Redefining The Accessible Event

We dived into what makes an event truly accessible with Accessibility and Inclusion Educator, Rachel Belier-Wilson. Listen to discover how to remove barriers so everyone can feel welcome to experience your event to its fullest.

From toilets to table heights, the first-hand challenges a participant with accessibility needs faces and those that are often overlooked by event planners. At the age of 17 Rachel suffered a severe spinal cord injury and broken back and through her lived experiences of exclusion, she found a passion to inspire change across the industry. 

Rachel shares her advice for event planners setting up a framework for accessibility and inclusion at events. 

Hope you enjoy this episode!

B.listening is a podcast series created by the event professionals at Broadsword to share our insight and experience with individuals across or interested in the events industry. Follow us for more advice for event profs.

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Transcript

Christine:
Hello and welcome to our podcast series created by us here at Broadsword called Be Listening. Today we will be discussing accessibility in and around events with an amazing guest who's a coach and mentor, a live events professional and an access and inclusion educator. Please welcome to the podcast Rachel Belier -Wilson. Thank you for joining us today. 

Rachel: 
Thank you for inviting me. I'm really delighted to be here and share this conversation with you. 

Christine:
Can you please introduce yourself, what you do and what inspired you to work in the accessibility field? 

Rachel: 
Well, you've already done a brilliant introduction. Thank you. So as you rightly framed, my name's Rachel. I'm an access and inclusion consultant and educator amongst other hats that I wear in the coach arena as well. And what inspired me get into this area of access and inclusion; Well, there's a bit of a backstory actually, so stay with me on this. I'll try and keep it abridged. At the age of 17, I suffered a life -changing accident. I broke my back and my neck. I suffered a spinal cord injury and I ended up in a coma for over a month. 

When I emerged back into the big wide world, nearly a year later down the line after undergoing intensive physiotherapy, the world looked very different to me and not only did it look different, it actually treated me really differently too. And so I then spent some years really having to sort of reframe who I was to reinvent myself, so to speak, and find ways of overcoming all those barriers that I faced, whether they were physical or attitudinal, and really try and find a place where I felt I fitted. And through a fortuitous set of circumstances through my studies, I found myself in an amazing placement in a business that I'd never heard of and didn't know existed in the live events arena, so global events and incentive and rewards house. 

And as it happened, they offered me a position to come and work with them in their events team once I finished my studies. And it turned out I was really good at it. And that was despite some of the rather suspicious looks I got when I entered the building. And despite some people saying, you'll never be able to do this, we hit the ground running every time we go on site. But notwithstanding that, I became accepted in that environment. And it turned out that I became really great at looking at things from different perspectives and finding creative ways around.  common problems and that all stemmed from my own lived experience where, and let's face it, every day I have to find ways around just your everyday scenarios. 

And so from there, what led me to here was another set of events really, starting out with lockdown, which as I'm sure  all of us were experienced in the events arena, hit us really hard and it certainly hit the business I was in really hard. But what was sort of quite eye -opening was that in that moment, everybody, everyone experienced what it was like to be plunged into a very different world, an alien world, where everything that you take for granted has suddenly changed. And I could really relate to that. So as the events industry started pivoting into virtual events, it kind of felt for me like an opportunity to include everyone. And for me, it was the start of something really exciting. And actually on the receiving end, in that few years of lockdown where I was attending virtual events as well as putting them on, I benefited from that personally and I realised that I was no longer having to, I didn't find myself internalising about how I was going to get there and what sort of environment was going to meet me when I got there and whether it was going to be accessible or not and could I get there by tube or would I have to go by Uber or would I have to be shouting out for some help from general public as the train drew in and the ramp wasn't there. So those sort of little everyday challenges just evaporated. And in the virtual world, I kind of felt like I was the same as everyone else, that it was really easy for me to show up as myself and feel that sense of fitting in. 

