Accessibility in Academic Events

Uh, welcome everyone to strategies for making academic events accessible. Um, my name is Steven Bonuto. Um, I work at the center for workbased accessibility. I come to this by way of experience organizing uh lots of events um for disability studies organization at my previous institution and I have recently been a part of the team who rewrote the uh EBC's accessible and inclusive planning guide and I'm so happy to be here today with colleagues from the center for work from the center for accessibility as well as the center for teaching learning and technology. Um, I'll let uh my co-panelists today introduce themselves. I'll pass it over to AC first. >> Hello. Uh, my name is AC. I work with the Center for Accessibility. I also do some work with CTLT uh when it comes to especially programs like um open educational resource grants and the UDL fellows program. I uh love to answer questions about formatting um all kinds of queries you might have about uh PDFs uh and what we will call an access copy. That'll be most of what I'll be covering today. Um, but I'm really excited to be here with my colleagues and we're hoping we have lots we can share about how to make your events more accessible. And uh, Bosan, I'll I'll pass it to you next. Uh, hello everyone. My name is Boson Kim. I'm a learning designer from CTL. I often work with faculty instructors uh, to help their classroom and then some event accessible. So now I will hand you over to Rachel. Hi everyone. I'm Rutil. I also work at the CTLT um for the events team. Um so usually I'm on the ground um executing all of the events. Um I'll pass it back over. >> Oh, so we'll start today with our land acknowledgements um coming today from the EBC Point Gray campus which is the traditional ancestral and unseated ground Musian people. I've recently um uh been thinking and reflecting on the First Nations Health Authorities's recent project um a four-year project uh asking indigenous um nations, First Nations members what accessibility means to them. It's been published as a journey towards accessibility. Um it's a really powerful um document that asks us to move beyond physical accessibility to think about all the ways that accessibility fosters belonging, allows us to live well in our community. I I encourage you to to to seek that out. Um and I'd love to have a conversation with anyone who's also read it. Um, with that we'll we'll move into the housekeeping portion. A few things before we start which I'm today reframing as an access invitation. Invite you to have it the space in a way that suits your body mind. Sit, stand, stem, step away as needed. Captions are enabled. Um, and you can turn them on interface. Cameras are optional. I say this because uh it's important for accessibility to state these unwritten social norms. Uh, so cameras on, cameras off as you see fit. Our event is being recorded. A uh a video and text transcript will be available after u for people who are joining us as for people who are joining us or not not able to join us today. Uh for participation today uh the chat is open and also the Q&A Q&A is enabled with anonymous uh options. So if you'd prefer to submit a question or comment anonymously um please do so. U for cognitive accessibility I want to give a short sort of agenda. Um it'll be this will be about a 75m minute presentation divided across four speakers. We'll offer uh a 3 to five minute break before um our our Q&A period uh as a way to acknowledge the different uh different ways people uh different cognitive styles and allow space for reflection before answer as you pose a question or think about a question you'd like to ask. Uh so next slide. Um we hope you leave the session with an invitation to uh invitation to accessibility as a a practice, a culture and a way of thinking. Hope you come away with some key insights from UBC's new accessible and inclusive event planning guide. And uh throughout we'll hope to connect access practices to u belonging participation and equity. And throughout we hope to develop practical practical considerations for your event that will increase your events uh access resilience. And we'll leave you with uh key resources and where to find more info. Slide. This is the access check-in. I both want to describe and practice it in the same slide. So um the nexus check-in often begins with um a verbal description of the space you're in. Um so since we're not in person today, I'd like to practice that. I'd invite everyone to close their eyes and imagine that we have gathered in this physical space and I will do a verbal description of this imaginary space. And this will be a way of providing a cognitive map, a cognitive map of access for the space that we're in. And we'll make access ordinary and recognize it as part of the infrastructure of our event. So I ask you to close your eyes and imagine you're in a lecture hall. Um, and I'll describe to you that there are priority seats in the front uh that allow um clear sight lines for the presentation screen for anyone who's using captioning today. um relying on that as a support for access need. I'll point out that there are also um priority seats on uh the edge of the room that the side of the room uh that most directly um adjacent to exits for anyone who needs to step away um the space need to step away during the event. Um, I'll talk about I would talk about the emergency exits of the room. Point those out. It's also accessibility is about feeling safe in the space you're in. And having described the having described this access map uh this infrastructure of access built into our event, I would then check in with you the audience. Um, so this is a virtual today. So, I I would check in I would I'll check in and say like I would ask invite feedback about the sound quality. Um the volume of my voice um the the pace of my delivery. If you were in person, you might ask about the environmental conditions, uh air, lighting, uh the availability of seating. Does everyone who has a seat need one? Does everyone have a seat where they need to have a seat? And this is a way of making access a collective shared responsibility. And it's also a way of acknowledging access as an ongoing iterative practice. You put all this work into your event. You built it access into the beginning. And this is a recognition that you can still at this moment the dynamic unfolding of your event like still check in and make changes. It can have a really transformative effect. It it helps the room take the shape of the people who are in it rather than asking the people who are in it to shape them to fit themselves into the space. I the first event I planned >> I put a lot of thought into it and more people showed up than I thought. It was a crammed room during the access check-in. people moved around, shifted space, shared that space so that people had could inhabit it in a way that fit their their access needs and their support. Um, and yes, I encourage it's really beautiful to happen and to see in motion. Next slide. Um, >> uh, disability is a design problem. I want to start uh by anchoring us in a definition of disability definition that I take from a recent work of media studies scholarship at the intersection of media studies and disability studies book by Nita Alexander called interface frictions how digital how dility how digital how digital reshapes our bodies. Uh in this book she says um uh I will use the term disability to describe any physical or mental condition that makes it difficult if not impossible to utilize default social institutional or physical structure without accommodation. And what I really love about this definition is the way that it hinges on the default, the starting point. Uh what's immediately available for use. A default um our defaults are never neutral. Uh our defaults shape who feels included and excluded. Default is often something that we don't we don't see. It's invisible. It's too ordinary. Uh but a default a default a starting point is you know radically contingent. It's open to radical change like the pandemic this radically shifted our default produce a mass disabling events or it can be a small it can be a default could be changed through intentional design through like one choice made every event building up towards more accessible futures for us all. So as we begin this presentation, I ask us all to consider, reflect on what are the default uh conditions, norms um or structures that make academic spaces and events inaccessible whether they be conferences, symposia, workshops, lectures or poster sessions that I'll turn over to. >> All right, thanks Stephen. I love that kind of leadin that is available through that idea of um how we understand um barriers within the environment. It's kind of being part of what we're dealing with today and trying to imaginatively figure out what we might not perceive as a barrier but might be a barrier nonetheless. Um, so to kind of start my conversation, I'd like to kind of carry on in that vein uh where Stephen started us to think about ways that we can change that culture, ways that we can uh change our approaches to spaces. Um, ways that we can start from the very beginning to plan out events that would be more accessible by design. Um, the