This events section is relevant to anyone who is organising events, whether that’s a one-off event, a membership event, an event to help people find out more about your business, or training events.
If you are offering training events, you may also want to look at the training section because I don’t want to duplicate information from other sections.
So this is about events – either those that take place online or face to face ones. I want to cover them in the same section because a lot of the advice is relevant for both, and advice that is just relevant to face-to-face events will be marked as such.
Whatever the event is for, you usually want some kind of participation from people who are attending. They’re going to have to do something, learn something, read something, or engage with others in a conversation. The way that you can make sure it’s a really accessible event is to
- Try and put things in place that make it an accessible event
- Talk to your participants.
What do people actually need?
If the participants have access needs, they’re going to know about them much better than you do, because you’re not them! You don’t know what they need, or how they work, or what additional difficulties they may have. We don’t all just tick one box in life. We are a combination of the many things that affect us.
I think sometimes it’s good to remember that. I may be someone with a visual impairment, but I also have other sensory needs, and other people may not. Often people are affected by more than one thing.
So – you can put things in place that will be helpful generally, especially if that doesn’t cost any more. Trying to make it more accessible for everyone is a nice thing to do
Then speak to individuals who have said that they have an access need and find out what would work for them.
Getting the balance right
There is a balance there between what they might want and what you can provide. You’re not obliged to provide everything that somebody asks for, especially if you think it’s unreasonable. But usually people aren’t there to make unreasonable demands. They just want to explain what kind of things would be difficult for them, where they may need some additional support, or things that you may be able to ask or find out from the venue that will make life easier.
Structure is good
If you have an event where you know what’s going to happen throughout the day, communicating this can help everyone. It helps people to identify where there may be additional access needs.
For some of us, it’s good to have structure. We like to know what’s going on. I wouldn’t say that’s specifically a visual impairment thing, but I certainly like to have a plan and to know what is going to happen. But it does also help people to see where they may need some additional support, something to be provided in a different way, or to do things in a different way. That’s easier to anticipate if you know what’s coming.
The fun stuff
Sometimes it’s not so much the learning elements or the more involved elements that are more difficult. For me, it’s often the things that are supposed to be fun! So don’t skip them and think “we’re just doing the icebreaker and then this is the main session”. It could be the icebreaker that is the most difficult for somebody with a visual impairment if it involves running round the room, finding something, going to talk to someone else, or things that involve movement, speed, or both!
They can be the least fun and the most challenging! So don’t skip over small parts of the day when planning because you think it will only take 5 minutes on the agenda. That might be the thing that’s least accessible.
Transitions can be hard too
If you have an event that lasts all day, or there are different parts to the event that involve going to different places or moving between activities, those things could be more of a challenge than the activity itself.
So don’t forget about the transitions because you don’t want people to get left behind, to have a lot of equipment that they need to move somewhere, or to miss the beginning of the next part of what you’re doing because of something related to getting there or understanding what’s going on. The transitions themselves can be a challenge so think about them too. How do we move from this activity to this activity? Is there enough time or are we going to be rushing around?
If you are rushing around, it’s possible that other delegates won’t find it much fun either. It can be tempting to try and fit as much as you can into the day, but leaving enough time for transitions does help when there are people who maybe need a bit longer to transition or who have some practical reason why it would take them a bit longer.
Sometimes when something is finished, there might be cakes or biscuits and coffee brought in, and everybody makes a mad dash for that. But if you don’t know where they are, you may not get any!
Make sure that, as people are moving through the different parts of the day, you don’t leave anybody behind. That could be for reasons related to visual impairment, but it could be for other reasons as well. So just try to create a really good atmosphere where everybody is kept together
Small things count
We’ll go onto location later, but there may be some small bits of information that can put people’s mind at rest such as
- Are dietary requirements taken care of>?
- Is parking available?
- >Is there somewhere to take a guide dog out at lunchtime to empty it?
- Are there charging points available?
This is something I usually ask because I don’t write anything. I always work with my laptop. It has a decent battery life, but if I’m using it all day, I might need to plug it in. That’s becoming more of a general requirement – everyone wants to charge things – but if I’m going to participate, I need access to my laptop.
Something as simple as whether there are enough charging points can really help.
It’s better to be prepared than to be stressed – for everyone! If you find out some of these things in advance, they can be helpful for other people too.
Working it out together
I do think it’s important that people self-advocate. If they need something, they can’t expect you to know about it. There needs to be a dialogue. I don’t expect people to be able to anticipate what I need as somebody coming to an event with a visual impairment. There is some responsibility on me to get that help, alternative formats, or whatever it is that I need.
I need to ask, because you can’t know. But it is good if you make it clear that you are open to that conversation.
I can think of an event that I was considering going to. I didn’t go because I didn’t know what exactly would be happening, and therefore how much hassle it would have been to make it accessible. I didn’t know the individuals running it very well at the time.
If somebody is new to your business, they may feel less empowered to start this conversation than somebody who knows you quite well. But if you make it clear that you’re open to talking about anyone’s additional needs or access needs, you’ve started the conversation already. People see the conversation has already begun, so it’s not as difficult to continue it.
Learning takeaway
There are some things that you can do automatically in terms of putting the event somewhere that’s accessible – we’ll go on to that later – or making sure information is available in other ways. But it’s also good to let people know that if they have any access requirements, they can come and talk to you about them. That shows that you are open for that conversation.