Category: Events

Accessability no longer matters. Phew

The pandemic is, thankfully, over. We all need to return to our lives as they were pre-December 2019. At least I think that’s what various governments are telling us.

As are various vendors. Do you want to attend an event that they put on during the pandemic? Great! It’s in-person only once more.

Who needs accessabilty, right?

Can’t travel to an event? Sorry, pandemic’s over!

Can’t get childcare? Sorry, pandemic’s over!

Have hearing difficulties so need real-time captions? Sorry, pandemic’s over!

Can only dip in and out so need to be able to watch recorded sessions? Sorry, pandemic’s over!

It’s quite frustrating. Somewhat understandably, vendors were scrambling to be as inclusive as possible during the pandemic. They need to tell you what products they can sell you, so of course need to get that message out however they can. But now? Sorry pal, got to be there in person.

Why are we slowly heading back to inaccessibility?

When the pandemic hit businesses, understandably, panicked. Suddenly the majority of the workforce was remote, and that was a new thing to a lot of companies. How do you manage staff when they’re not sat at a desk you own? How do you know people are working if you can’t see them?

Zoom, WebEx, Teams enter stage left. For me, Teams has been a revolution – You can have a text chat with someone, turn it in to a phone call, a video call, a screen share with no real effort. Wonderful. Collaboration should be this easy, and in 2020 it was.

Industry events that used to be in-person only were suddenly, and hastily, thrown online. Yes, thrown. It’s different to put on an event that is online than one that is held in-person, and a lot of the first events I attended didn’t have time to re-assess how to deliver their content. Those events were painful to be honest, but it was new so nobody is really at fault.

There were a lot of clunky handovers from speaker to speaker, all waiting for the another to give the signal they had finished speaking / it was your turn to speak. There was a surprisingly large number of backgrounds that featured guitars, too.

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