Braille is important.

On Apr 5, 2011, at 10:59 PM, George Kerscher wrote:

Hello,
 
Just responding to one item.
 
The conference program and the restaurant menus were available in DAISY. They could be downloaded in advance from the DAISY website, and they were also on CD at conference registration. This is the same as it has been over the past several years.
 
Best
George
 
 
From: Equal Access to Software & Information [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roderick Macdonald
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 8:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: CSUN 2011
 
I attended the 2011 CSUN conference in San Diego, my tenth conference 
voerall, I think, but my first sicne 2008. While there were many positives I 
was nonetheless very disappointed in this conference in terms of 
accessibility.

It seemed to me that the organizers have gone all-out to present high-end 
speakers and presenters, while giving only perfunctory attention to making 
the event accessible to attendees with disabilities. Restaurant menus at the 
hotel were not in braille, as they always were in Los Angeles; support 
services in the exhibit halls - always a plus in the past - were limited to 
20-minute installments, and since the service desk and the exhibits were on 
different levels, it took half the time just to get to and from the exhibit 
areas; and once there it was very difficult to see the booth numbers.

Additionally, unless one has an employer or sponsoring organization footing 
the bill, the conference is prohibitively expensive - registration is over 
$500, and a standard room, parking and typical meals will typically set you 
back $300 or more per day.

Perhaps most telling - although the organizers say nearly 5,000 people 
attended, I personally saw only two wheelchair users in the four days I 
attended the exhibits.

Does anyone on this list have feedback - pro or con - regarding this 
conference's accessibility?

Rod Macdonald