Accessibility: for you and by you
We recognize that part of being an inclusive conference is being an accessible conference. This page contains information about accessible services at the conference venue, and suggestions for things that all conference attendees can do to make the NeurIPS experience more accessible.
If you have questions, suggestions, or if you have needs that are not covered here, please email us or message us on Twitter!
If you have questions, suggestions, or if you have needs that are not covered here, please email us or message us on Twitter!
Accessibility Provisions at the Venue
General accessibility provisions at the conference venue (which is in "lockstep" with the latest Canadian and U.S. accessibility standards--like the ADA) include:
Transportation: A number of adapted taxis are available at Montréal-Trudeau airport; request one from the dispatcher. General taxi service typically requires one hour notice to transport passengers who use wheelchairs or scooters. The best option is Para-Adapté Taxi: they contract with individual drivers with different types of vehicles; you can reach them at 514-277-3344 or by email. Other taxi companies that offer accessible service are Taxi Diamond (514-273-6331), Taxi Boisjoly (514-255-2815), Taxi Rosemont (514-255-1313), Taxi Expert (514-374-7171) and Taxi Van Medic (514-739-9933).
More extensive details from the venue are available. If you have any difficulties, please contact us.
- The venue is accessible. The venue's facilities are accessible to everyone with reduced mobility, including ramps, lifts, TDD phone signage, electric washroom doors, and visual and audible emergency warning signals.
- All entrances to the venue are wheelchair accessible and feature access doors.
- The venue also offers complimentary wheelchairs, requiring a $25 (returned) deposit and ID.
- The venue is equipped with FM assistive listening devices and a TTY service.
- Service animals are permitted within the conference venue. Water stations can be found throughout, but we recommend attendees with service dogs to bring their own water bowls. Dogs may relieve themselves outside the venue; the Palais recommends going to Square Victoria, a three minute walk away (on the corner of Rue Saint Antoine and Rue du Square Victoria)
Transportation: A number of adapted taxis are available at Montréal-Trudeau airport; request one from the dispatcher. General taxi service typically requires one hour notice to transport passengers who use wheelchairs or scooters. The best option is Para-Adapté Taxi: they contract with individual drivers with different types of vehicles; you can reach them at 514-277-3344 or by email. Other taxi companies that offer accessible service are Taxi Diamond (514-273-6331), Taxi Boisjoly (514-255-2815), Taxi Rosemont (514-255-1313), Taxi Expert (514-374-7171) and Taxi Van Medic (514-739-9933).
More extensive details from the venue are available. If you have any difficulties, please contact us.
Tips for Improving the Conference Experience
- When asking a question during a talk, ensure that you have a microphone. Or if you are the speaker, repeat all questions into a mic.
- Authors can ensure that figures in your papers are color-blind friendly. (Colorbrewer2 is a nice general resource; if you make plots with matplotlib, you can use `seaborn.palplot(seaborn.color_palette('colorblind'))`; there are many other options.)
- Presenters can ensure that posters and talks are colorblind friendly.
- When presenting (a talk or a poster), describe your slides or visualizations and avoid flashing/blinking videos or animations.
- Abide by requests to speak more slowly in talks, in your poster presentation, and in private conversations.
- Avoid blocking line-of-sight to your lips while speaking, for whose who use the visual signal as a cue.
- Respect others' space and boundaries, including both their person and any assistive equipment or service animals.
- When conversing with someone who has an interpreter, speak to the person, not the interpreter.
- When speaking to someone in a wheelchair, if possible, find a way to position yourself at their eyelevel.
- If you are organizing a workshop or event that has a web page, ensure that the webpage is compatible with screenreaders and all images have alt-text.
Please check out Humberto Corona's awesome list of suggestions for creating inclusive presentations!
References: AlterConf, Tapia, SIGARCH. and some respondents to the 2018 Inclusion Survey. Also the CHI 2018 and ASA 2017 information pages.