Accessibility is important to us. Here is some information about accessibility measures in place at Writing North 16: Things Are Not As They Seem.
Physical Accessibility
Our venue at St. Andrew’s College (1121 College Dr) at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon is wheelchair accessible. To access the elevator, please enter through the main doors on the West side of the building: there is a wheelchair accessible public entrance to the right of the main staircase that will lead to the elevator. Take the elevator to floor one, turn left down the hallway to find the Main Lounge.
The Main Lounge is also accessed through the north doors, but please note that there are 3 staircases to our venue.
- St. Andrew’s College is on the University of Saskatchewan bus routes
- Paid parking is available in lots or at meters on campus – check out the USask’s Parking Map to plan your parking or visit https://parking.usask.ca/. St. Andrew’s is also within walking distance of off-campus on-street parking.
- Bike parking available nearby – see all bike rack locations here: https://parking.usask.ca/bike/
Digital Accessibility (for our livestreamed events)
- Live auto captions on Zoom
- Webinar format – no camera-on obligation for attendees
- The chat box function will be available for participants to send praise and comments to presenters digitally
- Read Along documents (a transcript of the presentation available for participants who need it to follow along). These will be available through a Google Drive link posted in the chat over Zoom by the staff to the participants. Attendees will click the link, and the link will open in their browser to the read-along PDF document.
- Recordings of events are available on the SWG YouTube channel for 30 days (only applicable to events being recorded, not all of them are), with transcripts of videos available upon request
Other accessibility measures and information:
- St. Andrew’s College bathrooms on the festival floor are gendered but there is a single washroom on the Main floor that is available to be used during the festival.
- Electronic Read Along documents for our presentations will be available through a Google Drive link accessed by a QR code. Attendees can find the QR code displayed at our book table. Attendees can follow along with the document on their phone. This helps folks who are d/Deaf, are Hard of Hearing, have hearing loss, or have auditory processing needs follow along with oral presentations.
- Water, tea, and coffee will be available all day for free. We encourage attendees to bring their reusable water bottles and travel mugs.
- Every presenter will be using a microphone
- Ample breaks between sessions
- Self ID descriptions—this is when a presenter, before they begin their event, describes what they look like for folks who may not be able to perceive a person the way a sighted person can.
- We encourage masking at Writing North for the majority of events, as some of our presenters, staff, and attendees are immunocompromised, and we want to keep them safe
- Events are free and open to the public
Have other access needs not been met above? Contact SWG staff; we’re happy to help make your festival experience more enjoyable.