nice thing about accessibility is that it is a philosophy that does shape those decisions from the starting point of uh, event design, which sounds a little intimidating at first. It sounds like a whole added planning stage that you're going to have to bolt onto your processes and is this going to add a great deal of work on the front end and how is this going to be manageable? uh because you're doing some of that planning work before you begin committing to things like um spaces, schedules, time frames. Um that lets you have a lot more flexibility in that early planning stage and you don't end up having to do a lot of work on the back end of things trying to retrofit, trying to scramble, trying to deal with barriers that maybe you didn't realize you were setting up for yourself and your attendees in that first place. So, um we can't really offer something like an accessibility checklist. uh we can't necessarily have kind of a built-in um series of boxes to tick to know that we have made our event accessible to everyone and we're all good to go. Um it's not really a compliance exercise making sure that we're not, you know, breaking the rules or going to get in trouble with somebody going to get yelled at. Um and it's definitely not something we want to be handling at that last minute once we've already booked our spaces, put the chairs out, um laid out the tables, and told everyone where to sit and stand. Um, we want to make sure that from those early stages, we're thinking through the best way to invite people into this space. Um, why we're holding our event, who we're holding it for, and how we can make sure that they can engage with each other in that space fully. So, it does require something of a cultural shift. Uh it does require everyone from organizers to presenters to volunteers to attendees. Uh all to be on that same page and to all be in agreement that um we're going to feel comfortable um letting folks know when something isn't accessible. And we're going to feel comfortable hearing that feedback and acting on it and getting creative as opposed to getting panicky or or kind of getting like, you know, anxious and feeling need to shut down some of some of those uh bits of feedback we might be hearing. because the goal is meaningful participation for everyone. Um why hold an event if people aren't going to come away from that event with a sense of having learned, grown, connected with each other. Um that's what's kind of motivating you to put on your events uh to bring people together in that space. So making sure that everyone can come together in that space um and participate uh fully and bring their full selves to that event is the goal of any uh event, I think. So hopefully we'll talk today about some ways to make sure that we're doing that and making it easier on ourselves too. Um as uh kind of that quote from Stephen touched upon um accessibility would be design choices that help uh recognize the fact that when there are barriers they require accommodation. If somebody is coming into the space and bringing with them um a barrier in the form of disability or some other way that they move through their environments, engage with content, uh communicate with others that will be locked by having that kind of structure in place for the event space. So when we're thinking about accessible design, we're thinking about ways to make design choices that allow the largest number of people to participate with the least number of barriers encountered and the least number of accommodations that we might have to make on our end um once people are in that space and experiencing those barriers uh to get those barriers out of the way uh to make sure that participation can can take place. So, when we're talking about accommodations, um, folks might be particularly familiar in the academic contest with things like letters of accommodation, uh, which, uh, my colleagues and I at the CFA are often, you know, pelting people with at the start of each term. Um, those letters of accommodation are recognizing the fact that there are barriers to learning for students with disabilities. Despite the best of intentions and the hardest work that we put into ensuring that students can participate, sometimes there are barriers in place to that equitable learning environment. So, we had the letter of accommodations as a workaround. Uh, when we're designing an event, uh, we want to try and make sure those barriers are not in place. So, we don't need to worry about, um, making quite so many one-off accommodation um, arrangements for folks that people don't necessarily have to um, you know, look on the uh, UBC website and try and figure out what the event space is like to get in their accommodation requests. um even with the best uh accessible design practices in place, the biggest budgets in the world and all the flexibility one could ask for which seldom is the case when when one is planning events. Uh but even in that best case scenario, there will still be times when folks might need specific accommodations. So even events that are accessibly designed do still require some kind of accommodation process in place so that folks know where to go if they need accommodations that um people who are handling the event know how to get those accommodation requests met. Um, but the better we do at kind of um perceiving barriers that might exist in our plans or in our planned spaces, addressing those barriers in the planning stages and making sure that we allow people to get around them or remove them where possible, we don't have to then field quite so many of those accommodation requests, which gets a lot easier when it comes to uh, you know, the day before the event when we're making sure everything is in place. So, while we do still need to make those individual modifications through accommodation in some cases, um accessible design means that we don't have to make as many of those accommodations. So, we have um more time to kind of commit to the event as a whole. We don't necessarily have to scramble at the last minute and try and make alternate arrangements because of a barrier that we didn't anticipate. We're hopefully getting all of that out of the way before the event starts. Um, so I think everyone here is coming here because we we feel that accessibility is important. That would be why you you decided to attend the event. So, thank you for coming. I feel like we don't necessarily have to, you know, push you into understanding why accessibility matter matters. It clearly matters to you. Um, that's why you've taken time out of this beautiful day to come spend time with us in a little box on our screens. Um but just to kind of talk through all of the ways in which um accessible planning can benefit uh you as a planner, your attendees and kind of uh the success of the event as a whole. Um academic events can like any event present barriers and the barriers tend to you know depend upon the nature of the spaces we're operating in and the kinds of activities that we want to engage in. So, as kind of Steven mapped out in that exercise of envisioning the space where you might be holding an event, um we often think about barriers related to mobility. Are there steep stairs? Do those stairs have handrails? Is there space in the room for people who might be using mobility aids to navigate? Are there a lot of tight corners? Um is the lighting clear? is there, you know, enough to navigate around the space without folks getting hung up on edges of tables, that kind of thing. Um, communications, uh, how are the acoustics? Um, will people have access to microphones? Um, will people be able to, uh, clearly see any screens that are being broadcast or have, uh, access to the content if they're not able to see those screens? Um, will people be able to communicate uh back with the uh presenters easily? Um, can attendees communicate and mingle with each other in person? Um, barriers of technology, scheduling, information processing, social norms. Um, there are many different types of barrier that can present itself. Uh, some easier to anticipate than [clears throat] others. We'll talk through ways of uh kind of planning for those and strategies for thinking through how to address them a little bit later in this presentation. But um there are quite a few barriers that can be posed depending upon uh your audience and how they are going to be participating with your content at your event. When we plan for accessibility, we're making sure that everyone who we're inviting can participate in our space. um it improves participation for folks who may have a harder time getting to these spaces in the first place and comfort participating in them. So um folks with disabilities, deaf, heart of hearing, um blind or low vision, uh folks who are neurode divergent, um maybe have chronic illness, chronic pain that might impact their functioning from day to day, um folks who are aging, all of us do, uh folks with caregiving responsibilities, be that kind of for children, for other family members and other underrepresented participants. um many folks you know I think all of us you know in some way would participate in some of these categories. Some of us may have overlapping um you know presences in some of these categories and certainly our attendees will too because all of these uh things we we touch upon are just aspects of of living and aging as human beings in our bodies. So by uh anticipating the fact that you know we're all people we all have um the need to exist in physical space um we are making sure that we are acknowledging the fact that we're not just kind of disembodied um consciousnesses even though in academia sometimes there is a push to kind of just focus on that aspect of being a human we are in bodies too. Uh so accessibility is going to also improve participation not just for folks who might have disabilities or other um kind of barriers related to those experiences but also attendees who might be attending who uh speak many languages but maybe the primary language being used at your event is not uh their primary language. So, if we're offering transcripts, if we're making sure that there are a lot of options for people to listen and engage, uh, we're supporting folks who might be working extra hard because they're communicating in a second, third, or additional language. Um, folks who might show up at your event with a temporary injury. They maybe didn't think they were going to need a disability accommodation, but maybe they're unexpectedly using a mobility device because they unexpectedly broke a leg. Maybe they are currently having some other temporary disability that they are learning how to navigate with. Um maybe didn't, you know, have a chance to let your event staff know about in advance. Because we've already built a more accessible space, people who are maybe dealing with an unexpected form of disability uh will be having an easier time as well and won't necessarily feel as much pressure to cancel out of concern that oh no, I was not planning for this. uh your planning for this by building an accessible design for your event has already helped take care of some of that strain uh potentially on your attendees. And I think this would be where I hand it back over to Steven if I remember correctly because we are now talking through the role of the access coordinator, the person to whom all of these requests can flow. >> Thanks AC. Yes, like an event is an exciting opportunity. An event change your life, but you need to be in the room where it happens or feel invited into that space where it happens. And events in academic spaces, um there are established routes for accommodation for students and faculty and staff through different offices, but um in these formal or informal academic spaces, they're often access can often not be prioritized. So, um, in designing the EBC's new accessible and inclusive event planning guide, um, I've outlined the role of an access coordinator. The access coordinator is a large appendex, um, with resources that's a part of the guide. So, the role of the access coordinator, you'd assign it to a person in your event planning group. um they would be responsible for the idea behind it is they would embed accessibility considerations throughout the event. Access would be in the room where it happens like that being in that room being the voice for access in that room where you're planning the event like helps give a particular shape and design to the accessibility you design for your event. Um and it's really important that like to think about accessibility as individual um sorry access accessibility as as very specific like it's not about um uh having a checklist but it's about a way of growing with your event grows evolves with your event. So practically speaking what would the access coordinator do? There would be a named contact for accessibility inquiries um in all event promotions and materials. And it's really important to have a a named contact. Um many forms rely on it just being part of the survey you're filling out for registration, but having that named contact really gives uh trust and accountability for both yourself as an organizer and for your attendees. So, if you uh you're more likely, I think, to let someone know about your access need, if that person is a person with a name, an email, a phone number, multiple ways to contact them, and there's accountability. So, for example, if you submit an access need or request for support on a registration form and you don't hear back from an event and you're waiting and waiting and waiting, uh there's no real way to like know who to contact. And it [snorts] also like you're saying something about yourself as vulnerable and you're saying it to a form. So, having this named contact I think is a really important feature of the duty of the access coordinator. The access coordinator is also going to coordinate accommodation requests from a speaker or from the guests [clears throat] and throughout the access coordinator is going to distribute the care the care and labor of access. They have this both internal and external um facing role um and we've given you some resources to carry out this role in the form of templates. So templates as opposed to checklists. Like templates are these like basically like starting documents. They're like reusable revisable content that you can expand or contract to fit the shape of your event. And there are temp there are three templates that are available. Templates for um training event staff or volunteers. Um gives them some uh vocabulary, some familiarity with access needs. uh interacting with guests with access needs, the kind of information you would would want to be prepared with as a volunteer to answer questions. It also includes a template for communicating accessibility information like the Basey was saying like accessibility and accommodation are knowing concepts. So like what I need to ask for as an accommodation as a disabled person really depends on what accessibility measures are already in place. What's the environment? What's the default? Where am I starting from? All this shapes like what I need to ask for if anything. And finally, it offers a u a template for um offering guidelines for accessible presentations for invited guests or speakers. Um next slide, we'll we'll talk a little we'll talk through uh early planning decisions. Um identify your target audience and potential barriers. This might mean being aware of the room and any modifications you might need to make to it. You want to choose your uh event format with accessibility in mind. Um and that really depends on the nature of your event, whether it's going to be um and your audience and how you wish to engage them, whether it be a inerson, virtual or hybrid event. Um it's really important to build accessibility into budgets which I'll talk about in a separate slide. Um you want to select accessible venues and platforms. Um and you want to consider um the timing of your events and how it impacts different people. Especially like thinking about like when you start events, starting event at 9 or 9:30, like that puts a lot of pressure on someone to get to campus. Or for example, if uh you're having a conference and all your networking opportunities are at the end of the day, that puts a lot of pressure on people who have caregiving responsibilities. Um and this, you know, can lead to unintended exclusion. And lastly, you want to develop accessibility statements and accommodation protocols. You want to have a process for responding to people who seek accommodations. Um, and you want to create an environment that welcomes people by creating accessibility statements. One example of an accessibility statement that I worked on recently is uh for the staff faculty barbecue. um that sort of puts into practice the guidelines from the new event guide, lets people know what to expect, sets cognitive expectations, it describes the physical location, it describes the sensory conditions, uh it tells people about the availability of different ways to participate in the event, but want to sit next to the live band or uh enjoy your lunch in in a quiet tent. So, next slide please. Budgeting for accessibility. Budgeting for accessibility. The most expensive aspects of your budget could be car captioning, communication, access, real-time translation services or ASL interpretation. And there are different ways to think about providing these. If you're providing these, if they're requested as an accommodation um from a particular student or a staff faculty member, you can work with the center for accessibility or the center for workplace accessibility to provide fulfill those requests. If you are looking to uh engage your audience and provide these uh services as a proactive accessibility design feature, uh you should be aware of their cost. Um uh communication access real time the cart captioning could be up to $250 per hour. Um ASL interpretation is usually around um $80 per hour. Um, you may also need to have think about uh budgeting for additional space, a quiet space, a space for people to uh decompress or self-regulate or just take a break during the event. It's a way of recognizing your divergent attendees, people uh might have energy conditions, uh people who have an episodic flare up and just need a place to to decompress alternative formats. These can be this is generally a lower no cost option. Um you can seek additional support for accessibility consideration or for accessibility um