Accessible Meetings

by Dora Raymaker

categories: accommodations, community inclusion

Published May 19, 2009 @ 09:34AM PT

The ADA has published a new resource on accessible meetings. Among the recommendations are some that could help people on the spectrum, such as captioners or note takers, and providing an agenda and site maps well in advance. However, the focus of the document is on mobility and sensory (as in deaf or blind, not integration) disabilities, and not on learning or intellectual disabilities.

This is a topic I think about a lot. And not because it's a happy Interest that I love to trace over, but out of necessity. In my other work, I organize meetings that involve people both on and off the spectrum, all of whom have very different communication needs. I also end up at a lot of conferences and workshops. These latter--conferences and workshops--rarely provide even the minimum of accommodations needed to function effectively without a lot of (sometimes excessive) work and advance planning on my part.

Some things I end up asking for over and over again:

• Allow someone else to register / pick up registration information. Avoids crowds, noise, communication, and massive (usually early morning) overstimulation for no real reason.
• Provide conference schedule information at least a few days in advance. This should include information about who is presenting when and about what, which in turn helps in the planning of necessary breaks and downtime. As well as helping make the event more predictable and less stressful.
• If possible, visit the site in advance of the event to get used to it, find the bathrooms, find the exits, determine how disturbing the carpet is, etc. before the area is also filled with crowds and cacophonies.
• Check in advance about power outlets, flat surfaces, or any other items necessary to operate necessary assistive technology throughout the duration of the event.
• Provide alternative modes of participation to real-time face-to-face. For example, group conference chat. Or the way that AWARES operates.

Some additional few items on my personal wish-list:

• Waive conference or workshop fees for support people. Requiring an attendee to pay double (on top of any wages they are also paying to the support person) is enormously discriminatory and unfair, as the support person would not be attending the meeting otherwise.
• Offer sensory friendly areas. Even though large meeting locations typically come under the strobe-and-buzz of florescent lights, there is usually some room or area that can be set aside to be bright light & florescent free, and quiet, for people to escape to as needed. Better yet, use meeting sites that offer incandescent or natural lighting, neutral walls and carpeting, a quiet setting, and otherwise are just sensory friendly in general.
• Slow down! It can be really, really hard or impossible to process the amount of information that is typically thrown out in a conference or workshop. It's better to fully understand a smaller amount of ideas than to not understand any ideas at all.
• Have a clearly stated protocol for how to participate--how will everyone who wants to get a turn to communicate during the meeting?
• Give information in more than one way. Don't just present with the blah blah blah--use images, movements, demonstrations, provide written information.

What else have you found works for you? Or, what is on your meeting wish list?

It will be a glorious day when material like the ADA's accessible meetings page equally includes recommendations for people with learning or intellectual disabilities. But until that day we will have to make do with sharing ideas with each other.