Creating Accessible Events
Disability and Access Services prepared the following guidelines for event planners to employ best practices that may enable you to plan for group and individual accessibility needs in advance.
Note: If a there is a known need for communication access services at your event, such as American Sign Language-English Interpreters or CART services, please go to the communication access services form to begin the process of securing services.
Request Communication Access Services
To begin, designate an individual to be responsible for all aspects of accessibility, including contacting requesters of accommodations to ask about their individual needs. This designee is also a key contact to report accessibility concerns or observations before, during and after the event. Planning early for wider access and checking in with DAS often, enables us to put access in place quickly and efficiently even before an individual makes a request.
The event designee should be on site or within the hybrid/remote event to monitor accommodations and services to trouble shoot issues that may come up. Sometimes last-minute adjustments in such areas as lighting, technology, seating, or signage need to be made. If the event is large or complex additional volunteers may be needed on site.
Please keep in mind that there are a variety of ways to provide accessibility accommodations. The type of need may differ among persons with the same condition, and it is often necessary to consult with the individual who needs access to determine how best to accommodate for a specific circumstance.
The designee should become familiar with a range of different accommodations which individual might request for your event. This includes but, is not limited to:
Note: If a there is a known need for communication access services at your event, such as American Sign Language -English Interpreters or CART services, please follow the link Request Communication Access Services to secure communication access services:
Speech to Text Services (STTS) ( Also see CART)
Assistive Listening Devices (ALD)
Accessible seating and companion seating (See Events and Facilities)
Accessible parking and transit services
Digitization or modified printing of visual aids as in enlarged text,
Audio description services and recordings
Allergy-free diverse meal/dietary choices
Fragrance and latex free spaces
This Event Accessibility Checklist, adapted from the our colleagues at the University of Connecticut Disability Services, is a valuable and quick tool to help you cover fundamental accessibility concerns for event planners.
Once the accessibility and accommodation needs have been identified, create a list of everything that will be needed to respond to those needs. Communication Access Services and other accessibility services come with expenses. Consult with DAS if necessary when you are creating your budget for accessibility services.
Presentation Accessibility
A key to creating a successful event is to keep this principle in mind: More preparation leads to less modification. The more that we prepare and have our content accessible in advance, then the less modifications of original content will have to be done within shortened windows of time. Calls for Presenters or Calls for Presentations should include riders or requisites for the presenters to make their content accessible and perceivable by your events participants and stakeholders with disabilities.
We suggest using the following language in your CfP:
Language:
[ insert call for presenters /gratitude/congratulations or acceptance to present text here] In advance of the sessions, we ask presenters to prepare as accessible a presentation as possible, including captions for video. When papers and presentations can be made available ahead of time, this is very helpful to our attendees with visual impairment, captioning providers and sign language interpreters. We thank you for your cooperation in these matters [insert links for tips on creating accessible presentations] Supporting Resources: Accessible Presentations
Online and Broadcast Platforms
All online and hyrbid features of a university event, whether it be promotional in nature, interactive, or used for broadcast purposes, should comply with the Minimum Web Accessibility Standards and Closed Captioning Priorities .
ASL interpreters & CART Providers Remotely
Since the inception of the Learning from Anywhere (LfA) model of instruction, it has become even more important to keep the following in mind when working with Deaf or hard of hearing participants and viewers and communication access providers in remote or hybrid settings.
- The providers will need the video conference link to your event. Please share that information with dhhods@bu.edu.
- State your name before commenting. It makes it easier for the participants and the service provider to follow the conversation, especially for participants who don’t use video or those that are not able to perceive the names and titles indicated in screen windows.
- Establish participation protocols, including rules for turn-taking. It makes it easier for the participants and the service providers to follow the conversation. For example, students must comment or use built-in “hand-raising” features in the chat box of the video conferencing software to ask or answer a question or to turn their video on.
- Build in pauses. This makes it easier to follow along. Deaf or hard of hearing participants often have to watch the interpreters or captions. All participants in virtual spaces need time to process visual information before responding to a discussion prompt.
- If you are assigning people to a breakout group in Zoom, make sure that the providers are in the room assigned to the right room to provide access.
- As a facilitator, keep an eye out for direct communications to you via the chat feature. A participant may need to make you aware of an accessibility concern.
- If you are going to show a slide deck, videos or images, please make sure you are prepared to show the content with captions and or image descriptions of the visual content. Keep in mind that auto-generated captions are not considered accessible.
For more tips, see Zoom’s guide on hosting accessible meetings.
Post-Event Responsibilities
Solicit feedback from planners, participants, and attendees or meet after the event to review what worked and what did not work.
Was the accessibility and accommodations process efficient?
Were the accommodations of a high quality, timely and effective?
Were all available and necessary resources utilized?
Was there any feedback from attendees regarding accessibility?
What needs to be improved?
Who is responsible for funding event access?