TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Accessible Meetings

Toot-Toot! All Aboard the Accessible Meetings Train Stopping at a Venue Near You

by

Let no one say that greed is a good reason for stepping up to accommodate people with disabilities at their conferences and meetings. And yet, association meeting planners who aren’t going out of their way to make their events accessible to all prospective attendees may be leaving money on the table.

While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been the law of the land since 1990, true accessibility continues to challenge disabled people from all walks of life. This includes not just those using wheelchairs for mobility, but also less obvious physical impairments, such as arthritis, cognition, and sight and hearing disabilities. But disability experts say that, increasingly, some destinations are going above and beyond ADA requirements to become more welcoming — and they’re using it to attract meeting and convention business.

At the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis recently, an attendee with a severe peanut allergy reached out asking for help in finding seating at an event. The guest services staff identified a location that was as far as possible from food vendors utilizing peanut products. Another attendee had an allergy to latex, and the facility worked with vendors to ensure the guest would not be served by someone wearing latex gloves and reviewed the environment to ensure that they would not be sitting in an area that might have items containing latex. Read more.

Our Takeaway: Meeting planners are reluctantly embracing accessibility as major corporations have begun to include accessibility, sustainability and DEI services and sensitivity in the RFPs.  Any company that applies for government contracts or subcontracts are required to have at least 7 percent of their workforce self-identify as having a disability.  Since the pandemic, there has been a 50% increase in hiring people with disabilities.

How Accessible Friendly Meetings Can Impact Careers

by

With the increase of remote work and non-traditional working arrangements, how will in-person meetings for events or conferences be held to ensure that everyone can participate? What message will the way an event or conference is organized or hosted send? This article discusses how to make events both welcoming and accessible for everyone.

Since every business has a different workplace culture, organizational structure, purpose, and size, this article suggest broad ideas that can be tailored to fit how accessible friendly conference and meeting should operate. Read More.

Our Takeaway: Major corporations are realizing that team members with disabilities are reluctant to travel based on prior deleterious experiences, but missing meetings, off-site team building retreats and conferences reduces their opportunity for advancement. Making meetings more accessible sends a message that they are warmly welcome.

Roll Play: Wheelchair User Shows PCMA Meeting Planners how Columbus Convention Center can be more Inclusive.

by

Rosemarie Rosetti consults with the meetings and conventions industry on being accessible for all. Watch this video as she assesses the Columbus Convention Center with a team of meeting planners. Below you’ll find a series of bit-size videos (50 seconds – 90 seconds) where she dissects accessibility features at the convention center and offers a plethora of tips. 

Our Takeaway: We applaud Profession Convention and Meetings Association (PCMA) for including an accessibility field on their registration form, revealing that 33 of the 3300 attendees at their Columbus convention identified as having a disability, around half had mobility issues with the remaining reporting issues around blind/visual impairment, deaf/hard of hearing, or cognitive disorders.