But as the world started opening back up, so did that big void between inclusion and exclusion and  accessibility and inaccessibility. And that was sort of my epiphany moment, if you like, and it was the space that I felt I really had a passion to want to fill and a desire to encourage the industry to fill it too. So that's kind of what's brought me here. 

Christine:
What accessibility challenges have you seen firsthand in the events industry? Do you find some things are often overlooked? 

Rachel:
My goodness. Well, shall I pick a few out from my sort of 7 ,942 examples? Yes. And yes, so much is overlooked. What comes up for me is that accessibility for event planners is often just very one dimensional. It's kind of a little bit of a tick box exercise. I think, you know, we love our lists and our tick boxes, don't we? And I suppose what I mean by that is, okay, accessibility, right, well, let's just make sure it's got an accessible toilet. Has it? Yes, tick, job done. Well, I've lost count of how many accessible toilets I've visited at venues and they've been broken or out of use. They've been locked. They've been open but full of cleaning product. They've got, you know, maybe no mirror or no hand cleaning product. That's kind of what it feels like to feel like a second class citizen sometimes in those sorts of scenarios. And, you when I've brought it to the attention of event staff or venue staff, the response is shocking. There's sometimes sort of, well, we don't get many disabled visitors. Well, you know, is that any wonder? 

The irony is if it was a vegetarian they were presenting a meal to and they got it wrong and they presented them with a lamb chop, response would have been very different. So it just doesn't feel like it is high enough at the priority list. So let me give you some examples of just sort of everyday scenarios in the events world.  A networking event, for example, you know, there are many events I've shown up at and they've been beautiful, big, clean, chic spaces. They've got high poser tables for easy drink service and no seating because they want to encourage a nice free flow of people moving around. And that sounds really cool, right? And it's probably bang on brief. But, now imagine that same scenario from the perspective of a wheelchair user when everything happens up there above you. The drinks are up there. The conversation is happening up there above you. And maybe think about how different that might feel if actually there are a few low rise tables and a bit of occasional seating where people can sit and have a conversation. And there's a choice for everybody how different that might feel, not just for the few, but for everybody. So it's things like that, that are real opportunities to be missed. And I'll give you another scenario, in conferences, for example, where the only place that actually is safe and accessible for me if I'm arriving with my mobility issues on walking sticks is probably the back row on an outside chair. But yet the people I want to sit with have already gravitated to the middle. the seating is too tightly packed for me to safely navigate through there. So it's just sort of these kind of tunnelled views that haven't been looked at with blinkers on. 

I'll give you some other examples when I've been presenting and I've been booked as a speaker. This is sort of like a, you know, a hilarious, ironic situation. The venue's room was only accessible by flight of stairs. There was no step -free access. You couldn't make this stuff up. And I was speaking more recently with a very good friend who's partially sighted at an events expo and they turned up to meet me, they were wearing a Sunfly lanyard and they asked to be directed to me and the event staff pointed and said, well, she's over there. Not super helpful for someone who's partially sighted, but they hadn't spotted the Sunfly lanyard. Maybe they weren't even sort of educated in what that meant. It's just like, you know, the simple little gotchas like that. You know, I could I could go on and on events at Legoland. I shouldn't have said that ... events at a well known theme park maybe! You know, I have a choice here I can I can get to the rides without killing myself or anybody using a mobility scooter. But then I can't access the rides or I can go down the slope like a human cannonball in my wheelchair. And it's big if I and the rest of the general public survive, I can get onto the rides, boom. It's kind of just ridiculous scenarios that have easy fixes but just haven't been mapped through properly. 

And those are just sort of the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on. I've been to events organized by events professionals as an attendee. And there have been great creative ideas of team building exercise in the middle of it, where you grab something from under your chair and you run around and find the rest of your team. And it's all frantic chaos. And the fastest team wins. Well, how to set somebody else up. someone how to set someone else up to fail who has mobility issues. I'm never going to succeed in that kind of a scenario. there are easy fixes for these kind of things if they could just be looked at from a slightly broader perspective. So yeah, I could go on and on, but there are many accessibility challenges that  I've seen and been part of firsthand. And that's just looking at it through my lens of a mobility disability. And you open that up to, you know, you ask the same question to somebody who has sight limitations or hearing loss or neurodiverse challenges. And I'm sure they will give you as many examples and some. 

