Results from a poll at a recent webinar saw 100% of respondents indicated that web accessibility is a priority for their future events. This is a great indication to me that web accessibility and inclusion is indeed at the forefront of Australian event planning.
Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) invited us to host a webinar for their members on July 12th, it gave us an opportunity to interact with an influential audience who can bring about change. The audience included marketing/event managers from Government, major event venues and technology organisations.
Conversation starter
The purpose of the webinar was to assist our attendees to start a conversation around web accessibility within their organisation. We have made the slides from the webinar available on SlideShare for everyone to share.
Questions asked…
Questions were asked during the webinar that really demonstrated to me that interest in this area is genuine and growing. For example, one delegate is planning to build a new website for their business and asked if there is a list they should use as a guideline to ensure accessibility. Another question was around colour contrast and its importance. If you are curious to find out more watch the recording of the video below.
Change from the top down
The usual step after someone takes our web accessibility health check is to review the results internally and start a discussion with their IT department. This is great, but I’m also of the opinion that change needs to take place from the top down.
Organisations want their events to be web accessible and this is an excellent place to start as event websites are like the windows to the soul of a business. However, a total cultural change comes about from executive involvement. My hope is that every webinar, blog, article published on web accessibility will eventually reach the powers that be and it will be seen as a team effort.
Where do we go from here?
Well, I’m going to continue to host a series of free webinars on web accessibility. Each webinar will take delegates further along the journey of web accessibility, the next one is a practical, hands-on webinar. I have invited Humanitix to participate, an amazing Australian charity that is changing our events industry for the better – both social inclusion and accessibility are top of their agenda. Peppermint magazine has described them as ‘change makers’, they have won numerous awards, most recently Microsoft’s Hack4Good at PwC’s Barangaroo offices, focused on hacking solutions for people with disabilities.
BTW – 100% of participants who offered feedback on our webinar said they would recommend it to a work colleague 😉
Join, participate or just observe the conversation now and tag us on Linkedin / Facebook @webaccessibilityforeventplanners
