Category: Conferences and events

Ageism, Attitudes and Stereotypes

Are you ageist? Probably. Front cover of the Ageist Britain report from SunLife. Ageism, attitudes and stereotypes. An article in The Guardian reports on a survey that found one third of British people admit they have discriminated against others because of their age. The SunLife report, Ageist Britain, highlights casual ageism and the impact it has on everyone. But it is ingrained in everyday language. It seems younger people think that life after 50 must be ‘downhill all the way’. But such attitudes infiltrate all parts of everyday life. That’s how older people are excluded from employment, harassed on public transport, and even when shopping. 

Language can demean and depress. “Old fart”, “little old lady”, “bitter old man” and “old hag” were, researchers found, the most used ageist phrases on social media. Four thousand people in the UK were surveyed. Thousands of tweets and blogposts were also analysed for discriminatory and ageist language. And that’s without journalists using the term “the elderly” for anyone aged over 65.

Ageism, attitudes and stereotypes

Do we deploy so-called positive stereotypes of older people as a means to combat ageism and ageist attitudes? If we say older people make more loyal and reliable employees, what does that say about younger people? But are these stereotypes valid? Philip Taylor discussed these important issues about ageism, attitudes, stereotypes and work.

Two men are working on a construction site. One is holding a circular saw which has just cut through a large timber board. Are they a stereotype? Probably not. Ageism attitudes and stereotypes.
Working at any age – no need for stereotypes

 

Professor Taylor’s keynote presentation at UD2021 was thought provoking. It challenged almost everyone in the room to re-think their concepts about ageism and work. It seems there are more complaints related to age by younger people. He asked, is there such a thing as ageism or are there other factors that discriminate?  And how does this work with concepts of equity and diversity?

Then there are the contradictions related to age: The Federal Government wanting everyone to work until age 70, yet National Seniors are proposing older people should make way for younger people and retire early. 

Blue background with white text. Title slide from Taylor's presentation about ageing, attitudes and stereotypes.Here’s a quote from one of the slides, “The very arguments for employing older workers put forward in business cases concerning commitment, loyalty and experience risk confirming broader societal perceptions that they are of the past and thus, less able to meet the demands of modern workplaces” (Roberts, 2006).

There is a greater variation in job performance between people of the same age than between people of different ages. Professor Taylor’s presentation slides have a good amount of text to get the key points of his presentation. Maybe it is time for a product recall on advocacy for older people. 

Ageism is bad for your health

An older woman's pair of hands. A common ageist and patronising image of an older person.
A common ageist image. Why not her face?

We have to stop ageism at the older end of the age spectrum. Why? Because it’s killing us. The World Health Organization, says older people who hold negative views about their own ageing will live 7.5 years less than people with positive attitudes. So where do these negative views come from? Everywhere it seems. Ageism is bad for your health because ageing is framed as a negative experience. 

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald reports on this phenomenon. Ageist comments, such as “silly old duck” or “they are useless with technology” are socially accepted. Calling someone an “old dear” is not a term of endearment. Language matters because it is an expression of how we think. Ageism is yet to be properly recognised as damaging, unlike racism and sexism.  But we must be careful with the term ageism.

Ageism is always referred to as an older age issue. However, it is not. Anyone of any age can be subject to ageism. In Europe, the only region with data on all age groups, younger people report more age discrimination than other age groups. Philip Taylor has more to say on this in his UD2021 presentation. 

Ageism affects everyone. Children are brought up in a culture of age stereotypes that guide their behaviours towards people of different ages. They also learn how to perceive themselves at various stages of life. 

The WHO says that ageism is everywhere – in our institutions and relationships to ourselves. For example:

    • Policies that support healthcare rationing by age,
    • Practices that limit younger people’s opportunities to contribute to decision-making in the workplace
    • Patronising behaviour used between older and younger people
    • Self-limiting behaviour based on our own ideas of what a certain age can or cannot do. 

Is ageism really a problem?

