The PCC Code of Conduct (most recently revised in May 2023) provides valuable guidelines for interacting with others on discussion lists, online, and in-person events. The PCC Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Accessibility would like to highlight and supplement the Code of Conduct to provide recommendations for providing more accessible online meetings, since that’s where most PCC activities take place. 

All members are equally valuable participants in online meetings. In order to facilitate and encourage participation, engagement, and information sharing during meetings, these tips will help keep online meetings accessible to everyone. 

• Share an accommodation statement
• State commitment to inclusion and accessibility
• Solicit member accessibility requests
• Promote a culture of speaking up
• Define and follow speaking guidelines
• Allow just one speaker at a time
• Use plain language
• Define acronyms 
• Don’t let voices dominate
• Use hand raise feature
• Establish consistent accommodation practices 
• Enable live captioning
• Provide access to documents before meetings
• Create clear minutes for referral 
• Promote inclusion and participation
• Allow participants to either chat or speak verbally 
• Provide a chat monitor for large meetings
• Schedule breaks during long meetings
• Provide clear visuals and clean audio
• Use clear, uncluttered presentation slides
• Reduce background noise by using headphones and microphone
• Mute when not speaking

Additional resources:

• Autistica: Guide to Making Your Online Events Accessible for Autistic People
• Disability:IN: Six Tips To Keep In Mind When Creating Accessible Virtual Meetings
• AccessComputing: Accessibility and Universal Design of Online Meetings
• Stanford IT: Accessible and Inclusive Virtual Meetings

The information in the tipsheet above is also available as an infographic: