Suffolk County Community College has endorsed foundational values of equity, inclusion, and open access to educational opportunity. One of the College’s institutional goals is to create a welcoming culture in which every community member understands that they belong, and to eliminate disparities in access and achievement. A commitment to ensuring our programs, services, and activities are accessible to individuals with disabilities helps us achieve this goal, serve all members of the College community, and meet our obligations under federal and state law and College policy. To meet this shared goal, event planners must ensure that their event is accessible to individuals with disabilities.
To assist individuals involved in planning events and programming that are inclusive and eliminate barriers to access, the College’s Office of Legal Affairs and Office of Disability Services have jointly developed these guidelines, as well as an Accessible Event Planning Checklist you can use. These guidelines address common concerns and needs, but:
- College employees are invited to contact Legal Affairs or Disability Services should you have questions regarding how to ensure that your event is accessible.
- Licensed third-party users of College facilities should contact the Office of Special Events to discuss and address questions about accessibility features and supports available within College facilities to assist licensed users with ensuring the events they host on College property are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Common Disability-Related Barriers
When planning an event, it is not uncommon that one or more of your attendees may have a disability. Sometimes an individual’s impairment is visible, but many impairments are not visible or obvious. Common impairments include:
- Visual impairment—e.g., someone may have low vision, no vision, a limited range of vision, or require large print/Braille/alternate format materials;
- Hearing impairment—e.g., an individual may have hearing loss that requires captioning or an American Sign Language interpreter, or they may use an assistive listening device;
- Mobility or other physical impairment—e.g., they may use a wheelchair, walker, cane, crutches; they may not be able to use stairs or walk long distances; they may have limited or no use of a body part such as a hand or arm which requires an assistive device or alternate ways of performing an activity;
- Chronic medical conditions—e.g., someone may have a life-threatening food allergy, a medical condition that requires them to keep and use an oxygen tank, or experience seizures that can be triggered by flashing lights or certain visual patterns.
Intentional and thoughtful attention to these types of needs and potential barriers to access as you design and plan your program/event helps to ensure all individuals can fully access and participate in the event.
Location Planning
As you plan your program/event, consider the following accessibility features in selecting and preparing the location and space:
- Parking and Transportation: The College’s parking lots have designated accessible parking spots. Bus stops are located on each campus, and Suffolk County Accessible Transportation (SCAT) services provide additional trip assistance and pick up/drop off services for eligible individuals with disabilities that prevent them from using the regular Suffolk County Transit (SCT) public bus service. Consider informing participants of the closest parking lots and bus stops to your event location and, if necessary, how to reach an accessible entrance from those parking and transportation locations.
- Accessible entrances: The College has accessible entrances and paths of travel to each building on the campuses. If the main entrance of the building where your event will take place is not the accessible entrance, ensure event communications and signage are available to identify the accessible entrance and path of travel (e.g., ramp access, doors with automatic/assisted opening features, elevator).
- Accessible room set-up (paths of travel and seating): If your event or meeting will have a custom room setup or seating arrangement, ensure unobstructed aisles and paths of travel to accommodate individuals using wheelchairs/mobility devices and that there are no loose cables, cords, or other items across accessible paths of travel. Accessible seating needs to be available at events, programs, and meetings. For meetings, ensure chair(s) can be removed to create at least 36” of space for wheelchair users and that space for service animals or mobility devices is available. For events, designate accessible seating space for individuals with mobility disabilities and wheelchair users, including seating next to reserved seating for companions and personal care attendants, as well as ample floor space for service animals.
- Technology: Consider the need for sound amplification (microphones/speakers), displays or projection
screens that are visible from all areas, captioning for videos, audio descriptions
for videos (for visually impaired individuals), availability of electrical outlets
for laptops and devices, and the ability to accommodate assistive listening devices.
- Virtual Events: Keep in mind that virtual events must also be accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Planning your event to be as accessible as possible and appropriately communicating the accessibility features of the event location and the event itself will assist all individuals with accessing the event independently and minimize the need for adjustments or accommodations that could have been anticipated by inclusive planning.
Accessibility Statements for Event Announcements & Invitations
When preparing event announcements and invitations, please include a message that informs invitees how they can request accommodations. Examples of appropriate accessibility messaging include:
For College events:
- Suffolk County Community College is committed to ensuring our programs, services, and activities are inclusive and accessible to all, including individuals with disabilities. To request a reasonable accommodation in order to attend and fully participate in this event, please contact [insert contact name and email/phone number].
- Suffolk County Community College values equity, inclusion, and access for all. This includes a commitment to providing reasonable accommodations to ensure individuals with disabilities can attend and fully participate in this event. To request an accommodation, please contact [insert contact name and email/phone number].
- To ensure Suffolk County Community College and this program/event are as inclusive and accessible as possible, we invite you to let us know in advance if you need an accommodation in order to participate by contacting [insert contact name and email/phone number].
For third-party events:
- If you require any accommodations or have questions regarding accessibility, please get in touch with [name] at [phone number] or [email address].
Please note: The contact name and email/phone number for this purpose should not be the Office of Legal Affairs or the Office of Disability Services but, instead, should be an appropriate contact person for your event, who can, in turn, work with the College’s ADA Coordinators or the Office of Legal Affairs to support requests related to your event.
Accommodation Requests
Thoughtful planning and utilization of pre-event communications to invite advance requests for accommodations will provide additional time to arrange any necessary accommodations for your program/event and, hopefully, minimize the need for last minute changes. However, thorough planning must also consider the possibility of a spontaneous request or need for accommodation at the event.
Individuals responsible for planning or running an event should identify the person who will be responsible for addressing requests for accommodations. For large events or events with known accommodation needs, it is good practice to designate an individual who will be on-site to be responsible for addressing and troubleshooting any accommodation needs at the event.
Many accommodations can be made easily and at minimal cost—such as providing accessible seating. However, some accommodations may not be as easy to provide without advance arrangements, such as a sign language interpreter.
Any request for an accommodation to participate in your event/program must be followed up on.
In most cases, it should not be necessary to solicit additional information about an individual’s impairment and you should not do so. For example, a request for wheelchair access can be accommodated without requesting information as to why the individual needs wheelchair access. Similarly, accommodating a request for captioning does not typically require follow up questions as to why the individual needs captioning. However, for some accommodation requests, the need or feasibility of providing the accommodation may not be readily ascertainable. In these instances, please consult with one of the College’s ADA Coordinators or the Office of Legal Affairs for appropriate guidance before making any disability-related inquiry. Do not ask an individual for medical documentation.
If meeting a specific request does not appear to be possible, consider whether an alternative arrangement would be feasible and meet the individual’s needs. Before denying a request for accommodation in connection with an event, please consult with one of the College’s ADA Coordinators or the Office of Legal Affairs.
