The Event Service Professionals Association (ESPA) announced today its new Accessibility Toolkit, which is a free downloadable resource guide that will help hotels, convention centres, CVBs, destinations and venues become more diverse, equitable and inclusive.
The association views the toolkit as a “living” document that will evolve over time, ensuring events provide a sense of belonging to all guests.
“As event service professionals, we are the ones who find the answers that ensure successful events for all attendees,” said Denise Reid, ESPA president and event planning manager at the Hyatt Centric French Quarter in New Orleans. “We must be at the forefront of accommodating people with varying abilities—some of which are invisible to others—and communicate options to meeting planners in advance.”
The toolkit is designed sequentially, starting from a guest’s arrival at a destination airport to ground transportation, lodging, meeting venues and off-site venues. The guide also includes a resource list that can be customized to include local businesses.
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Open in new tab In 2018, ESPA developed its first accessibility resource, Project Access: Accessible Meetings FAQs, to help event service professionals provide more valuable guidance to meeting planners.
Former ESPA President Denise Suttle, CMP, fast-tracked the Project Access initiative after she and her team at Visit Albuquerque noticed an uptick in the number of questions that event planners were asking about accessibility—from how many roll-in showers hotels had on the property to the availability of renting large quantities of motorized scooters and wheelchairs.
About ESPA
With nearly 500 members, the Event Service Professionals Association (ESPA) is dedicated to elevating the event and convention services profession and to preparing members, through education and networking, for their pivotal role in innovative and successful event execution.
For more information, visit www.espaonline.org.
