These guidelines have been created as part of the Accessible Conferences and Events project at Newcastle University in 2024/25.

The project was funded by Newcastle University's EDI fund.

This project has examined barriers to accessibility in conferences and events and has aimed to help minimise these barriers in the future by making organisers aware of the ways that they can make events, and academia in general, more accessible.

As part of the project, we conducted a survey that asked academics and PGR students about their experiences at various events, with the results highlighting the wide-reaching issues caused by a lack of proactive measures to improve accessibility. We found that of those that had attended an academic conference or event, over a quarter were not asked about their accessibility requirements, and nearly 2/5 of respondents had previously decided not to attend an event because of an accessibility barrier.

We think one of the main issues is that the organisers of these events are not aware of the many simple things that they can do in the organising and running of these events that will make them significantly more accessible and enable more people to attend. This is nobody’s fault, just something that we want to raise awareness of so that everyone can know what to do to improve their event’s accessibility.

By proactively making events more accessible rather than waiting for a reliance on those with accessibility needs to inform you of necessary adjustments, you will ensure that many feel welcomed and willing to attend. Of our survey, 9 in 10 people said they would either definitely or maybe be more inclined to attend an event which actively advertised its accessibility features.

These guidelines that we have produced are intended as a checklist for use when planning and running an event. It might feel slightly daunting at first as you are having to rethink aspects of your approach to planning these events but please be reassured that doing something is better than nothing and any attempt to improve accessibility will be welcomed.

Requesting accessibility adjustments can be daunting, and advertising any considerations you have made might make people in need of further adjustments more comfortable raising the additional needs they may have, as they can be confident that they will be taken seriously and not dismissed.