Guidelines To Accessible and Inclusive Virtual Meetings

The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it a new era of virtual work, making virtual meetings an essential tool for communications and collaboration. Virtual meetings have enormous potential to make meetings accessible for everyone. The following are some guidelines that will be help you organize successful and accessible virtual meetings.

Prior to the Meeting/Event

  • Plan for Accessibility: Take accessibility into account at the start of planning stage.
  • Accommodations:

    1. Indicate in the invitation that employees who require accommodations such as Sign Language Interpreters (SLI), Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), or Official Language Interpretation (OLI), should contact the organizer as soon as possible. The organizer should then ensure that the requested accommodations are secured for the participants.

      For additional information, refer to the IT Accessibility Office’s CART Services and Sign Language Interpreters.

    2. Follow Up on Requests: If you are unable to fulfill a specific accommodation request, explore alternative arrangements with the requester. For special accommodations, participants should reach out to the organizer.

  • Provide Multiple Methods to Join: Offer dial-in, web, and mobile device options for joining the meeting.
  • Schedule Health Breaks: Plan health breaks for longer meetings and ensure that they occur on time.
  • Respect Privacy: A link to the ESDC Consultation and Engagement Activities Privacy Notice should be provided to reassure participants about the confidentiality of their information.
  • Send Accessible Materials Early: All relevant materials (emails, documents, and presentations) should be distributed to participants and service providers one week prior to the meeting.
  • Consultation: The ESDC / IT Accessibility Office should be consulted for guidance on creating Accessible Documents. This service can be requested through the Request Management Tool.
  • Provide Bilingual Documents: For bilingual meetings (English and French), send unilingual documents and presentations in both languages and include the following:

    1. Translated Speaker Notes The speaker’s notes should be translated according to Official Languages (OL) Recommendations.

    2. Alternative Text: Adding alternative text to images and visual content will help participants with visual impairments to understand the content.

  • Dry Run: Adopt the practice of dry runs for meetings and events. A few days prior, run through your meeting as planned with your accommodations and/or service providers to ensure that everything runs smoothly. On the actual day of your meeting, all interpreters and captioners should join one hour before the start time in order to confirm that all systems are functioning properly.

Conducting the Meeting

  • Use the spotlight feature to spotlight presenters’ and interpreters’ videos as required.
  • Introduce interpreters and/or captioners at the start of the meeting.
  • Remind participants how to “Pin” interpreters and speakers if needed.
  • Include the captioning service link in the chat at the beginning of the meeting, and again about ten minutes later.
  • Turn on captions during the meeting as a general practice to ensure that participants who are deaf, deafened, or hard of hearing can access the information presented. Additionally, capture a recorded transcript at the end of the meeting. This will allow people to refer to the content later, if needed.
  • Ensure that non-speakers participants are muted and have their cameras turned off.
  • Encourage presenters to use the PowerPoint Live feature instead of just sharing their screen to allow assistive and adaptive technology users to engage with the PowerPoint.
  • Request that participants only use the chat to ask questions. Read relevant chat messages aloud. Suggest that they use the Raise Your Hand feature to ask questions or that they post in the chat if they are unable to use that feature.
  • Ensure that a meeting organizer or presenter monitors the video feed if someone is gesturing on camera.
  • Use the term 'Person with a Disability' to promote respectful language. Refer to the Appropriate Words suggestions for respectful language.
  • Use Plain Language, avoid jargons and acronyms, use readable fonts, and break information up with headings and bullet points.
  • Some participants may have anxiety or other accommodation needs that would require them not be on camera. If participants are unable to be on camera, ensure that their message is still received.
  • Send relevant materials and links that were shared in the chat by email after the meeting.
  • Strive to end the meeting on time to respect participants’ schedules and time.

Familiarize yourself with the Best Practices for Presenters, while planning accessible events.

Should you have any concerns or questions, please reach out to the IT Accessibility Team at EDSC.TI-IT.A11Y.ESDC@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca.

To learn more about accessibility and ESDC’s Accessibility Plan, please visit ESDC's IT Accessibility Office.

References