Meeting and Conference Access
Meetings and conferences should consider the needs of all of their participants. Checklists such as this may make it easier to identify specific needs:
- Mobility access
- Wheelchair accessible transportation
- Reserved parking
- Barrier-free meeting rooms / restrooms / podium/speaker's platform
- ADA Compliant Ramp Access to businesses and public places
- Accessible lodging
- Hearing access
- Advance copies of papers
- An assistive listening system
- Sign language interpreters
- A quiet place to gather for social conversation (a quieter space that is still visible to others should be reserved at social events or dinners so that people who are hard of hearing may go there to talk with their colleagues.)
- TTY access or Internet-based TRS
- Sight access
- Large print/braille copies of the program and papers
- A student volunteer to guide and describe the artwork, computer work, etc.
- A tech to help with assistive devices and screen readers (e.g., JAWS)
- Gloves to touch three dimensional work (where permissible)
- Other issues
- Notification if social events include flashing lights and noises (these can cause seizures, so either avoid them or announce them ahead of time).
- Notices asking participants to refrain from allergy-producing problems (e.g., perfumes)
- Inform food providers of food allergies (e.g., peanuts, shellfish, etc.)
- Referral information for local personal care attendant agencies
- Referral information for veterinarian care for service animals
- Access to a place to rest during the day (if the conference venue is far from the lodgings)
For a complete checklist, consult Equal Access: Universal Design of Conference Exhibits and Presentations.
Read more about this topic: Accessibility
Famous quotes containing the words meeting and, meeting, conference and/or access:
“As for Hitler, his professed religion unhesitatingly juxtaposed the God-Providence and Valhalla. Actually his god was an argument at a political meeting and a manner of reaching an impressive climax at the end of speeches.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Passing through here in 1795, Bishop Asbury commented, ‘The country improves in cultivation, wickedness, mills, and stills.’ Five years later, he held a meeting in the neighborhood and remarked that he thought most of the congregation had come to look at his wig.”
—Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Politics is still the man’s game. The women are allowed to do the chores, the dirty work, and now and then—but only occasionally—one is present at some secret conference or other. But it’s not the rule. They can go out and get the vote, if they can and will; they can collect money, they can be grateful for being permitted to work. But that is all.”
—Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)
“Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)