Accessibility: The Importance of Accessible Events

Accessibility

At Cvent, we are deeply committed to creating the technology event planners need to deliver more inclusive and accessible events that can be enjoyed by all. What does Accessibility mean? Ensuring that everyone can use our products with ease. There are many decisions that come into play when planning an event. Choosing accessible software is just as important as choosing the perfect venue and making your event accessible should be top priority for every event planner.

How to Make Your Event Accessible, Whether Virtual or In-Person

When planning your event, make sure to secure support staff, technology, and the services necessary to accommodate your guests’ needs. These include things like Braille signage around the venue, large print on signs to make it easier to read, assisted listening devices, guides to help people to their seats, and thoughtful seating that can accommodate anyone.

It is important to make sure your registration process is accessible to everyone who would like to attend your event. You want to assure the colors you are using when designing your website are easy to read for anyone who may be visually impaired or color-blind. You will also want to confirm that any images you have on your website, include “Alt Text” that sufficiently describes the purpose of the image. When building out your registration process, make sure to ask questions on accommodation needs so that you can determine the need for interpreters and captioning. The best thing you can do is speak to those who indicate that they require special accommodations during registration, to inquire what their specific limitations are and what can be done to best accommodate their needs, whether onsite or virtually.

To make events more accessible, consider hiring an American Sign Language interpreter. Just reading text does not give the emotion that an interpreter could bring. You want to make sure that the ASL interpreter can also be seen on screen for in person attendees who may be sitting in the back of a large ballroom, or in the corner of the screen when a session is being livestreamed to a remote audience. It is important to always have them on the screen, even when panning to the audience, in case the presenter is saying something where the audience would not be able to read their lips. Consider reserving front seats for individuals making use of sign language interpretation.

When you are training your speakers, it is important to emphasize that they should never face away from the audience. This allows for those who rely on reading lips and facial expressions the ability to do so. Also make sure that they are not presenting something with a lot of words on it and saying, “I will let you read this slide”. This makes the session no longer accessible to those who cannot read words on a screen. Blind and low-vision users who are unable to see visual information will rely on oral or pre-recorded audio that describes the text, images, graphics, charts, animations, and video that comprise the visual portion of the presentation. Remind presenters to restate visual content.

What is Cvent Doing to Ensure our Technology is Accessible?

One of our goals here at Cvent is to make sure that our technology is accessible to everyone who wants to use it. We have created an Accessibility Program Roadmap that includes an awareness campaign, internal and external client training, tools & techniques, prioritized remediation of existing products, and company-wide accessibility initiatives. Some specific pieces of the product that we are updating to make more accessible include the colors of our UX design and allowing for keyboard only navigation. We are also including notifications in our product that alert users when something they are doing is not accessible. For example, in the Attendee Hub there will be a pop-up to alert a user if the colors they are using do not meet color contrast needs. Cvent is continuing to take steps to improve the accessibility of our products every day.

Key Takeaways

It is imperative that you choose an accessible platform for all aspects of your event life cycle. Remember, accessibility can look different to everyone at different points in their life and temporary limitations can impact anyone. Cvent now has a Senior Product Manager dedicated to Accessibility. Please contact your Account Team if you have additional questions or would like to speak with them about how to make your events accessible and what measures Cvent is taking to make our products accessible for all.

This post was written by Megan Burns, Lead Client Success Advisor at Cvent. Megan is a James Madison University alum that has a passion for traveling, reading, and trying new restaurants.