Organizing accesible events

If your event is online or hybrid, make sure to choose an accessible videoconferencing platform. There are several solutions available that offer different plans and prices and include several accessibility features, such as the following:

• Captioning support (autogenerated, manual or third-party captioning).
• Screen reader support.
• The possibility to allow users to set their cameras to block the view of specific participants such as the sign language interpreter.
• Downloadable transcriptions.

Make sure to keep these solutions up to date.

Some videoconferencing platforms and apps may have accessibility issues that must be taken in consideration, such as the following:

• Recordings do not keep the camera configuration settings, so other options must be used to keep the sign language interpreter always in view. For example, recording the screen with a capture device.
• Some platforms do not support multilanguage captioning.
• The autogenerated captioning may fail to pick up conversations correctly.
• Shared documents may not be read by screen readers.
• Some platforms use icons and terms that may not be easily understood by some people.

Provide instructions to your presenters on how to make their interventions more accessible. Below are examples of instructions that you could provide your presenters with:

• Do not to speak too fast or too slow. Someone in the audience may be reading the captioning or your lips to understand you better. If you speak too fast, the captioning software may not pick up the speech correctly. Speaking too slowly makes it harder for people who read lips to understand you.
• Keep your speech as short as possible. Long speeches can be exhausting for people reading captioning or lips. It can also affect their attention span.
• Describe images and read aloud any text you may show on the screen during your intervention. Avoid using abstract language such as “as you may see here”. Explain or summarize graphic and tables for people who cannot see the screen.
• Turn on your camera and make sure you are well lit. This helps people who rely on lip reading.
• Avoid using complex language or technical jargon. If it they’re relevant to your presentation, try to explain them in a simple manner. This will help people with cognitive disabilities or that are not familiar with those terms.
• Do not use only images in presentations. Adding a brief written summary of the topics discussed helps people with hearing disability follow your speech.
• Make presentations and other materials accessible and send them to the audience in advance. For example, the images and the text of your presentation must have sufficient colour contrast and the size of the text should be 22 pts or larger.
• Make sure your videos have captioning and audio description. If it is not possible for you to add them, describe the content of the video before playing it for people who may not be able to hear it or see it.
• Reduce or eliminate all background noise.
• Avoid using flashing elements in your presentation.
• Allow one person to speak at a time. Overlapping conversations affect the captioning and can be distracting and confusing for people with hearing or cognitive disabilities.

If your event is online, be aware that technical issues such as connection failures due to power or internet outages happen sometimes, and little can be done about it. However, there are other problems that can be prevented or at least minimised such as issues with the microphones, camera, lighting or ambient noise.

These situations can be controlled by organising a technical rehearsal at least half hour before the event begins. These rehearsals can also be useful to test some accessibility features and make sure they work as expected.

Muting the microphones and shutting off the camera of anyone that is not presenting reduce unwanted noises and general distractions.

Be prepared for unforseen situations such as having an attendee with an accessibility need you didn’t think of.

If you are planning on recording an online event and make it available for further viewing, you must guarantee it is accessible.

Make sure the sing language interpretation offered during the event is clearly shown on the video. If the captioning is not recorded, add it to the video. There are several tools, services and apps available that provide automatic captioning to videos such as YouTube.