ACCESSIBILITY
At The HEAL Project, we are committed to making our work accessible to as many people as possible. As our wonderful Accessibility Support, Robin Marquis, says, “accessibility is a verb, not a destination.” Accessibility is about building relationships and meeting the needs of our community. We believe accessibility work is fluid and ever changing, so we continue to learn and are open to conversation, feedback, and suggestions.
Please view a PDF version of this accessibility statement here.
Here is our commitment to creating accessible content (last update 3/22):
Accessibility of Image Content
- There are image descriptions on original social media content, unless it is a repost.
- There is alt-text for graphics in the newsletters.
- All graphics have a passing contrast of WCAG AAA standards.
- Fonts used in graphics are Jingleberry (wonky serif font), Oswald (sans serif font) and Glacial Indifference (sans serif font).
- Font size of informational content is a minimum of 14pt.
Accessibility of Video Content
- Many of our videos have triggering content. We provide content warnings, a trigger guide, and resources. Also, in many programs, we have a grounding practice in the beginning.
- Videos hosted by The HEAL Project have image descriptions of speakers in the beginning of the video
- Live videos are recorded and published on Instagram and/or YouTube with human edited and reviewed transcriptions. Note: Instagram Live videos have auto-generated captions.
- Videos contain human edited and reviewed captions.
- Videos will have a .text transcription file in the description of videos by the end of 2022.
Accessibility of Written Content
- Hashtags are written with the first letter of each word capitalized (i.e. #Heal2End).
- Words that are censored on social media are spelled in a phonetic spelling rather than with asterixis. For examples, rather than writing s*x, we write secks.
- Starting in Spring 2022, captions, blogs, and articles will be written at a maximum reading level of 8th grade ( checked using hemingwayapp.com).
- All blog posts will include length of article in minutes and reading level by the end of 2022.
Accessibility of Our Events
Note: when we host an event, we follow these guidelines. For events where we are the guest, we encourage our host to provide accessible content and provide some tools, but we cannot guarantee the same consistency or quality.
Before events
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- American Sign Language interpretation is provided if requests are made at least a week before the event.
- A .pdf or .text file containing the slideshows is available for participants who request it.
- We offer discounted tickets with a sliding scale guideline for low-income folks.
- We offer pay it forward tickets for folks who are able to pay more to support our accessible and free ticket fund.
- At request, we offer free tickets to anyone who is unable to purchase the accessible ticket.
- Our events are held via Zoom Meetings, with the default setting that the participant video and audio is off.
During events
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- Sometimes there is triggering content in our events. We provide content warnings, a trigger guide, and resources at the end. Also, in many programs, we have a grounding practice in the beginning.
- Speakers give a visual description of themselves. They also provide a visual description of images that are integral to the learning process. Our workshops do not heavily rely on visuals.
- Auto generated live captioning is provided through Otter.ai.
After Events
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- For most events, a video recording including human edited and reviewed captions and transcripts is available to ticket-holders shortly after the event.
- Archived videos and transcripts are posted on our website, unless otherwise noted. If the event was originally ticketed, we ask for a suggested donation before viewing to cover our costs.
If you have any concerns or have any accessibility requests, do not hesitate to reach out to our Research and Communications Director, Rida Chotani at info@heal2end.org.