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Improving meeting accessibility is smart business for associations that want to attract people with disabilities as Kristin Merriman-Clarke reports in this Executive Update feature article. Read first hand accounts as well as useful tips and guides to make your meetings more inclusive for individuals with diabilities.

"I had planned a press briefing at a major media conference when I was confronted with an unexpected problem. A reporter was stuck on the first floor, unable to get her wheelchair to the second floor briefing room. The hotel had told us that it was accessible to people with disabilities. It didn’t say only in certain areas. Although I arranged for the speakers to meet with her later, the situation remains one of my most embarrassing professional moments."

According to Andrew Imparato, president and CEO of the American Association of People With Disabilities in Washington, DC, this type of occurrence is common at association meetings. "The bottom line is that people with disabilities make up one-fifth of the American population, so unless the association wants to intentionally exclude those with disabilities, it makes sense to think about this stuff," he says. "A lot of people with disabilities have grown accustomed to not being accommodated, so they don’t necessarily self-identify unless they are asked on a registration form and see examples of what could be provided. Rather than ask the organizers to relocate, some people just don’t show up for meetings in inaccessible places. You may be missing out on cultivating people without even realizing it."

Nancy Horton, technical assistant specialist at the American Disabilities Act (ADA) Information Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region, agrees that associations can easily improve meeting accessibility without a lot of fuss or cost — if planning is done early. She urges meeting planners to contact one of the country’s 10 regional ADA information centers even before visiting a potential meeting site or drafting registration materials. Each center serves as a clearinghouse for ADA legal requirements and general disability-related information, so meeting planners can talk to informed staff about resources and, if applicable, legal requirements.

"Obviously, planners want to look at the physical or architectural accessibility of the meeting site," Horton says. "Can folks who use wheelchairs or mobility devices get around and use the facilities? For those who are blind, is the physical site usable and navigable? I always recommend that when you’re checking out the physical accessibility of a facility, ask specific questions or have someone else who knows about accessibility accompany you. Don’t just ask the hotel if it is accessible."

Using your registration form and promotional materials to query potential attendees about any access problems is important both for advertising your desire to hold an accessible meeting and for learning what types of disabilities you may need to accommodate. "Provide information about what accommodations are available [assisted listening devices, large-print programs, etc.] and even leave a write-in blank for special requests. Event planners need to know if they have people using wheelchairs, even if a place is accessible, because if you have a lot of people in wheelchairs, you’re going to need more space, especially at tables."

Aside from building-related issues, planners should consider communication accessibility. "These are things like interpreters that you wouldn’t necessarily have in place unless you know you need them," explains Horton. "You need a mechanism so folks can let you know if they need materials in Braille, on tape, or on disk. And you need to determine whether you will have service animals (e.g., guide dogs)."

Several years ago, the American Fisheries Society formed a task force to examine accessibility issues at its annual meetings, and based on the group’s recommendations, used real-time captioning on a large screen behind its keynote speakers. AAPD’s Imparato was not surprised to hear that many people in the audience who were not hearing impaired enjoyed both listening to and reading the speeches.

"Most things you would do will benefit people without disabilities who do have human limitations that make it easier when people go out of their way to simplify a message, repeat things, and go at a pace that is easier to follow," he says.

Associations are most likely to need accommodations for people with hearing impairments because they constitute the largest single subgroup — almost half — of the approximately 50 million people with disabilities.. "Traditionally, there tends to be less awareness of hearing impairments as a disability group that needs to be accommodated," Horton explains. "Usually, when people think of disability, they think, ‘Wheelchair. I need a ramp on the building,’ and that’s as far as they go. And even within the hearing impaired population, you have a tremendous variety of differences. For some folks, particularly those who are deaf, the written word, like real-time captioning, is not always effective because it’s not their language; they know only American Sign Language. They need an interpreter just as if they spoke Spanish."

Meeting planners also need to prepare presenters for special accommodations since they can sometimes cause an unintentional problem or be caught off-guard. For example, a speaker with a small, informal audience may walk away from a microphone to build audience rapport, not realizing that he or she has just cut off some attendees. In another instance, one speaker at the Fisheries Society meeting noted the odd feeling of having an audience, only a few of whom were hearing-impaired, looking not at him but at the bright screen nearby. This may make some presenters feel disconnected to their group. If a presenter is particularly concerned about eye contact, planners can ask the person to provide a digital copy of his or her remarks beforehand and tell the audience that a text version is available so people can relax and not take notes.

Another good meeting practice Imparato recommends is to have presenters read their overhead text first and then begin their explanations, so people who are visually impaired (as well as others who can’t see well due to distance, lighting, etc.) can obtain the information. The same is true of meeting agendas. And associations with materials to distribute that most people won’t examine until after the meeting should bring disk versions so people can review them later with a screen reader or other assistive technology.

Some meeting planners express concerns about the potentially high cost of increased accessibility, but sign language interpreting and ‘Brailing’ are probably the highest-end expenses — and most associations won’t even need those. In fact, many accessible-friendly activities are easy and cost-effective in terms of the potential benefits. Creating some materials in large print can be done easily on any computer; providing computer disk versions of programs or presentation abstracts is increasingly popular anyway; and ensuring that a hotel or convention center is accessible is not an add-on cost either.

One important note, though, is that associations should "recognize that the population of people with disabilities is incredibly diverse, and even for those who are blind, deaf, or hard of hearing, what works for one person may not work for someone else," says Imparato. "...The bottom line is it’s good to give a range of options. Don’t assume a blind person will need Braille."

On a more basic level, Imparato tells planners to "treat people with respect. Imagine what it would be like to be that person in a wheelchair and be unable to access the meeting. Or, perhaps you’re blind and can’t read the agenda….Be customer-oriented."

For more information, contact the Northeast Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center, 800-949-4232 or 301-217-0754, or AAPD, 202-457-0046. For an excellent example of guidelines developed to improve meeting accessibility, visit the National Institutes of Health Web site, www.nih.gov/nihaccess/chklst.htm.

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