It’s not just about older people either. This section from the WHO website on ageism says:

Two women sit on a bird nest swing depicting a positive image of older people.
Two older women on a bird nest swing. A more positive image.

“Age is one of the first things we notice about other people. However, age is often used to categorize and divide people in ways that lead to harm, disadvantage and injustice and erode solidarity across generations. This is ageism: the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or ourselves based on age.

Ageism is pervasive, affects people of all ages from childhood onwards and has serious and far-reaching consequences for people’s health, well-being and human rights. Ageism can be found within institutions, in interactions between people and within ourselves. Globally, 1 in 2 people are ageist against older people and in Europe, younger people report more perceived ageism than other age groups.”

Festivals and markets for everyone

Events, festivals and markets need to plan for inclusion.Organisers of festivals, markets and events need to think about accessibility and inclusion in their planning. Ordering an accessible Portaloo doesn’t suddenly make the event accessible. The layout of stalls and entertainment areas also need to be considered. 

Lee Wilson makes a plea to organisers of festivals and markets for more inclusive thinking in his post on Linked In. He gives an overview of things to think about and that includes emergency procedures. Information should also be accessible, particularly to people who do not read English well, or have low vision. Auslan interpreters and audio describers make festivals and events enjoyable for people who are deaf or blind. There are several good resources on making events inclusive:

Accessible Events Checklist from the WA Government

Accessible Events Guide from Meetings and Events Australia

Event Accessibility Checklist from Australian Network on Disability (AND)

The City of Sydney’s Vivid Festivals have a high level of accessibility which is planned from the outset. 

 

UD2021: Published papers for the conference

Header image for the conference.Griffith University supported the 4th Australian Universal Design Conference held in Melbourne by publishing full papers and extended abstracts. See the links below for access.

Community-based studios for enhancing students’ awareness of universal design principles. Hing-Wah Chau.

Universal design in housing: Reporting on Australia’s obligations to the UNCRPD. Note: The presentation updated delegates on the latest information about the recent change to the National Construction Code. Margaret Ward (ANUHD) and Hugh Bartram (Victorian Government).

From niche to mainstream: local government and the specialist disability housing sector. Linda Martin-Chew and Rosie Beaumont. 

Thriving at School: How interoception is helping children and young people in learning everyday. Emma Goodall (workshop).

Universal Design and Communication Access. Georgia Burn.

Achieving visual contrast in built, transport and information environments for everyone, everywhere, everyday. Penny Galbraith. 

Mobility Scooters in the Wild: Users’ Resilience and Innovation. Theresa Harada.

Understanding the Differences between Universal Design and Inclusive Design implementation: The Case of an Indonesian Public Library. Gunawan Tanuwidjaja (Poster).

Accessible Events: A multi-dimensional Approach to Temporary Universal Design. Tina Merk.

Everyone, everywhere, everyday: A case for expanding universal design to public toilets. Katherine Webber. 

Reframing Universal Design: Creating Short Videos for Inclusion. Janice Rieger (workshop). 

*Designing with the Digital Divide to Design Technology for All. Jenna Mikus. 

Faith is wearing a white shirt. She has a mix of grey and dark hair and is smiling at the camera.

The papers were launched at the CUDA Transportation webinar in October 2020 by Dr Faith Valencia-Forrester, Griffith University. 

*Published May 2021.

Conferences and calls for papers

This page has the latest information on upcoming conferences and calls for papers. 

A large room with a power point screen at the front and people sitting at tables cabaret style

New to the list:

Ageing Well and e-Health: ICT4AWE 2025, 6-8 April 2025, Portugal, hybrid. New submission deadline, 18 November 2024: Topics welcome on ageing well, telemedicine, independent living, digital health. 

Sustainability LIVE: Diversity & Inclusion, Virtual event 12 November 2024 from London. Free. Join this free event to explore the critical connection between diversity, inclusion, and sustainable development. 

NTRO International Conference, The Transport Revolution: Solutions led by innovation , 7-9 May 2025, Melbourne. 6 topics but not much on inclusion. 

