Serah Rono and Emily Lescak
Cross-posted by The Carpentries: https://carpentries.org/blog/2021/02/prioritising-accessibility-virtual-events/
and the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement: https://www.cscce.org/2021/02/26/prioritizing-accessibility-in-organizing-online-events/
“At the heart of accessibility is the notion of designing a diversity of ways for people to participate in an experience so that everyone has a sense of belonging.” (Susan Goltsman, Play for All Guidelines and The Inclusive City).
Serah Rono, Director of Community Development and Engagement at The Carpentries, has led initiatives to craft a communications strategy, articulate community values, and normalize a culture of expressing gratitude in a volunteer-led community. She has designed pathways for community leadership by setting up a Community Facilitators Program and put together a resource to empower local community champions to organize and run local events. Below, we summarize her perspective on why event organizers should prioritize accessibility and how to lay the foundation for an accessible event.
Accessibility is to equity as a foundation is to a house. A well-rounded and intentional approach to making your community spaces and resources accessible levels the playing field for all in your community, and benefits everyone in the long-run.
December 3, 2020 was last year's International Day for People with Disabilities. Under the theme, ‘Not all Disabilities are Visible,’ the day's focus was on spreading awareness and understanding of disabilities that are not immediately apparent, such as mental illness, chronic pain or fatigue, sight or hearing impairments, diabetes, brain injuries, neurological disorders, learning differences and cognitive dysfunctions, among others.
This is an important reminder for us all as community conveners - assumptions and observational insight are not enough in helping us put together accessible events. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves on matters of accessibility continually. We can do this by:
To audit your processes and decisions and ensure you are centering accessibility in your event planning, a good question to keep in mind as as an event organiser would be: Can people with disabilities get the same information, perform the same interactions, and function as others with comparable ease?
Here are ways you can prioritise accessibility as you plan virtual events:
Ask speakers and participants if they have accessibility requirements. Include questions in registration forms and speaker confirmation emails that prompt event participants to detail what accessibility accommodations they need around live captioning, large print, advance copies of slides, sign language, etc.
Provide telephone-based connection options in addition to web connection links because not all web clients for online meeting tools are accessible.
Think about how participants with assistive needs and those dialling in from their phones will participate fully in your event:
Invest in interpreters, live captioners and live translators where possible. Interpreters in virtual settings might make it possible for multiple-language representation at your event. Plan for good visibility of the speakers and interpreters.
Inform speakers of the accessibility requests that have been made and the accommodations that you are making available as the event organiser.
Make your event website and the resources that you will share accessible:
Design accessible pathways for interaction and collaboration throughout your event. Think about:
Make transcripts available alongside audio and visual content after the event on your website.
You can download this checklist here.
We would love to hear from you: how has accessibility been prioritised in the virtual events you have attended? Tweet @codeforsociety and @serahrono to share!
Great resources that expound on various aspects of accessibility in virtual settings: