Accessibility
Please view our Accessibility Statement at this link.
The Accessibility Department is here to provide improved access to all Capricon members. If you have a specific request or require assistance that is not on our website, please email accessibility@capricon.org.
The current Accessibility Coordinator is Eljay Rich, who can be reached directly at eljay.rich@capricon.org
Latest Updates
June 8, 2023: We will be doing several (online) focus groups with our membership to set priorities and discuss new access programs. If you would like to be a part of those groups, please email accessibility@capricon.org
Accessibility is for Everyone
Any member of the Capricon community can request accommodations by emailing accessibility@capricon.org. This is not limited to those who consider themselves disabled. To quote An Introduction To Accessibility on digital.gov:
“Disability is a mismatch between a person and their environment. For the person who isn’t able to do something, it’s this mismatch that impairs an individual.
What might first come to mind are people who have mobility restrictions, tremors, or low- or no vision, or are deaf or hard of hearing.
It’s important to understand that everyone experiences some form of disability. As an example, imagine that three people are trying to watch the same video, but each person has a different type of disability:
- Mark lost most of his hearing after a severe illness. He has a permanent disability.
- Jesse’s ears are ringing after a concert, and they are having trouble hearing a video. They have a temporary disability.
- Sam is struggling to listen to a video in a loud office. She has a situational disability.
The fix that benefits everyone in this circumstance might be to apply a captioning service to the video. That would directly help Mark who has a permanent disability, but also benefit Jesse and Sam who have temporary and situational disabilities. This is known as the “Curb-cut effect.” When we design for people with permanent disabilities, folks with temporary and situational limitations can also benefit.”
We encourage members of the Capricon community to request accommodations for permanent, temporary, and situational needs. We will do our best to provide what we can within the financial and time constraints of our volunteer-driven organization.
Current Access Programs
Our Accessibility Team is brand new, but here’s what we’re working on for the upcoming convention!
Communication Badges
Capricon will provide red/yellow/green communication preference badges similar to those recommended by the Autism Self-Advocacy Network.
Signage Improvements
We’re working with the department heads to make the signage and sign-ups easier to read and handle throughout the convention!
Website Accessibility
We are working on providing text size and font selectors and improving the layout of our web properties.
Wheelchair/Scooter Parking
We are working to make parking easier for wheelchair and scooter users who want to stay in their chairs while in our programming audiences as well as those who prefer to transfer to the audience chairs.
Wheelchair and Scooter Rentals
We are working with a Chicago company to make it easy for our members to rent manual and powered wheelchairs for the convention weekend.