Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring that every delegate can participate fully in IMC events and sessions regardless of whether they are attending in person or online. You can let us know about any accessibility needs you may have via our confidential online form when you register online.

Please let us know as early as possible if you have any specific requirements, such as information in alternative formats like Braille or large print, building access, or assistive listening systems. We will do our best to meet your needs.

In Person Participation
Virtual Participation

In Person Participation

Session rooms

All IMC sessions take place in wheelchair-accessible rooms. We can provide maps of all accessible routes on campus - please contact us by emailing imc@leeds.ac.uk or ask at the Information and Payment Desk when you arrive.

Many session rooms contain assistive listening systems, for which you will need to request a receiver. Where a room does not have this facility, portable induction loops can be provided. Please contact us by emailing imc@leeds.ac.uk in advance if you think you may need to use these services.

All sessions will be hosted through our virtual event platform and will benefit from Zoom's automatic closed captions. These will be enabled by default in all rooms and moderators instructed to ensure these are visible for in-room audience members who require them. We understand and appreciate that machine-generated captioning may not be a perfect solution, especially for those sessions with substantial amounts of specialist vocabulary. Therefore, we continue to encourage all speakers to utilise PowerPoint’s integrated real-time automated captioning feature and to follow our guidance for ensuring your presentation is accessible for all.

Campus access assessments

Access reports on University buildings are being conducted individually as building work is completed across campus. However, access information on most buildings used for the IMC is available at AccessAble.

The locations of accessible entrances to all University buildings, can be found using the ‘Disabled Building Access’ filter (under the Facilities tab) on the University’s campus map.

Accessible and gender neutral bathrooms

All single-room accessible toilets on campus are gender neutral and will be signposted in all IMC buildings. Additional gender neutral toilets are located in Leeds University Union and will be marked on signage and building plans.

Parking

All visitors to the University are expected to pay to park their cars on campus and parking is limited to delegates who hold a valid EU blue badge of international equivalent for use in marked disabled bays. You can purchase accessible parking online when you register. This costs around £7.00 per day and can be booked when you register online.

Please note: Each parking day pass expires at 00.00 (midnight) on the day for which it was purchased, so if you are staying on campus overnight, you will need to buy parking for both days. We recommend booking as early as possible to reserve your parking space.

You will need to display your parking permit and blue badge in your car when you arrive. Your permit does not reserve you a specific parking space. Maps of accessible parking spaces on campus can be provided on request.

Find out more about non-accessible parking options on and near campus here.

Accommodation

Fully accessible accommodation is available in some rooms at Charles Morris Hall - Storm Jameson Court, Lyddon Hall, and at city centre hotels. Please do not hesitate to contact us before making your booking if you would like to discuss your options.

To book accessible accommodation, please email imc@leeds.ac.uk prior to making your booking, including as much information as possible about your needs and your arrival and departure dates, as well as the number of nights required. We can then provide information on how to access the relevant accommodation options.

Other IMC Activities (Events, Excursions & Workshops)

Accessibility details for these aspects of the IMC programme will be provided on an event-by-event basis in the IMC Programme when it is published.

Leeds IMC 2024 Mobile App

Following the closure of our previous app provider, we are currently working with our suppliers to procure a mobile solution for IMC 2024. We will provide an accessibility statement for any mobile app used for IMC 2024 in due course.

Virtual Participation

Guidance for speakers on how to ensure your presentation is accessibile for all can be found here.

Our virtual platform for IMC 2023 will be changing. The details below reflect arrangements for IMC 2022 and will be updated in due course.

Keynote Lectures

Keynote lectures will be available live and as recordings after the IMC. During the live session, automatic closed captioning available and can be enabled in the same manner as for standard academic sessions (see below).

Academic Sessions & Session Recordings

Registered delegates can join the majority of IMC sessions remotely via our virtual platform. All sessions are run in Zoom, and delegates can benefit from the automated live captioning service which is now available via the video conferencing platform. This service will be enabled and can be accessed via the 'CC' button on the main Zoom dashboard. Delegates watching recordings of sessions will also be able to enable these automatic captions in the same way. Alternatively, automatically generated captions can be enabled via Google Chrome.

If you need to see the speaker’s face in order to lip read and the speaker chooses to share their screen, you can ‘Pin’ any speaker to your screen both via the web interface and Zoom app. Zoom also allows you to resize the speaker's video feed and slides at any time using the slider controls.

We understand and appreciate that machine-generated captioning may not be a perfect solution, especially for those sessions with substantial amounts of specialist vocabulary. Therefore, we continue to encourage all speakers to utilise PowerPoint’s integrated real-time automated captioning feature and to follow our guidance for ensuring your presentation is accessible for all.

Accessing Otter

We recognise that the above solutions may not suit every speaker or attendee, and that a wide variety of free-to-use or subscription-based speech-to-text systems are now available for mobile devices. Among them is Otter (available on GooglePlay & Apple Store). This app is free to download and has a number of useful features, though time limits do apply for non-premium customers.

Delegates who are deaf, have a hearing impairment, or who require access to Otter for some other accessibility-related reason are entitled to a registration discount to cover the cost of 1 month’s subscription to 'Otter Pro' tier of Otter. To access this discount, please email imc@leeds.ac.uk prior to beginning your registration in order to receive a discount code to apply to your registration. The discount will be fixed at the cost of 1 month’s subscription to Otter Pro, but you can use this towards whatever system works best for you.

If you have concerns about your ability to participate fully in IMC as a deaf/hard of hearing person, please get in touch and we will endeavour to support you in any way we can. So that we can provide the best support we can, we would be grateful if you could contact us prior to registering by emailing imc@leeds.ac.uk with ‘Access Request’ in the subject line.

Other IMC Activities (Events, Excursions & Workshops)

Delegates with accessibility needs wishing to attend events, workshops, or excursions hosted on by the IMC online should refer to the guidance above for academic sessions.

Volunteer to Provide Live Captions

The IMC will feature over 800 hours of presentations and, regrettably, we do not have the technical or subject-specific expertise or budget available to offer human-led captioning for such a large volume of specialist academic content.

However, all IMC academic sessions will be held via Confex’s Zoom integration, which has the facility for a hearing person to provide captions during live sessions which can then be viewed by hard of hearing/deaf attendees in place of the AI-generated captions service. If you are a hearing person who wishes to assist with providing closed captions during live sessions which you attend either in-person or virtually, please let us know by emailing imc@leeds.ac.uk.