Make meetings and events accessible
With new resources from Kiwanis International, you can help as many people as possible feel welcome at club events.
By Tony Knoderer
When was the last time your Kiwanis club talked about making meetings, events and presentations as accessible to as many people as possible? If it’s been a while, don’t wait for someone else to mention it — start the discussion.
Kiwanis International can help. In fact, we have some new resources for making participation easier for people of all ages, backgrounds and physical abilities. A couple of how-to flyers are now available for download:
- How to Host Accessible Meetings & Events addresses everything from the layout of the room itself to meeting locations, accommodation of people’s mobility issues, vision and hearing challenges, language considerations and more.
- How to Host Inclusive Presentations offers best practices for working with speakers, setting expectations and ensuring readability of visual materials.
Another new how-to flyer can even help you become an inclusive leader in your district: See How to Start a DEI Committee in Your District for a step-by-step guide to planning, communication and implementation.
All of these resources are now available at kiwanis.org/diversity — along with several other tools for information and inspiration. In addition, all three have been translated and posted to our Global Language Resources library. (They are the last three bullets under each language section.) If you know or work with Kiwanians where our supported languages are spoken, spread the word!
In any language, it’s important to ensure that your Kiwanis club is more welcoming to more people — whether they’re current members, visitors or guest speakers.
