Introducing Event Accessibility & Inclusion Guides

Photo: “From Ashes to Nature’s Majesty”, Erwin Buske

Washington Wild strives to host welcoming, safe, and fun events for all, enabling every individual to engage fully. As an organization, we have been working to establish an accessibility and inclusion framework for planning our events, programs, and other activities.

The purpose of creating this framework is to 1) support Washington Wild staff and board members in improving accessibility and inclusion, 2) effectively communicate related information to the public, and 3) spark a conversation among our partners to foster a greater sense of community.

We recognize that those within our organization have not experienced some of the barriers we are working to alleviate and are unlikely to ‘get it right’ every time. With this in mind, we humbly ask for your patience and understanding, and welcome feedback as this framework and its implementation evolves over time.

Beginning with our upcoming events this month, we will be including an “Accessibility & Inclusion Guide” for each and every event space. These will be found on the Events page of our website within each individual event post; you can see the first one we’ve created for our upcoming Keep It Wild Kick-off Happy Hour at Schilling Cider House here. These guides reflect many—but not all—of the factors Washington Wild takes into consideration when deciding when and where to host, or whether to participate in, an event. Our hope is that these guides will be a ‘one-stop shop’ for FAQs and alleviate uncertainty regarding accessibility some may face.

If you need certain accommodations that are not indicated in the event guide, please reach out and we will make every effort to find a solution. You can email our Communications and Engagement Manager, Kaeli, directly with these requests and any other questions, comments, or concerns at: kaeli@wawild.org.