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Online & Hybrid Events

Online Events

Many organisations we spoke to talked about the positives of online events, such as: reaching a wider – often international – audience (with some reaching thousands, while in person they used to only reach a handful); flexibility with dates and times as venues don’t need to be booked; cheaper outlay as there’s no venue hire, catering, or other equipment needed. There are many positives to online event provision and disabled people will continue to need this well beyond the pandemic; don’t leave us behind.

See “Spotlight: Digital Poverty” for information about how online events aren't always accessible.

  1. Live Captioner

    Provide live-captioners (not auto-captions). Please:

    • Ensure you have enough captioners for events that are long and/or have breakout rooms

    • Remember closed captions can be enabled in Zoom and other software, and/or captioners can provide a link to a separate captioning window

    • Consider that the latter tends to have less time delay but can be difficult on smaller devices because of multiple windows. The same captioner can provide both options for your event

    See “Spotlight: Live Captioners” for more information.

    Reference: Sandra Alland, Jamie Hale

  2. Video Recording

    You can livestream an event, then make it available online afterwards, or pre-record and post online. Remember:

    • If you are doing this, it needs to be correctly captioned throughout

    • Having a recording available gives disabled people the chance to watch it in their own time, at their own pace, which can be hugely beneficial for various reasons

    • The ideal provision is hybrid, as the downside of just doing a pre-record is that people will miss out on the immediacy and buzz of a live event and won’t have the opportunity to ask questions

  3. Transcript

    Have a transcript available after the event or alongside the event if you’re posting a pre-record; let audience members know in advance that this will be available and where to access it.

  4. IT Helpdesk

    Some organisations have mentioned the challenge of helping audience members with simple IT/internet problems. If possible, have staff available to assist with any IT-related problems audience members may be having accessing an event. Provide a helpline phone number, a chat function, an FAQ on your website, and an email address.

  5. Book Signing

    Provide online book signings. For example, early in the pandemic, Edinburgh International Book Festival offered online signing sessions, where an audience member could chat to an author for a few minutes on Zoom as they signed their book, which was then sent out to them. This might encourage online audience members to buy books via the festival/bookshop website.

Hybrid Events

(in-person and online)

“It was an exciting time to reassess and reinvent and welcome a new audience to the hybrid experience who may not have been able to access events before.”
– Edinburgh International Book Festival

There are various ways to provide hybrid events where both authors and audience members can appear either in-person or online. Some organisations understand the importance of hybrid events and have invested accordingly. Others have said audience members prefer the in-person experience so they’re pivoting back to that; we’d highlight that this isn’t the case for all audience members and catering only to in-person events marginalises many people (not just those who are disabled) who can’t attend in person. It’s essential that event organisers provide online and hybrid delivery. Being flexible is important, especially as at the time of time of writing we’re still in the middle of a pandemic.

We’ve had mixed responses from organisations we spoke to about hybrid provision, with some saying they don’t have the funds, tech, or staff resources to provide it, and others saying it doesn’t necessarily need to be high-tech and expensive. Some organisations we spoke to have been able to offer hybrid simply and cheaply (e.g. a participant couldn’t attend in person due to Covid, so she joined via her phone, which was very successful).

This can have various access implications: you may be able to provide hybrid events simply and cheaply, but is the quality good and can you also provide live-captions and BSL? However, we’d argue that a simply implemented hybrid event is better than no hybrid.

CRIPtic Arts and Spread the Word have put together a fantastic guide for putting on hybrid events, called “Being Hybrid - A Cheap and Easy Guide to Hybrid Events for the Literature Sector”.

It’s worth speaking to other organisations about how they’ve delivered hybrid events, and contact organisations such as CRIPtic Arts (cripticarts.org) for an access consultation with a focus on hybrid tips. Also, from the beginning of event planning, ringfence funds so you can put on a hybrid event as accessibly and effectively as possible.

Many of the checklist points related to online provision (above) are relevant to hybrid; below are some additional things to consider.

  1. Share Knowledge

    Team Inklusion recommends talking to other event organisers in the industry and sharing hybrid and online tips with each other. Showing initiative and sharing creative strategy helps the industry to develop as a whole, and many of the organisations we spoke with would be happy to discuss hybrid provision with other organisations.

    One organisation advised: “Partner with other organisations; share best practice and hardware/software and other resources. If your budget is small, programme less but deeper.” You can also attend other events and monitor best practice.

  2. Support Staff

    Invest in staff, giving them time and training to upskill in tech and effective hybrid provision. Allow staff time to network with other organisations to discuss hybrid and hire a disabled access consultant to get tips on hybrid provision, including doing it simply and cheaply.

    See the Access Consultants and Training Providers section of our Resources page for a list of some consultants.

    Have enough staff available to deliver a hybrid event effectively (don’t put the onus on one staff member to focus on in-person audience and author care, tech, any slides or props, book sales, refreshments, health and safety, as well as the online provision).

  3. BSL Interpreters

    While logistically it may be easier to have a BSL interpreter filmed separately for hybrid events, they should ideally be in the room where the event is taking place; you can have a fixed camera on the BSL interpreter enabling them to be on the stream easily.

    See “Spotlight: BSL Interpreters” for more information.

  4. Tech

    You don’t necessarily need to invest in expensive tech to deliver effective hybrid events, although it may help. As mentioned above, talk to other event organisers about the tech they use and investigate what would be most useful.

    You can also find out more about tech via the Keep Festivals Hybrid campaign.