Event organizers and hosts who sell tickets are legally bound by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) § 36.203(a) in the U.S., The Equity Act (2010) in the U.K, and similar acts globally to consider accessibility when planning an event.
But you shouldn’t just make your events more accessible because you ‘have to.’ Instead, any events business serious about success should proactively approach inclusivity as it is also in their best financial interest.
Consider this fact: Approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide are significantly disabled.
As a business person, you can’t really afford to ignore such a huge chunk of the market and hope to make your event a success.
Also, people of color, people who speak entirely different languages than yours, and other minorities can’t be ignored either, as they can also add up to a significant potential market.
To truly achieve success, you need to market your event to every potential ticket buyer and help them purchase their tickets in a way that’s particularly convenient to them. And selling tickets online does exactly that (more on this later in the article).
Plus, diversity might be your competitive edge—it gives you the point of view of people with different backgrounds, making your events even more interesting.
In this article, we’ll discuss why as an event organizer, you should be taking inclusivity and accessibility more seriously. We’ll also look at how selling tickets online can help you achieve that.
Source: Disabilityin
Defining Inclusion & Accessibility
Inclusion is proactive—everyone feels they belong, regardless of race, sexuality, religion, mental health, etc. When it comes to accessibility in events, we’re referring to the experience of everyone being catered for with all the barriers down, high inclusivity, and equal access for all.
It’s become really important to consider things like representation for race, gender identity or expression, and sexual orientation in your work when organizing events.
Simply put, the audience isn’t just asking for these considerations anymore – they’re expecting them, and rightfully so.
With movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, society is evolving into a new state of consciousness when it comes to inclusion.
The younger generations are playing a significant role in driving these changes, and it’s clear that these factors need to be part and parcel of what we do today.
For you, it’s no longer a question of whether your event should incorporate DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) considerations – it’s now about figuring out how to make it happen.
Why Should You Care About Accessibility & Inclusivity?
Being considerate and making your event more accessible and inclusive might require some extra effort on your part—you might have to go a bit over your budget or spend some extra time thinking of strategies to make people of all backgrounds be part of your event and implementing them.
Here’s what matters at the end of the day: consciously, it’s the right thing to do. That said, if you need more motivation to make your events fully accessible, the following are some more reasons you should do so:
Legal Obligations: Complying with Accessibility Standards
You need to adhere to the relevant legislation in your province or country (whichever applies). For instance, if you operate in Ontario, Canada, you must comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
These laws ensure that all individuals (including people with various disabilities or who self-identify as such) can participate in your events.
As an organizer, it’s your legal duty to consider and help individuals with disabilities, whether it’s a live, in-person, or virtual event so that people with disabilities can get right into the mix and participate to the fullest.
Ignoring those accessibility standards could land you in some hot water, with possible legal consequences and hefty fines.
This is especially true in the United States, where the ADA holds significant weight. So, it’s best not to take any chances—keep things fair and square for everyone. Wherever you are in the world – whether you’re catering to global markets, holding online events, or located in a specific region, it’s essential you look into the legislation.
Source: Eleanor Glanville Institute
Reputation & Financial Implications: The Risks of Exclusion
If people with disabilities aren’t catered for in your events, you’re not only facing a financial hit from lower attendance, but your reputation could take a real battering too. Negative press and bad word-of-mouth—it’s a recipe for disaster.
Leaving individuals with disabilities out of both in-person and virtual events can negatively impact your reputation as an event planner and the organization you represent. Ignoring inclusivity for all attendees and seeming like you couldn’t care about those in the margins can have serious consequences.
It won’t take long before a few viral posts pop up on social media, calls for boycotts start getting thrown around, and people start talking about cancel culture.
In this day and age of social media, bad word of mouth spreads like wildfire. Negative reviews and comments can do some real harm to those on the receiving end.
Becoming a Disability-Inclusive Event Planner
Adding disability inclusion to event design helps everyone join in and have a great time. When we think about the needs of people with disabilities, events become a safe space where everyone feels included and welcomed.
As a result, more people get involved, stay engaged, and spread the word about the positive experience.
Including people with disabilities in your events has a really positive impact on your brand’s reputation. When you’re known for being a disability-inclusive event planner, it sets you apart from others who don’t give it a fair go.
Prioritizing disability inclusion shows that you’re committed to being socially responsible and fair to everyone. And that’s a great way to shine the light on yourself and the brand you’re representing.
Understanding Physical Disabilities
When you organize an event, be sure that everyone has a fair chance of participating in it. Recognize the different accessibility needs of the crowd. There’s a significant segment of people with various physical disabilities, which can affect their movement, vision, or hearing.
Source: CDC
To be sure nobody misses out on your event, here are a few types of physical disabilities you should consider:
Mobility Impairments
You have to be mindful of your audience with mobility issues. Some people use wheelchairs or crutches to get around, and you’d want them to have a great time at the event, safe as their houses.