UD2024: International Conference on Universal Design, Oslo, Norway, 20-22 November 2024. The title is, “Universal Design: Shaping a Sustainable, Equitable and Resilient Future!”  List of topics is extensive and showcases the breadth of universal design practice. Conference proceedings will be published open access by IOS Press.

Other conferences

Australian Assistive Technology Conference 2024, 6-8 November, Gold Coast. Theme: Sun, Sea & AT: The rising tide of innovation and inclusive technology. Hosted by ARATA. 

CWUAAT: Design for Sustainable Inclusion – Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology. 2-4 April 2025, Cambridge UK.  Themes: diversity and inclusion, intersectionality, inclusive design in challenging contexts, inclusive design and AI. 

Email udaustralia@gmail.com with a link to your event and it will be added to the list. 

6th International Conference on Universal Design, was held 7-9 September 2022. Brescia, Italy. Transforming our world through universal design for human development. The book of open access conference papers is open access. 

Captioning live theatre brings culture change

A graphic of the theatre masks of comedy and tragedy.If designs are not “born” accessible then it becomes a process of finding “work-arounds”. It can be seen in tacked-on ramps or clumsy platform lifts in buildings. Revolving doors mean another separate door for wheelchair and pram users. Special captioning apps or screenings in cinemas, and “special accommodations” at work and at school. It takes a change of culture to think inclusively and to understand its value. 

While practitioners in many fields agree with the concept of inclusion for all, the organisations they work for are slow to get on board. This is because it takes a culture change to think and act inclusively. This is a key point in an article about how introducing captioning helped change the organisation’s culture. 

Although the article is in the context of higher education, it provides some insights into how to drive culture change. Basically, it stems from the need to innovate. The article provides background to the project and a step by step explanation of the process to create live captioning for a live theatre performance.

Theatre performances require more than actors. Many people work behind the scenes from the scriptwriter to the curtain operator. So, many different people worked on the project. More importantly, they saw the results. At first they thought captioning would be a distraction, but in the end it became “traction”. Staff came around and saw the positive impact. The value of hands-on experience with the development and seeing the outcomes was the key to culture change.

The authors conclude that, “creating accessible environments doesn’t need to be expensive”. But it does take time, thoughtfulness and the involvement of users.

The title of the article is, From “Distraction” to “Traction”: Dancing around barriers to caption live theatre and promote culture change.

Abstract

Laws and policies worldwide increasingly demand that all users have
equivalent ability to interact with their environment, independent of disabilities. This includes educational and work environments as well as entertainment. Technologies have greatly facilitated the development of accessible resources and processes; however, a culture of accessible design is still not fully developed, and not all solutions are affordable, so there is still resistance. This paper outlines the steps of a team effort at a small private college to provide captioning for a live theatre production, Stepping Out, which resulted not only in rendering the performance accessible but also helped grow the culture of accessibility at the institution.

UD2020 Conference published papers

The Griffith University logo in black and white with the words published by ePress.COVID-19 prevented UD2020 conference from going ahead in May this year, but not before some of the speakers had finished writing their papers. As we had to postpone yet again to May 2021, it seemed too long to wait. So CUDA’s People and Transport webinar last week provided the perfect opportunity launch the papers. 

With the support of Griffith University we can now bring you eleven peer reviewed papers and extended abstracts. As you can see, they cover a wide range of topics. We look forward to hearing from the authors at the conference next year. 

Community-based studios for enhancing students’ awareness of universal design principles

Universal design in housing: Reporting on Australia’s obligations to the UNCRPD

From niche to mainstream: local government and the specialist disability housing sector

Thriving at School: How interoception is helping children and young people in learning everyday 

Universal Design and Communication Access 

Achieving visual contrast in built, transport and information environments for everyone, everywhere, everyday 

Mobility Scooters in the Wild: Users’ Resilience and Innovation 

Understanding the Differences between Universal Design and Inclusive Design implementation: The Case of an Indonesian Public Library  

Accessible Events: A multi-dimensional Approach to Temporary Universal Design

Everyone, everywhere, everyday: A case for expanding universal design to public toilets  

Reframing Universal Design: Creating Short Videos for Inclusion

Faith is wearing a white shirt. She has a mix of grey and dark hair and is smiling at the camera.The papers were launched at the webinar by Dr Faith Valencia-Forrester.

