Accessibility
The Accessibility Team is committed to providing an equitable experience for all disabled members of Worldcon. Support will be available for those with mobility needs, visual impairments, hearing loss or differences, and various types of neurodiversity. In addition to serving as a liaison for the accessibility offerings of the venue, the Accessibility Team is working with the hotels and other convention spaces to secure accessibility features.
If you have any questions, please contact accessibility@glasgow2024.org.
Table of Contents
Privacy
The Glasgow 2024 Accessibility Team will never ask about your specific conditions or disabilities. While you are welcome to volunteer information if you wish, we are most interested in what adjustments will help you. Your privacy is important to us; we will not share information you provide outside of the Glasgow 2024 staff who have a genuine need to know in order to support you. The Accessibility Desk will provide special stickers for the back of your badge, which you may show privately to convention staff and volunteers to request assistance whenever you need it.
Mobility Scooters
We are happy to announce that the booking form for mobility scooters is now live. Scooters are available to rent through the convention for £80, with pick-up on 8 August and drop-off on 12 August. Please email accessibility@glasgow2024.org with any questions on scooter rental. Note: if you would like to request financial support for a scooter rental, please do not use the above form. Instead, submit a request via the community fund form and we will get in touch with you.
For those using mobility devices, there will be spaces for companion seating in programme rooms. There will also be spaces marked at the end of rows for those who need space for an assistance dog, mobility equipment, or to stretch their limbs.
If you need to sit whilst in a queue, please find a queue management volunteer in a high-visibility vest.
Quiet Spaces
The convention will provide a quiet space in both the SEC and the Crowne Plaza hotel. Each of these will offer gentle lighting, comfortable seating, fidget toys, and colouring/puzzle books. These spaces are for quiet activity only; brief whispers are permitted but conversations should be held outside as much as possible. Staff will check on these spaces throughout the day to ensure supplies are available and things are tidy.
If you are in need of a quiet space whilst in a queue, please find a queue management volunteer in a high-visibility vest who can assist you.
Subtitling and Interpreters
Live, human-operated subtitles (also known as captions or CART) will be provided at the WSFS Business Meeting and main stage events. British Sign Language interpreters will be provided at the Opening Ceremony, Closing Ceremony, Hugo Award Ceremony, and Masquerade. An on-call interpreter for BSL/ASL/IS will be available throughout the convention; if you would like to request interpreters for specific programme items, please email accessibility@glasgow2024.org as early as possible.
For the online convention, the live subtitles will be provided through RingCentral Events (RCE) where they are in use in Glasgow. For other online events, RCE offers automated captioning. For events with BSL interpreters, a separate video feed for the interpreter will be available online.
Assistance Dogs
Glasgow 2024 welcomes members who partner with assistance dogs to the Scottish Event Campus. In accordance with SEC policy, all assistance dogs must wear a vest or other form of identification while on site. Any animals other than trained assistance dogs are not permitted in convention spaces. This includes emotional support animals, which are not considered assistance dogs under UK law, and pets, which have no right of public access. If you are staying in a hotel reserved through the convention’s booking system, and will have an assistance dog, you are responsible for communicating to the hotel via the Glasgow Convention Bureau that you will have a dog with you, please email accommodation@glasgowconventionbureau.com.
Getting Around
Signage will be provided around the convention spaces to direct you to lifts, chairlifts, and other accessibility features. We have developed a map of the campus to show the most direct routings between buildings on the SEC campus, and alternative step-free routings.
Special note for those wishing to use the Exhibition Centre train station: the covered walkway to the SEC is approximately 400m (¼ mile) long, and has a slight grade at each end. If this distance is difficult for you, please consider renting a mobility scooter to make your travel easier.
If you will be using Scotrail or other trains in the UK, consider using Passenger Assistance for booking help at stations. This free service allows you to request a ramp for boarding, sighted guides, help finding a seat, a wheelchair space on board, and more.
During the Convention
Our team will have a desk in Hall 4, near the Info Desk. Look for signage or ask a volunteer to guide you to the desk. The desk will have magnifying lenses, earplugs, whiteboards, clear face masks, distilled water, RADAR keys, and a number of other useful items for loan or to give away. A limited quantity of sunflower lanyards will be available for those who wish to make their hidden disabilities more visible.
Accessibility staff will also be roving the convention to offer on location support. Look for pink high-visibility vests marked “Accessibility” to find us. You may also email accessibility@glasgow2024.org or tag us on Discord to ask us to come to you.
For accessibility needs at the online convention, please email us or tag us on Discord. If you don’t receive help quickly, feel free to ask for help from Discord moderators as well, who can help reach the Accessibility staff in Glasgow.
More Information
For additional information from the Accessibility Area Head, please visit the November 2023 blog post on accessibility. To learn more about accessibility at the convention venues, visit AccessAble’s pages on the Crowne Plaza, SEC Centre, Armadillo, and Village Hotel. AccessAble also provides information on other locations throughout Glasgow and the UK. To contact the Accessibility Team, please email accessibility@glasgow2024.org.