accessibility

IAC23 for Everyone

IAC has always worked hard to welcome participants with special needs including sign language interpreters for keynotes, audio/video captioning for session recordings, special meal options for those with dietary restrictions, quiet/prayer rooms and lactation rooms, as well as student diversity and professional equity scholarships.

For IAC23 we’re introducing even more programs to ensure that the 2023 IA conference is the most welcoming, diverse, and inclusive yet:

Pilot: ODA Country Pricing
Pilot: Non-Native Speaker Support
GSA Room Block

Pilot: ODA Country Pricing

In an attempt to engage the information architecture community around the world, and to level the playing field for IAs from poorer countries, IAC23 is piloting a program to provide discounted registration for participants from countries with a lower gross national income (GNI).

The first 50 individuals residing in countries that fall on the current Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipient list will be able to register for IAC23 at our lowest (student) rate; a savings of $525 off a standard registration.

Learn more on the IAC23 Registration Info page.

Pilot: Non-Native Speaker Support

While IAC is an English-language conference, we have attendees and speakers from around the world, including from many non-English-speaking countries. For IAC23 we are piloting a program to provide English-language presentation support to speakers and workshop facilitators from Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.

Eligible speakers will be paired with native Spanish and Portuguese speaking mentors that have extensive experience presenting at (and helping organize) IAC, as well as the IA Summit before it.

We are currently unable to offer this same support for the proposal submission process, however you can use the “Anything else we should know?” field in the proposal submission form to let us know that you are not a native English speaker; the curation team will review your proposal accordingly. And if your proposal is accepted, we’ll pair you with a mentor.

Learn more about submitting a proposal for IAC23.

GSA Room Block

Many government (local, state, federal) employees as well as academics have strict allowances (per diems) for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses while traveling on government (or government sponsored/subsidized) business.

Each year, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) establishes per diem rates for the following year. The 2023 GSA Per Diem rate has now been published and IAC is pleased to announce that we’ve secured a block of 10 rooms at the GSA-established lodging rate.

Additionally, refreshments are provided throughout the day during the main conference and at least one meal is provided (either a banquet lunch or dinner). This is included within the price of registration allowing GSA per diem participants to stretch their daily meal allowance.

If you qualify for the GSA lodging rate, please register for IAC23 then contact meetings@kunverj.com to request a GSA rate room. Our event planning partners at Kunverj will be able to assist you. Please do not book directly through the IAC23 website or the InterContinental New Orleans.

Sponsor Inclusivity

IAC has numerous sponsorship levels and packages, some of which directly map to accessibility, scholarship programs, and speaker support. Our sponsorship team can also work with you to customize a sponsorship focused on our diversity and inclusivity efforts, or any other aspect of the conference. Learn more on the IAC23 Sponsorships page or contact us at info@theiaconference.com for more information.

Making IAC21 more accessible: More on diverse, equitable, and inclusive event planning

We want to keep you in the loop of our efforts to make the 2021 information architecture conference more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. This article is a follow on to our action plan posted last month. We ask that you continue to hold us accountable and make suggestions for how we can continuously improve our efforts by emailing us at diversity@theiaconference.com.

Ask about your needs

As we work on making IAC21 more accessible, we need your input. Tell us what you need by taking the Conference Expectation survey. Your answers will help us learn more about you and your experience with IAC, along with gathering information on your preferences around conference activities (such as poster night, karaoke, game night) and features/functionality of digital tools (single platform for conference, chat, bookmarking).

Sample of the Conference Expectation survey

To keep the conversation going well after the survey closes, we established an email address (diversity@theiaconference.com) as a way to continuously collect feedback on your needs, comments, suggestions, questions, and the like on diversity, equity, and inclusion at IAC. We promise to consider all suggestions, and respond to you within a week. We want your voice to be heard.

Create an accessible suite of tools

The IAC planning committee is hard at work accessing communication platforms, activities, and other services that will provide an accessible conference for all attendees, speakers, and volunteers.

To start off, we created a rubric (a scoring guide) to help us evaluate platforms, including criteria such as whether the platform offers or supports synchronized captions for livestream content, transcription, keyboard shortcuts, screen readers, dial-in by phone or have a non-video conference option, alt text for images, and sign language interpretation. We are considering how individuals need to move around different platforms to find information on what’s happening when, where, and how.

Once a platform or platforms are selected, we will ask volunteers with accessibility needs to help us conduct “dry-runs” and create tip sheets to be posted on the conference website to make sure that the chosen platform(s) accommodate all attendees’ needs.

Provide checklists of best practices for attendees, speakers, and volunteers

As almost every meeting is virtual nowadays, many organizations have developed and shared their own tips and tricks for making the experience engaging and run smoothly. We want to take it a step further and offer best practices for making the conference more accessible for IAC21 attendees, speakers, and volunteers.

We are compiling a list of best practices, which we will share on our website for all attendees and volunteers. IAC21 speakers will be provided a similar list as part of our Speaker Studio. These best practices will include recommendations to use plain language in all communications; a requirement to make all presentation slides, posters, and videos accessible; us conducting an access check prior to live sessions, including checks to make sure that adequate lighting and high-quality audio is available.

Continuously improve with your help

Is there anything that we’re not thinking about or considering here? Tell us what you think about our plans and your prior experience with IAC, or provide suggestions for future improvements.

Planning to attend IAC21? Learn more about our theme.

Written by MaShana Davis with contributions by Agnes Kiss, Chiara Ogan, and Cassini Nazir