Conference Logistics & Resources Changes

The Ann K. Schonberger Travel and Registration Grant was established in 2022-2023 to support travel to the annual NWSA conference. In 2024 and 2025, NWSA allocated $3,000 to 10 recipients at $300 each. Travel grants support our members most in need of financial support, such as students, gender equity center staff, community organizers, and contingent educators. 

The Challenge: More individuals have applied for travel grants since its establishment over the years, and overall, our individual and institutional membership numbers have steadily declined. 

The Change: $1,500 in travel grants will now be allocated to 5 recipients at $300 each, and an additional 15 recipients will be provided with registration waivers, valued at $140-$510. This change lowers NWSA’s direct costs while ensuring that those with the least access to institutional financial resources continue to be supported. Institutions that wish to support NWSA members can purchase an institutional membership at this link. Member institutions are granted three complimentary student memberships.

Audiovisual (AV) equipment—including projections, microphones, and slides—at our annual conference is an integral facet of our feminist accessibility toolkit and serves as core access infrastructure for many of our members. We cannot overstate the importance of such sounds, images, and motions for members who use AV equipment to engage with one another and animate their work. 

The Challenge: In our current Atlanta, GA conference contract, a full AV package (including two microphones, a projector, and converters per room) costs $125,000, with microphones alone costing $30,000. Yet presenters do not always use AV equipment, especially in smaller sessions. 

The Change: Because of the extraordinary cost of AV in the Atlanta contract, NWSA cannot equip every room with a full AV package this year. Only 15 out of 35 rooms will have dedicated AV equipment. Please refer to this room chart to see the equipment in each room.

We recognize AV as part of our access infrastructure, not as an optional enhancement. Therefore, the National Office commits to meeting the access needs documented in the session submission process. We will prioritize AV equipment for sessions with documented access needs, presentations requiring sound/image/video, larger sessions, and spaces where amplification is necessary for D/deaf, hard-of-hearing, neurodivergent, chronically ill, and other disabled participants. We also plan to coordinate audio and spatial (e.g., wheelchair) access in rooms based on floor level and distance from elevators. We will do our best to meet all requests when scheduling.

We will communicate clearly with presenters in advance about whether their assigned room includes AV so they can prepare accessible alternatives without placing the burden on attendees to request basic access in the moment. If documented requests exceed available AV capacity, the National Office will contact affected presenters before the schedule is finalized to discuss room placement, scheduling adjustments, or other access solutions. Members may also consult the conference schedule, room chart, and Hilton Site Map in advance for planning purposes. These resources supplement, but are not intended to replace, individualized access coordination with the National Office. 

Presenters and moderators should not assume attendees will disclose access needs during a session. Instead, presenters are encouraged to build access into their materials from the start by providing printed or large print (no less than 20-point font size) copies when feasible, sharing slides as handouts when possible, describing visual materials aloud, using microphones when available, and offering multiple ways to engage. We also ask presenters to model alternative non-visual presentation modes, such as providing access copies, using tactile objects to convey information (e.g., sticky notes, notetaking pads), and using QR codes that contain presentation files, including transcriptions or slides, that may be viewed on attendees’ phones or computers. When using QR codes, presenters should also provide a shortened URL with attendees. All attendees should embrace access as a shared responsibility. 

After reviewing our conference schedule, if you find any accessibility needs that are unmet, please contact both the Finance Committee at treasurer@nwsa.org and Member-at-Large Dr. Maria Rovito of the Access & Inclusion Committee at membersatlarge@nwsa.org in advance of our gathering, no later than September 15, 2026. We will work with you and the National Office to provide the best experience we can offer. If a need arises on-site during the Annual Conference, we encourage you to stop by the NWSA registration booth(s) for assistance.

Childcare is critical for feminist futures. Mothers and primary caretakers across generations have historically been exploited for their labor because of their love of their children, with the brunt of the labor borne by BIPOC, Global South, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. At NWSA, we aim to advance reproductive community justice, led by principles shaped by organizations like Mothering Justice, SisterSong, and many related collectives. With an eye toward the weight of reliable childcare for extended periods of time, NWSA has long partnered with local companies to provide onsite and low-cost childcare services. 

The Challenge: In previous years, NWSA reserved and paid for childcare hours based on advance requests. When families’ schedules or childcare needs changed, NWSA remained responsible for the full contracted amount, including unused hours. Although we recognize that caregiving needs can be unpredictable, this model created costs that NWSA can no longer sustainably absorb. 

