I wrote the accessibility policy for Paganicon (small Pagan convention about 250 people last year, in Minnesota, structured like an SF convention in terms of space use/programming tracks/etc.) before our first event (now 3.5 years ago) - it's at http://www.paganicon.org/practical/accessibility/
There, I used the language 'specific needs' which probably could stand revisiting, but I'm pretty sure I snagged it from somewhere else that made sense to me. The idea being that we are a very small convention, with a limited budget, and there's ...
1) some stuff we could build in (picking a hotel with an eye to various mobility issues as far as transit between spaces, picking a hotel that has both free parking and good bus access, picking a hotel where there is not usually a long wait for the elevators, moving upstairs to a better laid out function space as soon as we could afford to our 2nd year, which cuts down the amount of 'between items' walking a lot)
2) some stuff where we will put more time and energy into it as we know it's needed (variations on program access, for example: doing a large print program is enough of a pain that we haven't done it routinely, but if we have a little notice, we're glad to do one: the people we know about in the community who need visual access assistance all prefer technology tools, and we use a schedule tool that adjusts well to individual preference in several ways, though not all.)
(This is particularly because our program goes to print fairly late in the process, by which point everyone who *could* do program variations is also busy with a dozen other things. So advance notice that we need it is something that helps us not burn out or overburden our board and other volunteers.)
3) some that are likely out of our budget for a long time to come, but where if we knew there was a significant need, we'd see if we could do more about it or work on some solutions that would be slightly more feasible for us (real-time transcription, ASL, etc. all have complications - they'd be a very substantial amount of our budget if we did more than, say, a keynote, and both of them present some challenges around highly specialised language where people in the community use terms in vastly different ways, that mean we'd need time to *prep* whoever was doing the ASL or transcription work.) But they're all pricy enough that we're unlikely to be able to do it for just one or two requests (but if we had, say, 10 people saying "This'd be really helpful", it would get nudged further up our "Can we find the money for this thing?" list.)
So basically what we do is lay out the stuff we know we can do, and then say "Your registration form has space for you to tell us about things that would help you enjoy and participate in our event: please tell us, and we'll see what we can do." Because as a very small event, we can't do everything - we don't have the volunteer staffing, we don't have the budget, etc. But we do have to rely on people to tell us (and with more than a week or two's notice) if there's something that is going to take us time to prep. [1]
We've done lists of local restaurants in the past, and someone should do an update again. (I no longer live locally, which complicates this, though I still run the hotel side of operations from a distance.) It helps that our board chair is gluten-free, and the hotel itself has been excellent about accommodating a range of options (and there's a bunch of both chain and independent places within walking distance or a very short drive. It's part of why I really wanted that hotel.) We also do explicit lists for actual food functions, and publicise the basic 'what'll be there' once we have an actual menu (which is usually pretty close to the event.
One of the things we did, which I mention in case it's handy for anyone else: our food event last year (and one of the two our first year: we didn't have any food events our second) is an afternoon tea at the close of the convention. It gives everyone a chance to hang out and be mellowly friendly before heading home, but people who need to catch a plane or drive aren't missing Major Programming Events. But because it's tea and not a major meal time, people who have food limitations, assuming they've told us about 'can't be in the same room with' ones) can hang out and have lemonade or tea or coffee, or whatever, even if they can't eat or can eat only one thing on the list. (This year, we did pound cake variants, including a gluten-free option: we want to do a bit better next year. Con's in March, so seasonal fruit isn't a great option, alas.)
no subject
There, I used the language 'specific needs' which probably could stand revisiting, but I'm pretty sure I snagged it from somewhere else that made sense to me.
The idea being that we are a very small convention, with a limited budget, and there's ...
1) some stuff we could build in (picking a hotel with an eye to various mobility issues as far as transit between spaces, picking a hotel that has both free parking and good bus access, picking a hotel where there is not usually a long wait for the elevators, moving upstairs to a better laid out function space as soon as we could afford to our 2nd year, which cuts down the amount of 'between items' walking a lot)
2) some stuff where we will put more time and energy into it as we know it's needed (variations on program access, for example: doing a large print program is enough of a pain that we haven't done it routinely, but if we have a little notice, we're glad to do one: the people we know about in the community who need visual access assistance all prefer technology tools, and we use a schedule tool that adjusts well to individual preference in several ways, though not all.)
(This is particularly because our program goes to print fairly late in the process, by which point everyone who *could* do program variations is also busy with a dozen other things. So advance notice that we need it is something that helps us not burn out or overburden our board and other volunteers.)
3) some that are likely out of our budget for a long time to come, but where if we knew there was a significant need, we'd see if we could do more about it or work on some solutions that would be slightly more feasible for us (real-time transcription, ASL, etc. all have complications - they'd be a very substantial amount of our budget if we did more than, say, a keynote, and both of them present some challenges around highly specialised language where people in the community use terms in vastly different ways, that mean we'd need time to *prep* whoever was doing the ASL or transcription work.) But they're all pricy enough that we're unlikely to be able to do it for just one or two requests (but if we had, say, 10 people saying "This'd be really helpful", it would get nudged further up our "Can we find the money for this thing?" list.)
So basically what we do is lay out the stuff we know we can do, and then say "Your registration form has space for you to tell us about things that would help you enjoy and participate in our event: please tell us, and we'll see what we can do." Because as a very small event, we can't do everything - we don't have the volunteer staffing, we don't have the budget, etc. But we do have to rely on people to tell us (and with more than a week or two's notice) if there's something that is going to take us time to prep. [1]
We've done lists of local restaurants in the past, and someone should do an update again. (I no longer live locally, which complicates this, though I still run the hotel side of operations from a distance.) It helps that our board chair is gluten-free, and the hotel itself has been excellent about accommodating a range of options (and there's a bunch of both chain and independent places within walking distance or a very short drive. It's part of why I really wanted that hotel.) We also do explicit lists for actual food functions, and publicise the basic 'what'll be there' once we have an actual menu (which is usually pretty close to the event.
One of the things we did, which I mention in case it's handy for anyone else: our food event last year (and one of the two our first year: we didn't have any food events our second) is an afternoon tea at the close of the convention. It gives everyone a chance to hang out and be mellowly friendly before heading home, but people who need to catch a plane or drive aren't missing Major Programming Events. But because it's tea and not a major meal time, people who have food limitations, assuming they've told us about 'can't be in the same room with' ones) can hang out and have lemonade or tea or coffee, or whatever, even if they can't eat or can eat only one thing on the list. (This year, we did pound cake variants, including a gluten-free option: we want to do a bit better next year. Con's in March, so seasonal fruit isn't a great option, alas.)