In the 2012 film The Avengers, Steve Rogers, a.k.a Captain America (played by Chris Evans), has just woken up in the 21st century after being frozen in the Arctic since World War II. Steve has missed a lot over the years in this comic book movie version of the world, most of which he seems to take in stride, including technology that allows aircraft to become invisible, alien invasions, and more. More difficult are the pop culture references, which fly fast and furious between some of his new superhero colleagues. His lack of understanding is often played for comedic value.

At one point, Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson), tells his team, “I’d like to know how Loki used [the Tesseract] to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

Fury is making a reference to The Wizard of Oz, a popular movie that was first released in 1939. Having been alive and living in the United States at the time of the movie’s original run, Captain America is able to proudly announce, “I understand that reference!”

When we create or share information, we often do so with certain assumptions about our audience in mind, perhaps not even realizing that we are making these assumptions. Sometimes, unless we are very conscientious, it’s only when our assumptions are challenged that we become aware of the need to adjust our message to better accommodate those who might receive it.

What do these assumptions and adjustments look like? Let’s take the quest that you’re reading right now as an example. The author of this quest may be picturing the main audience as students of typical college age living in the United States and has adjusted the writing for that audience through tone, word choice, and cultural references. However, given the open availability of the site and the way it may be promoted to increase usage, it is just as possible that the reader is not a student at all, not typical college age, or not in the United States. So while the information here is aimed primarily at a college-age American audience, some adjustments may need to be made to be more inclusive of other audience members.

Differences aren’t limited to age group and cultural origin. If you are a person who is differently-abled, you may also approach the material you encounter here differently. If a video of the scene detailed above were to be included (it’s not due to copyright restrictions), the best choice would be a version that includes subtitles for learners who might need them to understand the dialogue. The design of the quest itself is reviewed for its accessibility to audience members who may need assistive technology to use it.

As a creator of information, remembering to step outside your own experience enough to make adjustments for your potential audience can be difficult. Some authors don’t bother because the process is so time consuming that it doesn’t seem worth it. However, making these adjustments can make your work more inclusive and open it to a much wider audience, helping your message reach even farther than it might have otherwise.

As for Captain America, after the events of The Avengers, the next time the audience sees him is in his own movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which it is shown that he now keeps a list of pop culture references and historical events that he needs to catch up on in order to better understand those around him who may not take the time to accommodate the holes in his knowledge. Among the items on his list? I Love Lucy, Star Wars, and Nirvana.

Find an article or website online which you feel is not inclusive of you as an audience member in one way or another. Find a place in the article or on the site where the author, whether through design or content, missed out on an opportunity to include you and describe the changes that you would make to make the information more inclusive. Include a link to the site or citation information for the article in your submission.