If you are running an event please be sure it is inclusive and accessible to people with a wide variety of abilities. Follow these four simple steps to ensure everyone can enjoy the event:
Step 1: Advertising
- Notify participants on how to request accommodations. Please ensure that any notifications about your activity include a statement about how to request disability-related accommodations.
- Example:
"Duke University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions, please contact _____ (telephone number of the sponsor) in advance of your participation or visit. Requests should be made by _____ (date usually at least one week in advance of the event)."
- Coordinate official accommodation requests with the Disability Management System and their page on the information required to obtain an interpreter.
- Please ensure that social media and email advertisements are accessible and images have good alternative text descriptions.
Step 2: Preparing for
- When possible, share presentations or supplemental materials ahead of time, or quickly after the event.
- Ensure those materials like PowerPoints, and PDF files are accessible.
- Record Zoom sessions whenever possible so that the video, audio and chat text are recorded in the Zoom Cloud. The recording files can be downloaded to a computer or streamed from a browser. While an automated transcript will be provided as part of the recording, an edited transcript may be necessary upon request.
- If captioning is requested, please ensure a professional captioner is scheduled.
Step 3: Hosting
- If captioning has been requested, ensure it is enabled and that the captioner is assigned prior to the start of the meeting.
- When URLs or other resources are mentioned, designated someone to type them into the chat window and/or follow up with participants after the meeting.
- Allow people to ask questions verbally or in chat.
- If people ask questions in the chat, please repeat the question aloud so everyone can hear the answer in context.
- Remember to describe images and/or visual content, such as slides, activities, etc. This is helpful for people who are blind, people who might not be paying attention, and for people who have called into the meeting.
Step 4: After the meeting
- Follow-up with an email or webpage with accessible meeting resources and recordings.
- For post-event captioning, you can edit captions yourself.
Thanks to Stanford's Diversity and Access Office for their help and inspiration. For even more detailed tips, check out Stanford's resources on Digital Inclusion.