Check your readiness
Make sure you are well-prepared to deliver a positive and accessible experience for your participants. Take the time to confirm the location, your team, and everything you and your participants will use.
Before the activity starts
Arrive early. During this time, you should:
- Prepare yourself, team members, location and technology to ensure you can provide support for participants to engage fully.
- Remind yourself and your team of the preparations you need to make for the activity to be accessible, effective, and safe and to minimise the load on participants.
- Test the accommodations and accessibility support you have prepared, ideally with people with disability.
Preparing yourself and others
Remind yourself what tasks you will be doing and what tasks your team members will need to do. Identify any potential barriers and triggers.
Helpful preparations could include:
- Clearly identifying yourself, your team members, and your organisation with nametags. Display names and organisations and a designate a place where a team member can be located. For example, in a room or via phone and email.
- Assessing and reminding yourself of potential barriers you may introduce, such as bias and discriminatory language, using unclear language, and the pacing of speech.
- Reassessing task allocations to ensure they are fit for the activity and participants.
- Communicating changes with team members if you need to be flexible with the delivery of the activity. For example, making back-up plans if things do not work as intended.
- Reminding yourself of physical, mental, and emotional health and safety protocols required by the participants and your team, including trauma-informed practice, cultural protocols, emergency and evacuation procedures, and physical and Mental Health First Aid plans.
Relevant pages
Tool: Quick guide for facilitating with people with disability example
Tool: Housekeeping discussion guide example
How to make accessible, inclusive self-introductions (Disability & Philanthropy Forum)
Preparing the location and technology
Take the time to ensure the physical or digital locations, and any technology you may use, are ready for participant use. You should:
- Find out where tools, controls, and support options are.
- Check the settings and arrangements.
- Put up accessible signs and images for people with disability.
- Check technology and plans are working.
- Find out who to talk to for help.
- Contact specialists to fix anything that is not working as it should.