Guides

Accessible and Inclusive Events Guide

on this page
  1. Posters and printed resources
  2. Slides and presentation resources
  3. Presenting
  4. Chairing a panel session (online and in-person events)
  5. Facilitating a session (online and in-person)

Accessible and Inclusive approaches to designing event materials, presenting content, and chairing or facilitating sessions.

Participation in any type of NCCPE activity indicates that you are willing to abide by our Accessible and Inclusive practice guidelines.

updated on 24 Feb 2025
7 minutes read

Posters and printed resources

Overall design 

  • Follow a linear, logical layout. 
  • Provide adequate white space, avoid clutter, and visually highlight sections with borders, coloured headings, and white space. 
  • Consider producing materials in other formats too – for example as an audio or video file. 
  • Consider suggesting questions that people might want to ask (e.g., "Ask me about ..."). 
  • Prepare a concise description of the major points in the content of the poster or resource that you can share orally with delegates. 

Colour 

  • Use simple, contrasting colours. 
  • Don’t only use colour to convey meaning. 

Text 

  • Use plain language, rather than idioms or figures of speech. 
  • Use simple sentences and bullet points, rather than walls of text. 
  • Ensure your poster text legible from a distance of 3 to 6 feet (1 – 2 meters).  
  • Use large, sans serif fonts on plain backgrounds. 
  • Don’t underline words, use italics, or write in capitals. 
  • Align text to the left.  

Slides and presentation resources

Overall design 

  • Provide information in multiple ways (e.g., use a combination of text, images, graphs, and tables). 
  • Follow a linear, logical layout. 
  • Provide adequate white space, avoid clutter, and visually highlight sections with borders, coloured headings, and white space. 
  • Run an accessibility checker – most pieces of software have this feature. 

Colour 

  • Use simple, contrasting colours. 
  • Don’t only use colour to convey meaning. 

Text 

  • Use plain language, rather than idioms or figures of speech. 
  • Use simple sentences and bullet points, rather than walls of text. 
  • Don’t underline words, use italics, or write in capitals. 
  • Use font size of 44 or more for titles. 
  • Use font size 32 for short, simple bullets. 
  • Include no more than six lines of text on each slide. 
  • Align text to the left.  

Graphics 

  • Don’t only show information in an image or video. 
  • Use subtitles or provide transcripts for videos.  
  • Describe any graphics orally during your presentation. 
  • Caption or title images. 

Presenting

  • Use plain language rather than idioms or figures of speech. 
  • Spell out acronyms, define terms, and avoid or define jargon.  
  • Try not to speak too quickly, or rush through your content.
  • Describe out loud any images or diagrams in your slides. 
  • Pause regularly to allow participants to request clarifications or ask questions.

If you are presenting online, think about your video and audio setup carefully. Poor video and sound quality is bad practice in general, but for participants with additional access requirements this can be a barrier to accessing content.  

  • Try to ensure your video quality is as high as possible for participants who use lip and face reading. 
  • Sit with a light source in front of you so your face is well lit.  
  • Where possible, use headphones or a microphone to ensure the best sound quality possible. 
  • Avoid presenting in a space where background noise can be detected. Participants using audio only, or using transcription software need clear sound with no background noise. 
  • Test your setup in advance, if you can.
Find out more about setting up for online presentations

Chairing a panel session (online and in-person events)

The role of the chair is to:   

  • Ensure that the session is introduced well, and to introduce speakers  
  • To keep speakers to time in the introductory remarks section. If they keep speaking, we ask that you politely ask them to stop.  
  • To ensure that the session is concluded effectively, including managing the time so that plenary speakers can make a short concluding remarks (e.g. for 1 minute)  
  • To contribute your own views and summary statements as you see fit, to ensure that there is a rich discussion   
  • To encourage a lively discussion with the delegates, making use delegate questions where possible.   

  • To ensure that everyone is able to participate in the session, taking into account participant accessibility requirements.  

When chairing, please follow these good practice guidelines:  

Speaker care and management

  • Please make sure you refer to people by their names and their preferred pronouns
  • Please take the time to ensure you can pronounce panellists’ names correctly, and if in doubt, ask 
  • If panellists introduce jargon or acronyms, ask them to share what they mean. 
  • In an online event, flag when speaker sound and video quality is failing and pause the event if required until the issues are rectified. Participants relying on lip reading need a clear, well-lit video. Participants using audio only, or using transcription software need clear sound with no background noise. 

