Making the Washington State Nonprofit Conference More Accessible
Nonprofit Association of Washington is working to make our learning spaces welcoming and inclusive to people of all abilities. If you require accommodations or support, please let our staff know. We will do our best to create a supportive learning space for everyone. Please read on to learn more about the steps we are taking.
Captioning
Captioning helps everyone, not just people with hearing loss or deafness. It also supports neurodiverse people who may need captions to help focus, assists people for whom English is not their first language, and aids people with normal hearing who may be participating from a noisy space. The Washington State Nonprofit Conference will have live captioning for all our online plenary sessions and use automatic captioning for workshops. We will also display captions for the featured speaker at each of our in-person celebrations.
For online workshops, you may access captioning through the Zoom toolbar at the bottom of your screen. Click the 3 dots to see More options, then Captions to show or hide the automated captioning during each session. To see the full transcript, click “view full transcript.”
Interpretation
We are pleased to offer live Spanish Interpretation for our online keynote presentations.
For online conference workshops and the Regional Celebrations, automated interpreation services will be offered through Wordly. Wordly translation is offered in over 30 languages.
- To access Wordly during an online workshop, you will open Wordly in another browser window. You can read the transcript, or have it read aloud to you. You may find it helpful to have a second screen or open Wordly on another device.
- To access Wordly translation during a regional celebration, you will need your own device(tablet or smart phone). You can read a translated transcript on your phone. If you would like the transcript to be read aloud to you, you will need to bring earbuds or headphones.
Visual Descriptions
We request that speakers and presenters include a visual description of themselves and their surroundings in their introduction. This helps give a person who is low-vision, blind, or even someone calling in without video a sense of space and place.
Regional Celebrations
Tri-Cities Celebration – Columbia Basin College:
The Tri-Cities Celebration will be held in the ADA accessible Gjerde Center in Building H at Columbia Basin College. The north entrance to Building H has a wheelchair accessible ramp, and accessible parking is available in the North H Parking Lot. Find a map of Columbia Basin College Pasco Campus here. Automated captions through Wordly will be available for the featured speaker.
Spokane Celebration – Gonzaga University:
The Spokane Celebration will be held in the Globe Room in Cataldo Hall at Gonzaga University. Cataldo Hall is a single story building that is accessible by wheelchair. There are accessible bathrooms available. Accessible parking is available in the lot to the east of Cataldo Hall. A privacy room will be available. Automated captions through Wordly will be available for the featured speaker.
Seattle Celebration – The Museum of Flight:
The Seattle Regional Celebration will be held at The Museum of Flight. All galleries and exhibits in the museum are fully wheelchair accessible, and there are non-gendered ADA accessible bathrooms. There is accessible parking available. A privacy room will be available. Automated captions through Wordly will be available for the featured speaker. Find additional accessibility information for the Museum of Flight here.
Limited Internet
Use the following tips for connecting with limited internet.
Proximity to Signal
- Hardwire if you can. Get closer to the source if that’s not possible.
Adjust Your Features
- Speaker Versus Gallery View: Switch to the speaker view: gallery view uses a lot more data.
- Mute Yourself: Even if you are sitting silently, it can still help to mute.
- Turn Off HD and “Touch Up My Appearance”: In your video settings, make sure that “Enable HD” and “Touch up my appearance” are turned off.
- Dial In for Audio: Use the dial in for audio instead of using your computer audio. If you lose your video feed, you can still listen. And it might be just enough of a data savings that you don’t get the frozen screen. If you have a land line, this is even more solid.
- Turn Off Your Video: If doing all the above steps aren’t enough, you can turn off your video as a final effort. Turning off your video may help with your connectivity issues, but the lack of video is challenging for people with disabilities as well as for presenters and attendees trying to engage with one another.
Avoid Network Congestion
- Download content early: In the Whova platform, you can go in early and download the presentation materials ahead of time.
- Ask housemates to accommodate: Ask if they can limit internet (especially streaming video and gaming) use while you are attending the Conference.
- Avoid Peak Hours: Weekday evenings are peak hours for most internet users. That’s when most people spend the bulk of their time streaming videos, downloading files, and playing online games—and your internet can slow down at night as a result (even if it’s not in your house).
- Note: our Conference live sessions are not during typical network congestion time.
Connect with us for support
- Finally, please reach out to us if you need support to access our learning offerings, network meet-ups, policy calls, etc.
Sharing Your Pronouns
Sharing your pronouns is not required, but it is encouraged. If this is not something you are accustomed to, consider whether you might try it during the conference. By sharing your pronouns even if you feel your gender identification is obvious, you are showing solidarity with others and communicating that you care about getting everyone’s pronouns correct.
Asking and correctly using someone’s pronouns shows respect. When someone is referred to with the wrong pronouns, it can make them feel invalidated, dismissed or alienated.
What if I make a mistake?
Everyone slips sometimes. The best thing to do is to say something right away, “Sorry, I meant she.” It can be tempting to go on about how bad you feel. Don’t. It can make the person who was misgendered feel responsible for comforting you, which is not their job.
Other Things To Know
- Avoid using “preferred pronouns” as it suggests that gender is a preference, and “masculine/feminine pronouns” because pronouns are not associated with gender expression.
- Although it may feel strange at first, they/them pronouns are used in the singular: “Xena ate their food because they were hungry.”
- Some persons may prefer to use their name instead of pronouns: Xena ate Xena’s food because Xena was hungry.”
- If you hear a colleague refer to another person using the wrong pronouns, in most cases, it is appropriate to gently correct them, “Actually, Luis uses the pronoun they.”
- It may be appropriate to approach the person who was misgendered and say, “I notice that you were referred to with the wrong pronoun earlier. Do you want me to take them aside and remind them about your pronouns?” Follow up if necessary but take cues from the individual who has been misgendered.