coordination. There's uh avail available resources through the EBCAV team. They have event staff uh a limited staff but they are able to offer consultation as well as your embedded AP and IT support and you can think about travel supports or beraries if that's possible. Next slide. inclusive uh inclusive programming. You want to look to recruit diverse speakers using broad outreach methods. Consider who's missing from the convers who's missing from a conversation whether that's based on gender, race, ability. Consider offering different um ways of engaging of engaging your audience through different varied forms of presentation whether that be a lecture, a round table, a workshop or a facilitated discussion. Next slide, please. Um designing physical accessible spaces. So your physical spe your physical space in some ways is the thing you have the least control over but knowing it um evaluating it communicating it to your audience makes them feel welcome makes them feel like their needs have been anticipated. Um so locating step free access and elevators not every building in UVC will have uh step free access on the front of the building. So, if guests need to to enter the building in different ways, it's important to provide them directions and instructions for how to do so. Um, thinking about elevators is also really important when you link it to accessible washrooms. People and their day around where they're able to use the washroom, uh, whether that has to do with disability or chronic health condition. Um, it's linked to elevators because, uh, the accessible washroom may not always be on the same floor as your event. So, if you're thinking about spacing, um, pacing for your event, you want to think about, uh, how long it would take a person to access the washroom during during a break and think about, uh, how that matches up with the break you have scheduled. Um, you can think about accessible seating options. We talked about ways in which you can have priority seating. You can also look for places that have ergonomic seating or adjustable height desks. Um really important is clear signage and wayfinding. How are people going to find or be invited into that space? So I've I've seen um the event guy been taking up in really interesting ways. Uh there a team in sold that has developed some interior way finding. So they have uh set they have a few a few rooms where they hold lots of events and they developed um these narrative descriptions about how to go from the front door to the event space. So they're narrative they're descriptive they tell you what you're going to pass like the sort of the couches how the lighting will change whether you pass windows um and it really helps invite into invite you into that space um in a different way. I've seen the department of kinesiology um who's moved in the new the new gateway building they have some of their events they have uh they've uh taken video to show people show people the new building to show people how to enter and find the find the the event space is also really interesting just another way of saying like there's lots of different ways to practice accessibility um and also fin thinking about the space in terms of its its sensory qualities. Um, does it have good lighting? Is the lighting too intense? Are there ways to think about um and and if the lighting is too bright? Are there ways to um mitigate that? For example, by starting with the lights off um and taking them up as you the presentation or the workshop um gets underway. Um and think about you know whether there are places within the event space or adjacent to it for you quiet or sensory spaces. You see these spaces popping up across faculties at UBC. Um um next slide please designing accessible virtual spaces. Um so um I'm going to move through this slide quickly in interest of time but designing is it's important to think about uh the availability of captions. Think about uh multiple participation methods and the ways that they open up uh different voices or ask perspectives in the room. uh whether that be like chat or reactions, anonymous forms of questions like the Q&A, you can offer recordings when appropriate. Again, depends on the nature of the event and the audience and what you hope for. Also remembering even though it's just an online event to plan regular breaks Um, with this I'm going to pass it back to AC to talk about another practical aspect of opening access and participation. >> That's great. Thanks, Stephen. Um, so, uh, Stephen kind of touched briefly on this idea of, um, making sure that materials are accessible. So, that would mean um, accessible to folks who might be using different types of assistive software like a screen reader. Um, folks who might have different ways of navigating through content. Um maybe they have uh less a graphical user interface and more kind of an auditory interface if they have um visual issues. For example, um maybe they are using a keyboard rather than a mouse. Maybe they have another input device. Maybe they're using dictation or um speech to text when they are uh communicating themselves. Um so making sure that the content is accessible um to folks no matter what way they like to engage with that content. um is the goal of the access copy. So, an access copy um is a an a phenomenon that goes by multiple names. You might have heard them called um other things as well. You might have never heard them really have a name before, but just kind of oh, can I get a copy of your slides? That sort of thing. At its simplest, that is an access copy. Um an accessible version of presentation materials uh provided to attendees in advance of the event. I know that can be a challenge especially when you're coordinating multiple presenters who have multiple demands on their time. Maybe they also have their own kind of barriers or navigating through their prof professional personal lives. Sometimes despite our best of attentions, we don't always get our slides done super far in advance. Um, but where possible, setting a deadline for presentation materials to enable you enough time, at least 24 hours ideally, to get that access copy um, together to get it edited into a format that you're pretty sure is pretty accessible and get it sent out ideally via email to your attendees in advance can do a great service for folks. And um it's uh hard to kind of list the different ways in which these can benefit people regardless of whether or not they have a disability just because it provides an easier way for people to follow along with that content. It might be rather dense. It might be a really action-packed day or an action-packed uh conference going on for several days or a week. Um sometimes we get a little bit overloaded. Sometimes we don't make it to the first part of the presentation and we don't know what we missed. Sometimes we'd really like to be able once we get back home to look back on something that really caught our attention from a presentation and maybe we took notes, maybe we didn't, maybe we had noted things down in the conference guide or in our kind of schedule and we didn't keep the paper. Um, having that access copy in advance is really handy especially kind of in that academic context. So the first kind of idea of the access copy is to support folks who might be using different types of assist of technology who might have difficulty hearing, seeing or following along in real time with the presentation in that standard presentation format of person talking to microphone and maybe is also pointing at some slides or maybe showing clips or maybe talking through a poster. Um, so any issues that impact hearing, vision, or concentration, um, having that access copy to fall back on can reduce a lot of anxiety for folks who might be concerned about, um, whether they missed something, trying to remember something that they previously heard or feeling like they're missing part of the conversation because maybe they're unable to hear or see to engage with some of the content that is part of that presentation. So an access copy advance lets people figure out what kind of media will be presented if there's anything that they need to do to be prepared for that or maybe they want to kind of run through some of those um descriptions of uh complex images some of those you know kind of more complex table formats of content prior to attending so that they're ready to go and able to keep up with that conversation. um accessibility support providers uh like the uh c uh professionals, the captionists and the ASL interpreters that Stephen mentioned earlier uh really appreciate having access copies made available in advance of the event. Um they are concept professionals. They encounter all manner of of content, but especially if there is perhaps specialized terminology being used in some of the presentations. um if proper names or place names are being used, if there are multiple languages being used at the event or um kind of specialized jargony phrases. Uh making sure that the uh pres the people who are providing that accessibility support uh can keep up with the presenters by knowing in advance what concepts and terms they might need to figure out um spellings or translations for is really really handy. so that they're not kind of