Panellist contributions

  • Please ensure that you don’t inadvertently always go to one panellist first for a response, and where possible try to manage the panel equitably, ensuring each panellist has equal airtime 
  • Please politely stop panellists if they monopolise the discussion or if they speak for longer than asked to 
  • Please create a space for speakers who are less vocal to share their thoughts, views or opinions 
  • It can help to draw on 2 or 3 delegate questions at a time, so that we can hear from more of the delegates, and also reflect on a broader range of topics 

Audience questions

  • Make it clear that no question is too simple to be put to the panel, all ideas are welcomed, and we recognise that people will have different perspectives and understandings 
  • If you are taking a question from delegates, please read it out or repeat it in full 
  • Be mindful of inequity when taking questions from delegates. Please ensure that you don’t inadvertently privilege contributions from a small number of delegates and instead try to take contributions from as many people as possible.  
  • Where possible, provide a way to raise questions anonymously or without addressing everyone, for example through a phone app 
  • In online events, read chat contributions out loud and regularly summarise any significant discussions that have taken place 

Facilitating a session (online and in-person)

The role of the session facilitator is to:   

  • Ensure that the session is introduced well, and to introduce and additional contributors  
  • To keep the session to time, including managing the timings of additional contributors
  • To encourage and welcome contributions from session participants 

  • To ensure that everyone is able to participate in the session, taking into account participant accessibility requirements. 

When designing and running your session, please follow these good practice guidelines

Session design

  • When designing your session slides, please follow the guidance above.
  • Don’t only use activities that require delegates to move around, e.g. ice breakers that involve standing. 
  • Don’t require online participants to have their cameras on to participate, e.g. to mime an answer to a question.
  • Break down any tasks or activities into clear steps.  

  • Plan in additional time when asking people to contribute using an online chat function to ensure there is time to give an oral summary of the conversation. Give delegates an alternative way to contribute.  

Session management

  • Be clear in advance about how your session will run, and in what ways delegates will be interacting with the content and each other.
  • Don’t rush delegates or set impractical time limits on activities – give everyone enough time to complete an action.
  • Don’t require delegates to remember things from previously shown slides – give reminders and prompts. 
  • When setting in-person delegates a task to carry out, please ensure any instructions are written up on a slide or flipchart and are clear and easy to read from all parts of the room.
  • When setting online delegates a task to carry out, please ensure any instructions are written up on a slide, and that there is a way to access the information when they are in breakout rooms.
  • Please keep your room at in-person events as tidy and clutter-free as possible, making sure access to all parts of the room is possible.  

  • Describe out loud any visual information that is included in your slide, e.g. diagrams.  

  • In an online event, flag when speaker sound and video quality is failing and pause the event if required until the issues are rectified. Participants relying on lip reading need a clear, well-lit video. Participants using audio only, or using transcription software need clear sound with no background noise. 
  • At in-person events, consider how the room arrangement might create exclusions or power dynamics. For example, having delegates with more senior roles seated at the front of the room could make it feel harder for others to contribute. Actively chairing the session (see the section below) to take contributions equally from all participants will mitigate for this, or if possible, consider rearranging the chairs into a circle to make everyone feel equally able to participate. 

Participant contributions

  • Be mindful of inequity when taking contributions. Please ensure that you don’t inadvertently privilege contributions from a small number of delegates, and instead try to take contributions from as many people as possible.
  • Give options for delegates to reflect or think on their own, rather than only doing this as a group. 
  • Give other ways for people to respond/ask questions than speaking out to the group. 
  • In online events, read chat contributions out loud and regularly summarise any significant discussions that have taken place
  • At in-person events please use microphones when provided, even if you think delegates can hear you without it. This indicates the room has a hearing loop which requires speakers to use a microphone. 
  • At in-person events you may be asked by delegates to use a Bluetooth microphone – if so, please ensure your contributors talk one at a time, and not over each other.  
  • At in-person events, when audience members have questions and do not have access to a microphone, please repeat the question to the room before answering it.

We are constantly learning about how to make our events more accessible and inclusive – we’d love to hear from you if you have any suggestions or insights. Please email maddy.foard@uwe.ac.uk.  

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