Every year One Young World is improving on how we can become a world class leader in accessible events, and empower young leaders to create a more fair, sustainable world for all. One Young World understands that accessibility and inclusion is a journey that is evolving and we invite our young leaders to join us on our mission to welcome all.
Accessibility at the Summit
We are proud that we can make the Summit experience as inclusive and enjoyable for all our attendees and strive to make each Summit the most accessible and inclusive to date.
Delegates are asked upon registration to the Summit if they have any accessibility requirements. One Young World then approaches each Delegate individually to discuss their personal needs.
All venues used are individually audited. Venues must comply with the following:
- Be wheelchair accessible
- Have lifts alongside all stairs or escalators
- Have accessible toilets
- Have a quiet room/area
- Have male and female prayer room areas
- Have accessible stages
- Reserved seating for anyone requiring a seat
- Have an area for non alcoholic drinks and dietary requirements
- Be able to provide all dietary/allergy requirements supplied by One Young World in advance
- Hotels to have accessible rooms with interjoining access where required
Once One Young World has made contact with the Delegate after registration, the buddy scheme is offered as an additional level of support. The buddy scheme offers Delegates the chance to have a volunteer assigned to them for the duration of the Summit week. This volunteer will have prior knowledge of the Summit venues and a good orientation of the Host City. The Delegate will stipulate how much support they require for the week and how much they need the volunteer. The Volunteer is not responsible for helping with sanitary roles or anything where they are required to enter the Delegates accommodation.
Often Delegates will have a companion that travels with them, One Young World will help gain access to the Summit for the companion and support with pre Summit materials where required.
Transport is offered to all Delegates who request assistance during the Summit. One Young World venues are all within 20 minutes walking distance of each other, however when this is not feasible for a Delegate, One Young World will provide personal transport. Again, this is based on bespoke requirements from each Delegate.
Where possible all transport is hybrid or electric.
The Digital Summit takes place on the One Young World digital Summit platform at the same time as the in-person Summit. All videos uploaded onto the platform are subtitled.
The One Young World website and external communications have brand accessibility guidelines for all graphics.
Summit Content
The stage content of each Summit reflects the diverse One Young World community. This means that we go out of our way to ensure that people with disabilities are represented on both the main presentation stage and interactive stages.
To this extent, all stages are fully accessible and can cater for all specialist needs including the use of height adjustable lecterns. International sign language will take place on the Presentation stage and closed caption text will be available on the Presentation stage and Interactive Stages.
In Belfast 2022, we were proud to be joined on the Presentation stage by returning One Young World Ambassador, Senator Crystal Asige, for a keynote address to start the day's content.
"As a Sign Language interpreter myself I have seen a lot of inaccessible events - this event was a showcase of how accessible for the Deaf community looks." Jaime Brown, 2023 Delegate
4 . 3 /5
average rating of the accessibility provisions at the 2023 Belfast Summit
In recognition of One Young World's commitment to an accessible and sustainable event, we have upheld our ISO20121 event sustainability certification for the past three years. To find the certification and for more information on our pledge to reduce inequalities, visit our sustainability information page.
Accessibility Advisory Group
The One Young World Accessibility Advisory Group was established in 2019. The aim of the group is to improve the Summit delegate experience for anyone with accessibility requirements.
One Young World enlisted the expertise of several Ambassadors to help realise the commitment made to improve the service. These specially selected Ambassadors formed a panel, drawing from their professional and personal experiences to help steer and inform the process.
Learn More about the Accessibility Advisory Group
"It is immensely pleasing to see a global platform like One Young World walking their talk and setting an example, so when I was asked to be a part of the Accessibility Advisory Group, to ensure that the summit experience is truly inclusive for participants of all abilities, the answer was a resounding YES from me!”
Devika Malik - Founder, Wheeling Happiness
Accessibility in the Community
These statistics, aggregated from the data compiled from Ambassador-led project case studies in our Impact Reports, demonstrate a sample of the impact generated by our Community in alignment with the UN Global Goals agenda.
115 , 684
people engaged to reduce social inequalities by Ambassador-led projects featured in our 2022 Impact Report
Ambassador Spotlight:
One Young World Ambassadors are leading projects in every country of the world, creating substantial social impact across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. To see more examples of such leaders and initiatives, visit our Impact page here.
Barry Walsh, Ireland
Barry is a diversity and inclusion advocate. He founded and runs a website called Focusondiversity.ie, where he features people, companies and programmes that are actively promoting the area of Diversity and Inclusion. To achieve this, he interviews companies on what they are doing in the area of D&I, as well as promoting people to follow working in different areas of the field. Barry also gives advice based on his firsthand experience of neurodiversity in the workforce. As of November 2023, Focusondiversity.ie has over 23,000 views and 200 articles.
Additionally, Barry gives presentations on neurodiversity in the workplace and other areas of disability. So far, he has given conferences to 600 people attending or smaller presentations to corporate companies.
Get In Touch
We value your feedback as we continue to improve our accessibility and inclusion experience. Please let us know if you have any suggestions on how we can improve by emailing us at: delegateservices@oneyoungworld.com