Events Accessibility
- Ask guest speakers, presenters, or any event participants if they have any access requests or preferences around time and scheduling.
- Advertise events with a note about what accessibility provisions will be made and the person to contact with accessibility questions. Make sure that questions are answered and accessibility measures taken in response to such requests.
Book locations that have
- Nearby accessible public transportation and accessible parking
- Accessible entrances (easy to find, well signposted, not requiring “special” access)
- Microphones and sound systems
- Nearby clearly signposted accessible bathrooms with gender-neutral options (for the bathroom, ensure there is a wide power door, flat entrance, and a toilet in a bigger stall that is lowered and/or with a grab bar).
- Wheelchair access and multiple spaces for wheelchair seating
- Seating that includes wider chairs, space for people to stand and move around, and space for people to sit on the floor or lie down.
- Elevator access, if not on the same floor as the main entrance
- Consider proactively providing ASL interpretation and person-provided captioning (CART)
- Advertise events with a note about what accessibility provisions will be made and the person to contact with questions about accessibility.
- Advertise events in multiple venues and formats, making sure to provide text-based advertisements (and image descriptions) that can be read by screen-readers.
- If food is provided, provide clear signage labelling allergen ingredients and indicating if dishes are meat/vegetarian/vegan.
- Consider asking/requiring people to go scent-free at the event and providing scent-free soap in the bathrooms.
- For larger online events or those that will be recorded and posted online, provide ASL interpretation and a live-captioning service (CART).
- For auto-captions: ahead of time, have the host turn on Automated Captions and Full Transcript captions in their Zoom settings. When starting the meeting, the host should click CC/Show Captions.
- Encourage and model spoken descriptions and reading of PowerPoint slides or other shared visuals.