Accessibility Considerations When Planning Events
When planning any event, there are two main goals – to ensure the event meets everyone’s expectations in terms of being engaging and productive, and to ensure everyone leaves with a positive experience. It’s all too common for the first goal to take over at the expense of the event being inclusive. Nevertheless, event planners have a legal and moral duty to ensure their events are accessible for all, regardless of ability or need. This article explores how you can achieve this when facilitating your next event.
Getting the basics in place.
Ensuring that your event is accessible begins with ensuring that the people involved in planning and facilitation are well-equipped. Events and operations teams – as well as your event participants – should be trained on the importance of accessibility. Events companies should have diversity and inclusion embedded in their culture and values, and hire people who understand and appreciate the importance of this.
📝 Tip: When communicating about events, always share what can be offered in terms of accessibility. This allows attendees to gauge if the event is accessible for them or request accommodations, ahead of time.
Event venues must all conform to applicable legislation regarding accessibility, such as accessible bathrooms, ramps, signage, and services such as interpreters. Ideally, venues should always seek to go above and beyond in the provision of such services, as this can also be a source of competitive advantage. Dietary requirements should be sought from all attendees and passed to the event planner as soon as possible.
Preparing for accessible events.
The key rule when preparing for accessible meetings is never assume what people might need. As part of the event planning process, organizers must always seek to understand all specific attendee needs. This is best done with a survey, pre-event registration, online form, or by providing a way to contact the organizer or event planner.
Dietary restrictions on food must be clearly communicated. If individuals are known to have specific dietary needs, staff should communicate with them before the event to confirm their requirements.
When scheduling meetings, always allow extra time for accessibility needs. This can be as simple as allowing short breaks, or considering the time needed to travel to the bathroom or exits. Organizers should check seating allocations, if there is enough room between rows of chairs or tables for wheelchairs and other mobility equipment. Ultimately, it’s also good practice to allow for virtual attendance, as this might be easier for some people, or a preferable option if people are uncertain about travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizers must also consider technical requirements. As well as offering virtual attendance, any videos used in events should be subtitled and offer audio description. Images used in presentations must have alternative text or be described out loud. Offering virtual and anonymous feedback panels (such as Mentimeter or Kahoot!) to gauge people’s needs and wants is another very helpful tool.
Considerations for virtual meetings.
With virtual meetings becoming increasingly common, it’s important to consider accessibility in these settings too. Using a well-known platform (such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom) to host an event is recommended, as many of these have accessibility tools built in. Users are also more likely to be familiar with their services. A user guide should be sent out in advance, advising attendees on how to use these platforms. Event organizers can, and should, build subtitling into virtual presentations. Presenters can also use interpretive services or describe slides in detail, as they are being displayed.
. . .
Accessibility in events is critical to ensuring that all your attendees are included, made to feel welcome, and leave with a worthwhile experience. It doesn’t take much for meetings to be made accessible, but critical to this is having trained staff, never assuming what people need, and preparing venues and presentation materials to accommodate all accessibility needs.
Here’s a (not exhaustive) checklist of some considerations to keep in mind for your next event: