Welcome to accessible Event, the ideal way to make all of your corporate meetings, classrooms, conference presentations and webinars fully accessible to everyone, including blind, deaf and deaf-blind attendees.
Your attendees will join the event by using a web browser to visit accessibleevent.com.
They’ll enter a 9-digit event code, and then your PowerPoint presentations, web pages, Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets will be displayed to everyone in a completely accessible format.
Let’s take a look at how Accessible Event works.
Before you can create an event, you’ll need to purchase Accessible Event service.
To do this, visit accessibleevent.com and choose the sign up link from the main page.
Here you can choose the service that best fits your needs.
You can purchase a personal day pass allowing up to 5 attendees for your meeting, or a corporate day pass allowing up to 25 attendees.
You can also purchase personal or corporate monthly or yearly subscriptions.
Once you’ve purchased Accessible Event service, you’re ready to set up an event.
To do this, visit the Accessible Event main page and choose the add event link.
In the first edit box, enter the name of your event.
This is what will show up in the title bar of the browser for your attendees.
In the next edit box, enter the names of the presenters who will be conducting the event.
After that, you’ll have a field to enter a description for the event.
This is the page that will display to attendees who arrive before the event begins.
Here you can include information about your company or about the topics that will be discussed during the event.
The next field allows you to enter a message that will be displayed when the event concludes.
Here you can place contact information or perhaps a call to action for your attendees.
Next you’ll see a checkbox to enable audio/video streaming during the event.
You’ll usually want to enable this but in a case where you’re in the same room with your attendees you’ll want to disable this so that they don’t hear the audio from you in the room as well as from your microphone.
The next checkbox tells Accessible Event whether you’d like to make an archive of your presentation.
If you check this box, your attendees will later be able to view the accessible event in its entirety, including content.
You can also make an MP3 archive of the event for those who just want to hear the audio.
Finally, you’ll see a checkbox to enable live voice chat before the event begins.
This is essentially a lobby mode so that your attendees can talk amongst themselves before you start the event.
Live voice chat is automatically disabled when the event begins and will need to be reenabled by an event manager if desired.
Once you’re done adjusting these settings, choose the add button and your event will be created.
As soon as your event is created, you’ll be taken to that event’s main page.
You can get back to this page at any time by logging in to accessibleevent.com and following the link with the title of your event.
There are several options on this page.
For now let’s choose the manage event link.
On this page you can do a number of things like uploading a logo or photo that will be displayed to attendees before your event begins.
You can also enable captioning and send an email with your event information to your attendees.
Sometimes you won’t be the only presenter involved in the event.
In fact, sometimes you might just want to be the event organizer and allow other presenters to do all the speaking and displaying of content.
Accessible Event makes this not only possible, but easy.
Let’s choose the add a presenter link.
This page is very simple.
In fact there’s only one piece of information that you need, an email address.
If you know that your co-presenter has an account on accessibleevent.com, enter the email address associated with that account.
If your co-presenter doesn’t have an account on accessibleevent.com or if you’re not sure, just enter the contact email address you have for that co-presenter and if an account doesn’t already exist, one will be created.
Your co-presenter will receive credentials for logging in to the Accessible Event account as well as instructions for how to join the event once it’s time to conduct it.
Once you’ve added a presenter, you’ll need to define that presenter’s roles.
Accessible Event automatically takes you to the manage presenter roles page.
You can return to this page at any time by choosing the manage presenter roles link from the main event page.
Now you have checkboxes defining which roles each presenter has.
You can choose whether a presenter is an event manager, which means they can begin and end the event, they can manage presenter roles even when the event has begun, they can do things like create an MP3 archive, enable captioning and so on, and they can even delete the event so you’ll want to be careful who you choose to fill this role.
You can have more than one event manager.
That means that if one event manager is unavailable, there’s always someone there for backup.
Next you can choose whether your presenter can show documents.
Content for your accessible event presentation is displayed in one of two ways.
It can either be uploaded beforehand, which we’ll talk about a bit later in this presentation, or it can simply be displayed by bringing up the application with the content you’d like to display.
Accessible event will watch from supported content from those presenters who have the show documents role, and when that content is in focus it will be displayed to all attendees.
Next, you have checkboxes to enable audio and video streaming.
If you want someone to just display documents or manage the event from behind the scenes, you can disable their audio and video streaming.
If you want someone to be audible but you don’t want to stream the feed from their web cam, just disable the video option.
Remember that all presenter roles can be managed by an event manager even during an event.
So, if someone’s done talking you can simply choose to disable their audio and video streaming for the remainder of the presentation.
The last presenter role is the ability to take questions.
When an event is in progress, an event manager can enable the ability for attendees to ask questions.
Once this feature is enabled, any presenter with the take questions role enabled will receive a notification when a question has been asked.
They can then decide to accept the question or reject it.
When you’re done adjusting presenter roles, choose the update button and your changes will be saved.
You can add as many presenters as you like.
Now that you’re all set with presenters, you’re going to want to invite people to attend your event.
Let’s choose the email a link to this event link.
The first thing you’ll do on this page is enter the email addresses of the recipients of your message.
You can enter a name followed by a comma followed by the email address, or just the email address.
Remember to separate each email address with a blank line.
You can do that just by pressing enter.
The next field is the subject field, and it’s automatically populated with the title of your event.
You can leave this alone if you like, or customize it.
Finally, you’ll see the body of the message.
The body of the message begins with some text you’ll want to delete.
Instead, you’ll replace it with a customized message of your own.
Following that you’ll see text which says here’s a link to the event, followed by a link to the event.
Last you’ll see another bit of text that you’ll want to delete and replace with something that adds a personal touch.
When you’re done there, just choose the send button and your message will be sent to the recipients you’ve chosen.
If you want to use another email program like Outlook to send your message to your attendees, you can do that.
In your message, you’ll include the link http://accessibleevent.com/ followed by your 9-digit event code.
You can always find your 9-digit event code on the event’s main page.
When it’s time to prepare content for your event, you can choose to either display that content live or you can upload documents for your presentation.
In this way, the person displaying documents only has to concentrate on choosing the previous or next document button to move through the documents in the presentation.
It also means that document presentation doesn’t have to be done from a Windows pc.
It can be done from a Mac computer or even an iDevice like an iPad or iPhone.
To begin uploading documents, choose the upload documents link from the event’s main page.
Here we have the opportunity to upload a .doc file, an .rtf file, or a locally saved html file.
You can type the path directly in to the edit box or you can choose the browse button and find your file that way.
Once you’ve located the file, choose the upload button and it will be added to a list of uploaded documents.
You can also enter a web page URL in the next edit box.
Once you’ve typed the URL, press the add button and the page will be added to a list of uploaded documents.
Now that you’ve uploaded a few documents, you might want to change the order in which those documents appear in your presentation.
You can do this by selecting the document in the list box and choosing the move up or move down button to change the position of the document in the list.
Once you’ve finished arranging your documents, choose the done link.
So now, you’ve created your event, chosen your presenters and managed their roles, invited attendees, and prepared your content.
Finally, you’re ready to begin your event.
Note that only a person with the event manager role can begin the event.
However, each presenter involved in the event will need to run the Accessible Event host.
Let’s go to the Accessible Event main page.
I have an event manager role for this event, so on my page I’ll see a prepare session button.
This button will allow me to run the event host and it will prepare an audio channel for me and any other presenters who might be joining me.
For those presenters who aren’t event organizers, here’s what they’ll see when they choose the event’s main page.
Initially, they’ll see a page prompting them for their name.
The name entered here will be displayed in live text chat if a presenter chooses to participate in that.
Once they’ve entered their name and chosen the go button, they’ll see the event’s main page along with a prompt that the event hasn’t yet begun.
Now, let’s talk about the Accessible Event host.
This is a small piece of software which makes all of the features of Accessible Event possible.
There isn’t any installation required.
You can just run the host, and the host will stop running when the event has concluded.
A presenter with the event management role must first run the event host before any other presenters are allowed to do so.
To start this process, choose the prepare session button.
On the next page, you’ll see a brief description of the event host, along with a link which says run the program.
Choose this link and follow the prompts of the browser to run the event host.
Even though the event host is now running, the event hasn’t officially begun.