Christine: 
What advice would you give to planners starting from the very beginning? What are the core foundations to creating an accessible environment? 

Rachel: 
That's a great question. And I probably go with five easy steps. So firstly, I would encourage any business before embarking on this just to press pause for a moment and ask itself a series of key questions, starting with why. 

Why is this important to you? What do you want to achieve by going down a route of embracing access and inclusion within your events, plans? And how far are you prepared to go? So dive in and just probe what that means to you personally and professionally and what your expectations might be of yourself and your team.Have a think about how you might be positioning this, how you might position your ambitions with your clients. Just take some time to organize your thoughts so that you can define your purpose around your access and inclusion strategy. 

And then I would strongly encourage you to invest just a little bit of time in access and inclusion education and that really helps create heightened awareness around difference and exposes some of your team members to the common problems that might come up for them and help them feel a bit more comfortable with what they're getting into. And I personally find that the best way to bring this to a team is through some experiential education where they can  really start turning that information into understanding by walking a mile in other people's shoes, so to speak. And I'd also encourage businesses to invest some time in coaching their team, not just in the what, but the how. And that's really because however far you take this, you're not going to be able to fix all of the physical challenges that you meet. And what you can't fix in that area, you can certainly enhance enormously by developing the right attitudes and the right customer service around it. So for example, if we look back a few years ago to the 2012 Olympics, they certainly didn't get all of that right. But one of the things they did really well was by bringing on the team of games makers so that there was a framework of human touch points that enabled everybody to feel a sense of belonging, a place they could go to, a safe space to ask questions. And then third up, I'd crack on with capturing your guidelines, your checklists, your templates. Those are things you can, you might feel comfortable starting yourselves. 

But if not, there are always accessibility experts with lived experience out there who can help support you in that, in that endeavour. And then make a start. It's easy to put more obstacles in the way, but just make a start. And I would really encourage everybody to build access and inclusion into the creation of the brief. So make it a leading thought, not an afterthought. Trying to retrofit and shoehorn accessible practices into existing infrastructure won't necessarily lead to that event feeling inclusive. 

And then finally, my last piece of advice would be keep in mind that the journey for people with visibility and invisible disability doesn't start when they arrive at that venue. You might just be responsible for that venue, but the event journey starts from the moment they leave home. In fact, it starts from way before that. It starts from the moment they receive that invitation or try to register. consider the whole steps of that journey, but also don't forget about that piece, that critical piece of how people arrive and how people leave, because those are pieces that people really start to remember. 

Christine: How can event planners effectively gather and respond to accessibility needs before and during the event? 

Rachel:
there we go. That's that leads on nicely, doesn't it? I think first off, get your accessibility guide in place and publish that guide and include images and photography where you can, obviously with alt text. And make sure that that guide includes not just what you can do, but what perhaps you can't do as well, because that answers a lot of those questions that people with disability might have. Make sure that you publish that with accessible tech, like screen readers, Braille display, and make sure you've enabled your alt text so that it becomes accessible to everybody. That will sort of alleviate a lot of the pinch points for event organizers by getting that framework in place and getting it right. And then the next step is to ensure that you're asking the questions of your audience that will really enable you to understand the accessibility requirements better. Remember that 24 % of population, the worst population is disabled. That's nearly a quarter of the entire population. And yet the irony of it is I wonder how many questions you ask of your audience about special diets. I guess probably about eight. Are you lactose intolerant? Are you vegan, vegetarian? And hundreds of other questions that follow that. Now, I wonder how many questions you ask about additional needs. Generally only one. Just a big text box. be more curious, find out how you can best meet individuals' specific needs. What's going to make it a great experience for someone with additional accommodating needs? And that might require you to have a follow -up question or follow -up conversation, whether that be in verbal or written communication. And whilst you're doing that, you're developing your own understanding of this field as well. It's new to a lot of people. So those would be my pieces of advice pre -event. 

