This section covers access provision that’s relevant across all event formats (in-person, online, and hybrid) covering what should be in place before and during the event.
Before Events
Venue
If you're booking/partnering with an external venue, ensure they meet your accessibility standards (use this guide as a checklist). Send them an access questionnaire, visit the venue yourself and hire a disabled consultant to check the venue; don’t contract with a venue if they don’t meet your accessibility standards.
Access Officer
Have a dedicated Access Officer, preferably a disabled person. Key responsibilities might include:
Being the key access contact, working with all the different teams in an organisation, as well as external stakeholders, customers, and authors to provide good access
Ensuring the venue is accessible, and that online and hybrid access is in place
For large organisations, they should be in a senior role and be part of high-level decision-making.
They must have appropriate qualifications, experience, and/or expertise in assessing event access – being disabled doesn’t automatically give someone the knowledge and skills to be an access officer.
Reference: Jamie Hale
Programme
Have an easy-to-navigate programme that’s clear and uncluttered, using colours suitable for those who are colour-blind, with a dyslexia- and blind-friendly sans serif typeface. Ensure it’s screen-reader-friendly, for example:
Have clear heading and subheading levels (using heading tools such as ‘heading 1’, ‘heading 2’, etc.), making it easy to navigate the document and jump between headings.
Identify groups of items (e.g. list of events) as lists, again helping navigation.
Ensure form fields are properly labelled with a logical tab order.
These are only a small handful of items that contribute to making your programme or other documents screen-reader-friendly; speak with your designer to ensure your document is fully useable by screen-readers.
Offer various accessible versions, such as:
British Sign Language (BSL) video
Braille
Large Print
Audio
Website
As mentioned in the ‘Author’ section, your website should be accessible (check with your web designer). A link to an ‘Access’ page should be included in the main menu of your website (in the main navigation menu) or on your event booking platform. This should clearly outline full access details (including what isn’t available, and what you’re doing to make it available in future).
Event Listing
When advertising individual events, include access information on the event listing. People shouldn’t have to go digging or enquiring about this basic information.
Reference: Jeda Pearl, Sandra Alland, Elspeth Wilson, Khairani Barokka
Tickets and Registrations
If you’re using a registration platform for people to buy tickets/sign up for events, make sure it’s accessible, easy to use, and works with screen readers. This also applies if ticket registration is through your own website. You should also do the following:
When booking tickets, ensure there’s a box for an attendee to inform you of any access needs they have, connecting this to your access statement to make it clear what’s in place, what can be put in place on request, and what isn’t in place.
Make it easy for a disabled attendee to book free tickets for personal assistants or companions (they shouldn’t have to phone to do this; phoning isn’t accessible to many, and there shouldn’t be an extra step involved). Some people will require two personal assistants or companions with them or will need people to swap over during the day.
Offer concession tickets at a manageable price, with no requirement of proof. Or, where possible, offer Pay What You Can (PWYC).
See “Spotlight: Ticket Pricing” for more information.
Reference: Penny Batchelor, Jamie Hale, Elspeth Wilson, Jeda Pearl
Advertising Events
Make your advertising as accessible to as wide an audience as possible.
See “Spotlight: Accessible Advertising” for more information.Target Audience
Reach out to a disabled audience through various networks: ask disability charities, influencers, activists and networks to share with their audiences. Don’t expect them to just come to you, as many find out about suitable events through their disability networks.
For a list of networks, etc. see the Disability Organisations and Networks section of our Resources.Disabled people have been side-lined and maligned in this industry for years; it may take time for you to gain their trust. Be patient and take the time to build that relationship.
If you’re unable to afford BSL and captions across all events, take a targeted approach and find out what events deaf people would like to be BSL interpreted and captioned.
Reference: Bea Webster
“Access information isn’t always on the event listing. There’s maybe a general access page on their website, but it’s more generalised about the event as a whole if it’s a festival, for example. But on each individual event, there's not always detailed information, and that would be useful.”
“If you encourage deaf and disabled people to attend and put in the access provisions they require, then over time you will be able to increase that attendance – but you have to build it before people can come.”
“I hate it when you can't book online, when they say, ‘oh if you're disabled and you've got access needs, ring up.’ When you can't book a wheelchair ticket or there's no box where you can say, ‘this is what I need’. Then you're stuck, being in their office hours and waiting for them to pick up. And it's harder for me; I can do it, but it's harder for me hearing on the phone and I actually feel different, and I shouldn't have to feel different.”
During Events
British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreter
For many deaf people, BSL is their first language, so relying solely on captions isn’t best practice (see BSL spotlight box in the Author section for more info). When booking an interpreter:
Ensure they are the best interpreter for the content of the event; get recommendations from deaf people. Poetry translation or science talks, for example, are not something all interpreters can do
Because there are regional differences in BSL, it’s also worth checking if the interpreter you hire is familiar with the BSL dialect the deaf audience may use
See “Spotlight: BSL Interpreters” for more information.Reference: Bea Webster, Sandra Alland
Captions
Provide a trained live captioner. Ensure that the typed captions appear on a large screen that's visible throughout the room, and/or online via a remote captioning link or the CC button on software like Zoom. Auto-captions are not a suitable substitute.
Another advantage of this is that after the event, you may have a transcript of what was said during the sessions. But if you require a transcript from your captioner, or will be publishing this, please discuss it with the captioner in advance.
See “Spotlight: Live Captioners” for more information.Reference: Jamie Hale, Sandra Alland
Hearing Loop or Infrared System
Provide a hearing loop or infrared system in your venue. Make sure this is well advertised, that equipment is working, and that staff know how to use it and can assist audience members. If people use a personal hearing loop device such as the Roger Select, allow them to place it near the speaker or microphone as required.
Reference: Jamie Hale
Event Length and Comfort Breaks
If it’s a long event, build in breaks. If it’s especially long, as well as building in breaks, explore whether some of the content could be delivered digitally in advance, to shorten the individual days without adding in extra days.
Ensure it’s clear who’s speaking
This is useful for blind and partially sighted authors and audience, and there are two ways of doing this:
The first is to have the Chair say the name of the person they’re directing a question to
The second is to have the Chair and panel introduce themselves and whenever they talk again to say their name
The second option is best practice, but this is where access needs can clash: panel members who are neurodivergent or have cognitive difficulties may forget to say their name or remember to do so but lose track of what they were going to say.
To ensure the event works for all, it’s best to discuss in advance what suits everyone. Ensure the Chair understands why this is important, so that if people forget or if the panel decide on the first option, the Chair can assist by thanking the person by name after they’ve made their point, and then direct the next question at someone by name.
Reference: Maud Rowell, Elspeth Wilson
Chairs
Ensure that chairs include the online audience in the dialogue, referring to them throughout the event, and relaying any after-event networking or book sale information, and thanking them for attending.
Content Warnings
It's important that Chairs and authors consider mentioning content warnings as some topics can trigger PTSD symptoms including panic, flashbacks, and dissociation. Recovery from such symptoms can take days and the situation itself can be physically painful and harmful for the individual (i.e., if someone dissociates, they might become non-verbal and have trouble communicating their situation and needs.) It's empowering to give people the choice to engage or not with certain material.
Reference: Elspeth Wilson
Presentations
If an author is giving a presentation with slides, ensure they know they need to read out everything on the slides, and give a description of any important visuals, including graphs. This means blind and partially sighted audience members and fellow panellists don’t need to worry they’re missing out on important content.
Reference: Maud Rowell