I have become increasingly interested in how event and conference accessibility can improve for everyone with particular considerations for the needs of neurodivergent people.
As an information professional, I’m often asked to help organize in-person, hybrid, or virtual events, and have also helped plan and administrate numerous conferences and professional events. Over the years, I have found that needs of neurodivergent people are seldom incorporated into conversations about event accessibility, when accessibility is discussed by organizers at all.
This is about so much more than compliance with the ADA, it’s about making our spaces more inclusive and welcoming, to make the event better fields of knowledge exchange and professional growth.
The National Institute of Health reported that “an estimated 15-20 percent of the world’s population exhibits some form of neurodivergence” focusing on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (2022). Based on that data, if you are hosting an event with 100 people, it is reasonable to assume 15-20 of those people “exhibit some form of neurodivergence.”
To pursue collective learning on how we can skill-up as event and conference organizers, I am now collecting resources around designing conferences with neurodivergent peoples’ diverse needs in mind. The purpose of this resource is to provide recommendations for neuro-inclusive events and expand the awareness of event organizers to the needs of neurodivergent people. See: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Neuro-inclusive_event_strategies – and I’d love to talk to anyone interested in these topics as I continue the work.