A strange silver lining of the pandemic is that it’s providing incentive to employ new technologies to make events more accessible—and not just along lines of ability but also geography and socio-economic status. Here are best practices to increase accessibility for your online events.
Before the event: ensure that event invitations or advertisements are themselves accessible. Use a large, clear font and highly contrasting colors that are easier for the visually impaired to read. Alternative text should be employed for images for people who are blind or have low vision and may use screen-reading software. Adding captions and audio-visual description to any promotional videos will assist the deaf and hard of hearing as well as the blind and visually impaired.
Indicate which accessibility accommodations the event will have. Use appropriate downloadable disability access symbols, so attendees know what accommodations will be provided without their needing to ask, but also leave room for attendees to request additional accommodations. When attendees ask for accommodations, don’t ask them to share disability documentation or details. Sending out an accessibility policy ahead of time lets attendees know what to expect and enables them to plan accordingly. Check out ASAE’s Meetings Accessibility Policy for a great example to get started.
Share the format of the event and how long it will run so attendees can plan around their needs. In advance, provide readings, diagrams, or other materials to be used during the event as accessible documents. Giving presenters an accessibility checklist in advance will help them plan to lead in an accessible way. This checklist could include the submission of materials in advance and reminders to verbally describe visuals during the event.
Offering a recording makes events more accessible for those in different time zones. Recording events also broadens access for those who are working, and it’s worth considering the timing of the event so that workers with “non-standard” hours can come. For example, cleaning staff often work later in the evening than office staff. If an event has paid ticketing, ticket fees can be made sliding scale or pay-what-you-can, or a number of low-cost tickets can be made available for those who would otherwise not be able to afford to attend. (Meanwhile, make it clear that those with means can give or pay extra!)
Many of the popular video hosting platforms, including Zoom and Google Hangouts, have opt-in accessibility modifications. These include some capacity for live captioning, support for screen readers, and keyboard shortcuts for those unable to use a mouse. Live captioning is good practice, as it enables real-time participation of those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Since a live person can provide context that automated captions might miss, having an ASL interpreter or a designated person to caption live is often the best option access-wise.
Zoom now has integrated captioning/transcriptioning using Otter.ai technology—no Otter.ai account required. At this time, this built-in functionality is available only to Pro accounts and above. (Hot Sheet reader Nancy Cavillones created this handy Google Doc to assist with set-up, since she found Zoom’s own instructions hard to follow.) However, all Zoom accounts can use a third-party captioner or assign a captioner.
There are a number of automated or live captioning options in addition to those provided directly by the platforms. A few of the most popular services:
- Rev Live Captions uses AI to automatically add real-time captions to Zoom meetings and webinars. It costs $20/month.
- While it comes with the heftier price tag of $99–180 per hour of live captioning, Ai-Media, which provides Facebook’s live captions and can be used on Zoom, YouTube Live, and Twitch as well, does its current live work with human captioners for accuracy and speed.
- Otter Live Captions for Zoom is free for Otter Business customers and adds captions to Zoom in real time using AI.
You can find ASL interpreters using the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and live captioning professionals at the National Captioning Institute, CaptionAccess, and StreamText. If there are videos or images in the event, add audio/visual descriptions and closed captions—just like you would for promotional materials.
There’s also technology that can add captions to the event recording. A couple options include Amara and Subtitle Horse. YouTube provides an option to use automated captions, then edit those captions before publishing. Depending on your organization’s budget, hiring professionals to write captions for event recordings may be the most accurate and best option. You can find caption writers on Rev, Alternative Communication Services, and ASLCaptions. Adding new and potentially more accurate closed captions to the event recording, then forwarding the recording to attendees (along with a summary of the text chat) lets anyone who might need more processing time catch up.
You can aid people who are hard of hearing by ensuring clear audio; have presenters use a headset whenever possible. Similarly, people with poor eyesight will benefit if all presenters are as well-lit as possible in high contrast to their backgrounds. It’s also important to avoid flashing effects in presentations for those with light-induced epilepsy. If these kinds of lights are an essential part of the presentation, giving an advance warning makes the event safer and more inclusive. Since some people may not feel comfortable appearing on video or via audio, it can be more comfortable if the default settings are for the microphone and camera to be off.
Make events even more accessible by including a dial-in option. This accounts for areas with slower WiFi, and it will also make events economically accessible, since access to computers and stable WiFi is cost dependent. Many platforms, such as Zoom, provide a dial-in option. Running events through schools or public libraries can in some cases increase accessibility, since some schools have sent home laptops and virtual hotspots with students.
Finally, designating an accessibility point person (whose contact information is made clear before and during the event) should help if there are any unforeseen accessibility issues.
Bottom line: In this time of social isolation, the literary community should embrace the opportunity to ensure that all people—regardless of ability, geography, or socio-economic status—feel included and supported, especially as we orchestrate ever more elaborate events. Proactively ask for what accommodations people need before the event, and then ask for feedback to learn what worked well and what could have gone better.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