For those presenters who aren’t event managers, they’ll now see the event’s main page update with a prompt to run the event host.
Just as with the event organizer, choose the run the program button and follow the prompts of your browser to run the event host.
When the event host is running, there’s an open audio channel between all the presenters who are involved in the event but nothing is being transmitted to the audience at this time.
This gives presenters a chance to talk together and finalize any details before the event begins.
Once all of the presenters are ready, you can choose the talk to audience button if you’d like to speak to the audience but you don’t want that speech archived.
Also, you won’t be able to display any content at this time.
When you’re ready to officially begin your event, choose the start session button.
At this point, your event will begin recording.
You’ll be transmitting audio and/or video to your audience and Accessible Event will monitor for supported content from any presenter with the ability to manage documents.
Now that the event is running, you have a few options for interacting with your attendees.
Let’s go to the manage event screen.
Here you’ll see the ability to enable questions.
This allows attendees to submit a text question by choosing the ask a question button in their browser.
A person with the ability to accept or reject questions will receive a notification whenever an attendee has asked a question.
If the question is accepted, it will automatically be displayed to all attendees so there’s no need for an event organizer or other presenter to voice the question before answering it.
If you want to have a more open forum, you can choose the enable live voice chat feature.
This allows attendees to click the talk button in the browser or hold down the f9 key and speak.
There’s no limit on the number of attendees and presenters who can speak at once, so things can get a bit chaotic.
Still, this is the perfect mode for a lively open forum discussion.
On the manage events page, you can also choose to see who is attending this event.
In addition to live voice chat or text questions which are typed and then submitted, presenters and attendees have the live text chat option.
Using live text chat, attendees can talk amongst themselves about the content being presented during the event.
Also, presenters can monitor the text chat room and make their own contributions when they want.
You can even chat privately with another presenter or attendee.
In the text chat window, to send a public message, just type it in the edit boxand press the send button, or just press enter.
If you want to chat with someone privately, you’ll see a list box containing the names of all the attendees in the event.
Choose the attendee that you want to chat privately with, then choose the open private chat button.
Now you can type a message that will only be visible to the person you’re chatting privately with.
All right, you’ve just conducted a successful and informative event and now it’s time for the event to come to an end.
You have a couple of different methods for bringing the event to a close.
If you’d like to stop archiving the event but you’d still like to talk with your audience and/or your presenters, choose the stop recording button.
If you’d simply like to end the session without talking with your audience or your presenters, choose the end session button.
If you’ve chosen to stop archiving the event will stop recording but you’ll still be transmitting to your audience.
When you’re done, choose the stop talking with audience button.
Now you’re only streaming audio and/or video to your other presenters.
When you’re done congratulating each other on how well the event went, you can choose the end session button and everyone will be disconnected.
The Accessible Event host will stop running and the event will have been concluded.
Note that you don’t have to uninstall the event host when the event is concluded, since it was never installed to begin with.
It’s great when your audience can attend your events live, but sometimes it just isn’t possible for some of them.
In that case, you’ll want to point them to an archive of the event.
There are two types of accessible event archives.
The frirst includes the audio, video, and the content displayed during the live event.
To view this archive, an attendee can just enter the event code on the accessibleevent.com main page.
The next page which is displayed will show that the event is not currently in session.
There will also be a link to replay the latest archive of the event.
When following this link, an attendee will be presented with the audio, video and content displayed during the live event.
Some attendees may only be interested in the audio portion of your event.
For those attendees, you can create an MP3 archive of the event.
To create an MP3 file containing the audio of your event, visit the event’s main page and then choose the manage this event link.
Now choose the link labeled create an MP3 archive of the latest session.
From here you have two options.
You can choose the make mp3 button or the cancel button if you’ve decided not to make an mp3.
Once the MP3 has been created, you’ll be able to download it to your hard drive and distribute it in whatever way you see fit.
Thanks for joining me on this quick tour of Accessible Event.
If you’d like to know more, you can send an email to info@accessibleevent.com.
Or, call our enterprise department at (612) 246-4818, and one of us will be happy to assist you.
And remember, the next time you’re ready to teach a class, host a corporate meeting, conduct a conference or create a webinar, make it easy and accessible with Accessible Event.