Latest / PCMA Convene Podcast / Convene Series: From Compliance to Inclusion: Frank M. Wächter Explains the European Accessibility Act
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- Convene Podcast Transcript From Compliance to Inclusion: Frank M. Wächter Explains the European Accessibility Act *Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies Magdalina Atanassova: Welcome to this Season eight episode of the Convene Podcast, brought to you by Visit Anaheim. We're exploring a vital but often overlooked side of inclusion, digital accessibility. My guest, Frank Victor, is an online marketing and communications expert who has dedicated his career to helping people and businesses navigate the digital age with clarity and confidence. Through coaching, strategy and smart use of technology, Frank makes marketing simpler and more authentic, and he brings that same practical mindset to accessibility. In our conversation, he unpacks what the European Accessibility act means for the events industry, why it matters for every digital touch point, and how small, intentional changes can create more inclusive experiences for all. We start now. Hi Frank, and welcome to the Convene Podcast. It's a pleasure to have you here. Frank M. Wächter: Thanks so much for having me. I'm really happy to be here and to share a few thoughts from the digital communication side of accessibility. It's a topic that's very close to my work and honestly, long overdue in our meetings event industry. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, so let's go directly into clarifying the topic of our conversations. So, for those who might not be very familiar, what is the European Accessibility act, and why should the event industry professionals care about it? Frank M. Wächter: Sure. The European Accessibility act, or short the EEA, is an EU directive focused on digital accessibility in general. It came into effect already in 2019, and compliance became mandatory for most digital services by June 28 this year. It covers websites, mobile apps, online booking systems, registration tools, you name them, basically all the digital things your audience interacts with. This means even event professionals should care, because if your digital touch points aren't accessible, you're excluding people before they even get to your event. And that's not just bad user experience. Actually, it's bad business. Magdalina Atanassova: And can you break down how poor digital accessibility affects participants and how improving it benefits everyone who interacts with your event? Frank M. Wächter: That's a great question. Accessibility barriers can make even basic things like reading event information or completing a form really frustrating for some users. The good news is, when you fix those issues, better structure, contrast headings, everyone benefits. It's cleaner, easier, and frankly, it looks much more professional. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. And how did Congrex begin preparing for the EAA compliance? And can you share maybe a few specific changes or upgrades you made that other event organizations might want to consider too? Frank M. Wächter: Yeah. Well, we started with a full audit of our corporate website, and then we worked for about eight months with our web agency to implement changes based on the WCHE, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. We specially follow aa, which is the middle of three levels. It's considered the practical standard for most organizations. It includes things like sufficient color contrast, keyboard navigation, and text that can be resized or read by screen readers. We tackled color contrast, as said, heading, structure, link, clarity, alt, text, among other. All these technical part small steps, but they really added up. So it's small steps, big impacts. Magdalina Atanassova: And did you need to also have some internal training and to engage the team and show them first why it matters and also how to work better in this aspect? Frank M. Wächter: Yes, absolutely. And that was a big one. Accessibility isn't just for developers and we really wanted everyone to understand that. So we focused on building awareness across different teams. That includes content creators, designers, our project managers, our meeting planners. We talk about accessibility in terms of clarity, structure and respect for the user. So it's a shift in the mindset and not just a checklist. Magdalina Atanassova: Did you have any feedback from the team when you introduced that training and why you have to, you know, why you have to be compliant? Frank M. Wächter: Well, there's a lot of understanding, especially because here at Congrex we work with medical associations and there are, for instance, there are more and more these patient days included into the event. And especially if you think about people with reduced mobility or vision who attend one of these conferences, they really need to be included. So it's, it's totally understandable to adapt on the one side. On the other side, it's definitely additional task to do. And meeting planners, event planners already are really, really. It's one of the of the toughest jobs I think out there. In all the statistics, it's always just behind firefighter in terms of workload stress. So. Yeah, but in January it was very positive acceptance. Magdalina Atanassova: That's wonderful to hear. And which adjustments were deceptively small? And maybe you mentioned them already. Changes that were deceptively small but made such a big, big difference at the end for the user. Frank M. Wächter: Yeah, honestly, it's color contrast and heading structure. It seems so tiny, these changes, but they change everything, to be honest. Not just for people using screen readers, but also for mobile users, for SEO, it has impact. And even for people like me who just like clean layouts. Magdalina Atanassova: There are a few of us out there. And what has been the most surprising insight or challenge you've encountered in your accessibility journey so far? Frank M. Wächter: Yeah, I'd say the biggest insight was how deeply accessibility connects to trust. When people can navigate your site or your app or your forms, whatever, with ease, they feel included. The challenge here is getting teams to move past the idea that accessibility is just a checkbox or an extra. It needs to be part of the process from the very start. Magdalina Atanassova: You have to start with that. It doesn't have to be an afterthought. And in your view, what roles does accessibility play across the broader digital event ecosystem? Frank M. Wächter: Well, I'd say it's foundational. If your website or app or form or digital touchpoint is not accessible, you have already excluded people before the event begins. So accessibility should be a standard like data privacy or mobile optimization. Actually, it's just good digital hygiene. Magdalina