So, what you need are some excellent accessibility solutions—you need to sell tickets online. That way, people with mobility issues won’t have to wait in lines or even go to a booth just to get their hands on tickets to your events.
As an organizer, it’s your job to make it as easy as possible to buy your tickets, even for people without any disability and especially for those who are disabled in some way. And selling tickets online does exactly that.
They get to buy tickets from their comfort zones with a few taps on their phone.
Once they arrive at your venue, provide them with ramps, lifts, and dedicated accessible parking spaces to ensure they can easily move about.
Source: Meetings Today
Visual Impairments
For people with vision impairments, reading or grasping printed materials can be a bit of a challenge. Also, when you sell tickets online, you need to be sure that your online ticketing solution should have a theme with high contrast in its color scheme (like TicketsCandy). This is because it is more readable for people with disabilities.
That way, your tickets are instantly more accessible, opening up your event to a wider audience.
For the traditional marketing material, there are some top accessible solutions out there, like braille signage and audio description, that can make it a lot easier for those who might have a tough time with regular visual aids.
Hearing Impairments
People with hearing impairments can sometimes struggle to hear and understand spoken words. Selling tickets online can be a great way to make it easy for people with hearing impairment to get in on your event.
When you sell tickets online, you can leverage stuff like closed captioning for event descriptions and marketing videos, so your deaf and hard-of-hearing audience can be in the know too.
Plus, online ticketing platforms (like TicketsCandy) offer plenty of ways to get in touch, like customer support through chat or a friendly email for those who prefer written communication. This reduces potential barriers individuals with hearing impairments face during in-person transactions.
Get rid of the old-school face-to-face transactions and sell tickets online to chuck out any hurdles that might trip up your deaf and hard-of-hearing potential buyers.
Understanding Hidden Disabilities
Not all disabilities are easy to spot. Remember that even those who seem perfectly typical might have hidden disabilities. Being mindful of their needs can be a bit of a challenge.
These disabilities can come in all sorts, like having a different way of thinking (that’s the neurodivergent state), battling mental health issues, and more. So, it’s important to be aware and show some understanding. That way, you can plan events that welcome and accommodate people facing these challenges.
Taking this inclusive approach not only spruces up our events but also makes them a real friendly and welcoming place for everyone involved.
Source: Assist Plan Managers
Here are some hidden disabilities for which selling tickets online can make your event more accessible and inclusive:
Cognitive Disabilities
People with cognitive disabilities might find it tough to grasp or make sense of information and sensory stimuli. So you need to make your event more accessible for people facing these issues.
Selling tickets online can help you in that by providing a user-friendly and convenient platform like TicketsCandy, making life simpler for them.
No need to deal with physical travel, standing in long queues, or getting up close and personal with any person (all of which increases stress for people facing cognitive impairments).
The online ticketing platform you work with should be clean and easy to navigate, with features like text-to-speech and adjustable font sizes to make it even better.
That way, these people can take their time to review and confirm purchases at their own pace, making it super accommodating for them.
This whole setup lets individuals with cognitive disabilities participate in your events independently.
Neurodivergent Conditions
Neurodivergent conditions like autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and dyslexia can greatly impact how a person’s brain works—their cognitive or neurological functioning takes a different track than the norm.
Selling tickets online can make them a part of your events by providing a more cozy and accommodating experience. Online ticketing eliminates all the sensory overload and social anxieties that can be a real bother in packed queues and crowded places.
Plus, the option to pre-plan and choose specific seating works great, especially for people who find uncertainty a bit tough to handle.
These platforms go the extra mile by offering customizable settings for font size and colors, which is a big help for those with sensory processing differences, ensuring they can enjoy the events too.
With this inclusive approach, Neurodivergent individuals can easily join in on the fun, promoting a more diverse and inclusive attendance.
How Online Ticket Sales Can Make Your Event More Accessible & Inclusive
You need meticulous planning and attention to detail to pull off a successful event, including ensuring accessibility and inclusivity for all attendees.
With online ticketing, you can make it dead easy and user-friendly for people from all walks of life and abilities to get involved. Here’s how when you sell tickets online, it can boost accessibility and inclusivity:
Eliminating Physical Barriers
The traditional way of selling tickets with the box offices, ticket counters, and registration desks, all in-person, has a major downside—for people with mobility issues, it can be a real challenge, even impossible, to get to these spots and buy tickets to your event.
Selling tickets online is the perfect solution to this problem. Anyone with an internet connection can now grab their tickets right from the comfort of their own homes. No need to fuss about going out anywhere.
These online ticketing platforms eliminate these physical barriers and promote inclusivity. They come with some excellent features, like screen readers and keyboard navigation, which work great for people with visual or motor impairments.