on the fly trying to uh make sure that they are correctly understanding what's being uh presented. Uh making sure that your uh audience is actually getting a real- time and correct as accurate as possible um transcription or interpretation of of what's being said. Um, sometimes translation can be an imperfect art, but making sure that they know uh the full context of the presentation helps make sure that their word choices is spot-on and that they are keeping up without any gaps or pauses, making it tougher for folks to follow along. Um, all attendees this way uh know what to expect. They feel prepared. They can relax and focus their attention more fully. Um, sometimes the uh anticipation of not quite knowing where something is going makes it hard on the other presenters. Making sure that everyone is kind of on the same page feels prepared uh allows that anxiety to decrease. Um, it might help your presenters feel more relaxed as well. It might initially sound like it's adding more stress and kind of more to their plates by asking for slides in advance. But that way, your presenters are coming in without feeling like they need to scramble. they know that their presenters are coming in with the field to scramble and everyone is just a little bit more calm. So, it it can help a little bit. Maybe pitching it as a way to make sure everyone feels prepared as opposed to a you know, this is a hard and fast deadline might help ease that anxiety a little further. But it is a great way to ensure a successful engaging event for everyone, especially when there might be some of those additional access needs at play. But even when it's just uh kind of making sure everyone's you know confident and ready to go. Um there are lots of different types of format that can be considered for access copies really depending upon what the content is in its original state. Um making sure that people have uh accessible versions of session agendas, abstracts, um any kind of guide or um kind of conference brochure that might be provided. Um, things like reading lists, references, bibliographies, including those in those access copies of presentations is really handy because then if people want to kind of learn more about your presentation, they can easily jump to that bibliography or list of references and engage with that content that you're drawing upon more readily without having to hope they maybe transliterated the name of an author, right, when they scribbled it down on the back of a napkin. um making sure that your slid copies are provided as accessible PDF, DOCX or PowerPoint files. Um any of those three can work. It really kind of depends on the format being chosen for the original presentation. Um Excel PDFs are kind of a default but sometimes require a little bit of extra work. Um I've included links in this slide uh if you have um you know the the time and interest to check them out later. um kind of ways to make accessible versions of each of these kind of three standard file formats. Um you do want to make sure that you're including image descriptions and alt text for any uh complex visual content as well. Um those links included will talk a little bit more about that. Uh we also can talk later about resources for making sure that you are creating uh accessible content in those access copies because if not stopped I will I will talk about accessible PDFs all afternoon and nobody wants that. Um, but making sure that your access copies are actually accessible is a a critical step in providing those access copies to your attendees. Um, including links to audio or video content that's going to be played during the presentation. Um, ideally content that has captions, transcripts, and we're uh available described video is really handy for folks who might have trouble seeing or hearing that content. then they're not kind of left hanging while everyone else is engaging with that content wondering exactly what the uh what the clip is covering. Uh so they can come into that conversation feeling more prepared. Um making sure that you're providing accessible digital versions of posters and other visual materials. We'll talk a little bit more in a moment more specifically about poster sessions and how to make those very visual, sometimes not all that physically accessible type of event a little bit more accessible whenever possible. um making sure that you include um appropriate descriptions and uh that all text incorporated in any of these complex visual uh elements is selectable. Meaning that if you take a mouse and you try and highlight it, it doesn't just turn into a big block, but you can actually highlight line by line the text. Um makes the helps make sure that those uh things are more accessible to folks, especially those using assisted tech like screen readers. Selectable text is text that um screen readers and other accessibility uh tools can actually recognize. If the uh machine is not able to select that text, the uh machine is not able to see that text in the sense that it can't really recognize it. It cannot tell the user that the text is there. So people are missing out on all of that content if you're not formatting that text excessively. Um the link included helps uh kind of explain a little bit more deeply what that might mean. But basically just making sure that if something is being provided to folks, it's provided in uh formats that they are actually able to use, select, and see. Uh so poster sessions um poster sessions are a great way to get people mingling, chatting, building connections, um meeting people that they may not otherwise have opportunity to meet. Uh sparking some questions by having really kind of engaging content right up there on the wall. Um they're not always the most accessible spaces. Uh I've been to some that are in some pretty narrow hallways. Again, we don't necessarily have a lot of luxury over the physical spaces that we get booked into sometimes, but I I think anyone who's been to a poster event has had an experience of maybe feeling a little bit too short to actually see some of the content, maybe trying to push around people, maybe feeling like they can't actually get in to see some of that really fine print or detail. Um, maybe trying to take a picture of a poster for review later and realizing that somebody's head was in the way and they really didn't capture the content they were trying to engage with. Um, feeling awkward if maybe it takes you a little bit longer to read some of that content and feeling like you're blocking other people from engaging as well. Um, it can add like stress and kind of just physical discomfort at times trying to navigate through that space. Um, when possible, providing digital versions of posters, even if you're planning on having an in postperson poster session, is a great way to make sure that everyone actually can read every poster. Sometimes you don't get that chance just because of the crowd flow or because you're just not able to uh because of contrast, lighting, font size, any number of reasons able to actually read that poster. Um, it also lets you uh refer back to any ideas that really sparked a great conversation with the presenter. Make sure that you have access to contact information. If you want to email somebody and say, "Hey, I really loved your poster at such and such. Are you attending this conference? Would you like to work on something?" It makes it easier for people to continue that networking even after that poster session and helps ensure that if you know attendees are absent-minded the way I am, they don't accidentally lose somebody's contact information and then kind of feel awkward in that email back and not really get the chance to take that wonderful event experience forward into more wonderful events. Um, digital versions are also going to allow the people who are doing the hard work of presenting the posters to see everybody else's posters, too. Sometimes you might be presenting a poster, having a really great conversation. You don't get to see all of the other cool stuff. This way you do get to see that cool stuff maybe just a little bit later. Um, it doesn't make you feel that pressure of time to break off a conversation and run to the next poster or continue that conversation and have that kind of fear of missing out on the next cool thing. Um, attendees don't have to try and take photos for later, sift through, try and find the content they're looking for, realize they didn't get that content, email the presenters, email the uh people who were organizing the event trying to get some of that content that they accidentally didn't capture. So, it's just a great way to make sure that everyone, presenters and attendees alike, get a chance in a more relaxed way without quite as much time pressure to really engage with that content at a pace that makes sense for them and in a way that feels comfortable. And that folks who maybe are not able to uh physically maneuver through that hallway or see and read posters up on the wall are still able to enjoy that poster content and kind of engage with the topics at hand. And there are also ways to uh kind of make those digital poster session options um less synchronized when that's something that might be appealing depending upon the space that's