[Excerpt] Planning and organizing a conference, a meeting or any other event is a complex task, often involving numerous different people. The objective should always be to make the event as beneficial as possible for all participants.
Increasingly, also people with intellectual disabilities actively participate in events together with many other participants. This shows the growing inclusion of this group of people in our societies and should be much more promoted. Of course, these participants are often very disappointed when they cannot follow and participate in an event because some basic guidelines for accessibility have not been followed.
As organizer of an event, you are in the critical position to include considerations about its accessibility from the beginning of the planning process. Taking care of these issues from the beginning has proven to be most effective and avoids costly changes to programmes and venues

The European Association of Societies of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

English

Actual  Publication Date Unknown.[Excerpt] Planning and organizing a conference, a meeting or any other event is a complex task, often involving numerous different people. The objective should always be to make the event as beneficial as possible for all participants.  Increasingly, also people with intellectual disabilities actively participate in events together with many other participants. This shows the growing inclusion of this group of people in our societies and should be much more promoted. Of course, these participants are often very disappointed when they cannot follow and participate in an event because some basic guidelines for accessibility have not been followed.  As organizer of an event, you are in the critical position to include considerations about its accessibility from the beginning of the planning process. Taking care of these issues from the beginning has proven to be most effective and avoids costly changes to programmes and venues.Rules_for_organisers_final.pdf: 862 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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Recommendations for Organizers of Meetings and Conferences

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Inclusion Europe 
The European Association of Societies of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities and their Families 
L’Association Européenne des Organisations des Personnes Handicapées Mentales et leurs Familles 
Galeries de la Toison d’Or – 29 Chaussée d’Ixelles #393/32 – B-1050 Brussels – Belgium 
Tel. : +32-2-502 28 15 – Fax : +32-2-502 80 10 – e-mail : secretariat@inclusion-europe.org 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Recommendations for organizers 
of meetings and conferences 
 
Introduction 
Planning and organizing a conference, a meeting or any other event is a complex task, 
often involving numerous different people. The objective should always be to make the 
event as beneficial as possible for all participants. 
 
Increasingly, also people with intellectual disabilities actively participate in events together 
with many other participants. This shows the growing inclusion of this group of people in 
our societies and should be much more promoted. Of course, these participants are often 
very disappointed when they cannot follow and participate in an event because some 
basic guidelines for accessibility have not been followed. 
 
As organizer of an event, you are in the critical position to include considerations about its 
accessibility from the beginning of the planning process. Taking care of these issues from 
the beginning has proven to be most effective and avoids costly changes to programmes 
and venues. 
 
Inclusion Europe supports you in your task by providing you with three key resource 
materials that will facilitate your work: 
 
1. These “Guidelines for Organizers of Meetings and Conferences” which help you in 
your planning processes. 
2. The “Rules for Speakers” which you can distribute well before the event to all 
speakers. 
3. The “Rules for Meetings” which you should distribute together with the accessibility 
cards at the event to all participants. 
 
Neither will this material ensure accessibility for all people with intellectual disabilities nor 
will it always be possible to implement all of the above guidelines. However, people with 
intellectual disabilities, their families and their organisations very much appreciate if at 
This paper is available in the Accessibility Pack for Meetings and Conferences, 
together with the paper “Recommendations for speakers”, the leaflet “Rules for meetings 
and conferences” and the accessibility cards. 
This Accessibility Pack can be ordered at Inclusion Europe for 45 euros:  
self-advocacy@inclusion-europe.org 
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least an effort is made to improve accessibility and possibilities for participation for this 
group of European citizens. 
 
The guidelines below concern accessibility of information . However, organizers have still 
to consider that people with intellectual disabilities may also have a physical disability and 
therefore measures to ensure physical accessibility of the venue, etc should also be 
considered. 
Planning the event 
· The Preparation Meeting: This meeting takes place before the conference actually 
starts. All the participants with intellectual disabilities should be invited to participate 
with their supporters. The aims of this meeting are: 
o Explaining the way the conference will be run and which sessions will be accessible 
and what measures people can expect in terms of accessibility. 
o Explaining the themes and the contents of the different sessions in easy-to-
understand words. 
o Helping the participants with intellectual disabilities to have their own ideas and 
formulate their questions on the different topics. 
o Reminding participants about the proper use of the accessibility cards and the 
general rules for meeting. 
 
