Event accessibility

As the event and marketing industries continue to rely on digital communications to connect with audiences, it’s important to ensure that virtual events are able to remove barriers that people might face in the physical world. The following article contains some information to consider when putting together your next virtual or hybrid event.

Closed captions

Closed Captions
Closed captions are short lines of text that sync up with your stream's audio. They transcribe the audio to text in caption frames, including not only the words, as an automatic AI-generated transcript would, but also the speakers' names, sound effects, and other elements that may not be related to speech.

When using the Live Studio, or RTMP as your room video mode, you can enable the Automatic closed captions and make the content of the sessions accessible!

Closed captions and subtitles can manually be uploaded to your pre-recorded activity using WebVTT files. Click here to learn more.

How do I enable closed captions in my event?

To enable this feature, go to Settings > Tools > Live section. Click on Edit and scroll down until you see the Speech to Text Transcription tool. Toggle its corresponding button on, and press End to save the changes.

If you are unable to enable this feature from the event level, you will need to enable it first from the company level tools.

How can I enable the automatic closed captions function in my activity?

To enable the automatic closed caption function in an activity, follow the steps in the gif below using the Live studio room video mode as an example.

To learn more about Automatic closed captions in the RTMP room video mode, refer to the RTMP streaming article.
  1. Navigate to Agenda > Activities.
  2. Choose an activity and click the Edit button located in the top right corner.
  3. Scroll down to the Closed Captions feature and check the box to enable it.
Make sure to first enable the Speech to text transcription checkbox located directly below Closed captions.
  1. Select the desired speech language from the drop-down menu labeled Select the desired speech language.
  2. In the Select a translation field, choose the desired language(s) for translating the speech.
English is selected by default. To remove a language, simply click on the x button beside it.
  1. Press End to save your changes.
Enable the closed captions function on my activity
You can select as many languages as you wish. English is selected by default.

Closed captions and subtitles inside the activity

Once you have activated the Closed Captions feature on the platform, attendees can enable the captions when logged into the activity. To do this, click on the CC icon in the lower right corner of the activity screen, and choose the desired language for speech translation (if more than one language has been added).

In addition to activating captions/subtitles, you can customize the text's appearance in the captions settings. To disable captions, simply click on captions off.

closed caption activated

Automatic transcriptions and translations

Another alternative to closed captions is live AI-generated transcriptions based on speech recognition. Our Speech to Text Transcription feature combines speech recognition and live translation, so your virtual events can have real-time subtitles in multiple languages during your sessions.  

Sign-language interpreter

ASL
Sign language interpreters remove language barriers between people who are deaf and use Sign Language and people who can hear and speak. In the US and Canada, ASL (American Sign Language) is the natural language of around 500,000 people. In the EU, around 750,000 people use sign language as a first language.

Sign language interpreters can use our language interpretation channel to make your event more inclusive, delivering an engaging experience for everyone. Ensure the interpreters check out this article before going live.

Tabbing Navigation

Keyboard accessibility
Keyboard accessibility is one of the most important aspects of web accessibility. Many users with motor disabilities rely on a keyboard. In addition to traditional keyboards, some users may use modified keyboards or other hardware that mimics the functionality of a keyboard. Blind users also typically use a keyboard for navigation. Users without disabilities may use a keyboard for navigation because of preference or efficiency.
The InEvent platform provides alt descriptions for static images, this text helps screen-reading tools describe the image icons to visually impaired readers.

Navigating between focusable elements (or modals) using the tab key is straightforward in our platform. Here's a breakdown of key actions:

  • Press the Tab key to focus on the next element.
  • Press the Space bar to activate buttons and checkboxes.
  • Press Shift + Tab to focus on the previous element.
  • Press Enter to activate the selected element.
  • Press Esc to exit the modal being explored.
  • Use the arrow keys (up/down/left/right) to scroll through pages.
Tabbing Navigation

Skip to content navigation

Skip to content navigation allows users, especially those using screen readers or keyboard navigation, to bypass repetitive elements such as navigation menus and head directly to the main content within page. It helps improve user experience by avoiding repetitive information and facilitating quicker access to the primary content of a page.

