At this year’s RE: Conference, we are taking several steps to address language and technology accessibility. NP sees this work as part of its larger equity goals to increase accessibility. It is important that more people be able to participate in our work – whether they speak a different language, or may be new to using technology to participate in meetings.
- All plenaries and sessions will be available simultaneously in Spanish and English. We have hired an agency that has done interpretation for other community organizing and housing justice events. We are preparing with the interpreters in advance so that they can learn about the subject matter of the sessions and have some idea of what they will be interpreting. When all conference attendees log into a session, they will select whether they want to hear the audio in Spanish or English.
- Anyone who wishes to try out the conference technology in advance is invited to join our technical test session. It will be held on Monday November 16, 8:00 am to 8:30 am. Attendees can log on; check their audio, video, and chat function; and ask any other questions about the conference platform. During sessions, we will have a technical contact person available that attendees can email if they are having trouble. People who want to be extra prepared can watch a video we created on how to use Zoom that’s already recorded on our website!
We continue to deepen our efforts to include a wider range of voices in our work. We have recently convened an internal subcommittee that will be setting and working toward additional accessibility-related goals over the coming year. When we make our work more easily accessible to a wider community, we believe we will come to better solutions for economic and housing justice.