Fostering an accessible and inclusive environment at the EGU General Assembly

The EGU is committed to providing a safe, open, accessible, and respectful environment at its annual General Assembly. Our communications and approach are non-judgmental, non-biased, and inclusive. In turn, the EGU expects meeting attendees to exhibit professional and respectful conduct at all times. We require that all meeting participants accept and follow both EGU's Code of Conduct and the EGU General Assembly rules of conduct.

At its General Assembly the EGU strives to have diversity among conveners, attendees, organizers, and presenters, including with respect to career stage, gender, geographical origin, and scientific approaches. We encourage conveners and programme committee officers to keep this approach in mind while conducting all EGU activities.

This webpage details actions that the EGU has undertaken to facilitate an accessible and inclusive conference where every individual feels welcome. We encourage all participants to read this page and to help whenever appropriate.

Should you observe violations against these rules, please contact the vEGU21 person of trust (links available from the entrance hall and the information desks in all other virtual rooms and floors) and/or send an email to conduct@egu.eu. Messages to this address are treated confidentially.

Communications

  • The EGU uses gender-neutral language.
  • We offer pronoun, Pride, and many other sticker choices when you set up your profile.
  • The EGU has issued the following guideline for conveners: "EGU strongly encourages conveners to build their teams and organize their sessions considering and promoting under-represented demographics, in particular including: (i) multiple countries and institutes, (ii) different career stages, with particular attention to the participation of early career scientists, (iii) different genders and all other forms of diversity, and (iv) diverse scientific approaches."
  • Additional information: Accessibility at EGU: Promoting inclusive language, an incomplete guide, v.2!

Accessibility at vEGU21

Visual accessibility

Audio accessibility

  • At vEGU21, we will experiment with live captioning of talks by a stenographer in several union-wide sessions.
  • We will also be providing AI-based closed captioning for Medal and Award Lectures and well as Short Courses.
  • For information about what you as the presenter can do to improve these captions, please read Accessibility at vEGU21: creating an accessible (and effective) presentation!
  • For vPICOs, due to technical difficulties, we cannot provide embedded captions, so we recommend that attendees who require captions use Chrome browser and enable the captions there. Enable captions in the Chrome browser settings and activate the captions in the browser window by clicking the captioning icon to the right of the address bar.

Step 1: enable Chrome browser captions by clicking on the browser settings.

Step 2: open the advanced settings in the new window, and navigate to 'Accessibility'. You will see the option to turn on browser settings at the top of the Accessibility options.

Step 3: to start in browser captions, click on the caption icon on the right of the address bar when you have a window with a video playing in it. You can then turn on the captions.

Step 4: captions appear in the front of the browser, at the bottom, as shown

Well-being

We acknowledge how tiring it can be to attend a digital conference, so we hope you will be able to be kind to yourself in late April and, where possible, focus only on attending vEGU21 – just as you would if you were attending in Vienna. And yes, that also includes taking some time out to explore and go for walks, talk with friends and colleagues, and enjoy the vEGU21 platform's quiet room.

Here are a few more tips for making an online conference easier:

  • Take regular breaks! This can mean doing something that isn't work related, or even stepping away from your computer altogether.
  • Keep a pad and pen nearby to doodle on while you listen – let yourself fidget. Research suggests that letting yourself fidget whilst you listen can actually help you focus and remember more.
  • Schedule varied events. Once you have added your key sessions and abstracts into your personal programme, why not consider adding some more varied events? During the two weeks of vEGU21, you will be able to add and attend pop-up networking events, Union Symposia and Great Debates, and many Short Courses!
  • Take the weekend off. You will notice that we aren't scheduling any formal events during the weekend between the two weeks of the General Assembly – this is intentional. We know that extending the meeting to two weeks means extra time spent in a virtual conference space, so we really want you all to take the weekend off, relax and recharge so you can come back to the second week excited for some amazing science discussions.

Equality, diversity and inclusion events at vEGU21

The EGU recognizes the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion as a crucial foundation for scientific research to address fundamental scientific questions and societally relevant environmental challenges. The increasing diversity of our membership in all its facets fosters collaborative research and discovery that benefits humanity and our planet.

To help ensure equitable treatment for everyone in our community, the EGU's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group has organized a number of sessions, Short Courses, and other events during vEGU21.

These include:

Feedback

The EGU welcomes feedback and suggestions about how to further improve accessibility and inclusiveness at the General Assembly. You can provide direct feedback through the annual General Assembly Survey.