Promote

Tips & Trends

Marriott International, Inc., a hotel industry leader for more than 95 years, today announced its commitment to incorporate neuroinclusive practices at Marriott-hosted customer events of 250 people or more globally. This commitment is a result of joining forces with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theneuproject.com/">The Neu Project</a>, an initiative from Google’s Experience Institute (Xi) that aims to share resources designed to better accommodate and create a more inclusive experience during meetings and events for neurodivergent attendees. These practices are initially being previewed at Marriott’s Corporate Partnership Customer Conference, THE EXCHANGE, currently taking place November 28 through December 1, 2023 at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/ctdca-jw-marriott-desert-springs-resort-and-spa/overview/?scid=f2ae0541-1279-4f24-b197-a979c79310b0">JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort &amp; Spa</a> in Palm Springs, CA.
Approximately 15-20 percent of the world’s population has neuro differences, including ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, dyslexia, epilepsy, and Tourette Syndrome.* In 2022, the Google Experience Institute launched The Neu Project in order to demystify and educate event professionals on the design of more neuroinclusive experiences through a helpful guide and checklist.

“Marriott is dedicated to making meetings and events more accessible for everyone.”

Starting today, the following neuroinclusive practices will be incorporated at Marriott-hosted customer meetings and events of 250 people or more:
<ul>
 <li>Quiet Room: A dedicated room will be available during Marriott customer events for recovery from sensory overwhelm, restoration and regulation. Designed to foster the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of attendees, the room will serve as a calming retreat where guests can break from the event to manage fatigue, overload and/or sensory needs.</li>
 <li>Tools and Resources: At registration, event attendees will have the opportunity to request various tools to better accommodate their needs, including sensory &amp; fidget toys, noise canceling ear plugs, sleep masks, sunglasses, printed agendas and venue maps, and details about loud music, flashing lights or surprise moments taking place during the event.</li>
 <li>Closed Captioning for Main Stage Presentations: Real-time subtitles and captions will be available on-screen during main stage event and conference presentations.</li>
</ul>

“Grounded in our commitments to innovation and inclusion, Marriott is dedicated to making meetings and events more accessible for everyone,” said Drew Pinto, Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue &amp; Technology Officer, Marriott International. “The Neu Project is a driving force in this space, and we look forward to working jointly with them, along with the neurodivergent community, to deepen our understanding of neurodivergent needs in order to truly welcome all.”
Over the past two years, Marriott has collaborated closely with The Neu Project to learn directly from the neurodivergent community. The company has already begun implementing various neuroinclusive practices at its recent customer events, including a quiet room and tools and resources at both THE EXCHANGE: Association Masters in Phoenix, AZ and THE EXCHANGE: Europe in Madrid, Spain. Last month, Marriott and The Neu Project also implemented a quiet room for attendees at IMEX America, an annual industry event in Las Vegas, NV where members of the global business events community come together.

"Marriott understands that creating environments where differing perspectives and experiences can come together boosts creativity, and we have witnessed their passion for increasing inclusivity at meetings and events."

Looking ahead to 2024, Marriott will further its neuroinclusion efforts by conducting active listening sessions with the community through conversations with The Neu Project and people who are neurodivergent, which will help shape future content.
“The Neu Project was born out of a desire to rethink event experiences post-pandemic, and has since grown into a major initiative that is driving change at events across industries,“ said Megan Henshall, Global Events Strategy at Google. “Marriott understands that creating environments where differing perspectives and experiences can come together boosts creativity, and we have witnessed their passion for increasing inclusivity at meetings and events. We’re excited to continue working with them as we strive to create more inclusive experiences with and for the neurodivergent community.”
Marriott’s implementation of neuroinclusive practices for meetings at select hotels builds on its fundamental core values of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. Through third-party partners like Disability:IN, the leading nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide, Marriott offers a variety of resources to improve accessibility at meetings, events and conferences.
* <a target="_blank" href="https://dceg.cancer.gov/about/diversity-inclusion/inclusivity-minute/2022/neurodiversity">National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology &amp; Genetics</a>

Global

Leveraging work from Google Xi’s The Neu Project, Marriott strives to create a more inclusive experience for meeting attendees.

