[Scipy-organizers] accessibility contact information

[Kyle Mandli]

I may be misinformed to exactly what this type of information might
entail but I would imagine that the conference venue would have a lot
of this type of information already available or at least suggestions
for hearing or vision impaired and talks.  This might head off a lot
of questions about accessibility at the conference and reduce the
overhead of having an email address.

Kyle

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Katy Huff <katyhuff at gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree that this is a good idea. I think this sort of thing is why we have
> a communications chair. Anthony, is there an email address that isn't
> totally public (as this scipy-organizers list is), that would be better for
> these more sensitive concerns than this public list is?
>
> It seems to me we should route all questions (not just about accessibility,
> but also other attendee concerns), to our chairs, communications chair, and
> proxies via such an email address. Last year those people just made their
> personal email addresses public, I think. Anthony, as communications, what
> do you think?
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 9:28 AM, sheila miguez <sheila at codersquid.com>wrote:
>
>> I'd be in danger of over-comitting if I sign up to do it, and doing a bad
>> job at helping people who need information on accessibility might be worse
>> than not having a contact page that people could go to for information.
>>
>> I only know a limited amount of information due to asking about small
>> things we do in Chicago. One of my chipy friends put me in touch with his
>> family member when I had questions re chipy locations and small project
>> nights because for classes or project nights we have limited availability
>> of accessible spaces and I wanted to understand how to epxlain to people up
>> front what type of amenitites we have.
>>
>> She said it was okay to quote her, jen.lav at gmail.com
>>
>> re soliciting requests--we always just have a name, contact info, (email
>> > should be enough, considering the audience) and a time frame.  For
>> example,
>> > hard to get an ASL interpreter w/less than a week's notice, other
>> > accommodations take even more time..  so you want to have a cut off date.
>> >  We just say, "requests for reasonable accommodations should be made to X
>> > by Y date"
>> >
>> > re space--my basic thought it that it needs to be physically accessible
>> > (including bathrooms!) and most things beyond that the onus is on the
>> > participant w/the disability to request, because you can't foresee every
>> > kind of accommodation.
>> >
>> > But easy things to do ahead of time:
>> > -, ask people not to wear perfume, scented products, etc.
>> > -keep in mind needs re Autistic Community--here is a good resource --
>> > http://www.aucd.org/docs/add/sa_summits/ASAN.pdf
>> > --are you using AV system for presentations? there are separate
>> > accessibility stuff that I am not so familiar with for bigger
>> > presentations, like live captioning, making sure handouts are in
>> accessible
>> > formats, etc. But not knowing what you're doing, hard to say.
>> > --if seating is available/provided, have space for wheelchair users.
>> >
>>
>> My chipy friend's contribution to the conversation
>>
>> I also found the IEEE's guidelines with a link to a more extensive
>> > PDF, which might also be helpful:
>> >
>> >
>> http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/organizers/holding_accessible_conference.html
>> >
>>
>> And her followup
>>
>> Sure--feel free to share, with the caveat that I'm not really a
>> > "professional."  I do mental health law--haven't dealt with physical
>> > accessibility much.  But Aaron, I like the IEEE guidelines--good reminder
>> > of some things I forgot.
>> >
>> > I think the most important thing is a clear contact person ahead of time,
>> > so requests can be made.
>> > also here is a handy publication from DOJ.
>> > http://www.ada.gov/business/accessiblemtg.htm
>> >
>>
>> Hopefully this isn't too obsessive of me. I was at a conference once where
>> they didn't help people and some folks even got mistreated. I didn't know
>> how to handle it at the time, so I looked for information in order to be
>> prepared in case I see anything like that happen again.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:17 AM, Andy Ray Terrel <andy.terrel at gmail.com
>> >wrote:
>>
>> > Hey Sheila,
>> >
>> > This looks like a good thing to have, but I unless someone wants to
>> > take on the role of finding all the information, I'm hesitant to make
>> > it a priority at this time.  For now we can just have folks email this
>> > list and deal with things on a case by case basis.
>> >
>> > -- Andy
>> >
>> > On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 7:39 PM, sheila miguez <sheila at codersquid.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > > Hi all,
>> > >
>> > > Could we have a contact address similar to what wiscon has for
>> > > accessibility information? I like this text from their access page,
>> > > <http://wiscon.info/access.php>.
>> > >
>> > > We always welcome discussion exploring how we can better accommodate
>> > > our members. [...] Please contact access at wiscon.info for accommodation
>> > > requests, questions or suggestions.
>> > >
>> > > If we find volunteers to help field emails, could we have an address
>> > like this?
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > sheila at codersquid.com
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > Scipy-organizers mailing list
>> > > Scipy-organizers at scipy.org
>> > > http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/scipy-organizers
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> sheila at codersquid.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> Scipy-organizers mailing list
>> Scipy-organizers at scipy.org
>> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/scipy-organizers
>>
>
>
>
> --
> http://katyhuff.github.com
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