More than words: Making our events accessible

At the ALLIANCE we believe that accessibility is a gateway to human rights.

Our ALLIANCE Scottish Sensory Hub works to enable people who are Deaf, Deafblind or who have Visual Impairments to live well, participate equally in society, and access public services.

This includes thinking about accessibility and inclusion across our own work – and so for our upcoming Annual Conference, Our Voices Matter, we’re working hard behind the scenes to ensure that the event is as accessible as possible.

If you’re thinking about holding a conference soon, or an event, accessibility is a must. So we’ve put together some guidance for you, which may be helpful as you plan events.

Ahead of the ‘Our Voices Matter’ conference, we’re thinking about:

• Ensuring PowerPoint materials and notes get to the organisers 48 hours in advance. This enables sign language interpreters and Electronic Note Takers to prepare fully for individual sessions, and screen reader users to follow material during the session.
• Making sure that PowerPoint presentations aim for minimal text and animation. Ensuring all the information is read out and that any visual information such as diagrams or graphics is described. RNIB suggest font size 36-44 for titles and 24-28 for other text. Try to avoid text smaller than 22.
• Thinking about how to use audio descriptions for any non or low verbal videos or animations
• For handouts, making sure there are large print copies available, and a digital copy for anyone who uses a screen reader (in Word and .PDF format). If we are referring to specific page numbers, we need to know the relevant page numbers for the large and standard print versions (or refer to subheadings instead).

On the day, we’ll be ensuring that:

• We inform participants how the session will run and any ground rules such as confidentiality, breaks, planned discussion time.
• People are aware of assistive technology that is available, such as hearing loops and other technical or communication aids.
• We ask speakers to face the audience, to support anyone lipreading.
• We ask each speaker to introduce themselves when they start speaking. This is helpful for people with visual impairments and people who are either reading captions or are sign language users (and who may be watching a screen or interpreter rather than the speaker). This will include asking people in the audience to introduce themselves during participatory sessions or Q&A.
• Sessions include microphones wherever possible. We will ensure that people wait for a roving microphone during participatory sessions. If that is not possible, we’ll ask the chair to summarise any input given without a microphone.
• For planned activities, we’ll avoid anything that would exclude people from taking part, e.g. sole reliance on pen and paper. Instead, we’ll be offering flexibility for people to use laptops and assistive technology.
• For our evaluation forms, we’ll make sure these are in an accessible format.

What are your top recommendations for improving accessibility and inclusion? We’d love to hear from you with suggestions, at communications@alliance-scotland.org.uk, or phone 0141 404 0231.

If you would like any further information about the work of the Scottish Sensory Hub, please get in touch. You can email sensory@alliance-scotland.org.uk, or phone 0141 640 0874 and ask to speak to the team.

Register for our ‘Our Voices Matter’ conference here.

Find more information on our Scottish Sensory Hub.

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