What make conferences accessible for you?

Zara Todd
Zara Todd Member (Full) Posts: 9
in Workplace and Employment

I've recently come back from the Global Disability Summit. Which brought together 4000 people from across the world to discuss everything disability. They did a lot of things at the summit to try and make it more accessible, including easy audio, a quiet room and additional accessible toilets, but I often found the ambient noise in the space overwhelming. The whole point of the conference is to take part, so I didn't want to sit quietly in the quiet spaces, but it felt quite inaccessible being in the conference.

Another organisation, the Zero Project, recently published a guide to accessible conferences that I think is pretty good.

I'm wondering what makes conferences accessible and inclusive for other people?

Comments

  • Sarah Tuberty
    Sarah Tuberty Posts: 38

    This conference sounds very cool!! And I can agree- there is a lot of competing needs for access at conferences. I also agree that quiet rooms are less helpful for connection. I was recently at the AOTA conference- for occupational therapists. I found the expo center to be difficulty to navigate, it was full of people, and was very noisy. I am a person with a limb difference, and navigating small spaces while trying to carry all of my items is tough. We also did not have enough table and chair space to support connection and facilitate eating. I find it hard to manage my bags, and my food and my drink while standing in a corner area- and needed to find a spot on the floor to organize myself. I love love conferences, but find the carrying of things and eating at conferences a little more on the challenging side.

    I wonder if there are spaces outside of major conference rooms with tables, flexible seating arrangement that have reduced noise but still can facilitate connection?

  • Geoff Cook
    Geoff Cook Member (Full) Posts: 91

    As a power wheelchair user, that's how I operate. I typically find a corner and stay there, resting in my chair, while my personality draws people toward me because navigating toward someone I might want to speak to is problematic. I agree with Sarah that carrying things is difficult. Also, if you need to stay overnight at a conference, do they have a block of accessible rooms set aside? As always, how accessible the actual hotel rooms are is a different set of questions entirely. I love the idea of having flexible areas for facility connections.

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