The Change: NWSA will continue partnering with a local provider to offer onsite childcare at a negotiated, subsidized rate. Attendees who request childcare will enter a direct billing agreement with the provider, with clear information about rates, scheduling, cancellation policies, and deadlines provided in advance. We are also exploring a limited hardship-support process so that cost does not prevent members with the greatest financial need from participating.

We are deeply aware of how remote presentations may serve as the only or major lifeline to the NWSA feminist community for some of our members. In years past, NWSA has offered remote and/or hybrid presentation options. This option was made available during the Covid pandemic and continued through our last conference in Borikén (Puerto Rico). 

The Challenge: Remote and hybrid presentations require dedicated staffing, technical support, reliable AV, and sufficient Internet capacity. In previous years, these responsibilities were coordinated by a two-person National Office. With the transition to a singularly staffed National Office and reduced AV availability, NWSA cannot responsibly support remote presentations while also maintaining onsite conference operations. 

We recognize that remote participation is an essential access pathway for many disabled, chronically ill, immunocompromised, caregiving, low-income, and geographically distant members. Ending this option will reduce access, and we do not treat that consequence lightly.

While this change is necessitated by a labor shortage, the solution is unfortunately not so simple as members managing a remote presentation themselves. In the past, presenters have teleconferenced into our convening (sometimes without paying for conference registration) and inadvertently exceeded our contracted Internet bandwidth limit, causing NWSA to pay excessive and unforeseen costs. We cannot afford such budgetary consequences. 

The Change: Until we have sufficient funds, staffing, and technological capacity, we will not offer the option for remote presentations at our annual conference. Presenters who had anticipated delivering their talk remotely might consider recording their presentations and sending them to their panel moderator ahead of time, or asking a colleague to present their material in their stead. Should this change necessitate a withdrawal from participating in the conference altogether, we kindly ask you to send your notification of withdrawal to the National Office at nationaloffice@nwsa.org by September 15. Please be advised that the annual membership and registration fees are not refundable. Withdrawal from this year’s conference will not affect eligibility to submit proposals for future NWSA conferences or participation in NWSA events.

Interpretation is fundamental for our linguistically marginalized members to participate fully in our conference. Blatant attacks against speakers of diverse languages and cultural (including ethno-racial) backgrounds show that language discrimination continues to be alive even in spaces that aim to dismantle such hierarchies. While NWSA endorses no singular language, we operate as an Association located in North America and often move with the assumption of Anglophone monolingualism. To meet these gaps in communication, NWSA has historically offered interpretations in Spanish in main conference sessions and individual breakout rooms by request.

Interpretation is equally as critical for ASL users. For the D/deaf and hard of hearing community, ASL functions as a cultural practice, access infrastructure, and mode of communication. NWSA has historically offered interpretations in ASL in our main conference sessions, individual breakout rooms by request, and in select workshops or special events. 

The Challenge: NWSA as an Association does not have the funds to provide interpretation services in all rooms. In any given conference session block, we have approximately 20-30 sessions operating simultaneously, and with our efforts to appropriately compensate interpreters for their labor, there is no feasible way for the Association to pay for all expenses. In 2025, we paid for approximately $14,303.49 in interpretation services for plenaries and some individual breakout sessions by request. 

The Change: Plenaries, including the Presidential Keynote address, will retain live ASL interpretation. Attendees should not expect individual breakout sessions to have interpretation services. Presenters should prepare access copies, slides, videos/images, and/or QR codes with a shortened URL, and moderators should ask presenters for access copies in advance of the session, whether by handout or virtually. 

Individuals involved in Language Justice work are invited to volunteer their translation services to individual panels. We do not ask, nor expect, Language Justice volunteers to take up the work of a professional interpreter. Members and volunteers interested in (and comfortable with) utilizing their language proficiency when appropriate should contact the National Office at nationaloffice@nwsa.org to be connected to appropriate and relevant panel(s). Volunteers supporting the mission of language justice should refer to our 2026 Volunteer Guide, which contains information regarding Language Justice on pages 5-6.

As we enter into this year’s conference space, we encourage our members to consider how else we might continue to create access and step in with suggestions, movements, and labor. With support from our 2024 NWSA Fellows, our Access & Inclusion Committee wrote this helpful guide on preparing for conference presentations. Presenters may also wish to refer to last year’s virtual program around conference accessibility, hosted by our now-Member-at-Large Dr. Maria Rovito. We will host another event on making presentations accessible and suitable for this year’s 2026 Atlanta gathering in mid-October, where presenters have the opportunity to shape access in their presentations on a 1:1 basis. Please watch our newsletters for more information about this event or refer to our calendar with a list of our upcoming events.