Accessibility and Inclusion

December 21, 2023

Since the return of in-person conferences, NCTM has been actively focused on making our events more accessible and inclusive. We appreciate those who have taken the time to share their observations, concerns, and ideas on how we can continue to improve and address the specific needs of all attendees. In response to your suggestions, we made changes for this year’s meeting in Washington, DC based on feedback received after the 2022 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. We plan to make additional changes in response to comments made after the Annual Meeting in Washington in October. We include our Accessibility and Inclusion policies and practices in all NCTM conference materials.

Some changes made after 2022 Annual Meeting feedback:

• Renaming of Lactation Room
• Making accessibility and inclusion information on conference website more visible
• Providing live ASL interpreters for the Opening Session, Closing Session, and Iris Carl Equity Address rather than only if requested as with the other sessions
• Encouraging speakers to use microphones and provide captioning on presentation slides
• Work with conference facility personnel to ensure that gender-neutral restrooms aren’t located far away from conference areas

Additional changes being made after 2023 Annual Meeting feedback:

• Work with conference AV technicians and staff to make sure they can help speakers enable captioning
• Provide a Quiet Room for those who need it
• Add a tile to conference app indicating availability of gender-neutral restrooms and lactation rooms
• Provide ribbons for participants to share their pronouns more visibly than on their name badges
• Increase the number of affinity groups and provide them spaces to meet
• Request that the conference food venues list ingredients
• In addition to the existing [email protected], an [email protected] email address has been created for attendees to share needs 

In addition to following best practices, the NCTM Conference Services staff have been attending conferences of other education professional organizations, in part to see how they approach accessibility and inclusion. 

Thanks again for helping the Council and the mathematics education community grow in our knowledge of how to develop and present events that are more accessible and inclusive. We are committed to continually growing and learning.

Kevin Dykema
NCTM President
@kdykema