INSIGHT
Disability Network Do you like attending meetings?
Does your day frequently consist of back-to-back online meetings? Maybe there are papers you haven’t read, which were sent out late? Maybe you are tasked with administrating meetings and sending out agendas or liaising with speakers?
C
OULD we make things better for everyone: allies, and people with a lived experience of disability, by considering accessibility as the “norm” for online meetings?
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative has some good guidance around making events accessible (
https://tinyurl.com/DisA251) They state: “Do you remember a time when people around you broke out in laughter, but you didn’t hear the joke? Be careful not to leave out information for some people in your audience. For example, if you say ‘you can read it on the slide’, you are probably excluding people who cannot see the slide.” There can be user experience benefits, and benefits to organisations by considering the needs and experiences of people with disabilities, as accessibility features are also used by people without disabilities in a variety of situations. For example, transcripts can be:
l Skimmed or read rather than watched or listened to. This is significantly easier and quicker for many users. Sometimes people want to skim the transcript first before deciding whether or not to play the media;
l used without needing to download video files. For example, to save data on mobile;
l used offline, printed, or converted to braille.
(Source: User Experiences and Benefits to Organizations | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
https://tinyurl.com/Dis25A2.
Transcripts can also help participants who are dual language speakers and don’t have English as a first language. Some good general guidelines from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative to consider are to be aware that some of your audience might not be able to:
l See well or at all; l hear well or at all; l move well or at all; l speak well or at all, or
l understand information presented in some ways well or at all. Source (
https://tinyurl.com/Dis25A2)
l Many people who are deaf can read text well. They get the audio information from transcripts or captions. Some people prefer sign language;
l some people who are hard of hearing like to listen to the audio to hear what they can, and have captions to fill in what they can’t hear adequately;
l some people who have difficulty processing auditory information also use captions. Many use transcripts so they can read at their own pace;
l some people who are blind or have low vision can’t see videos well or at all. They use description of visual
Autumn 2025
information to understand what’s going on visually. (Description is called audio description, video description, or described video.) l Some people who are deaf-blind use a screen reader and braille to read descriptive transcripts that include the audio and visual information as text;
l some people cannot focus and comprehend auditory or visual information when there are changing visuals. For most videos, they also need descriptive transcripts;
l some people cannot use their hands and use speech recognition software to operate their computer, including the media player. And people who are blind need the media player to work without a mouse;
l some people use multiple accessibility features simultaneously. For example, someone might want captions, description of visual information as text, and description in audio. Source
https://tinyurl.com/Dis25A2
Most aspects that are general good practice are particularly important for people with cognitive disabilities. For example:
l For meetings and presentations, start with an overview and end with a review of the most important points;
l use consistent design in slide presentations to limit cognitive load.
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative advises to: l Tell speakers that you expect their material and presentations to be accessible to people with disabilities. Consider including accessibility requirements in any in speaker guidelines;
l work with speakers to get material to participants with accessibility needs, to interpreters, and to captioners before the event;
l say aloud all of the information that is on each slide, including text and graphics;
l describe visual information in the environment. For example, a speaker asks people to raise their hands. The speaker should then describe the visual response: “About half raised their hand”.
Seeds For Change (
https://tinyurl.com/Dis25A3) advise:
l Creating meeting agendas with multiple breaks and to be mindful of break times. For some participants a 10-minute break time might not be enough time to take adequate rest;
l gathering feedback from participants on the event’s accessibility to help improve future events. It’s also a good idea to follow up with participants who requested accommodations to ensure their needs were met, providing another opportunity to gather feedback to improve future meetings;
l provide recordings and transcripts of the event for those who could not attend or need to review the content.
For more good guidance, go to
https://tinyurl.com/Dis25A4. IP INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 61
Morag Clarkson is Co-Chair of the CILIP Disability Network.
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