about their experiences throughout the day, and there were alternative methods of engagement through online surveys.”

We here at DES were so impressed by the variety of communication methods and experiences offered to young carers at the event. Many disabled people have communication needs or preferences, and the event organisers took these into account and created communication options that allowed many people to take part and have their voices heard.

The research at the Scottish Young Carers Festival 2025 found that:

• Over half of young carers struggle with stress or anxiety.
• Nearly half of young carers struggle with sleep.
• Many young carers feel professional services and schools still lack an understanding of their lived experience.
• 1 in 5 young carers don’t think their school knows they’re a young carer.

Carers Trust Scotland might not have found these things out without using inclusive communication. They used inclusive communication to create trust, confidence, and clarity for the young people who were sharing very personal lived experience.

Young carers can face many barriers, and it is great to see Carers Trust Scotland working hard to understand what young carers need, to help them thrive and succeed.

At DES we are passionate about inclusive communication, and we are always so happy to hear about examples of inclusive communication in action. If you want to learn more about making communication accessible, you can find more information about our Inclusive Communication Workshop training.

We also run free webinars Join us for a free webinar on Thursday 2 April 2026, from 12.30pm to 1.30pm, exploring the basics of accessible visual design. Book your free place for the Accessible Design Basics webinar.