Importance of Inclusivity, Accessibility Planning & Creating Safe Spaces at Events
Live events, whether they are concerts, conferences, festivals, or other forms of gathering, bring people together to share an experience. Inclusion and accessibility planning for live events requires a line item on your meeting agenda, and a seat at the table while planning your next event.
Curating accessible spaces ensures that all participants feel welcome, valued, and respected, regardless of background or abilities.
Creating a safe space for event participants is crucial for all live events, regardless of its type, scale, or event purpose.
Participants need to feel safe and comfortable to fully engage with the event experience. A safe space is one where everyone is respected and accepted, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, or any other factor that might make them feel marginalized or discriminated against.
Planning spaces that allow for open and honest communication takes planning to ensure they foster a sense of community among participants.
Event organizers should have a clear understanding of the potential risks and challenges that could arise throughout the full planning cycle.
It’s important to have a plan ready from event inception and design, straight through execution and into event wrap-up.
Participants will often come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and it is important to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and safe. Creating a space where everyone feels valued includes ensuring that the event programming and content is relevant and meaningful to a diverse audience.
Organizers need to be mindful in the event design to accommodate participants of all genders.
Some mindful event components for inclusion of all genders may include developing speaking notes that do not directly gender participants, providing guests with the opportunity to state their pronouns and ultimately ensuring gender inclusion is in the lens of consideration when selecting speakers, headliners, contractors, staff, and volunteers.
Event organizers should consider the diversity of their audience and work to create programming and content that is relevant and meaningful to everyone.
This may include incorporating diverse perspectives and voices into the event program, as well as providing opportunities for participants to connect and engage with each other.
Planning for participants accessibility is a critical element to executing all events successfully whether they are live, hybrid or online events.
Participants with disabilities or mobility impairments need to have access the event space and participate fully in the experience. This includes ensuring that the event space is physically accessible, with ramps, elevators, and other accommodations as needed.
It also means providing accessible seating and other accommodations, such as sign language interpreters or captioning services, for participants who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Event organizers should have a clear understanding of the accessibility needs of their participants, and work to ensure that the event space is curated to accommodate attendees.
Most accommodations are made through simple enhancements of the event plan but if
you would like to provide a more inclusive space for participants, reach out to experts in the field. There are many experienced organizations that can further assess your event plans and inform you of where improvements could be made. Extensive and multi-day events can benefit from continual input.
Inclusion and accessibility planning is critical for any live event.
Creating a safe space, promoting cultural and gender inclusion, and ensuring mobility accessibility are all important considerations that can help to ensure that all participants feel welcome, valued, and respected; all of which requires careful planning and attention to detail, as well as a commitment to creating an environment where everyone feels safe and included.
Event organizers can help to create a truly inclusive and accessible experience for all participants.
Crowd Design Inc. 