This is based on the rider shared by the awesome Tatiana Mac.
Before I'll agree to a speaking event, I try to do as much research I can around the event to ensure it aligns with my ethos.
☸️ As a practising Buddhist in the process of training for ordination, my life is guided by the precepts and I will not consider any opportunity that is in conflict with them. Put simply in the negative/positive, the precepts are training principles to:
- Abstain from causing harm/to cultivate kindness;
- Abstain from taking that which is not freely given/to cultivate generosity;
- Abstain from sexual misconduct/to cultivate contentment;
- Abstain from untruthful speech/to cultivate truthfulness;
- Abstain from harsh speech/to cultivate kindly speech;
- Abstain from frivolous speech/to cultivate meaningful speech;
- Abstain from slanderous speech/to cultivate harmonious speech;
- Abstain from covetousness/to cultivate tranquility;
- Abstain from hatred/to cultivate compassion;
- Abstain from false views/to cultivate wisdom.
👩🦽 As I live with a largely invisible disability that fluctuates from day to day, I cannot predict how I will be on the day of an event. On my worst days I rely on a wheelchair for my mobility and strict pacing to manage my energy levels. On good days I run 10k races and work 12+ hour days. Currently I am the most well I have been in a decade, but only due to the relentless management of my health and wellbeing. I will not agree to speak at events that are inaccessible to people with disabilities because (aside from the obvious discrimination against millions of folks like me) it may not be possible for me to attend and speak on a bad day.
👐 Speaking comes with immense privilege. I am grateful to all the conference organisers who have brilliantly hosted me. I would love to continue to exercise this privilege to speak at conferences, and use this privilege to make the landscape more accessible and beneficial to the world's most marginalised and suppressed communities.
😫 I wish I didn't have to, but this is long because I provide a lot of explanations for those of you who never had to consider these things. Many conferences I've attended check most of these boxes intrinsically, particularly when conference organisers are themselves experienced speakers. They get it. I have also spoken at events where there was no safe way for me to get up on the stage I was to speak from, and where no consideration had been made for those with disabilities. Don't be like them.
🤷🏼♀️ I may decide to speak at an event anyway, even if they can't meet all the criteria below. It usually involves a conversation with the organisers and their active commitment to addressing those issues at the very least.
💙 If you want to use and adopt this speaker rider as a speaker or as a conference organiser (reframing it as what you might send to a speaker when inviting them), please give the original author Tatiana Mac a heads up and ensure you credit their work in creating it, because emotional labour is often unpaid and unrecognised.
Unless:
- Hosted in my current local city (Ipswich, UK), or
- Video remote!
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For the full length of conference.
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Within walking distance of the main venue.
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For international conferences (outside of the UK), I ask for
- at least one (1) full day of accommodation before the event within Europe, and
- at least one (1) full day of accommodation after the conference in addition for events outside Europe.
This is non-negotiable as this enables me to manage my health and wellbeing while participating fully in the event.
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You must provide the option to purchase both travel and accommodation on behalf of your speakers. While I may opt to book my own flights, forcing the reimbursement model is exclusionary to folks who cannot front the cost for what is sometimes months.
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You must leave your credit card on file for the hotel and not expect speakers to use their personal cards to guarantee their stay. Again, many folks cannot afford a large hold on their credit card, or don't have access to credit cards.
- For for-profit conferences/events and for-profit companies, I ask for [$/€/£]1000-2000.
- If there are multiple speakers, we must all be paid equally. I do not support celebrity speakers getting paid more.
- If I am the only speaker, the exact number is based on location, ticket pricing, fellowship and scholarship programs, and revenue/philanthropy of your company.
- I will agree upon/determine what that number is in that range based on a complex algorithm. 😉
- I will choose to waive for not-for-profit/community events where tickets are free/very low priced based on similar criteria above.
- I would think this is a given, but some speakers have been escorted on and off stage for conferences they spoke at! They were expected to buy tickets!!!
- You must have a dedication to protecting the most marginalised and minoritised individuals in this industry.
- Your CoC needs to explicitly call out what abuse is with clear examples (not limited to).
- You must have clearly defined methods for dealing with conflicts when they arise with trained staff to address conflicts and be prepared to appropriately handle complaints. CoCs are only as good as their enforcement.
- Both Write Speak Code and JSConfEU provide excellent CoCs that can serve as strong starting points.
- All areas that are part of the conference should be accessible. End of story. That means:
- Attendee seating.
- Stage, even if you don't think you have speakers who require mobility aids. It needs to be accessible at all points. Having to get someone to lift my wheelchair onto the stage, and then get myself onto the stage and into my chair was a humiliating experience (both for myself and the event organisers) which I never want to see repeated. Making the stage accessible can't be conditional on having a known disabled speaker. Think about how things come up. Think about how we should not burden people to self-identify and plan as much as we can help it.