available to you in your event, depending upon the time crunch. Um if you feel like you'd like to do poster sessions, but maybe they don't necessarily match up well with your schedule. If you're concerned that always putting poster sessions at lunch or the end of the day is maybe making it so people who um are facing other barriers like uh childcare commitments, lack of energy at the end of a long day. Um maybe a need to go and get um food that's allergy safe or works for them. maybe just need to kind of get out of the conference space and chill for a bit that those people don't feel like they're totally missing out on the poster sessions because they just didn't have the capacity or uh schedule flexibility at that given poster time. Um so the inerson with access copies of posters is one option. Um hybrid can also be an option if we are maybe doing um inerson displays with either synchronous or asynchronous sessions um via zoom or teams or other kind of platform of your choice. Um there's also the option of going purely virtual which would be zooms or team based with a schedule. Um I've kind of encountered some uh nicely run poster sessions that do have that virtual model where they're almost kind of organized like a conference within a conference. So you'll kind of have like sessions where you'll have breakout room one with maybe three poster presenters, breakout room two, three poster presenters. People choose which um panel essentially they would like to attend and then they have that virtual poster session presented in that breakout room with the ability to move freely between rooms. If there's a poster session, you know, in breakout room two and then one and three that you would also like to see, you can kind of skip around. Um, but you're able to kind of view it on your device, on your screen of choice with setup that works best for you with any assisted tech that you need. Um, maybe you have an access copy on the side so you're able to zoom in and see it more clearly while the presenter is talking through it. Um so there are a lot of different ways to make poster sessions work but I think at at the core making sure that people do have accessible versions of those posters uh available to them whether uh you know as an accessible PDF hosted on a website something that again has that selectable text something that people can engage with and use uh with their assisted technologies um read through at their leisure at a time and at a place that makes sense for them really helps make sure that everyone gets a chance to enjoy those posters and you Ideally, treat them as a text that they can use going forward. And it helps make sure that those conversations that are sparked in your event can carry on and deepen over time and maybe uh spread over into new sessions as well. I'm going to I think pass this back over to Stephen uh to talk a little bit more about uh the importance of microphones and acoustics because people can't hear you. they are not going to get to enjoy your content and you will be feeling rather awkward talking into space. >> Yes, thank you from JC. I think um yeah, you've spoken beautifully about access copies and the way they keep participation and offer flexibility um expand possibilities for connection. I I'd add one like one one other like way I kind of access copies was as a physical copy of something. They come from a literary studies background and um that often uh an event just means someone reading a paper. But when they have an access copy that really opens up the access resilient that like it really increases the access resil resilience of your event. For example, my close collaborator in grad school was um deaf or heart of hearing and like availability of an access copy meant that she could attend an event with confidence um that she didn't have even if she found out about it late >> didn't have time to request an accommodation for ASL or >> uh current captioning. She could have that confidence to go and show up and follow along presentation, be a part of that room. I think it's just so powerful. Um but I Yeah, that's a great point just just to kind of build on that too. Um, I feel like especially for folks who maybe have their concentration drift sometimes or maybe um have difficulty with auditory processing, having that transcript or that um kind of textbased version that you can follow along with when you are especially listening to something in like long form audio without maybe a lot of kind of breaks to talk through a slide I think is is super helpful because it can be quite easy for um people to kind of realize they missed maybe the last like third of your sentence and and then it's really hard to leap back into that paper and then you're kind of feeling self-conscious about having missed that part of the paper and then you're missing all of the paper. So, it really is a great way to make sure that you're keeping folks engaged and that they have something to anchor themselves with. >> Now, I'll pro now I promise to talk about uh sound, not only text. Uh so, microphones microphones amplify access. They're going to improve the clarity and audibility for everyone in the room. they're going to reduce listener fatigue. If you're only if you're only using your voice, then your voice is competing with the acoustic environment. It's competing with moving around. It's competing with uh an open window, perhaps the HVAC system. All these things can like detract from um and make people work hard to listen to what you're saying. Whereas, so it's essential to use a microphone even in a small room. This is one small way we can think about shifting the culture towards a culture of accessibility instead of thinking about microphones as options we as optional. We can think about all of the options that microphones allow. You can think about the affordances of microphones. The affordances of microphones give these positive feedback loops where like uh if you have a have a roving mic. ly now you have the same sound quality and audibility for people who are asking questions um as people who are presenting a high high quality sound um through a mic system it's going to improve u the accuracy of your captions especially if they're um autogenerated and it's absolutely essential for equable equitable hybrid events that sound quality is going to bring your hybrid participants into the space of the event, make them um equal participants and um use a microphone. It's also going to connect to assisted listing systems where they're available. They're available in some um classroom learning spaces at UBC and are coming soon to more places that that assisted listing system is going to like take the audio directly to someone's hearing aid. So yeah, there's lots of things you can do with microphones. Um, and next slide. Uh, captions. Captions are something that's really crucial uh to support and enhance uh access material, verbal material. Um, and the captions are something that helps more what more people than you think. Helps people who are deaf or heart of hearing. It's going to assist people who are multi- language learners or English language learners. It's going to help like AC was saying anyone who prefers prefers reading along like neurody diverent folks, people who are anxious in the space. Lots of people are anxious in academic event spaces like having the anchor of of captions actually to read along to. It's a way to reduce the the cognitive load of an environment. Imagine you're a nerd divergent student and you just walk across campus and there was a large event outside. You're overwhelmed by the science by the sound of the site and come to invent and you're able to pop in a pair of um earplugs and just follow along with the the captions. Um um next slide. Uh so understanding your options for captioning you can have um autogenerated captions which are available in Zoom and Microsoft Teams. In Zoom captions are not a default option. So if you're using Zoom as a meeting host you need to enable that in your settings before you start a meeting. Uh in Teams it's a default option. We also found that for inerson presentations uh PowerPoint has a live PowerPoint live um is available on the web- based Microsoft 365 that UBC has uh has quite high quality quite high quality u autogenerated captions. Uh that said, there are some limitations. Um if there are if there's excessive background noise um or some accents or or disciplinary specific language um that may or may not be picked up well by autogenerated captions. Um on the other hand, you could have cart or communication access realtime translation. So this is like human in person. Um, and it's a it's a trained professional uh that types out the content as it's being spoken. It is a significant cost about $250 per hour, but that's something that you'd want to think about as you budget for your event. Um, it's essential certainly when it's requested as an accommodation for event, you'd want to consider it fully. It's really uh well suited when there are multiple speakers at an event. For example, like a roundt will capture that um capture the back and forth of conversation much better than autogenerated captions. That said, if you're doing autogenerated captions, you could have uh mitigate say like for this presentation