I think during the event, you know, that's where the Access and Inclusion training really pays dividends. One of the biggest blockers I hear time and time again from event staff is that they avoid asking the questions or approaching somebody because they don't want to offend people. Now events businesses that have invested in some access and inclusion education will see the confidence levels rising in their events teams, their on -site teams feel really comfortable and confident about engaging with everybody who shows up at that event regardless of difference. where it's relevant, they'll make themselves known to anyone who's got additional needs. In an ideal environment, everyone would be able to navigate all of the facilities and information in event space independently, but that's a really idealistic view. And in my experience, it's rarely the case, it? So in some instances, that need for some additional human touch points is probably going to be needed. And an event that there's a duty to equip event staff with the skills for that so that they're able to watch out for the visual cues and feel really comfortable about how to engage with people with disability in an obtrusive manner. I suppose what I mean by that is in the same way that you would just if somebody was struggling with some packages or a briefcase under their arm and not able to get through the door, you wouldn't just go, or I'll just look away and avoid any contact with them because I don't want to offend them in case they go, no, no, I'm fine. You'd go up and you say, well, how can I help you? And it's just being able to do it in a respectful meeting of equals in a way that makes everybody feel valued and included. 

People will always remember how you made them feel, won't they? So those would be my quick tips for before and during. 

Christine:

How is technology possibly changing the landscape of accessibility at events? Do virtual events play in accessibility, in that accessibility? And what are the unique challenges that they might present? 


Rachel: 
Yeah, for sure. Event tech has enhanced accessibility, particularly for the disabled community, just phenomenally. Things like chat GPT, screen readers, braille displays, voice input, closed captioning, color contrasts, and just use of accessible fonts and color and imagery. All these sorts of advancements have made for  increased accessibility for all, haven't they? And the tech is there and it's constantly evolving. We just need to make sure that we're harnessing it in the right way across our event space. And you mentioned virtual events there and for sure virtual events and hybrid events, I mentioned them earlier. They've certainly been a welcome arrival for many in the disabled community, particularly for those who may have physical or medical challenges that might prevent them from attending an event in person each time. But I think the reality of how these are experienced really lies in how the platforms and the event tech has been sort of programmed  into that event design. And what I mean by that as a for instance is that some site functionality might only be accessed through a mouse click and that's potentially going to exclude people who can't use a mouse, people with maybe upper limb mobility challenges. If colour contrasts haven't met the web contrast accessibility guidelines, that might mean that it's really difficult for someone with sight limitations to navigate. I think, know, neurodiversity conditions have been really well documented and actually have been feel like they've been really well embraced by the events arena. And that's probably because it sort of attracts  people with creative minds and we know that neurodiverse conditions exist in the far reaches of all aspects of creativity. So, you know, perhaps that's why suddenly we've, as an events industry, we've latched on to this in particular. But those kind of help areas are really well documented now. you know, for instance, certain typefaces are much more readable than others. And these are all really simple solutions to put in place. I think where the challenges are concerned, I've mentioned a few there's there. 

I suppose we all experience things differently, that's the starting point, isn't it? And then add to that, that disability and the span of accommodations that might be put in place to meet those disability needs is absolutely vast. So if we take audio, for example, there may be difficulty in the virtual world of understanding or hearing participants or there might be unreliable captions that don't match what's actually being articulated. Presenters may be speaking too quickly or there might be misplacement of mics or cameras or lighting that hinder lip reading. Where sight limitations are concerned then perhaps people won't be able to see participants' names or faces and have difficulty knowing who's speaking, or perhaps there's a lack of explanation of what's visually going on. So there's a loss of context. And we've already talked about the cognitive side of things. Maybe it's an overloading of information while participants are trying to take on board lengthy presentations and insufficient time to process what's being discussed or to create ideas around the discussion points and a need to bed in some spare time just to process what's going on. Presenters using complex language and speaking in abbreviations or jargon is a really common problem in the virtual and the live world, isn't it? So those are some of just the common challenges. I'm really aware that I've given you a myriad of challenges just there. 