Universally Designed Conferences

People sitting either side of an aisle listening to a speaker.Most conference organisers target a workforce audience and they assume people with disability don’t have jobs. If you don’t see someone at a conference with an obvious disability it’s easy to assume they aren’t around. If the conference is not inclusive, they won’t come. 

A new article on universal design and accessible conferences joins the dots between all the aspects of a conference. It needs a holistic approach because it is much more than ensuring there is an accessible toilet. The article applies the principles of universal design as a way of thinking about access and inclusion. It covers:

      • online booking
      • transport and parking
      • registration
      • seating
      • catering
      • wayfinding
      • accommodation
      • communication aids
      • access to the podium. 

From the abstract

The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) mandates the inclusion of individuals with disabilities to a broad range of facilities and public buildings. One overlooked area is access to conferences. Conferences are held in a range of buildings, including purpose-built venues, hotels, and stadia.

Often, the focus is on access for people with mobility limitations, but access for people with other disabilities, such as vision or hearing loss, or mental ill-health, can be overlooked. It makes sound business sense, as well as a sense of social justice, to ensure more people can access conferences.

A literature review highlights key considerations to make conferences more accessible to a broad range of people with disability. A theoretical framework of universal design is proposed to support the ideas.

A holistic approach is taken including online booking, transport, and parking, since, without these being accessible, the event becomes inaccessible. Other aspects considered include registration, seating, restrooms, catering, and communication aids. 

Making conferences more accessible

A student lab showing a man with a cochlear implant talking to a womanAn academic paper titled Making Academia More Accessible chooses to start the topic with accessible conferences and events. A case study is used to to demonstrate how it is possible to overcome “Ableism in Academia”. An interesting and easy read for anyone staging events of any size.

Each of the features are listed including; quiet room, catering, live captioning, sign language, PowerPoint presentations, staging, microphone use, ticketing and toilets. The concluding reflections discuss the feedback they received and the ongoing impact of this work.

The paper also discusses how academia has to consider the diversity of its workforce as well as its student body and others. The case study comes from University College London and University of Kent. There is a link to a one page summary of the strategies at the end of the article.

Extra costs involved, especially live captioning and signing, but there was no extra budget assigned – it was achieved by volunteer effort and sponsorship. The argument for the economic value of inclusion is therefore lost and will continue to be lost until it is realised the extra cost is actually an investment. It is not ‘lost’ money.

Conference attendance from a user perspective

picture of a large audience watching a presentation.When academics organise a conference on health and wellbeing, the people being discussed are likely to be in the audience and on the speaking program. But how many academic conference organisers think about this? Not many it seems.

Sarah Gordon has written a very readable article about her experience as a conference speaker, attendee and user of the health system. Conferences with disability related content are generally considerate of the “nothing about us without us” approach. But little consideration is given to mental health. 

While the focus is on mental health in this paper, the comments can be applied more generally. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability is referenced throughout and this makes it a long read. Conferences are part of the right to life-long learning and education, and the right to give and receive information. The application of universal design principles are discussed as a way to create greater inclusion for conferences. The paper is titled, What makes a ‘good’ conference from a service user perspective? by Sarah Gordon and Kris Gledhill, in the International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law (2017).

Universal design and accessible meetings

People are seated an round conference tables listening to a speaker.Even conferences about inclusion, universal design and accessibility can fail to meet the first requirement of their own content. That is, to make the conference and venue accessible and inclusive.

New research aims to promote awareness among meeting organisers and the conference supplier companies about the need to remove barriers to meetings and conventions. This includes the whole issue of destinations and visitor experience for the surrounding area.

