More than one-quarter of Americans — about 70 million people — live with some type of disability, according to a 2022 study by the Centers for Disease Control. That number reflects a broad spectrum of experiences, from visible disabilities to those that are not outwardly apparent. Creating a truly accessible event requires planners to think beyond the standard practices of ADA checklists.
Here are some points to improve event accessibility in 2026 and beyond, according to industry experts.
Collect Relevant Information
Creating an accessible event requires asking questions, even though asking them can feel difficult, invasive or awkward. But it’s a mistake to let those feelings stand in the way; there’s a way to tactfully get all the necessary information without invading attendees’ privacy.
“It’s just in how you ask it,” said Katie Kulp, owner of Picture Me Traveling Events Services. “You’re not asking the question, ‘What’s your disability?’ It’s, ‘What special needs do you need us to be able to accommodate?’”
Registration forms are a great place to ask about attendees’ needs. Rather than just offering a checklist, planners should ensure that attendees have a text box to input specific needs, especially if they have several.
“Let’s say I’m in a wheelchair, I’m blind, and I have a service animal,” said Stephen Cutchins, senior manager of accessibility at Cvent. “There is no way that clicking a yes or no button is sufficient enough for you to know how to accommodate me.”
It’s also a great idea to have a person on your team who is trained in accommodating disabilities acting as an accessibility coordinator, whether that’s a paid consultant or a member of the event planning team who receives training. They can act as a point person for attendees to contact about their needs before and during the event.
An accessibility coordinator can also double check that each venue can truly accommodate people with disabilities. Some venues claim to be accessible but have lackluster or ineffective accommodations, which a trained eye can spot. Planners should add a section on the event website or app with contact information for the accessibility coordinator and any important information attendees with disabilities should know.
Following up after the event is important, too.
“Anyone that said they were going to need some special services should have been surveyed later,” said Rosemarie Rossetti, owner and accessibility consultant at Rossetti Enterprises. “It was time to go back to those people and say, ‘Did you get what you wanted? Is there anything that we could have improved upon?’”
Consider Hidden Disabilities
When people think about accessibility for individuals with disabilities, they often think about accommodating service animals or wheelchairs, but not all disabilities are visible or obvious. In many cases, attendees have hidden disabilities.
“There’s like a hundred different hidden disabilities out there,” Rossetti said. “That means it’s unseen. It’s not evident when you look at that person.”
These can include everything from physical disorders like epilepsy, diabetes and autoimmune disorders to mental health and neurological disorders like Tourette’s, autism, ADHD or PTSD.
Some elements of event design can present problems for hidden disabilities — think loud noises and bright flashing lights at a conference kickoff. If you must incorporate these into your event, make sure to provide a warning to everyone in advance.
Similarly, long, uninterrupted sessions can be taxing for neurodivergent attendees. Providing fidget toys or breaking up sessions can be a great way to accommodate them, but it’s something that all attendees are likely to benefit from.
It’s becoming an increasingly standard practice for large venues like convention centers to have quiet rooms with dim lighting and low noise levels where attendees can recharge. Again, even neurotypical attendees tend to benefit from using these spaces to get away from the sensory overload of most conferences.
“You might have autism, ADHD, or you are just overwhelmed. Everybody needs the chance to get away,” Cutchins said.
One way to offer attendees the chance to voluntarily self-identify that they have a hidden disability is with the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, an international concept launched in 2016 for public spaces. It signals to others in a discreet manner that someone has a hidden disability and may need extra care or attention. Offering stickers with the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower at check-in can make all attendees feel welcomed and seen.
Most Urgent Changes
While the conversation surrounding accessibility has certainly grown, there are still some areas where event organizers are consistently missing the mark. Addressing some of the urgent needs can help planners craft more inclusive and accessible events for all, draw more attendees and even save organizations from legal headaches.
The first most urgent need to address is having detailed emergency evacuation procedures in place for people with disabilities.
“I would like them to focus on the emergency evacuation because I don’t think plans are in place,” Rossetti said. “I think, ‘How would you get out of a hotel or a convention center if there was a fire?’ We have to have better signage and better direction and better emergency evacuation chairs at every stairway.”
Selecting venues that not only have accessible sleeping rooms, but also have well-planned emergency measures is critical for the safety of all attendees.
Other commonly missed accessibility measures include not having enough sign language interpreters and small details like table heights that are incompatible with wheelchair users.
Another urgent development on the accessibility front involves digital accessibility — and there’s a legal imperative for change.
In April 2026, updates to the ADA Title II will mandate public entities serving more than 50,000 people must make sure their websites, apps and all digital content meet digital accessibility compliance standards, like screen-reader compatibility for sight-impaired individuals. That means government bodies, certain higher education institutions and even some nonprofits must ensure their content meets these updated conditions, including at their meetings and events. Another deadline for entities serving less than 50,000 will come in 2027. Failure to comply could result in legal consequences.
“It’s not just events — it’s the PDFs, the online training materials and their videos, all that’s going to have to be accessible,” Cutchins said. “You can’t get much more urgent than that.”
The conversation around accessibility is likely to keep growing. To ensure an organization is always prepared to address accessibility as it shifts, training event staff in accessibility is critical.
“It doesn’t have to be their only job, but you should have a designated person who is basically an accessibility coordinator,” Kulp said. “If there is more of that, it would open up the world and a lot of conferences to a lot more accessibility.”
Accessibility coordinators can fill this need, or event staff can take training courses through event organizations like PCMA and MPI.
