January 2007 Best Practices: Providing equal access
ATIA accommodates special requirements of people with multiple disabilities
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor
Translated into Braille, the 70-page program for the 8th Annual ATIA Conference and Exhibition is a 280-page, three-volume book. If you’d prefer not to tote that around — or don’t read Braille — a Daisy digital talking book is available. And although the exhibit hall floor plan comes as a tactile map, you can also choose to have a sighted guide help you locate the booths you plan to visit.
These special accommodations for the blind or visually impaired are just a sampling of the exhaustive steps the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA, www.atia.org) takes to ensure every participant has full access to the conference, Jan. 24–27, 2007, at the Caribe Royale All-Suites Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, FL.
“We have a mandate — a responsibility — to provide the best accessible environment and the best accessible materials across multiple disabilities for the people at our conference,” says ATIA Executive Director David Dikter. “We want their experience to be as meaningful as anyone else’s. It’s part of making sure that the environment is as much the same for everybody as it can be. Equality is the best way to put it.”
ATIA’s 127 exhibitors are manufacturers of technology-based assistive devices for improving access to information. Attendees are the people with disabilities who use these devices, and the professionals, teachers and advocacy groups who support them.
Although just four percent of the nearly 2,000 participants request special accommodations in advance, a significantly higher percentage stops at the on-site accessibility counter to request accessible materials, assistive devices and sign language interpreters or sighted guides. To be prepared, Lisa Goecke makes sure she has extra of everything. The SmithBucklin manager of convention and trade show services is now on her fourth ATIA conference.
“ATIA presents unique challenges that you don’t have at other conferences,” she says. “Our primary attendees are from the special education sector, but we have a number of people there who use this technology. There’s a lot of emotion behind it.”
Managing emotions starts at check-in, where hotel staff, temp workers and CVB volunteers have all received sensitivity training in how to interact with the disabled without being condescending. Golf carts shuttle attendees from hotel room towers to the conference registration lobby. For those who prefer to walk, a red carpet delineates the way, providing a physical guide for the visually impaired.
At registration, in the Internet café and the four computer labs, computers are equipped with magnification software and screen readers, and multiple stations are wheelchair accessible. In the labs and exhibit hall, where aisles are at least 10 feet wide, participants never walk or roll over wires. Electrical cables run through overhead conduits to drop into booths or workstations.
Sign language interpreters accompany individuals throughout the conference upon request — a more cost-effective solution than translating the more than 300 sessions. During breaks, guide dogs have designated rest areas. Lunches are boxed — never buffet — and food-service areas throughout the hotel offer Braille menus.
Even the conference Web site is accessible. The text-heavy content can be read by screen readers or be downloaded in accessible PDF file format. Conference proceedings delivered on CD-ROM are available in both electronic Braille and Daisy format.
Together, these many accommodations could be cost prohibitive. But Goecke says ATIA’s budget is not much different from those of similarly sized shows. In-kind sponsorships provide the accessible materials and assistive devices. The rest is a cost of doing business.
ATIA’s strategy
Goal: Provide education in assistive technology. Objective: Ensure people with disabilities have equal access to education. Strategy: Accommodate special accessibility requirements for multiple disabilities. Tactics: Perform accessibility audit, provide shuttle service, staff on-site accessibility desk to provide materials in Braille, large print, and audio (Daisy talking book) format; sighted guides; sign language interpreters; and assisted listening devices. Results: ATIA attendance has grown 20 percent since 2004.
Cathy Chatfield-Taylor is a San Francisco Bay-area freelance writer/editor. E-mail cathy@cc-tunlimited.com.
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