To use the Skip to content navigation in any page of the Virtual Lobby, simply press the Tab key of your keyboard and the Skip to Content button will appear highlighted in a blue box at the top left corner of the page. Press the Enter key of your keyboard and the internal or main content of the page will be outlined in black forming a box shape. Use the Tab key to continue navigating through the internal content of the page.

Skip to content navigation

Accessibility menu

If this feature is enabled in your event, attendees can adjust contrast, change color schemes, disable animations, mute sounds and change the font size on all pages of the Virtual Lobby.

How do I enable the Accessibility menu feature in my event?

To enable the Accessibility menu feature, carry out the following steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Tools. 
  2. Scroll down until you see the Extra section. 
  3. Press Edit, and check the Accessibility menu checkbox.
  4. Press End to save your changes.
Enable the Accessibility menu feature in my event

Once you enable the Accessibility menu, an Accessibility icon will appear in the bottom right corner of all Virtual Lobby pages. Click on the icon to view the Accessibility options.

 Accessibility icon on Virtual Lobby

Accessibility options

You will find the following options in the accessibility menu to meet all your attendees' needs.

Color scheme

There are three color schemes for attendees to choose from:

  • Dark: This option displays white text against a black screen. The dark option helps to reduce light emitted by device screens while maintaining the minimum color contrast ratios required for readability.
  • Regular: Enabled by default, the regular option shows the original colors the event organizer chose for the Virtual Lobby using the Virtual Lobby editor tool.
  • Light: The Light option displays black text against a white screen. It provides maximal value contrast and, therefore, optimal readability for body text.
Color scheme option
Contrast

Attendees can choose from three different contrast options using the contrast box.

Contrast box options
To be able to adjust the contrast, the regular color scheme must be selected.
  1. If you click on the contrast box once, the Virtual Lobby colors will turn to grayscale.
Contrast greyscale
  1. If you click again, you will enable a warm fader for the Virtual Lobby colors.
Warm fader for the Virtual Lobby colors
  1. If you click one more time, you will enable a cold fader for the Virtual Lobby colors.
Cold fader for the Virtual Lobby colors
The fourth click will return the Virtual Lobby to the original colors.
Stop animation

If there are animations on the Virtual Lobby page, you can stop them all at once. Click on the Stop animation button, and they will stop, as shown below:

Stop animation button

Mute sounds

You can mute sounds on all pages of the Virtual Lobby. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the Mute sounds box. The pop up window below will appear:
Mute sounds on all pages
  1. Click on Continue and all sounds will be muted. These include:
  • Video sounds
  • Notification sounds (receiving messages, meeting invites and speed networking)
All sounds will be muted
Font Size

The virtual lobby accessibility menu provides three font size options. The Virtual Lobby font size will increase as you press the Font size box. A fourth click will return the font to the original size.

Three font size options
Reset settings

If attendees press Reset settings, the Virtual Lobby will change to the template mode (Normal, Dark or Light) set by the event organizer on the backend.

Reset Settings

Accessibility changes made on one page of the Virtual Lobby will also affect other pages.

Best Practices for speakers

  • Ensure Clarity of Visuals and Sounds: Ensuring audio-visual quality is a key part of accessibility. Speakers should be well-lit and have their microphones tested beforehand. Also, keep background noise to a minimum and avoid speakers talking over each other.
  • Read polls, chats, and questions out loud: Guarantee speakers read questions and replies for other attendees aloud. Also, ensure plenty of time is given to their answers.
  • Describe your slides: Ask speakers to take a moment to describe their slides to the audience, making sure they summarize key graphs, images, and videos.
  • Check the color contrast of slides: Ensure your speaker's slides have enough color contrast between text and background. Using a contrast checker tool may be helpful here. Ask Google to search for available options, many of them are free.
  • Provide your slides ahead of time: Providing your slides before the presentation can be of great help to participants. Check this article for more information on how to share files with your participants before, during, and after your sessions.

Help button

The help button is available on every page of the InEvent platform to help you navigate setting up your event. It is located on the top right corner of every page between the Settings and Edit buttons. Once you click on it, it will share InEvent's FAQ article that concerns the particular page you are on as shown below:

Image showing help button


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