Live sessions and events

Whether you are putting on a large conference or a small meeting, virtual or in person, you should consider the needs of the people who may attend with seen or hidden disabilities. When putting on events think about how you make them accessible to all from start to finish.

Some of the content in this guide is focussed on good practice etiquette for virtual meetings, while much of the pre-event and post-event activity applies to good communication practices no matter a virtual or in person event.

Make Things Accessible - Running Accessible Events.

Online sessions and events

Before the session or event

If you don't already know the needs of your participants, find out if they have any special requirements in advance of the session.  Any student with a Summary of Reasonable Adjustments (SORA) should have support in place or you will have been told what additional measures are needed. 

Managing the session or event

• Manage speakers and make the rules clear​ about who can speak and when, how to ask questions, how to request permission to speak etc. 
• If possible, have an assistant to oversee the chat and manage parallel conversations.
• Don't put pressure on participants to show themselves on camera as not everyone is comfortable doing so.​

Presenting

• Blur your background to minimise distraction​.
• If you are using Teams or Zoom, which allow multiple video feeds to be shown at once, it may be preferable to only have the video of the current presenter on to minimise distraction.
• Look at your camera to create ‘eye contact’ with your students and provide a more personal connection.
• Speak clearly and ask the group to confirm your audio is working well.
• Give your participants time to open or take in what you have shared.
• Embrace the pause. Take a moment after the end of your comments and allow for students to engage before continuing.
• Try to audio describe all of the meaningful visual elements when you are presenting. For example, don't just say 'as you can see this graph shows a busy month on the stock exchange'. Try to bring the meaning of the visual elements (e.g. graph, charts, and diagrams) to life for people in the audience who may not be able to see the images. So, if the learning objective of including a graph is to clearly show fluctuations in the UK stock market, then describe the graph with appropriate levels of audio description to make this clear e.g. 'This line graph shows that stock prices for the first quarter of 2023 went up by 10% in January, then slowed in February at 12%, dropped a little to 11 % in March before falling to the previous year's levels in April at 8%.' This is good practice and will bring visual elements to life by making the meaning of all aspects of your slides communicable to everyone.

Use of captions and accessibility features of online platforms

UCL guide to Captioning Services.

Microsoft Teams

• Using live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings.
• Learn how to use accessibility features on Microsoft Teams. 

Zoom

• Enabling automated captions in Zoom.
• Learn how to use accessibility features on Zoom. 

Microsoft PowerPoint

Present with real-time, automatic captions or subtitles in PowerPoint

Further information

• AbilityNet has published guidance on How to host an accessible online meeting.
• Choosing the right platform for live teaching provides a useful overview of the options available.
• For guidance and resources on running accessible events, please refer to the CAM Events Toolkit. 
• A checklist of tips for making events accessible is also available online from the UCL Equality, Diversity & Inclusion website.
• Supporting neurodiversity in education guidance can benefit everyone in our community, but there are specific suggestions for personal tutors and research supervisors.
• UCL's Office of the President and Provost (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) have produced accessible remote meeting guidelines with a focus on neurodivergent participants.

In person sessions and events

Lecture theatres, classrooms etc.

Use a microphone

If the room has a microphone, use it!  Microphones are provided to ensure that everyone can hear what is being said clearly.  Not everyone will be comfortable to admit that they cannot hear the speaker clearly or ask for speakers to wear the microphone.

There are a range of microphones available in teaching spaces.  If microphones are stored in a docking station, please return them to the docking station after use, this will ensure that they stay charged and available for other users. 

Repeat questions

If you are asked a question from the audience, repeat the question.  This is important if the lecture is being recorded as it will ensure that both the question and the answer are clear on the recording. Also, it provides other members of the audience with an opportunity to hear the question clearly.

Say what you are doing/writing/drawing

Try to audio describe all of the meaningful visual elements when you are presenting. For example, don't just say 'as you can see this graph shows a busy month on the stock exchange'. Try to bring the meaning of the visual elements (e.g. graph, charts, and diagrams) to life for people in the audience who may not be able to see the images. So, if the learning objective of including a graph is to clearly show fluctuations in the UK stock market, then describe the graph with appropriate levels of audio description to make this clear e.g. 'This line graph shows that stock prices for the first quarter of 2023 went up by 10% in January, then slowed in February at 12%, dropped a little to 11 % in March before falling to the previous year's levels in April at 8%.' This is good practice and will bring visual elements to life by making the meaning of all aspects of your slides communicable to everyone.

Back to creating accessible content