Essential Tips for Designing Accessible and Inclusive Events
With 27% of Canadians living with some form of disability, creating accessible and inclusive environments is more important than ever. Whether you're hosting a community gathering or a corporate meeting, planning your event with accessibility in mind ensures that everyone can participate fully, removing barriers that might otherwise prevent people with disabilities from attending or engaging in event activities.
While the following tips and best practices are not exhaustive, they serve as a helpful guide to hosting events that are accessible and inclusive for people with a wide variety of disabilities.
Planning Your Event
Accessibility should be an integral part of your event planning process. Consider the entire journey of your attendees — from arrival, to seating and participation. Disabilities can be visible or invisible, so different attendees may require different accommodations. Proper planning is key to help ensure that your event will be accessible and inclusive. Here are some tips to consider during the planning process.
- All event related communications, including websites and online forms, should be accessible. Also, make sure your registration tools are compatible with assistive technologies.
- If possible, provide invitees with a map of the facility that includes accessible routes. This map can be included in your invite, displayed at the venue or printed in both regular print and accessible format for attendees.
- When sending invitations, offer invitees the opportunity to specify any accommodations they may need, and ensure these needs are met prior to the event.
- Equip your staff and volunteers with basic etiquette for interacting with people with disabilities, and how to assist attendees who have various accessibility needs, including those with service animals.
- Whenever possible, share electronic meeting agendas, slides, and other presentation materials in advance. Always make sure the materials meet the most up to date accessibility standard.
Choosing an Accessible Venue
Event attendees should be able to arrive, enter, and navigate the venue without difficulty. Selecting a venue that is accessible to everyone is therefore a critical step in hosting an accessible and inclusive event.
- Choose a location that is on the ground floor or has ramps, elevators, accessible parking, wide doorways and aisles and a clear, wide path of travel.
- Arrange a drop off zone with the venue. This should not be far from the main entrance.
- Make sure the venue has a dog Relief Area for service animals.
- Ensure the venue has universal washrooms close to the event room that are clearly marked.
- Make sure emergency exit procedures and strategies for people with disabilities are in place, including visual fire alarms and other visual and audible notifications.
Ensure wayfinding signage is accessible to those who are blind or partially sighted (for example, braille or raised letters with good colour contrast).
Room Set Up
How you set up the room plays a crucial role in creating a welcoming and inclusive environment.
- Offer diverse seating options, including seats with armrests and back support, and ensure wheelchair users are not relegated to the back of the room.
- The height of tables used have to be appropriate for people using mobility devices, and ensure there is ample space to maneuver between tables.
- Provide extra electrical outlets to accommodate attendees using assistive technologies.
- Ensure speaker chairs are the same height, regardless of whether they use a wheelchair or not.
- Avoid stage that might be inaccessible. Instead, have a stage with an access ramp on each side and accommodate the space requirements for a lower slope.
- Request lapel microphones instead of handheld ones.
- Provide hearing loops throughout the meeting area so that people who are hard of hearing or use hearing devices can participate more effectively. In addition, make sure the stage is included in the hearing loop range.
- Consider contrast in the room. For example, a dark floor, light tablecloths, contrast tape on doors etc.
- Reserve a quiet area for those who might feel overwhelmed by noise or crowds.
Accessible Communications
Incorporate these best practices to ensure your event is not just physically accessible but also inclusive for all.
- Include live captioning to accommodate attendees who are Deaf or hard of hearing. In noisy environments, captioning will help all participants follow along.
- Have American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and position them where they are clearly visible, near the speakers or presentation screen. Seat ASL users near the front.
- Inform speakers that interpreters will switch every 15-20 minutes, and ask them to pause briefly during these transitions.
- Ensure good visibility of the speakers and interpreters with appropriate lighting on their upper bodies.
- Encourage all participants to introduce themselves before speaking. E.G in a few second state your name, role or organization. This will help everyone, especially those who are blind or partially sighted to know who is speaking.
- Ensure participants position themselves close to the microphone to be heard clearly.
- Ask speakers to read the content aloud and describe visuals on slides for participants who are blind and partially sighted.
- Provide materials in alternative formats such as braille or large print, and include alt-text for images, dyslexia-friendly fonts, sufficient colour contrast and other accessible design elements.
Hosting accessible and inclusive events is all about creating richer and more engaging experiences for everyone. By following these tips, you can ensure that your events are welcoming and accessible to all participants, regardless of their ability.
