Use UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) as the main time reference, because it stays the same all year and does not observe Day Light Saving.
Rotate meeting times so the same region is not always stuck with late-night or early-morning meetings.
Some meetings can work best for North America and Europe
Other meetings can work best for Asia and the Pacific
Consider having two meetings at different times which cover the same topics.
Check regional holidays and observances when scheduling meetings. Try to avoid major holidays in different regions, or offer alternative ways for people to participate if a meeting falls during a holiday period.
Check in with members often to make sure the meeting times still work, and change them when needed.
Record meetings and share the recording and notes afterwards.
Share agendas and documents early, so people in different time zones can review them.
Allow people to give input in writing, not only during live meetings.
Use tools that work well in many countries and do not require special paid accounts.
Make sure meetings start and end on time.
Avoid using local terms like “10 am my time” and include UTC and a time-zone converter link.
Australia – Standards Australia: Standards Australia promotes rotating meeting times across regions. For example, in cloud computing standards, they helped implement schedules that shift between Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. They also support asynchronous collaboration through shared documents.
India – Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS): BIS allows members to give input outside live meetings using pre-recorded presentations, online forms, and extended feedback periods. They also share meeting summaries for those who can’t attend in real time.
International Organization for Standardization – ISO/IEC: ISO uses rotating time slots and collaborative platforms to support global input. In developing AI ethics standards, meetings rotated to include all regions and were backed by recordings and online discussions.
During hybrid meetings, where some people are physically in the room and others are online, people in the room often have an advantage. If the meeting is not set up well, remote and disabled participants can miss important information or have their input overlooked.
Common problems include:
Poor sound, background noise, or people speaking without microphones.
Cameras not showing who is speaking.
Slides or visuals not described out loud, which is also a problem for blind and low vision people who are in the room.
Captions missing or incorrect.
People providing sign language/interpretation not visible to everyone.
Documents and tools that do not work with screen readers or other assistive technologies.
Materials shared only during the meeting, not in advance.
No clear system for taking turns.
Facilitators focusing mostly on people in the room.
Online contributions being missed or ignored.
Side conversations happening in the room that remote participants are left out of.
Technology delays or platform problems.
Ways to address the barrier
Choose accessible meeting spaces
Make remote/virtual/online meetings accessible
Plan meetings so people worldwide can join
Provide translation and interpretation for everyone
Virtual meetings can create barriers if they are not planned with accessibility in mind. This makes it difficult for everyone to participate. A virtual meeting will not be able to meet all accessibility needs, but they should be set up to address the accessibility needs of the people participating.
Common problems include:
Materials not shared before the meeting so people have time to prepare.
Poor sound or no microphones.
No video of the speakers or poor lighting which makes lip reading impossible.
Slides or images not described aloud.
Small or hard-to-read text.
No captions, or captions that are wrong.
No sign language/interpretation.
No chat monitoring.
Chat used in such a way that it interrupts screen readers, forcing people who use screen readers to either ignore the chat or miss the content in the main meeting.
Documents that don’t work with screen readers or other assistive technologies.
Fast-paced live editing, which is not clearly described as it is happening.
Online tools like polls, whiteboards or chat services that are hard to use or don’t work with assistive technologies
Internet or platform problems, or incompatibility with assistive technologies
Meetings are often scheduled based on North American or European work hours. This limits participation and excludes voices from many regions. People in Asia, Oceania, Africa, and other places may be unable to attend. Differences in Daylight Savings Time can make this worse when meeting times shift and are inconsistent.