As plans are put in place to reopen the country from lockdown, many of us have turned to the digital world to search and book tickets for upcoming events. This is not as simple for those with disabilities and neurodiverse conditions who often face online barriers that prevent access to events information and bookings.
We caught up with Ross Dempsey, Digital Marketing Manager at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), to dive into how online assistive technology is playing a big part in supporting a diverse range of people to explore events and pre-book tickets online.
The SEC Centre is situated in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland’s cultural and commercial capital, and is one of the UK’s largest integrated spaces, purpose-built for exhibitions, conferences, and live entertainment.
The SEC is committed to making an entire experience for customers enjoyable and accessible with the introduction of Recite Me assistive technology on their website, in which website users can customise their online experience to suit their own needs.
Ross Dempsey tells us more…
How has Recite Me played a part in your digital plans ahead of reopening?
SEC currently holds the ‘Attitude is Everything’ Gold Award and we are committed to continually improving venues to maintain this gold accessibility level. The Scottish Event Campus’s mission is to make our venues not only as accessible as possible physically but online too.
Ahead of reopening, Recite Me allows us to offer online accessibility tools to our customers to enable an easy online booking experience for those who face online barriers.
How do you think Recite Me will benefit your company ahead of reopening?
The Recite Me accessibility toolbar will support all SEC website visitors to explore events and find out information about the venues before visiting. Assistive technology will support people with a wide range of disabilities, learning difficulties, or people who speak English as a second language. The assistive toolbar allows everyone to customise the SEC and SSE Hydro websites in a way that works best for them to understand and read website content easily.
If more events companies begin to use Recite Me, how do you think this will impact the events sector as a whole?
The implementation of accessibility tools on events websites is an opportunity to provide an inclusive and diverse experience for all customers. We are providing accessibility tools to visitors from around the world to find the information they need.
Why is it important to you and your company to provide an inclusive experience online?
We are committed to making a visit to the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) an enjoyable experience for everyone and that includes using our websites. We recently launched the ability for users to purchase accessible tickets to our events online and once we discovered Recite Me, we felt it was a great addition to improve the functionality of our websites. We were very impressed with the Recite Me software and as well as accessibility tools, the language switcher allows our conference visitors from around the world to find the information they need.
For more information on how you can provide an inclusive online experience, go to the Recite Me website or contact a member of our team.
