Re: Post COVID accessibility
From: Noel Rosenberg (noelmosaic-commons.org)
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2021 13:18:28 -0700 (PDT)
I have done hybrid meetings in both work and volunteer contexts for 
several years. The only way I have seen hybrid meetings work well involved 
the following:

* a dedicated sound crew to handle both in-room and remote audio

* everyone in the room was required to use a microphone 100% of the time 
when speaking

* remote people "raised their hands" to speak via the text chat

* one person in the room (who was not the facilitator) was dedicated to 
monitoring the text chat for comments/questions/requests to speak

Yes, this requires some extra planning, and some people comfortable enough 
with the tech to handle the audio setup pre-meeting.  It also requires 
good facilitation to make sure that only one person is speaking at a time.

-Noel
Mosaic Commons, MA

On Sun, 25 Apr 2021, Diana Carroll wrote:

| I haven't tried doing hybrid online/in person meetings specifically in the
| context of accessibility (or cohousing) but I've done plenty in a business
| context and it's pretty awful. My experience is that the online people get
| left out because you have to specifically make time for them to talk due to
| lag, because people speak more clearly automatically when online, and for
| several other reasons. I don't really have major hearing issues, but I can
| rarely hear/understand/participate in hybrid meetings. I can only imagine
| it would be worse for people with legit hearing issues.
| 
| It is possible that with great care they would work, but so far, I haven;t
| figured out how to make that happen.
| 
| Diana
| mosaic commons, MA
| 
| On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 1:39 PM Allison Tom <allisonrtom [at] gmail.com> 
wrote:
| 
| > This morning's discussion about how zoom makes meetings more accessible to
| > Deaf people and people with hearing impairments and people (like me) with
| > other disabilities makes me curious.
| >
| > I've just realized that I've been assuming that post COVID we will all
| > return to in-person meetings and I'll lose access to events and
| > conversations I've been able to join over the last year.
| >
| > Does it have to be that way? I think that trying to have a hybrid
| > in-person/zoom meeting could be really difficult. But has anyone tried to
| > do that and had success?
| >
| > Can we use the general awareness that some people who had been excluded
| > from in person events have gained access through zoom and other technology
| > to get creative about how we can be included post COVID?
| >
| > Is anyone else interested in this topic?
| >
| > Thanks,
| >
| > Allison Tom
| > Driftwood Village Cohousing
| > North Vancouver, BC
| > Moving in late summer 2021

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