This Washington State Office of Equity Convening is an exciting opportunity to support state agencies as they co-create with their internal team members, other state agencies, and Washington community members and organizations. Our event fosters sharing and creating innovative approaches around pro-equity and anti-racism (PEAR), Relational Partnerships, systems change in state government, and creating a Washington state that fosters belonging. There is much to be done to create an environment where everyone belongs, and that work requires courage. We’re challenging you - Be Bold. Be Change.

October 15-16, 2024
Yakima Convention Center

Register TODAY!

Hotel & Room Block information.

 Accessibility - 2024 We the People Convening: Be Bold. Be Change. (cvent.com)

Convening Materials

It’s our first year asking all our presenters and speakers to share their slides. For many folks, formatting digital files such as PowerPoints in accessible formats is a new or unfamiliar topic, so we have done our best to ask them for high contrast text, alt text for images, and reading order. We also asked that they choose videos with subtitles.

Accessibility Limitations

Videos

In scenarios where there were no captions available or they were incomplete due to video owner errors, we attempted to fill in the gaps (for example, some of the videos are from news website, and the news website's captions can miss a lot of dialogue). 

We opt for closed captions when possible so people can decide to turn it on or off, but with various file formats and technological limitations, sometimes "burnt in" captions are the only ones consistently available across platforms.

Text and Alt Text

In most cases, we checked text and modified any text that's hard to see, to have better contrast and added alt text to any graphics. In some cases, the presenter/speaker did not design a graphic or video, and we could not alter the graphic, and so we've done our best to provide alt text. For many presenters, it may be one of their first times being asked to submit an accessible PowerPoint. Standards for accessibility at each organization may differ from ours, and we appreciate everyone's efforts as we progress on this journey!

At this time, alt text is available in English and our office staff may use words in other languages in their dialogue.

Technology (Cvent, Zoom, etc)

Additionally, we try our best to research the options on Cvent and maximize existing accessibility features on Cvent and Zoom. Of course, we are sometimes limited by the accessibility functionalities available from the technology companies that make the apps we use for Convening. So please know that if you have concerns to report, I welcome that at access@equity.wa.gov. 

We are continually advocating with the technology companies about what accessibility issues exist and need to be addressed, and they often ask if we know how many and how users are impacted. We encourage all to do user studies with users of various disabilities and backgrounds. Your feedback helps us document and show the real impact on people.

Access Questions on Registration

We thank you for noting down your access needs in your registration so we can estimate how many people use each of our access services, and it helps us document what needs and requests we receive. In the worst case scenario, if the provider of a service cancels, we will know who to contact and work with you to see what option may work best.

Ask the speaker

In some cases, late submissions meant we could not do a fuller accessibility review of contrast, alt text, and reading order. If you have questions about any of their content, we encourage you to ask the speaker or presenter, as they are the expert on their presentations. 

We have asked our speakers to describe the most important points on each slide out loud, and we are working to secure manual captioning and ASL for most, if not all sessions, so that the message can be delivered in an inclusive way. 

We thank our speakers for sharing their work at the 2024 Convening!

Let us know your thoughts and feedback!

Would you attend future Office of Equity events?

Do you have any suggestions? Send to access@equity.wa.gov. 

We are trialing some new approaches to event accessibility, including asking presenters for their files in a PowerPoint format so we can adjust alt text and reading order. We then export to Accessible PDF so that viewers can go through it. Wherever possible, we ask that the text is readable by screen reader (rather than an image of text). 

Did you find this helpful? What would you like to see continue? What would you like to see change, if anything?