Accessibility Is Important To Us!

We are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

While we strive to provide all website visitors with a full experience, we recognize it is not always possible. We have and will continue to look for and report accessibility issues to the website vendor as we find them.

If you experience any accessibility issues while visiting our site, please email us at: engineeringhealth@uhn.ca. All comments and suggestions on how we can improve our website accessibility are welcome.

Accessibility Frequently Asked Questions:

Question 1. What platform will be used for the conference?  

Answer 1. The virtual conference will be held on Zoom Webinar. We intend to host three virtual drop-in sessions where conference attendees can get a feel for what the event day will look like. These will take place on Fridays – August 5, 12, and 19 from 3:30- 4:30 PM EST.  

Question 2. What types of accommodations will you have at the conference? 

Answer 2. We will have English and French live captioners at the event and captions will be available to conference attendees in both languages. We will also have English and French language interpreters and ASL and LSQ interpreters. The chat function will be turned off during the conference to minimize competing stimulations and screen reader confusion. We are building 15-minute breaks into every hour of the conference to allow people to take screen breaks and minimize overstimulation.  

Question 3. How does the live captioning work? 

Answer 3. The English captions will be available in the Zoom webinar whereas the French captions will be displayed in a separate browser window using a live captioning platform called Streamtext. The link will be provided in the conference invite email and will be posted on our conference website.  

Question 4. Will there be breaks scheduled during the conference?  

Answer 4. Yes, there are 15-minute breaks scheduled every hour. The conference runs from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM EST. This means that there will be three scheduled breaks per conference day. Please consult the conference agenda on our website for more information. 

Question 5. Will conference materials be shared with conference attendees in advance? 

Answer 5. The conference team will make every effort to collect speaker materials, make them accessible, and post these on the conference website for all attendees to access one week prior to the event – August 16, 2022.  

Question 6. Can attendees ask questions during the conference?  

Answer 6. Each presentation will be followed by a 5-minute live question and answer period. The team recognizes that this short window of time will not allow many conference attendees to ask questions, as such, we will be encouraging participants to submit their questions to the conference team in a number of different ways:  the question and answer function in Zoom, telephone, email and SLIDO, a question and answer platform. Once we have received your questions, we will publish the questions and their responses as we receive them from our speakers on our conference website after the conference.  

If you are joining the Zoom webinar using the Zoom application, you will have the option of raising your hand by clicking on the raise hand option found at the bottom of your screen. If you are joining the conference using a telephone, you will also be able to raise and lower your hand using *9. To speak via the telephone option, you will have to use *6 to unmute yourself. Once you select these options, the host of the meeting will have to grant you the permission to speak. 

Question 7. Will there be an international call-in number for conference attendees? 

Answer 7. Yes, we will have a dial-in option for international conference attendees and speakers. We will also have a dial-in option for those attending using their landline in Canada. These details will be sent out to all conference attendees via email. 

Question 8. Will visual presentations be described?  

Answer 8. We will not have a professional describer present for the conference but are working with our presenters to ensure that any visuals they use are being described within the presentation. We have created an Accessible Presentation Guide that we shared with all presenters. This guide reviews the basic principles of creating accessible presentations. Where possible, speaker transcripts will be shared in the form of a Microsoft Word document on our website prior to the conference.  

Question 9. Will conference attendees have the option to turn off sign language to avoid having to process two languages at once (cognitive accessibility)? 

Answer 9. Unfortunately, this is one limitation of the Zoom Webinar platform that we cannot control. We still decided to go with this platform as it was by far the most accessible platform that we could find and one that was recommended to us by many attendees as they had the most experience with this platform and found it to be the most accessible. 

Question 10. Will attendees be on-camera and expected to speak or participate in the conference? 

Answer 10. Conference attendees will not be required to have their cameras on and their audio will be muted unless they raise their hand and ask for permission to speak. We welcome attendees to participate in the conference in whatever form or capacity that is comfortable for them. You are not required to attend all sessions, only those that you are able and interested in attending. 

Question 11. Will the live sessions be recorded? 

Answer 11. Yes, both a French and English recording will be created and posted on our conference website a few weeks post-conference.  The final recordings will have English and French captions as well as sign language.