BestCities Global Alliance produced the report, Universal Accessibility in Meetings. 12 cities are featured in case studies, including Melbourne, with a 15 point checklist for meeting organisers. Final step will be to get presenters to universally design their PowerPoint presentations.  

Keep it Simple for Inclusion

A group of language dictionaries are laid out on a table.First there was closed captioning and then live captioning. Audio describing came along soon afterwards. Now we have the possibility of “simultaneous simplification”. Two researchers wanted to ensure people with various cognitive conditions could participate in a conference. Using audio transcribing facilities, interpreters simplified the language of the speakers in real time.  

After the conference they interviewed participants and found people with significant cognitive conditions were able to fully participate in a professional conference. Participants also retained the information a few weeks later. Of course, people who don’t speak the language of the speaker also benefit. The title of the short paper is, Simultaneous Simplification: Stretching the Boundaries of UDL.

Editor’s note: I’d like to see academics writing for the general population instead of writing in academic code for the benefit of other academics. Useful knowledge on many things would become more readily available to everyone. It’s time to have universally designed academic papers. 

Universal Design, Affordability and Cost in Housing

Head and shoulders pic of Kay Saville-Smith. Universal design and affordability in housing.
Kay Saville-Smith

At a roundtable meeting following the 2014 Universal Design Conference in Sydney, Kay Saville-Smith  shared her experience on universal design and affordability.  She was happy to share her five key points about universal design in housing: 

“The usual argument is that universal design is consistently unaffordable (by which they mean more costly) than poor design because of the difficulties of retrofitting the existing environment and lack of economies of scale. Actually, the reasons why universal design is seen as costly can add cost. Five points are interesting: 

    1. Most products are not designed but driven off existing tools, processes and organisational  structures. To change these does require some investment (hump costs) but these are one off and should not be seen as an ongoing cost. Indeed, those changes can bring reduced costs in the long term through increased productivity etc.
    2. The costs of poor design are externalised onto households, other sectors or hidden unmet need.
    3. Comes out of an advocacy approach that pitches the needs of one group against another and treats universal design as special design etc.
    4. Win-win solutions need to be built with the industry participants that are hungry for share not dominant players who have incentives to retain the status quo.
    5. Universal design is different from design which is fashion based. The trick is to make universal design fashionable so no one would be seen dead without it.”

Her keynote presentation provides more information about why it is so hard to get traction with universal design in housing. The picture is of Kay Saville-Smith.

Inclusive Meetings and Events

front cover of Accessible Events guide. purple with white writingMany event managers and venues have yet to get their head around their obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act. While many public buildings may have access through the front door and accessible toilet, this does not make for an inclusive event. Did anyone think about a handrail on the steps to the podium, a lower lectern for a seated speaker, or what to do with the guide dog?

Venue owners and managers, caterers and equipment suppliers are yet to get up to speed with what is required. Meetings and Events Australia have a comprehensive handbook on accessible events which was written in consultation with the Human Rights Commission in 2012. However, it appears only to be available to members of the Association and is not visible on their web home page. Nevertheless, a Google search will also find the Accessible Events Guide.  The Guide also has a checklist at the end. 

front cover access events vic gov.Free to access guides

 Victorian Government guide and checklist. This one uses easy access English as well, so the guide itself is accessible, and covers the role of MC and speakers. The Event Accessibility Checklist from Australian Network on Disability and the West Australian Government checklist are also good guides.

Factors that many organisers might not think about are, a drinking bowl for an assistance dog, the way the event or meeting is promoted, and ensuring there is lighting on the face of speakers for lip readers.

Editor’s Note: While trying to think of everything to make the 2014 Universal Design Conference inclusive, we found the suppliers of the staging equipment did not have a handrail for the steps and the wheelchair ramp was too steep to climb without help. The one-size fits all lectern is also a problem. Rarely is there a lectern that a seated person or person of short stature can use.