Enhancing Communication & Information
Communication must be clear and comprehensive to make your events more accessible to a wider audience. Online ticketing platforms make it super easy for you to share all the important details with the attendees.
From the nitty-gritty stuff like venue accessibility, parking instructions, and accommodation options to the full-on event schedules, all of it can be right there on the event page (which you can highly customize if you work with the right ticketing solution).
These platforms have direct communication channels like emails or messaging systems set up, so attendees can ask specific questions about accessibility or make special requests. That way, everyone will have the information they need to comfortably make it to the venue and be part of your event.
Sell Tickets Offering Multiple Payment Options
With traditional ticket sales, the payment options can be limited, which can be a pain point for some attendees. But with online ticketing systems, things get much easier.
These online platforms provide flexibility and have various payment methods like credit cards, digital wallets, and online banking set up.
That means everyone has access to your tickets, no matter if they don’t have a credit card or are from different regions.
Implementing Accessible Seating Arrangements
Online ticket sales really step up to help with accessibility, especially in the case of events with assigned seating. They make it much easier to arrange seating that suits attendees with disabilities, providing them with comfortable and appropriate options that meet their specific needs.
They offer interactive seating maps so that attendees can choose their seats hassle-free. And for those people who use wheelchairs, walkers or have mobility issues, this feature is absolutely great. They can choose seats that work just right for them and see where they’ll be in the venue.
Catering to Different Language Preferences
The world has become multicultural, and now your potential ticket buyers transcend boundaries. Language accessibility is an absolute must to make events inclusive.
With these online platforms, you can offer event information and ticket options in multiple languages. It opens the doors wide to a more diverse audience and makes non-native speakers feel right at home, like they belong and matter at the event.
Facilitating Group Bookings & Discounts
Online ticketing platforms work great to sort out group bookings and hook your buyers up with discounts, making it more affordable for families, organizations, or communities to head to events as a unit.
Hooking people up with group rates is a great way to get them involved and stoked to share their event experiences with their loved ones, promoting inclusivity and accessibility.
Wrapping Up
Altruistic motivations for inclusion and accessibility are easy to understand because most of us just want to do the right thing and be fair to everyone. But there’s more to it than just good intentions.
Failing to consider disability inclusion can have serious consequences. It’s not just about doing the right thing; it’s about protecting yourself, your event, and the organization you represent.
Ignoring disability inclusion can expose you to legal and financial risks and cause reputational damage. Excluding a significant portion of the population, whether intentionally or not, is a serious matter.
Inclusivity at events requires active effort from your side. Event ticketing platform partners like TicketsCandy can lend a hand, but you need to create spaces and experiences that make everyone feel welcomed and valued.
Partner up with TicketsCandy to make your events inclusive and enjoyable for all. Sign up for free now.
FAQs
Why is it important to consider accessibility and inclusivity in event planning?
It’s crucial to consider accessibility and inclusivity in event planning to ensure that everyone, regardless of their physical, visual, hearing, cognitive abilities or hidden disabilities, can attend and enjoy the event. Failing to do so can expose organizers to legal, financial, and reputational risks.
How can online ticket sales help people with mobility impairments?
Online ticket sales allow people with mobility impairments to purchase tickets from their own homes, removing the need for them to queue or go to a physical booth. Additionally, event venues should provide features like ramps, lifts, and dedicated accessible parking spaces to facilitate their movement.
What should event organizers keep in mind for people with visual impairments?
Event organizers should use an online ticketing solution with a high-contrast theme to increase readability for visually impaired attendees. Also, traditional marketing materials can be supplemented with braille signage and audio descriptions for enhanced accessibility.
How can online ticket sales be advantageous for people with hearing impairments?
Online ticket sales can include features like closed captions for event descriptions and marketing videos. Providing customer support via chat or email can also help to remove communication barriers for those with hearing impairments.
How can online ticket sales cater to hidden disabilities such as cognitive disabilities and neurodivergent conditions?
Online ticket sales platforms like TicketsCandy offer user-friendly, easy-to-navigate interfaces with features like text-to-speech and adjustable font sizes. These platforms can reduce sensory overload and social anxiety, allowing individuals to review and confirm purchases at their own pace, promoting independence and reducing stress.
How can online ticket sales make an event more accessible and inclusive?
Online ticket sales can enhance event accessibility and inclusivity by eliminating physical barriers, enhancing communication and information sharing, offering multiple payment options, implementing accessible seating arrangements, catering to different language preferences, and facilitating group bookings and discounts.
What are the potential risks of not considering disability inclusion in event planning?
Ignoring disability inclusion in event planning can expose organizers to legal and financial risks, as well as cause reputational damage.
How can TicketsCandy help in promoting accessibility and inclusivity in events?
TicketsCandy can assist in promoting accessibility and inclusivity by providing features designed to enhance accessibility, such as user-friendly interfaces, adjustable font sizes, and options for pre-planning and choosing specific seating.