Blind and Visually Impaired Community
↑
3
↓
Virtual conference accessibility (self.Blind)
submitted by DJShhhh
tl;dr: I'm trying to make a virtual Zoom conference more accessible to VIP, but we don't have funds and our planning committee does not excel in electronic communications (websites, especially). What measures can we take to be inclusive and accessible to VIP?
Hello!
I am a fully sighted person who is helping to plan a professional conference this fall. The conference is not projected to make a profit, is entirely volunteer-run, and we do not have any budget for supporting accessibility. I am pushing for us to make it as accessible as possible given those limitations, and for us to begin designating some funds for this purpose in the future. Given the lack of resources this year, I am hoping that the wonderful people of this sub might be willing to help me explore ways to make the conference as accessible as possible to VIP. A few more notes:
* conference is on Sep 11. It's for people who are in nonprofit fundraising.
* for the first time ever, the conference is fully virtual (Zoom).
* Zoom has some built-in accessibility features, but I don't know how well they function or what the limitations are that we might be able to provide work-arounds for. Here's what Zoom provides: $1
* The conference is fairly small, with around 125 people in attendance. It seems somewhat likely that no VIP will attend, so it may be most prudent to simply ask people to let us know if they would like or will need accessibility support, and what that would include. A concern would be that a VIP could register the day before and request supports that require advanced planning.
* We have a website, but we're all amateurs, so I don't think we have the skills to make it super friendly to VIP (I have read a few resources on how to audit your webpage for accessibility, and a lot of it is too advanced for our current skill level). I read that an alternative is to include language at the bottom of the webpages we most often direct people to that says something like, "The conference will be presented live and interactively on Zoom. To learn more about accessibility features, $1. If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, please contact so-and-so at email address or phone number." Is this sufficient?
* Here is our website: $1
Any feedback you have would be super appreciated. And if you happen to be in Colorado and involved in nonprofit fundraising, let me know - I'd love to connect!
Thank you!
Hello!
I am a fully sighted person who is helping to plan a professional conference this fall. The conference is not projected to make a profit, is entirely volunteer-run, and we do not have any budget for supporting accessibility. I am pushing for us to make it as accessible as possible given those limitations, and for us to begin designating some funds for this purpose in the future. Given the lack of resources this year, I am hoping that the wonderful people of this sub might be willing to help me explore ways to make the conference as accessible as possible to VIP. A few more notes:
* conference is on Sep 11. It's for people who are in nonprofit fundraising.
* for the first time ever, the conference is fully virtual (Zoom).
* Zoom has some built-in accessibility features, but I don't know how well they function or what the limitations are that we might be able to provide work-arounds for. Here's what Zoom provides: $1
* The conference is fairly small, with around 125 people in attendance. It seems somewhat likely that no VIP will attend, so it may be most prudent to simply ask people to let us know if they would like or will need accessibility support, and what that would include. A concern would be that a VIP could register the day before and request supports that require advanced planning.
* We have a website, but we're all amateurs, so I don't think we have the skills to make it super friendly to VIP (I have read a few resources on how to audit your webpage for accessibility, and a lot of it is too advanced for our current skill level). I read that an alternative is to include language at the bottom of the webpages we most often direct people to that says something like, "The conference will be presented live and interactively on Zoom. To learn more about accessibility features, $1. If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, please contact so-and-so at email address or phone number." Is this sufficient?
* Here is our website: $1
Any feedback you have would be super appreciated. And if you happen to be in Colorado and involved in nonprofit fundraising, let me know - I'd love to connect!
Thank you!
CloudyBeep 5 points 3y ago
Zoom is very accessible for blind people. You don't need to do anything to make it accessible for us, though if you want to do something to increase accessibility, enable captioning so that people who are deaf, hard of hearing or ESL speakers will understand your presentations more easily.
One thing you can do for any blind attendees is to make conference slides accessible since they aren't readable through Screen Share on Zoom. If presenters are OK with it, you could post them on the conference website, but if not, just email them to any blind attendees.
Accessibility statements don't need to be longer than one sentence. Just say something like, "If you have a disability and think that you would benefit from accommodations, email us at [email address] to discuss your access needs."
One thing you could do to make your website more accessible is to give your images alt-text descriptions. Here's some information about how to describe images well: https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/ You can also add alt text to images you post to social media.
One thing you can do for any blind attendees is to make conference slides accessible since they aren't readable through Screen Share on Zoom. If presenters are OK with it, you could post them on the conference website, but if not, just email them to any blind attendees.
Accessibility statements don't need to be longer than one sentence. Just say something like, "If you have a disability and think that you would benefit from accommodations, email us at [email address] to discuss your access needs."
One thing you could do to make your website more accessible is to give your images alt-text descriptions. Here's some information about how to describe images well: https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/ You can also add alt text to images you post to social media.
DJShhhh [OP] 2 points 3y ago
Thank you very much for going through all this. It's great to hear that Zoom works so well for blind people. I am planning on posting something similar to this in a sub for hearing impaired folks as well -- thanks for weighing in on that bit.
I'll pass along your ideas to provide slides ahead of time, the sentence about accommodations, and alt-text. Again, thank you so much!
I'll pass along your ideas to provide slides ahead of time, the sentence about accommodations, and alt-text. Again, thank you so much!
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.