Event Communication

Accessible event communication is aimed at helping as many people as possible who may be interested in the event, and to make the information accessible to them. The aim here is to recognise possible barriers and to remove or circumvent them.

Accessible communication is important in all event phases and begins with the event announcement - ensuring all interested parties can access the information via various communication channels.

• Is the information formed in simple language?
• Have we easily made available all information about the accessibility of the event?
• Have participants been offered a range of communications methods? (phone, email, website, etc.)

• Appropriate text sizes and sans-serif
• Sufficient distance between characters
• Long passages of text separated into sections
• Texts placed only on calm backgrounds
• Use of upper and lower case (use solely of capitals reduces readability)
• Contrast between text and background (ideally black on a light background)
• Select images with clear visual language / messaging

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) form the most important basis for accessible web design. These are concerned with perceptibility, usability, comprehensibility and robustness. The guidelines are primarily aimed at website developers – a good reason to use experts when doing so.

• Capitalise the beginning of hashtags and, in the case of compound hashtags, the first letter of the new word (e.g. #BarrierefreieGestaltung)
• Images with alternative text and a description of the image that is as precise as possible
• For particularly long words where readability suffers due to length, separate with hyphens
• Description of animated images (GIFs) in the text (alternative texts cannot be entered for GIFs)
• Subtitled videos (1:1)

All staff should be trained and comprehensively informed in advance on how to deal with the participants of an inclusive event.

In the case of participants with carers, it should be ensured that the participants themselves and not their carer, is at the centre of the conversation. It is out of the question to push wheelchair users to one side without asking, or to grab blind people by the arm and lead them in a certain direction without first asking. Always ask!