Ryan Marks 5:04 am on December 19, 2021
Tags: accessibility ( 4 ), allergy, attendees ( 2 )

Proposal: Automatically send emails to WordCamp attendee requesting details about their accessibility accommodation or life-threatening allergy

When an attendee purchases a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. ticket and specifies they have either an accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) accommodation or a life-threatening allergy, emails about each situation are sent to the WordCamp lead organizer, the WordCamp city address, and WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. support address. These emails alert the organizers to reach out to the attendee and inquire about the nature of their situation. The emails to WordCamp support are asking a Community DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. to follow-up with the organizers to ensure they are reaching out to the attendee.

This proposal replaces the manual step of emailing the attendee with an automated email.

New email messages

The new email messages would be sent at the same time as the other three automated emails described above. The email(s) to the attendee should be from the WordCamp’s city address and BCC the city address. Below is proposed text that might be used to ask the attendee for details.

Hi <first-name>, we're happy to see that you'll be joining us for WordCamp <city>!
You noted on your ticket form that you have accessibility accommodation that we should be aware of. Would you be able to provide additional detail and anything related that we should be informed about so that we can be sure you can fully participate?

Thanks!
WordCamp <city>

Hi <first-name>, we're happy to see that you'll be joining us for WordCamp <city>!
You noted on your ticket form that you have a life-threatening allergy that we should be aware of. Would you be able to provide additional detail and anything related that we should be informed about so that we can be sure that we're providing a safe environment?

Thanks!
WordCamp <city>

Create two new Email Templates

There are currently 7 email templates found in a WordCamp site under Tickets > Setup > E-mail Templates. The text above could be configured as new email templates so the WordCamp organizers can add details about the current state about their venue or catering.

Updating existing emails and handbooks

The current automated emails to the lead organizer, city address, and WordCamp Central support should be updated to indicate an automated email has been sent to the attendee.

These handbook pages should also be updated to indicate an automatic email is sent to the attendee.

https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/first-steps/inclusive-and-welcoming-events/#requests-for-special-accommodations
https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/planning-details/selling-tickets/life-threatening-allergies/

Questions

Are you for or against automating these emails?
Would you make changes to the email message body?
Are you for or against adding these as email templates?

I’d like to get feedback on this by January 14, 2022.

#accessibility, #allergy, #attendees

Timi Wahalahti 8:25 am on December 19, 2021

+1 for automating these emails. I’ve actually proposed it in 2018, but back then the community did see that the current manual process is needed.
Naoko Takano 12:09 am on December 21, 2021

Thanks for the proposal! Sending these responses was very time-consuming and especially painful for an online event where we allowed the day-of registration. Automating this process is a great idea!

I read in the 2018 proposal for doing this manually, but in fact, we had so many false-positive responses (people checking the box by mistake or for the wrong reason) for WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Japan that it was harder to keep track when we got all the notifications.

A couple of suggestions to clarify possible question responses:

a. Actually writing out the question in the email, such as:

When you registered your ticket, you checked the box for “Do you have any accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) needs, such as a sign language interpreter or live captioning, to participate in WordCamp?”.

(so that people who checked it by mistake don’t reply and ask what “accessibility accommodation” means)

b. Allowing attendees to fix the mistake:

If you made the choice by mistake, you can edit the ticket information from:
[[ticket info edit link]]

This probably can’t go into the template since not all WCs have this page, but we also added a link to our accessibility guide page https://japan.wordcamp.org/2021/event-guide/#accessibility, including information about captions and such. Offline event example: https://tokyo.wordcamp.org/2019/a11y/
(both need Google Translate, but just as examples!)

And lastly, using the email templates feature is the best because it allows for translation via translation.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/.
- Ryan Marks 3:40 am on December 21, 2021
  
  Thank you, @nao! I like both of your suggestions.
Megan 2:37 pm on December 21, 2021

I would love to see these be automated! I like @nao‘s additions as well. I’ve gotten quite a few accidental submissions.
lisacee 4:24 pm on December 27, 2021

+1 for automating this and making it easier to support our peers.
Sam Suresh 1:30 am on December 31, 2021
Given a very small percentage of users is require accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) support, I’m not sure how useful it is to blast an email to ALL users. However, it is good to give a second chance for them to ask for it if they have forgotten to check the box.

Often people check this box without knowing what it is or if it is some kind of accommodation support. So rephrasing or giving some. examples in the message will be helpful.

Perhaps something like this;
Howdy,

We’re happy to see that you’ll be joining us for WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. City!
You noted on your ticket form that you have accessibility accommodation that we should be aware of.

The common accessibility needs are:
- wheelchairs and motorized scooter users
- vision impaired
- people accompanied by a guide
- hearing impaired to be near the interpreters, captioners, note-takers
- allergy / special needs for meals
- a special medical condition.
- other similar accessibility support
Would you be able to provide additional detail and anything related that we should be informed about your accessibility needs by replying to this email?

Thank you,
WordCamp City Organizers
- Ryan Marks 4:28 pm on December 31, 2021
  Hi @samsuresh, thank you for your comments. This proposal does not plan to send an email to ALL attendees. Emails would only be sent to an attendee if they answered yes to one of these two questions:
  - Do you have a life-threatening allergy that would affect your experience at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more.?
  - Do you have any accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) needs, such as a sign language interpreter or wheelchair access, to participate in WordCamp?
  Thank you for the accessibility accommodation examples.
Hari Shanker R 12:59 pm on January 4, 2022

I love this idea, @rmarks! I think there is value in implementing this in 2022, and I like the format you have suggested. I do agree with @nao‘s suggestions above on filtering out false positives. And yes, if we implement this, we should use templates too.

When compared to 2018 (when @sippis shared this proposal first), things were a lot different. In 2022, we’re in entirely different times where any form of automation could be useful. Additionally, I have observed how online WordCamps tend to have a lot of these false positives due to the increase in number of ticket sales – An additional motivation for this change, in my mind, would be to simplify the follow-up process for those camps as well.

I would vote for implementing this.
Alexander Gounder 1:28 pm on January 4, 2022

The Current way of asking at the ticket level itself is great way to know if attendees may need assistance or not. But I’d like to put forward my experience a considerable amount of people just tick it without reading or they don’t really understand it’s meaning (language barrier).

Across three WordCamps that we’ve had the option active we’ve had about half a dozen tick the option in each of these WordCamps and just one of them was a genuine request the rest misunderstood it.

Further when we get a genuine request organizers may not know how to respond, a template to get in touch with the attendee and pointers to what we could do to be helpful would be great.
Rebecca Diamond 5:22 pm on January 7, 2022

Yes please 😄 As the one who got accidentally peanut/tree-nut exposed at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US in 2017, even after indicating the life-threatening allergy on the ticket form…I also like automating an email to a Community DeputyProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook..

I can imagine that it’s easy to overlook so having someone tasked to follow up is a good idea.

I’m delighted to see all the work that’s gone into making WordCamps accessible and allergy-friendly; it’s something that makes the community that much safer for those of us with differing needs!
Ryan Marks 10:31 pm on May 8, 2022

I’m working up the changes to add the new email templates and messages to attendees.

What do you all think about adding two custom ticket fields for details about the attendee’s allergy and accommodation details. The fields would not be on the attendee facing ticket pages. Instead, the fields would be seen in the admin interfaces of CampTix. This allows WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers, after the attendee has replied to the email with their details, to fill in their details. The details from these fields would also be included in CampTix exports. For WordCamps I’ve been involved in, this would require fewer independently managed spreadsheets of attendees that aren’t in sync with the CampTix exports.
- Timi Wahalahti 9:33 am on May 9, 2022
  
  +1