· Accessible sessions: Especially at large events, it might not always be possible to 
have all sessions accessible for people with intellectual disabilities, for example during 
scientific presentations. Please make sure that in these cases there is an alternative 
programme and/or that the inaccessible sessions are equally distributed during a 
conference day. It is also very important to clearly indicate accessible sessions in the 
programme and to announce at the start of each session if it will be accessible or not. 
Inclusion Europe has developed three logos defined by sets of criteria to indicate three 
different levels of accessibility. You will find the lists of criteria in Annex 1. You are free 
to use these logos in your conference. 
 
· Breaks: Participants with intellectual disabilities may find it difficult to follow a long 
session without any breaks. Accessible sessions should therefore be not too long. To 
increase the participation and the understanding of the people with intellectual 
disabilities, a short break after a presentation and before the questions might be very 
useful. During the break, supporters have the opportunity to explain once more some 
ideas developed during the presentation. 
 
· Working groups: All participants to the meeting or conference (including participants 
with intellectual disabilities) might find it interesting to have working groups at some 
moments. Sharing experience and exchanging information is important for the 
participants, it is often easier for everyone to do so in small groups than in plenary 
sessions. 
 
· Summary of the previous day: At the beginning of each new conference day, it would 
be good to provide a summary of the previous day discussions. 
 
· The Programme: It is very important to indicate in the Programme those sessions 
where special measures will be taken to make them accessible for people  with 
intellectual disabilities. This helps participants with intellectual disabilities to concentrate 
on and prepare for these sessions. Please use the European Easy-to-Read Symbol 
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and the other symbols developed by Inclusion Europe for indicating these sessions in 
the programmme. It is also important to indicate which measures will be taken to make 
sessions accessible. 
 
· Conference Papers and Materials: Those materials that are crucial for understanding 
and following a conference should be translated into easy-to-read language. They 
should be sent to the participants at least two weeks before the event. A remark: Since 
those texts are short summaries of the contents of the full papers they help all 
participants and they are easily translated into other languages. 
Preparation of presentations 
· Interpretation: In international meeting, it is very important to think about the problem 
of the language. Usually, people with intellectual disabilities do not speak other 
languages. However, sometimes, their supporters can translate for them. But that takes 
time and requires the speaker to speak very slowly. 
 
· The Rules for Speakers: It is very important for all speakers to be aware that you are 
planning an accessible event before they start preparing their presentations. Please 
send them as early as possible the “Rules for Speakers” and offer them support and 
advice for preparing their presentations. If it is possible, it is always more efficient to 
have a preparation meeting with the speakers as well. 
 
· Presentation summaries: While it is usually very difficult to get the full text of 
presentations well before the event, organizers should insist to receive short and 
simple summaries of all presentations before the event. These then can be made 
available to all participants . 
 
· Visual aids: “One picture is worth more than 1.000 words” and it helps people with 
intellectual disabilities to follow presentations much better. Please encourage all 
speakers to prepare support material that also use pictures and communication 
symbols . Power Point presentations, overhead slides, video, etc. may be of help to 
support their speech. Make sure that the necessary technical equipment is available. 
Running the event 
· Enforcing the rules: It is, of course, crucial to ensure that the accessibility rules are 
followed in an event. Few things are more frustrating than e.g. signaling a speaker to 
speak slower because you cannot follow and the speaker continuing at the same pace. 
 
· Preparing moderators and chairpersons: It is important that all moderators and 
chairpersons know about the accessibility rules and get some guidelines on how to 
apply them. If a moderator should have a visual disability, an assistant needs to 
indicate the use of the accessibility cards. Needs for intervention could be as follows: 
o At the start of each session the chair or moderator should indicate if a 
session is accessible or not. He/She also should briefly explain the use of 
the accessibility cards. 
o Speakers need to be reminded to speak slower. 
o Participants with or without in tellectual disabilities who do not address the 
theme of a session need to be reminded. 
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o If the accessibility cards are clearly misused1, the chair or moderator should 
choose to ignore the person abusing the accessibility cards during the 
session and speak with this person during the following break to make sure 
the rules are clearly understood. 
Evaluation 
· The Evaluation Form: Use a simple evaluation form according to the model provided 
in the Annex 2. While you can ask the questions relevant for your event, please do not 
omit the questions relating to the accessibility of your event. 
                                              
1 In very rare cases there might be an abuse of the yellow and red cards – however, Inclusion Europe have 
never heard about such an abuse actually taking place. 


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Recommendations for Organizers of Meetings and Conferences

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