Why is this a problem?
Online meetings can create barriers if they are not planned with accessibility in mind. This makes it difficult for everyone to participate. An online 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
Ways to address the barrier
Be flexible with meeting time and timelines
Action for Facilitating , Preparing for committees , and Organizing
Check and improve accessibility
Action for Registration process
Make online meetings accessible
Action for Organizing and Technology
Plan meetings so people worldwide can join
Action for Organizing
Set meeting language captions correctly
Action for Organizing