In preparation for the upcoming Portland conference, AWP releases its Final Report on the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility & Inclusion Assessment. AWP wishes to share with our members the results of Cindy Shima Kauffman’s assessment carried out between July 17, 2017 and March 10, 2018 regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its impact on AWP’s conferences accessibility and inclusion.
 

The report includes not only a review of AWP’s policies and procedures in relation to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but also the results of a town hall meeting about accessibility that was held at the 2018 Tampa conference. Ms. Kauffman studied the detailed notes from the various discussions about the conference and accessibility, as well as a review of articles that our stakeholders wrote about the issue. From those concerns, and from the concerns of those who have contacted us directly, she conducted a survey about attendees with disabilities experience at the conference. The survey results were used to improve services in Tampa and at future conferences.

AWP has now adopted several key initiatives for the 2019 Portland annual conference including:

• Close captioning and livestreaming of the keynote speaker event featuring Colson Whitehead;
• Offering complimentary registration to individuals who must Skype into their panel for accessibility reasons;
• Transportation assistance for those attendees with accessibility needs;
• Formation of an Ad Hoc Accessibility Committee to provide a comprehensive review of the accessibility services at the annual conference;
• Curating an AWP-Sponsored event featuring writers with disabilities;
• Revised Presenter Guidelines to improve accessibility.

AWP is continuing our efforts to communicate regularly with all attendees and presenters to increase awareness of the accessibility needs of their conference peers. Our goal is a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible conference for all attendees.