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You will save time and money if you think about everybody who might attend an event each time you plan a feature of it, such as the publicity or the facilities at the venue.
This means thinking about delegates, staff, the chair, speakers and exhibitors who may be disabled people.
It will usually be more expensive and difficult to address the requirements of disabled people, and your legal duties, if you consider them at the end of your planning.
Planning for disabled people will help everyone who uses the venue. First-time visitors and non-English speakers will benefit from clear signage just as much as people with learning disabilities.
This section includes information on:
You will probably have a lot of information about your event that you can share with disabled people. If you tell disabled people about the facilities available, they will know that you want to include them.
The language you use can send a strong message to disabled people about how inclusive your event is likely to be. This could have an impact on their decision to attend.
Asking people to complete and return application or reply forms is a common feature of government events, such as conferences and seminars.
You can use a form to let people know what adjustments are already in place, such as sign language interpreters, deaf-blind communicators and large print materials.
You can also use the form to ask disabled people about any further requirements they have: "To help us make sure that everyone at the conference is able to take part, please let us know about any needs that you have."
Ask for a contact telephone or textphone number or an email so that you can discuss any requests. Make sure the form is as accessible as possible.
All information you receive is subject to the requirements of the Data Protection Act.
When you produce written information for your event, such as web pages, programmes, promotional material, handouts, agendas, tickets, posters and application forms, you need to think how you will make these accessible for disabled people by considering producing information in a range of formats. You will find information about this in the alternative communications formats and the digital communications sections of this guidance.
Deaf and hard of hearing people can be supported by language support professionals (LSP). They include:
One of the most important things to know about LSPs is that there are not enough of them in the United Kingdom.
This means forward planning. You should consider making a provisional booking for LSPs as soon as you have a date and a venue. The more notice you give the more likely you are to get the support you need for your attendees.
You can find out about agencies and sources of freelance LSPs from the Council for Advancement of Communication for Deaf People (CACD-ROMP) Handbook.
LSPs will decide on the best position for them to work in relation to the speaker and the audience. They will also be able to advise you on environmental features such as lighting, which can affect the service they give to deaf people.
They will welcome being briefed on the content of the event in advance, including if DVDs will be shown or unusual words such as medical or legal jargon will be used. If possible, give them copies of presentations or speeches in advance.
Make sure that papers are easy to understand. Use easyread words and pictures. At meetings, put the number of the agenda item that any paper relates to on the paper.
For regular meetings, try colour coding your papers. Use the same colour each time you have a meeting, for example yellow paper for minutes and orange paper for questions.
Make sure you send people any papers you prepare well in advance of a meeting (two weeks if possible).
Clips of films on DVD or video can make interesting additions to presentations. It is possible to arrange for broadcasts to be audio-described for people with visual impairments and to be subtitled and overlaid with British or Irish Sign Language interpretation for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Check the availability of these facilities on any films that you plan to show. If you are commissioning broadcast material, request these formats if the material is likely to be used for a general audience or if you know disabled people will be attending the event.
Chairs, speakers and presenters need to know about general access considerations and the particular needs of any disabled people attending before an event.
For example they will need to voice any slides or presentations they use and provide copies in advance to people with visual impairments or dyslexia.
Brief speakers to explain how to work with language service professionals (LSPs) and about any other arrangements in place. Explain that they should speak far more slowly than usual, to enable lip-readers and users of LSPs to understand what they are saying.
Chairs have additional responsibilities, like explaining evacuation procedures. They need to be aware that they should describe exits in terms of left and right, in front and behind (from the audience's perspective - "your left") rather than pointing or saying "over there".
They may need to remind speakers to speak up or speak more slowly. If this is done in a polite way, it need not be embarrassing.
At small meetings, it can be helpful to have meeting rules outlined at the start, such as only one person speaking at a time.
In some cases, it is helpful to get the group of people meeting to agree their own set of rules.
Some people have found use of "traffic light cards" helpful for running meetings. These are a set of four cards that mean "stop", "OK", "slow down" and "what?"
The chair can use these cards to control speakers or everyone at a meeting can have a set to help them to ask questions or ask for the meeting to slow down. Using the cards can help people who may be nervous to take part in meetings.
The guidance here is best practice in any situation and for any audience - to keep their attention and make sure they are comfortable and don't get bored.
When you draft your event programme, include enough comfort and refreshment breaks and ensure that they are long enough. Make sure sessions are not overly-long too.
People with continence problems may need to visit the toilet every hour. Everyone will be more comfortable if sessions are kept to about 45 minutes. If sessions are going to be longer than this, you will need to pause for a few minutes to give language support professionals a chance to rest. Allow long enough breaks so that people who use assistance dogs can take them outside.
Make sure you plan your programme or agenda well. If the event is a meeting, don't have too many items on the agenda for one meeting. Put the most important agenda items first.
Make your agenda easy to understand. If people with learning disabilities are likely to be attending, use easy words and pictures. To help people follow the agenda of a meeting, you could also put a picture of each agenda item on the wall and tear them down as you finish each item.
Think about discussing some topics in smaller groups. This can help people who find it harder to talk in a big group. You could also give people the opportunity to write questions down and give them to the chair to read out.
Once you have published the programme stick to the timings given. In particular, make sure meetings start and finish on time, as people may have arranged travel.
Many events use technology and special effects to add impact or to overcome issues such as the large size of a venue. You need to consider the impact for disabled people of any technology you use. You may find that some of the technology you use will provide a reasonable adjustment for some disabled people.
Some special effects can have a detrimental effect for disabled people, such as those with epilepsy or tinnitus. If part of your event involves flash lighting, strobes or other special effects you will need to consider how you let people know about this.
You should let people know about the special effects before the event takes place and give them the opportunity to feed back any problems to you. If technology is likely to cause problems for disabled people, consider alternatives.
Dimming the lights in a venue can prevent some disabled people taking part - for example, a hearing impaired person will be prevented from lip-reading. At some events the lights are dimmed as part of an entertainment element. At conferences and seminars lights are sometimes dimmed when speakers are using visual aids such as slides or videos.
It may be necessary to dim the lights in these circumstances because any glare on the screen prevents some people from being able to see the text on the screen. This is something to check when you audit the venue. It may be possible to overcome this by closing curtains and blinds and keeping suitable lights on in the room.
If dimming lights is necessary to allow delegates to see you will have to ensure that speakers and language support professionals are suitably spotlighted and that there is good light for reading.
Public address (PA) systems play an important role at many events, helping to ensure that people can hear what is being said in larger venues.
At conferences and seminars it is common for only the chair and presenters to have a microphone.
If you expect to let members of the audience ask questions from the floor it will be important to have staff equipped with portable microphones for the audience to use. This will help deaf and hard of hearing people to follow what is being said by helping language support professionals and those using the loop or infrared systems.
You should check the quality and the volume of the PA system for clarity and comfort.
At some events such as international conferences or events in Wales, infrared or radio systems may be used to provide language translation services. Check that this does not affect the radio or infrared system in use for hearing aid wearers. You could ask the suppliers of both services to liaise with each other to make sure that this does not happen.
You might also want to consider using speech to text report or palantype. This is generally viewed on a laptop screen when only a few deaf people are using the service but it is possible to present the text on a large screen placed on the stage area. This helps everyone to keep up with what is being said.
For practical tips, visit the top tips section of this guidance.
For other information resources, go to the resources section of this guidance.
Page last reviewed: 11 August 2008