Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Post COVID accessibility

[Chris Hansen (itschrishansen]

We have done this in our CoHousing when the pandemic first hit, and there
were some who couldn't/wouldn't use zoom in their homes and it was
spring/summer and the second wave hadnt struck (we have since worked on
this and right now everyone zooms on a separate computer for their
household).
It was quite a lot of work to set up, but this is how we did it:
We had
- A computer set up in our dining room with
    -a projector
    - a screen (although a large LCD screen would do the same job and be
quicker to set up)
- a soundsystem with
   - Microphone
   - Speakers
- Chairs in a circle
   - a chair directly in front of the computer for speakers
- A dedicated 'zoom jockey' (me)
- A facilitator (we have a tight process of facilitation where only one
person speaks at a time). Facilitator was usually on zoom
- Sound set up so that there was no feedback through the in-person room

When a person wanted to speak and they were on zoom or in-person, they
raised hand, and 'zoom jockey' wrote their name in chat. Sometimes a second
person helped with this
When a person in the in-person room went to speak, they moved to the chair
in front of the computer so they could be seen on zoom, or the microphone
was brought to them (for a couple of people with mobility issues).
We got it down to a reasonably-well-oiled system, although it was a lot of
work, and the major challenge was making the full in-person crew visible on
camera. This can be done if you have two cameras- one up high that can pan
the whole room (although of course it makes everyone pin-head small!), and
one on the computer, and a zoom-jockey competent to switch between the two.
Mostly we just had the one in front of the computer, so that in-person or
on-zoom 'I can see everyone if I look for them' feeling wasn't there. But
it worked for the most part.

Hope that's helpful


On Sun, 25 Apr 2021 at 19:12, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
wrote:

> My church switched to discussion/worship for the pandemic and last
> summer tried to to do both online and in-person at the same time.
>
> We could make it so that people who spoke online could be heard by the
> in-person folk
> OR that the people in-person could be heard by the online folk
> BUT not both.
> The sound of the voices from online into the room would be picked up
> and sent back online and create a very painful loop (not the same as
> feedback, but rather echo-echo-echo-echo).
>
> That said, I'm not an audio engineer, I just am reasonably wise about
> wiring different systems together.
> I'd love to discover a way to do both.
>
> Liz
>
> 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
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> > http://L.cohousing.org/info
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> -Liz
> (The Rev. Dr.) Elizabeth Mae Magill
> Pastor, Ashburnham Community Church
> Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
> www.elizabethmaemagill.com
> 508-450-0431
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info
>
>
>
>

-- 
Chris Hansen
32 East Village Drive
Burlington
Vermont 05401
USA

Ph 603 3988730