- Social events tied to the conference within the venue and outside of the venue. (ESPECIALLY If you use these social events to sell the networking aspects, then they need to be accessible. End of story.)
- Accessibility of space should follow the criteria of the American Disabilities Act and/or equivalent international standards.
- I swear this helps EVERYONE. It's not just for hard of hearing folks, it helps people like me who have information processing issues and process written info better, it helps non-native speakers, it helps people who got distracted for two seconds.
- I will only speak at events that are taking real action to improve diversity across the whole event - speakers, sponsors and attendees
- Having a wooly statement about 'trying to ensure 50% women speakers' or complaining that there 'weren't submissions from a diverse range of speakers' is not good enough. You can do better. Do your research and trust me, it will make for a better event.
- In general, I would hope that you can diversify your panel across race, gender identity, expression, and orientation, physical and mental ability, etc, and also recognise panels are usually only a few folks.
- Most problematic panels I see are literally all white
- I will not speak on panels as the token woman to 'demonstrate diversity' or 'because we need a woman on the panel'. You can do better.
- Security should be provided as needed.
- No selling of data/information, especially not to conference sponsors.
- Especially, ensure that you have an option that is both gender neutral and accessible.
- Provide stickers/pins/printed on/writing space for nametags.
- It should be optional for attendees to self-identify, but they should be provided the option.
- They, she, and he at the bare minimum. Options should be combinable.
- Again, pronouns should be listed on website/printed materials (but always optional). You can get away with just using someone's name if you are uncertain, and they is a better default than anything else, IMHO.
- If you have a scholarship program, don't call it "Diversity Scholarship." It reinforces the notion that "diverse" (which is often falsely conflated with only racial diversity) candidates all need charity. Especially when you then photograph them and use them to virtue signal your good. It is gross.
- Call them Scholarships. Be explicit to how you choose candidates and don't make them conduct trauma porn to get tickets.
- Include travel. If you don't include travel, you are intrinsically limiting it to local folks, which isn't exactly providing equitable access to folks who don't live in cities where conferences are typically held. I'm not saying you can't give scholarships, but acknowledge this and call them local ticket scholarships or something.
- Accessible stage (see above)
- Wireless microphone (lavelier, handheld or microphone)
- Utilised for all staged aspects of conference (Q&A from audience, workshop speakers, etc).
- The idea of "my voice is loud enough without a mic" is supremely ableist, and even if you ask the audience if they can hear you, you're relying on people to self-identify their needs which is shitty.
- In general it is easier for me to use a lavelier microphone, ideally head-worn but clip on works too.
- Please advise me in advance if the microphone options are limited as this may impact how I am able to move around the stage and hence how I present (ever tried wheeling a wheelchair while holding a hand-held mic?!).
- Tall chair/bar stool on the stage
- Sometimes I need to perch for a time if I am presenting on my feet. It is super helpful if there is a tall chair or bar stool available on the stage, especially if there will be a Q&A session following the presentation.
- Confidence monitor viewable from stage
- I need to be able to see my slides so I can present fluidly.
- I ask for a confidence monitor because I may not be able to stand in one position beside a lectern for any length of time and need to move around to manage my pain levels.
- If it's a tiny venue without the rigging, I should be fine with the laptop on a small table; and that table should be accessible.
- Timer viewable from stage
- If you are going to be strict about the timeline, then you need to provide this.
- You need to enforce this equitably. If you're going to be strict, be strict with everyone.
- I will allow video recordings/live streams so long as they are accessible (captioned) and free (no paywalls!).
- No censorship of my content, written, verbal, visual.
- No branding of my content (I will not use branded templates, etc.).
- I will not convert into any other format. My slides take a ton of time to design and create and I practice using what I'm comfortable with.
- For my more code-dependent friends, it is super difficult to get your set up right to do code demos. Many of my friends develop their own slide infrastructure, have special fonts, or have complex environments set up so they can do what they are. Taking this away from them at the last minute is so, so stressful.
- Providing a laptop, say, for someone who doesn't have one, is critical for accessibility as well.
- Asking someone to present from an operating system (OS) that is not their own, with settings they're not used to, etc, is also stressful.
- If for any reason your conference, other speakers, sponsors, attendees, third-party vendors, etc become problematic (which I reserve the right to determine), I reserve the right to withdraw from the conference at any point.
- Withdrawal may mean that I no longer want my identity associated with your conference (i.e., videos recorded to be deleted/not published, for example).
- The reason for this is that I feel resistance only works if you take meaningful action. Sometimes that meaningful option is opting out of situations.
- You are responsible for any costs associated with this, not limited to accommodations and travel plan changes.
- I have never had to exercise this right—and hope to never have to. I would imagine no conference organiser would want this either.
- It will be my last resort (sorry for getting that stuck in your head) if all else fails. In most situations, I feel confident we can collaborate to find an effective, less dire solution to the problem.
As with all things, this is a work in progress and will evolve as I learn more about myself and speaking.