But I would really urge people listening to this to kind of keep in mind that these aren't going to hit you all at once. So please don't get overwhelmed by pondering about the enormity of it all, I'd really suggest to try and keep it simple. So know your audience, ask the questions, and then put simple solutions in place.


Christine:

What kind of impact does it create to include everyone from different abilities and backgrounds in an event?

Rachel: 

 well, this is the question, isn't it? What a great question. 

And I think at a top level, it's really easy one to answer. Everyone feels great, everyone benefits, everyone feels part of that belonging. They feel inspired, they're giving great feedback, they're posting about it. It's a win -win, isn't it? But let's flip that around for a moment. And let's look at what the what the alternative leads us with. 

Now, I wonder if I can take you back, perhaps, you can take yourself back to a time when you felt excluded or you didn't quite fit in. Now, that might have been, know, when you were five years old and you didn't get an invite to a friend's party, or, you know, maybe you were left out. in a game in a playground or you didn't get picked for the football team or the netball team or you just didn't get the WhatsApp that went round inviting people for a drink after work. Just take moment now and think about how that made you feel. anxious, sad, all of it. Yeah. And it's the one thing we've all got in common, right? We've all been excluded at one point in time or another. We know how it feels. And isn't it interesting? We know how it feels. It has a lasting impact. These are deeply painful experiences and they don't leave you.

So if we exclude anyone and one single person of our audience from feeling part of that event, it damages them and it damages your reputation. When you're delivering an event, you want great feedback. Bring the world of Google reviews and Instagram messages and threads. People have voices across so many mediums these days. And of course we want it for its own sake. We want people to have an amazing experience, but we also want it for our own business, don't we? We want great feedback. 

So I think for me, including everyone, not just, I don't think of it just about our attendees of the event. I think about that as the start of the design process. So for instance, imagine during the event planning, you're surrounding yourself with people who you get along with brilliantly. They all agree with you. You've all got similar backgrounds and education, got similar hobbies. You've got similar ideas about things. What's likely to happen about the way that you develop that event? You're likely to create an event that's going to appeal to people like you, aren't you? But there are lots of people who aren't like us. So now imagine if during that event planning, you've got input and ideas from a diverse and different range of people, that you've got input from a team of event experts with different backgrounds, with disabilities, with coming from different cultures, identities, ages. And now think about what that does to the shape of your event. You've suddenly got much more information. You've created greater understanding, you start to greater cooperation and you have a greater appreciation of difference. 

An event that's designed inclusively and accessibly is for me a space where everyone can access all aspects of that event and where they can feel welcome and show up as themselves and have a sense of belonging and they feel equity, they feel on a level playing ground, they feel valued. However they might be accessing that information, they all might come at it from different ways, but they're all coming together in that one space and everyone benefits from it. 

Christine: 
Since we're coming to the end of this episode, is there any advice you would give to event planners? 

Rachel: 
my goodness. Well, I hope that through my various bits of storytelling, I hope advice has popped up that speaks to you. But I think my leave behind tips would be these. Start with the why. Why do you want to get into this? Get some hel from some experts with lived experience of disability. And keep in mind that a quarter, nearly a quarter of population has some form of disability. The purple pound, which is the spending power of people with disability, is worth over 274 billion in the UK. Now, that's worth getting it right for, surely. So what's right for the few is right for everyone. And I think my final sort of leave behind would be start with the end in mind, build access and inclusion in right from the start of your creative design process and make it a leading thought. 

Christine: 
Thank you again so much for coming onto the podcast today and sharing your thoughts and expertise with us. 

If you would like to see similar content to this, you can follow us on our socials or visit our website at wearebroadword .com. Thank you for listening and hope to see you on the next one.