I'd say this is Stephen so that like speaking so that uh in the transcript it would it would note like who in the round table was speaking and that would also help in the virtual presentation um because you can't depend on people looking at the screen essentially um during a virtual presentation that helps people track the conversation. Um um um so I'm drifting a little bit but we'll go to the next slide in the interest of time. Um um so working with cart and ASL organi working with cart and ASL providers as an event organizer you want like AC was saying to have to ensure there are access copies them to work with because they may or may not be familiar with the language of your presentation. Um, and again, think about like access being this distributed uh system of of care and labor. Um, as a speaker, if you're working with an ASL provider, you want to speak at a uh speak at a moderate pace. Um, you want to be mindful that place names and proper nouns or place names and proper names um are often finger spelled. So they will take the ASL interpreter uh additional time. So and especially if you go off script and ad lib um you want to give it be mindful of your interpreter and give them time to catch up. Um, as a moderator, um, you want to be mindful of the Q&A session. If new terms are, um, introduced in the Q&A, uh, technical terms, uh, terms in the foreign language, proper names, you want to ask the person who asked the question or if you know how to spell it, spell it out. Um, so that would aid both the um that would aid both um the car provider or the SL interpreter. It also enhance like accessibility for attendees in the room. You know, if you're introduced to a name of a a thinker for the first time, um you may or not know how to spell it, like spelling it out letter by letter um will enhance uh your connection and your um the likelihood that you'll be able to follow through on the interest. Um next slide, please. And I want to talk just briefly about how design shapes who feels welcome at an event. Just thinking about the example of of captioning. Um so if you're hosting an event and there's no captioning, um you have the assumption or you're conveying the assumption that everyone hears and interprets sound the same way. And this can lead to unintended exclusions. uh you could offer captions as foundation. This would convey your openness and awareness of of a diversity of ways of processing information. But then as an accommodation, it's also going to leave uh the individual to bear the burden of like coming forward and also you know people don't always know what they need. So the third example, you have provided captions as part of the accessibility of your event. Um this sends a warm and inclusive um this creates a warm and inclusive atmosphere. It shows that you've recognized and anticipated the needs of a diverse a diversity of body minds. Um and it's available it's available for anyone to use whether you know you need it or not. um it's just a resource in the room. Um um and lastly, I'll speak about um codes of psychological um uh codes of conduct. So accessibility is also about psychological safety. So it it's important about uh publishing a code of conduct. Uh think about publishing anti-harassment procedure. Describe any way that uh the reporting mechanisms accountability way that you're going to make this space a safe space for everyone to be invited into. Um and in in time, I'm going to pass it over to Rachel to give her events perspective. >> Sure. Thanks, Stephen. Yes. So, I want to be aware of the time, so we may have to breeze through a little bit. I do want to remind folks that if you do have any additional questions, we will have our emails at the end of the presentation. Um, and we do welcome any followup, so feel free to ask away then. Um, so yes, um, this is just where we will walk through an event planning timeline together, starting with the 3 to 6 months before the event. Um, going over those early planning decisions we had talked about earlier in this presentation. This can also include building in accessibility into the budget. We simply want to communicate this sort of commitment um to accessibility and outlining those best practices for the planning committee and everyone else involved. Um so you can make your modality decisions at this time. Like we mentioned before, there are quite a few different factors you want to be aware of um when making this decision. Again, we have all of this information in the um accessible event guide um which we will also share at the end um that will help you um and guide you in that process of choosing. Um you can also make your time and date decisions at this time. So considering what timing may be best for faculty, staff, students, families, your designated audience group in general. um and being mindful about um conflictions with any major holidays. Um if the event is related to a major holiday, then ensuring that the appropriate observances are being taken. Um this may be a good time to appoint your access coordinator, something that we have talked about previously. Um and then also communicating any best practices to your um presenters um on board. So providing any guides, resources or templates um that can be helpful for folks. Next slide. So this is a bit more admin related. Um so one to two months before the event, you may want to think about starting registration early enough to accommodate any accommodation requests um that come through. Um, even specifying requests timelines can be helpful for folks, um, just so they know when to be getting these in to you. And providing that free text accommodation requests field is helpful um, so that folks do have this space um, to do so. Um for inerson events um making sure that you have your questions regarding dietary restrictions for your catering um can be done on your form itself. Um and then having the access coordinator information um anywhere on the event registration page or in the form um so that any questions and concerns can go directly to them. I do want to mention though that it is okay if you don't have any um or if you have inaccessible features to your event, simply communicate this. Um so this can be done in a short disclaimer on your registration page um the form itself, your email confirmation. Um just simply communicating that to folks um is a good way to go about that. Um and then this is also the the time to coordinate those accommodation requests. Um, this can mean booking or confirming staff. Um, learning more about the event spaces and their capabilities. Um, you may even want to review and prepare presentation materials for accessibility. So, there is a designing accessible content section in the accessible event planning guide um, which is great and you can check that out as well which is very um, helpful. And then for the email confirmations, we do um encourage plain language in the event descriptions. So any additional information, you can also remember you have the email confirmation space. So this can include um talking about wayfinding, any sensory accommodations um and anything else can go there. Next slide. So about a week before the event um you can communicate this expectation of um collecting access copies to your presentation or your presenters um and so that they can submit those in advance to you and then you can then um give those to your participants. You may also want to share materials with your accessibility support providers. So bringing them in and informing them of the content in advance. We mentioned again previously the importance of providing them with these access copies. And then for um physical spaces, you may want to test any technology that's in the room um and conducting an accessibility walkthrough. So the accessible event planning guide again has a great section for choosing an event location that includes some considerations that you may want to be aware of. um as well as in the in-person event prep section. Also a very good resource for that. I also want to um bring attention to a safety walkthrough as well. So reminding folks like locations of emergency exits, including a protocol for folks with limited mobility or any other disabilities. Um and then letting folks know that they can always contact the access coordinator if they have concerns about um how they would safely evacuate during an emergency. And then of course briefing all any all and any um staff and volunteers who are helping you with this event. Next slide. We'll jump to during the event. So again we have um uh explained and demonstrated earlier what an access check-in is. So that is something that you can start off with. Um and just having your access coordinator also monitoring any um concerns that come through and then responding quickly if any barriers do emerge. Um there here are some tangible points um that can be communicated to presenters um as part of their best practices guide for the presentation. But we'll move on to the next slide. Um so food and catering um best practices to be aware of. So just be aware of crosscontamination. If the event is selfs served, ensure that there are just excess serving utensils um and they are used for each dish. Clear labeling can also be very helpful. So including ingredient lists