Marriott International Becomes First Hospitality Company to Introduce Neuroinclusive Practices at Its Largest Customer Events

Educate

When meeting planners think about accessibility, their minds might reach for visible cues of venue accessibility: elevators, accessible bathrooms, Braille signage.
You’re right to invest time in researching your venue’s accessibility—but the fact is, venues have their own experts who are in charge of making sure they’re addressing people’s needs. But unless you make your meeting’s programming accessible, some of your attendees might be left out.
Here’s a starter guide on how to incorporate accessibility planning into your programming before, during, and after your event.

<h3>What to Consider Before the Event</h3>
<ul>
 <li>Review all materials for plain language. Clear, concise language helps everyone, not just attendees with language processing difficulties. Icons, illustrations, and simple language will help you distill your messaging and give attendees what they need without confusion. (You can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/">start here with the U.S. government’s guidelines on plain language communication</a>.)</li>
 <li>Determine what your attendees and presenters need. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.respectability.org/inclusive-philanthropy/executive-summary/">Only 30% of nonprofit executives say that their event registration forms ask about accessibility and accommodation needs.</a> You can help up that percentage with pre-event surveys on event registration forms. Offering specific options can help signal that your organization is investing in accessibility, but if you don’t yet have a starting point, try issuing a blanket accommodations statement in your pre-event materials asking people to notify you about alternative formats, interpreters, and other reasonable accommodations by a certain date. Make sure to give a specific way to make those requests (e.g., email address or phone number).</li>
 <li>Figure out what equipment you’ll need. Your audiovisual and tech teams can help advise you on the types of equipment you will need to accommodate your attendees. For event-specific technology such as floor plans and networking tools, evaluate potential vendors with accessibility in mind.</li>
 <li>Use your hybrid tools for in-person meetings. Hybrid and remote meetings gave planners a wealth of tools that can come to life as accessibility helpers. One example: live captioning, now easily available with automated tools. A simple A/V setup can enable live captioning to help people who are hard of hearing follow the day’s events.</li>
 <li>Establish your personnel needs. Are you hiring sign language interpreters? Give them access to relevant programming materials beforehand, particularly if the material is technical. Is there a sensory room or another space dedicated to making meetings accessible to all? You’ll need someone to make sure the space is maintained. Consider designating one staff member as the accessibility chief who can manage and direct accommodations.</li>
 <li>Include your presenters. This means two things: Consider your speakers’ accommodation needs, and make sure they are aware of any accommodations you’re expecting them to make in their presentations.</li>
</ul>

<h3>What to Consider During the Event</h3>
<ul>
 <li>Account for real-time feedback. You can’t please everyone, and sometimes when attendees’ needs conflict, you might not even be able to fully accommodate everyone. But you can listen to everyone, keeping in mind that they are the experts on their own experience.</li>
 <li>Continue your plain language quest. Signage and materials should be easily accessible to all attendees. That goes for “live” communication, too: Make sure there’s a “translator” in sessions who can repeat and synthesize audience questions in Q&amp;A formats in a way that all attendees can easily understand.</li>
 <li>Gather your supplies. Tech and signage are already a part of your setup, but consider adding an “accommodations” section to your checklist. For example, having noise-canceling headphones available for attendees to borrow can help prevent sensory overload, as can having rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs to help guests remove perfume they may not have recognized is overpowering for some.</li>
</ul>

<h3>What to Consider After the Event</h3>
<ul>
 <li>Make all materials available. It’s easier than ever to make recordings and digital materials available after the fact. And just as with most forms of accommodation, making these materials available helps everyone. If an attendee needs to listen to a session again, it doesn’t matter whether it’s because she’s hard of hearing or conducting research.</li>
 <li>Ask what you can do better. Include questions about accessibility in your post-event surveys. Remember that ease of comprehension can be even more important in surveys; the easier you make it for attendees to fill out the survey, the more likely you are to get the information you need.</li>
</ul>

Accessibility Doesn’t Stop at the Front Door. Here’s How to Make Meeting Content Accessible.

Is Your Programming as Accessible as Your Venue?

Successful live captioning isn’t only about supporting remote attendees. Done well, they can be an accessibility boon for in-person attendees who are hard of hearing, whose first language is not the language of the presenter, and who are easily distracted.
In other words, it helps <a target="_blank" href="https://www.td.org/atd-blog/failure-to-focus-distractions-are-killing-our-ability-to-focus-at-work-and-at-home">most of us</a>.
“Live captioning boosts accessibility and inclusivity, allowing meeting planners to ensure a seamless experience for all attendees, regardless of their hearing abilities,” says Ryan Sheehan, digital solutions product manager at Encore, an event experience organization that includes live captioning among its services.
Consider it a variation of the <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/531/win-over-gen-z-win-over-everyone">“curb-cut effect”</a>: If live captioning makes your meetings more accessible for some, it benefits everyone.
Tech companies such as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.xander.tech/xanderglasses">XanderGlasses</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://xrai.glass/">XRAI Glass</a> are developing live captioning wearables that could someday shift the entire captioning landscape. Until then, though, following <a target="_blank" href="https://dcmp.org/learn/599-captioning-key---elements-of-quality-captioning">the protocols set forth by DCMP</a>, the Described and Captioned Media Program, can go some way toward ensuring you’re making your event accessible. Take it a step further by learning about these five live captioning mistakes—and how to avoid them.

<h3>Live Captioning Pitfall #1: Letting the Visuals Speak for Themselves</h3>
Accessibility isn’t the only reason to use live captioning, but it’s a big one. Yet if presenters rely on visuals to “speak for themselves,” the presentation becomes less accessible overall.
Instead, invite presenters to follow <a target="_blank" href="https://dcmp.org/learn/617-description-key---how-to-describe">DCMP’s guidelines for describing visual features</a> within a presentation. Clear, contextualized, intent-oriented descriptions of onscreen content support accessibility, and it also clears room for attendees without accessibility needs to take in visual content without competing with spoken content.

<h3>Live Captioning Pitfall #2: Skimping on Context</h3>
This tip isn’t solely about live captioning, but rather about how our brains retain information—which live captioning supports. Beginning sessions with a brief anchor text, even a scripted one, helps root the attendee in what they’re about to take in. By priming the brain to help attendees understand the overview of what’s to come, they’re more likely to be able to draw meaning from the session instead of being overwhelmed by both reading and listening to a presentation.

<h3>Live Captioning Pitfall #3: Relying on the Machines</h3>
Automatic speech recognition (ASR) programs have come a long way in recent years. But the goal of captioning is errorless consistency—something that ASR programs haven’t yet mastered.
Adding a professional captioner to the equation costs more, but for big-ticket or high-profile sessions or keynotes, the investment in quality pays off.
“While both solutions offer captioning, their costs and accuracy vary greatly,” Sheenan says. “Each solution has specific scenarios where it is more applicable than the other.” He suggests that planners work with professional captioners for critical events or those with legal implications, while ASR programs may be more efficient for routine meetings or webinars.
Professionals often work in tandem with ASR technology to ensure real-time, error-free captioning (including when the human captioner has to, say, sneeze). Their superior skill in distinguishing between voices, transmitting the right word thanks to context cues, and making captions more readable make for a more accessible experience that can last well after the event.
Also note that ASR programs do not yet meet the standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act. As Samantha Evans, certification manager at the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, <a target="_blank" href="https://associationsnow.com/article/accessibility-is-an-opportunity-not-an-obstacle/">told Associations Now in 2022</a>, “They’re a great starting point, but should not be the goal. You wouldn’t want to get your prescription instructions read to you with captions that were right maybe 80% of the time.”

<h3>Live Captioning Pitfall #4: Letting Captions Overtake Visuals</h3>
As noted above, visuals add key context to a presentation. If an in-room (or remote) screen has live captioning plastered over those visuals, it diminishes the value of both.
“Graphical content should leave 20% of screen real estate for the display of any onscreen captioning if applicable,” Sheehan says.
Work with your presenters ahead of time to understand when they’ll be using visuals that would be marred by captioning, and work with an in-room technician to change the area where the visuals display during those periods, or to temporarily adjust the size of the visuals.

<h3>Live Captioning Pitfall #5: Ignoring Specialized Vocabulary</h3>
Even skilled professional captioners will produce more reliable transcriptions if they know what to expect. Giving captioners or advanced ASR programs a word list before the session increases the chances that they’ll be able to successfully distinguish between terms that may be bandied about in a session but that aren’t a part of the vernacular.
Technical or specialized terms are the clearest example—some ASR programs wouldn’t be able to handle, say, a gathering of otorhinolaryngologists. But a word list can also help distinguish between similar-sounding words that may be used in a session. A psychology conference with a presentation about the relationship between interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence, for example, would benefit from a word list containing both interpersonal and intrapersonal.
Sheehan also suggests breaking down long paragraphs into shorter phrases, omitting non-essential details, and simplifying complex sentences. He also recommends ensuring that presenters are aware of the importance of clear pronunciation and advising them to pause when introducing new terms.
Whatever option you choose for live captioning, know that you’re fulfilling attendee expectations. When <a target="_blank" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/tiktok-will-automatically-enable-captions-on-every-video-uploaded/">TikTok added automatic captioning</a> to its videos in 2023, it laid down a clear line: People want information shared in ways that will help them understand what they’re experiencing—and as a meeting planner, that’s what you want too.

Everyone Wins With Live Captioning. Learn How to Do It Right.

Avoid These Five Live Captioning Pitfalls

Network

“Nothing about us without us” has long been a rallying cry for the disability rights movement. But while meeting planners do their best to follow accessibility guidelines and <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/514/is-your-programming-as-accessible-as-your-venue">create accessible programming</a>, they might not be following that tenet.
Including people with a range of abilities in the planning process helps ensure that the event goes beyond checking boxes about wheelchair accessibility. The broader the scope of voices involved, the more an event can be truly welcoming.
Below are some steps toward deepening your relationship with the disability community. But take note: Your newly found partners in accessibility aren’t doing the work for you. It’s still up to planners to know and address the principal concerns of the community, understand venue and programming guidelines, and uncover ways to make events more inclusive.

<h3>Find the Right Voices to Invite In</h3>
Start by asking within your organization or your client contacts. Is there someone in your organization who has an existing relationship with a local activist community? Who has brought up concerns about accessibility within the organization before?
You can also turn to the experts. The ADA National Network has <a target="_blank" href="https://adata.org/find-your-region">regional ADA centers</a> that provide local assistance, as well as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.adainfo.org/hospitality/">hospitality portal</a> with a handful of resources, including an accessible meetings guide.
The convention and visitors bureau or destination marketing organization of your host destination may also be able to point you in the right direction. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.visittampabay.com/accessible-travel/">Visit Tampa Bay</a>, for example, works with disability influencers to inform its own policies around accessibility and authentically promote the Tampa Bay area as an accessible destination.

<h3>Cultivate Your Relationships</h3>
You’re a master networker, so you’re probably already intuitively applying those skills to these new connections—reaching out for regular check-ins, taking time to note their achievements in professional settings, and so on. But this isn’t just about maintaining contact; it’s about making sure that you’ve developed enough trust that your partners will be able to help you think differently. When <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/410/is-inclusion-part-of-your-organizing-principle">inclusion is part of your organizing principles</a>, your events can’t help but be more inclusive and accessible.
Also, think about how you can compensate your partners for their time and expertise. They’re not doing you a favor; they’re leveraging their personal experience to make your events better for everyone. For ongoing relationships, a stipend may be appropriate. Some partners may benefit from free access to your organization’s programming and events as a form of payment. Whatever you do, compensating them for their time in a meaningful way is another way of demonstrating your commitment to inclusivity.

<h3>Implement Their Findings</h3>
This doesn’t mean responding in a knee-jerk fashion and then scrambling to, say, find a sign language interpreter at the last minute. It’s more about listening to all your partners and collaborating to find ways to make sure their findings see the light of day in a thoughtful manner.
As an example, when <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/555/marriott-international-becomes-first-hospitality-company-to-introduce-neuroinclusive-practices-at-its-largest-customer-events">Marriott International worked with The Neu Project</a>, an initiative geared toward inclusive events that welcome neurodiverse attendees, it led to ongoing, sustainable practices that changed how Marriott-hosted events operate. Live captioning is now available at any Marriott-hosted customer event of 250 people or more, for example; it’s not an afterthought.
Regardless of how you work with your inclusivity partners, remember that this is only part of the work. Following accessibility guidelines is the bare minimum. Being proactive about anticipating and accommodating needs—discovered through working with your partners, asking attendees and clients directly, and your own ongoing research—will help ensure that people with a range of abilities will get all they can from your events.

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity

Articles