Atanassova: You know, when I read through the points that the European Union include in the website in terms of the European Accessibility act, the one point that stood out to me was when they said for users that this would mean fewer barriers when accessing transport, education and open labor market. And I thought that pretty much the events industry, it just made sense. And I was like, yes, I'm so glad we're having this conversation. Just because it's important for industry professionals to be compliant, but also not just to check the box, like you said, but to do it just because they understand that it makes a difference. Frank M. Wächter: Yeah, you're absolutely right there. And you're right to think about the event industry. That's what happened to me right away when I read through that there is not one touch point we have in the industry. This act is about the digital touchpoints. Most of the venues, hotels and also events already think about the physical accessibility. But there is so much more to it, to be honest. You have for visually disabled people. You need transcripts on your website. Even, for instance, if you go for the AAA level, you would need every video with sign language added to it. Not only readable, not only text, but sign language. You know, I mean, it can get very big. But thinking about all these aspects, especially in the event industry, I think it's something. Something very positive. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. What are some practical steps associations or event teams can take to start building a culture of digital accessibility, even if they are not subject to the regulation just yet? Frank M. Wächter: Yeah, it's quite simple. It's start small. Start, start small, run an audit, look at your headings, alt, text, form, fields. It's technical, true, but I mean, you have to look at these points. If you have a website, avoid PDFs or other formats that are not accessible, for instance, by scripting readers, when you don't need these type of formats. Most importantly, include accessibility in your design brief from the start. Again, it's not as a fix in. Magdalina Atanassova: The end, and we addressed that in our conversation before we recorded. So I just want to bring it up. We mentioned that currently this is something that applies to the EU member states, but still it's important to the rest of the Industry. For those international planners who plan and have people from the European Union joining their event, they still have to comply and satisfy the actual. Correct. Is that correct? Frank M. Wächter: To be honest, I think so, yes. I think it's the same like the GDPR regulations or the new DSG in Switzerland. So I think as soon as you interact with European citizen, you have to comply. This is my understanding, not a legal one here. Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, it's not a legal advice, but just a note that if a European citizen is attending, the website or the digital infrastructure has to be compliant to the act, which is important. And looking ahead, how do you see digital accessibility evolving beyond this Accessibility act, especially now with AI and when you were speaking about PDFs, that was the first thing that came into my mind. We have AI, we have immersive tech, we have other formats becoming more common. So do you think it will change and how. Frank M. Wächter: Yeah, it will. It's a really. It's an. It's. It will change and. But it's. I think it's an exciting area. AI has, for instance, huge potential. For example, automatic captioning is getting better and better. So these tools cannot generate live subtitles for videos or event streams in the moment, which helps not only people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but also international audiences or people watching without sound. And then there are like adaptive interfaces, meaning systems that adjust automatically to a user's need. That could mean larger fonts, better contrast, or even voice navigation when someone can't use a keyboard or mouse. But beyond the tech, what really matters, in my opinion, is something I'd call accessibility by design. And it's very similar to what we know as privacy by design in data protection. This means the idea behind it is that you don't wait until the end to think about accessibility. You build it in from the beginning in your layout, your content, your navigation. This is called also intentional design. And this kind of intentional design is what I think will really shape the future of inclusive digital experiences and looking. Magdalina Atanassova: At the current state of the industry. And of course, maybe that's too broad to include everyone, the whole industry, but those of the main actors here in Europe, do you think most are already up to par or we have some way to go still? Frank M. Wächter: Yeah, I mean, I think accessibility is a journey. It's not about being perfect. So it's about progress, consistency, and treating people with respect through your digital channels. So it's not something. There is not a goal you have to achieve this AA certification and whatever has not to be the goal. It's the journey that's important. So, yes, I think we still have to work and we will keep continuously working. Magdalina Atanassova: I like this message. If someone listening today wanted to take one concrete action toward better accessibility in their events, what would you recommend that they do first? Frank M. Wächter: Okay, well, I don't want to mention now any tools or stuff, so I would say just take 10 minutes and review what you have in mind. Your homepage, your event app, your registration form. Can someone navigate it by keyboard? This means it's shift in perspective where it all begins. Shift your perspective. Sit down, have a look. Are the colors readable? Do the links make sense? Or even simpler, ask yourself, would someone with low vision or motor limitations be able to use this comfortably? Magdalina Atanassova: Was there anything we didn't mention we should before we wrap up? Frank M. Wächter: Well, I think yeah, we touched everything. I mean, the important thing that as I mentioned before, the shift in perspective and that it's a journey. You don't have to be perfect. So start small, but start and yeah, make this intentional design strategy you have right from the beginning. Magdalina Atanassova: I love that. A wonderful end to our conversation. Thank you, Frank, so much. Frank M. Wächter: Thanks. Thanks again for the opportunity and I really enjoyed the conversation and I hope these insights are helpful to anyone working on making their digital touch points more inclusive. Magdalina Atanassova: I'm sure. Thank you. Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. We want to thank our sponsor, Visit Anaheim. Go to VisitAnaheim.org/meetings to learn more. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.