um and which items may be friendly for different diets. providing just like a disclaimer um to attendees that despite efforts to reduce priority allergens, it may still um exist and we cannot guarantee completely that it will be free of allergens. Just making sure that we have these disclaimers around um so folks are aware. One other point are that straws are not commonly provided by catering services. Um but you could consider requesting for some um for those with mobility or vision disabilities. For participation, we do just want to encourage participation agency um and flexibility and how you engage with the session. Um, and you can even build in alternative participation options like Padlet or a Slido or note cards if you're in person um for that anonymous participation aspect. And then quickly just to go over networking. So offering name tags could be helpful. It sort of introduces um these gestures to make the event more inclusive and welcoming. And then also being mindful about when this networking is t being t place um during this event. So for example, late networking hours can cut into folks's caretaking duties um or just making sure that if you are having the networking take place at another location that that is being communicated um in that wayfinding aspect. Um and then next slide please just after the event. Um so again sharing the link if the event was recorded sharing any event transcripts presentation materials um content material information or any other sort of links that were shared during the event um can be provided to all your participants. Um and then also if you do have permission from any of your speakers or guests um you can even share their contact information to attendees who wish to follow up or ask any um questions after the event as well. And then gathering feedback. So it is nice to sort of allow for that anonymous feedback but also offering attendees the option to provide their contact information if they wish to receive a follow-up. Um, having those two options available is helpful. Um, and if you are looking for some sample questions to include, they are actually available in the access accessible event planning guide. So maybe another push to go see that. Um, but it is beneficial to add that accessible or accessibility evaluation question and document those lessons learned and then hopefully they can all be integrated to your future events. um yeah that you continue to plan in the future. Next slide. Oh I think I pass it on to Bosang here. >> Thank you Rachel. Uh we just have few slide left. So I'm positive that we will be able to finish all of them on time. So making special class session accessible. So in a teaching context, an event would be uh a special activity that happens as part of course but is much different from the instructor's regular teaching such as guest speakers, student presentation like capstone event, field trip or special demonstration. Uh instructor often plan this event on their own without a dedicated access coordinator. So the instructors are taking some of the coordinating role by thinking about accessibility in advance. It sounds a bit intimidating. Uh however many accessibility practices are the same. So what we have just uh learned from the session can be applied to classroom event. For example, sharing information in advance, aiming to identify and reduce participation barriers, maybe by providing some flexible options and providing accessible material. Next slide, please. So when inviting a guest speakers uh guest speakers may have their own access means and there is a high chance that they may not be familiar with the classroom environment and the technology available in your classroom uh or some accessibility practices. So having a short conversation before the class with a guest speaker can definitely help identify any access need and prepare uh guest speakers for your teaching environment. Uh again the UBC accessible event planning guide includes an accessible event template. I took a screenshot from the guide uh that instructor can adapt when communicating with the guest speaker including like presentation tips uh some special tips for virtual presentation and then how uh they are introducing and do access checkin during their presentation. Next slide please. Uh a student presentation when students are presenting they become presenters too. So one of the simplest things instructor can do is to model accessible presentation practices in their own teaching. For example, using accessible slide describing important feature during presentation and facing student when you're speaking can help students see this practice as a normal part of presenting. So before student presentation uh highly encourage you to share a few important accessibility guideline and also briefly explain why they matter. This helps a student to understand the accessibility as part of the effective communication rather than simply a set of some formatting requirement. And where appropriate uh also consider giving student a space a way to share their presentation material in advance so their classmate can review them before and after presentation uh if needed. Uh next slide please. So field trip uh field trip is somewhat different because it takes place outside the regular classroom. So they often require additional planning for both instructors and a student. Uh if a field trip is part of the course uh make sure to include that information in the syllabus. If the site has a host or representative uh connect them connect with them only and ask about accessibility features or any available support and resources and then share relevant information with the student in advance. If possible, you may want to visit the site in advance to get this information such as transportation option including accessible parking and transit bus route information or any turn information like a site condition whether it has some slope or muddy condition, walking distance from uh the transportation and then some physical demand information. also accessible washroom information that is needed for uh people with some physical disability and other features of the site that may affect participation uh that need to be shared with the student. A short orientation to the site can also help a student understand what to expect and ask a question and plan for access need. A video or some uh photo might could be really helpful and if it is needed instructor may consider flexible ways for student to participate and meet the learning outcome. Then it become more accommodation. The goal here is to provide an equitable opportunity to learn uh even when student may engage with the field trip experience in a different way. Next slide please. So here's the key takeaway from our presentation today. Uh the goal is not simply to provide accommodation after a barrier appears. Uh here the goal is to create some academic space uh where accessibility is embedded from the beginning in our planning, design, uh participation and in our culture. When people know what to expect and then have the information they need in advance and feel welcomed uh to participate, we are much more likely to create it uh create an accessible and inclusive event. Now I'm going to hand this over to Steven so he can talk about some funding opportunity. Stephen. >> Absolutely. Thanks Bosang. Uh yeah, we want to let you know about a UBC funding opportunity that is a way to put this practice into action. Um I left the key point off the slide. Um the fund is um for events that are that have uh faculty or staff as their main or majority or target their main or target audience. Um so the fund is the workplace accommodation fund and uh it's sponsored by the center for workplace accessibility and the fund for enhanced uh this opportunity for adv enhancing uh event accessibility is a 50-50 cost sharing model. Um, so if you want to embed some proactive uh things, proactive considerations into your next event, whether that be uh CART or ASL, uh, AV enhancements, sensory kits, and more, uh, there's a 50-50 cost sharing model and application available at the link above. Um, and yeah, we're really excited able to be able to offer this and uh work with you collaborative collaboratively to to make um accessibility accessible and make it part of our culture. Um, and with that the next slide we'll leave you with a few resources. Um, the center for replace accessibility has also launched a pilot program. Um it's be found here at this it's called census access and this is a place that you can direct your students and you can also use as a faculty member place you can direct your students uh to um easily convert documents into a variety of formats. It can make it it supplements but doesn't replace the amazing work that AC does with their team at the CFA. Uh but it does make accessibility um available at scale and makes makes kids empower students to choose what they when they read and how they read. Uh and lastly, the CTL has website called accessibility 101 where you can find further information, dive deeper into some of the topics we've discussed today. Thank you so much everyone for joining us today. Um we've almost run up to the limit of our time. Um, I do want to open it up to questions if people do have questions.