Accessibility 101: In-Person Event and Meeting Accessibility Best Practices AFTER the Event

Welcome back to Ability Central’s “Accessibility 101” series, where the Ability Central team identifies and offers solutions to the most common accessibility pitfalls we’ve seen in the workplace. Today, let’s talk about post-event follow-up.

The cleanup’s done, the space is cleared out, and you’re back at work after a successful in-person event. But the job’s not over yet!

Following up after an in-person event is one of the most important steps in following through on accessibility. Keeping communication open after an event helps you improve for the future. It also gives attendees a chance to offer their feedback, ideally improving their own experiences at your next event.

In our last two articles, we discussed how to plan for accessibility before and during in-person events and meetings. Today, we take a look at the work that comes after your big day: recap notes, follow-up requests, and what questions to ask when looking for feedback on your event’s commitment to accessibility.

What should I send attendees after an in-person event or meeting?

After an event ends, follow through on your commitment to accessibility by providing materials and an open line of communication in follow-up. Whether you contact people with a follow-up email, a phone call, or a social media post, offer the following:

Meeting notes and a succinct meeting summary. These notes don’t need to be a word-for-word transcript (more on that in a minute!), but rather a high-level summary of the topics discussed during your event. A short meeting summary is also a good idea. Think of it like the overview or abstract of a research paper: the meeting summary should tell attendees what they need to know while also alluding to more information they’ll find in the deeper notes.
A transcript of the event. Whether you used live captioning services like CART, auto-generated captions, or another speech-to-text method, send a copy of the transcript with your follow-up. Double check it for errors and make sure it’s screen reader friendly. For more information on meeting transcripts, see Accessibility Settings and Suggestions During Your Virtual Meeting.
Any meeting recordings. This includes recordings from virtual/alternate formats and video recorded on-site.
Attendee or speaker contact information. If you have permission, send out contact information so attendees and speakers have ways to connect and collaborate. This can be an Excel spreadsheet or a simple emailed list.
Information on how to contact you. Also include contact information for anyone collecting feedback on accessibility and/or anyone who handled accommodations for the past event.
For team members, any specific follow-up tasks. A to-do list of follow-up tasks, along with a meeting summary, can be extremely helpful for neurodivergent colleagues, people with processing disabilities, and participants with or intellectual/developmental disabilities.
A big thanks! Of course, thank attendees and speakers for coming, and thank your team for planning the event. You can also thank interpreters or other accommodation providers, which offers another opportunity for attendees to connect with and give feedback on those accommodations.

What requests should I make in post-event follow-ups?

Post-event follow-up is also your opportunity to make requests that help you celebrate the event gone by and plan for future events.

Ask for pictures or videos from the event. As long as you offered a photo and video release or other consent method, ask for photos and videos of the event that you can use in future advertisements, case studies, or event listings.
Open an invitation for questions. Make it clear who to go to with questions, concerns, and comments. This doesn’t have to be as formal as a feedback form, but should at least include a name, phone number, and email address for a central point of contact.
Ask for feedback. Don’t leave your questions too open-ended. For example, “What did you think of accessibility at the event?” is much too broad a question and risks putting the responsibility of accessibility on people with disabilities, rather than your team or organization. Instead, consider sending out a survey or fillable form with feedback on accessibility options. Making it easy for people with disabilities to give you their notes proves that you value their opinions and are already planning future events with their needs in mind.

What questions should I ask when looking for accessibility feedback?

When soliciting feedback specifically about your event’s accessibility options, consider the following questions. You can ask these as open-ended questions, giving attendees a chance to share their full thoughts, or create a survey ranking the efficiency of each item from 1 to 5.

Questions to ask about accessibility include:

How was the overall accessibility of the event?
Did you have every accommodation you needed to participate fully? If not, which services were missing?
Did the technology at the event help or hinder your experience?
Were the ASL interpreters helpful? Why or why not?
Was the process of requesting accommodations clear and simple? If not, how could we improve?
Was the venue accessible based on your needs? Why or why not?
If you attended via an alternate format (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, etc.), were you able to fully engage with the event? If not, how could we do better?

This is by no means an exhaustive list. If you’re curious about the effectiveness of a particular service or accommodation, feel free to ask specific questions about it. It’s also a good idea to leave a space for people to share their general thoughts, whether at the end of your survey or by replying to a follow-up email.

Be sure to share your contact information as well, or contact information for the people arranging accessibility needs at your next event. Open communication is the key to successful, accessible in-person events and meetings!