What’s missing from most of the guidance on having hard conversations is a question that should come first: can everyone in this conversation participate effectively in it?
That sounds like an obvious thing to check, right? It often isn’t. Most managers think about logistics (when, where, who) and content (what they’re going to say, how they’re going to say it) without thinking intentionally about whether the format, the environment, or the setup creates barriers for other participants.
This issue is a practical checklist for building accessibility into hard conversations before they start, whether they’re happening in person, virtually, or some mix of both.
Workplace accessibility isn’t just good practice: in your locality it may be a legal requirement. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States, the Equality Act in the United Kingdom, the European Accessibility Act across the EU, and the Accessible Canada Act are all examples of legislation that sets a baseline for ensuring employees with disabilities can participate equally in workplace meetings and communications. Wherever you’re reading this, it’s worth checking what applies in your context.
⭐ One last thing before we get into the checklist, one principle that is my personal starting point: the person you’re meeting with is the expert on their own needs.
People with disabilities and neurodivergent individuals are best positioned to identify what works for them, and those needs vary significantly from person to person even when people share facets of the same identity or diagnosis. A checklist gives you good defaults and a starting point. It doesn’t replace asking. The most important accessibility practice a manager can have is genuine curiosity and the habit of asking directly, early, and without assumption: “Is there anything I can do to make this conversation easier for you to participate in?” Then listen, take it seriously, and follow through. Everything else in this checklist is secondary to that practice.
3 Common Gaps
These are all fixable with some intentional thought and action ahead of the meeting:
Poor audio or video in hybrid settings 🚩
When someone is joining remotely while others are in the room, the in-room audio almost always sounds worse than it should. The remote participant hears a wall of ambient noise, can’t tell who is speaking, and misses things. This matters in any meeting. In a hard conversation, it can be a serious liability.
No captions 🚩
Auto-captions on many platforms are gaining accuracy and take about 30 seconds to enable. Real-time professional captioning (called CART, or Communication Access Realtime Translation) is more accurate and worth the cost for high-stakes conversations. Not having captions at all is a gap that excludes people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people who process written language more effectively than spoken language, and anyone in a noisy environment.
Not identifying who is speaking 🚩
When participants don’t say their name before they speak, low-vision participants, participants using screen readers, and people reviewing transcripts or recordings afterward lose critical context. It’s a small norm to establish and a big barrier to remove.
Before the meeting: what to send and set up
For any hard conversation, in person or virtual:
Include an accommodation request statement in the meeting invitation. One sentence and a link or contact is enough: “If you need any accommodations to participate fully in this meeting, please let me know by [date] so I can arrange support.” Ask before, not after.
Share any supporting materials (agenda, talking points, documents) in advance whenever possible. If you’re sharing files, use formats that screen readers can access (Word documents or HTML, not image-based PDFs).
If you’re using a presentation or slides, send the file directly rather than sharing your screen. Screen reader software can’t interact with shared screens in most platforms.
For virtual or hybrid conversations specifically:
Enable closed captions and transcripts before the meeting starts, not during it.
If the conversation is high-stakes and accuracy matters, consider CART (professional live captioning) rather than relying on auto-generated captions.
If you’re including a sign language interpreter, confirm their video will be visible and pinned throughout the call (including in any recording you share afterward).
Test your audio setup before the meeting. This matters more in hybrid settings, where in-room microphones impact the experience of remote participants. If you’re joining from a conference room, check that the microphone picks up everyone in the room clearly.
Have a phone dial-in option available as a backup, in case someone’s video connection fails or isn’t accessible for them.
For in-person conversations specifically:
Send participants venue accessibility information in advance. This should include: the accessible entrance and travel path from parking or transit, whether there are stairs or an elevator, the nearest parking with accessible spaces, step-free access to the meeting room, the location of an accessible restroom, whether the building has a quiet or low-sensory area available if needed, and a note about the security checkpoint process if one exists. Sending this in advance removes the burden of asking on arrival.
During the meeting
Open with a brief visual description of yourself if this is a virtual meeting where participants may not know you by video. For example: “I’m [name]. I’m joining from my office in XYZ building, sitting at a desk in front of a bookshelf.” This is particularly helpful for participants with low vision.
State the agenda at the top of the conversation, even in a one-on-one.
Ask all participants to say their name before speaking, and model it yourself. It sounds a little formal the first time but becomes natural quickly and makes a real difference for anyone relying on transcripts or captioning.
Describe any visual information you reference. If you share a document or gesture toward something on screen, say what it is rather than pointing to it.
Use platform features like polling or non-verbal reactions rather than the chat when you want to invite participation. Chat messages interrupt screen reader users by being read aloud mid-conversation. If chat is active, designate someone to read relevant messages aloud so they’re part of the conversation for everyone.
Share the recording and/or transcript with all participants afterward, if recording is allowed.
Building accessibility in by default doesn’t require a long checklist every time. Most of it becomes habit after a few repetitions. What it does require is the decision to slow down before the conversation instead of treating logistics as the part you rush through to get to the “real” work.
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Additional resources (an incomplete list)
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative publishes a comprehensive, disability-community-backed checklist for making meetings and events accessible in any format: Making Events Accessible (W3C WAI)
The Ability Center has a practical guide specifically for virtual meetings, written for managers and organizers: Accessible Virtual Meetings Guide
Section508.gov covers ADA-grounded guidance for accessible workplace meetings: Accessible Meetings (Section 508)
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If you have additional resources on workplace accessibility to share, or an experience where accessibility has been important for your / others’ experience in the workplace, I would love to hear about it. You are welcomed and encouraged to leave a comment!
See you next Tuesday,