Alcohol and Catered Events

For events with alcohol or catering, please work with the Simpson Center Program & Events Manager Caitlin Palo, who will submit necessary paperwork to comply with UW and state alcohol and food safety policies. Plans for events with alcohol and food must be made no less than 6 weeks in advance of the event.

Recording Your Events

Recording Options

The Simpson Center is able to support recording for some events. However, because there are often hidden associated costs to post and to make videos fully accessible, we ask that you discuss recording and dissemination plans with us in advance. 

Please note that permission must be given in writing by all speakers.

Permissions

Link to PDF Permissions Form

• Required: All featured speakers must consent in writing to being recorded and to the mode of circulation of the recording. See the recording options and speaker permission form.
• Required: The audience must be informed that the event is being recorded and provided a way to opt out of any public recordings being posted.
  • We recommend against recording Q&A in order to make the permissions process more manageable, respect privacy, and foster a free-flowing live conversation. Keeping Q&A out of the recording will also reduce post-production costs.

Captioning Policies

Captioning 

Captioning serves many purposes: it makes event recordings accessible to the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing, increases legibility for non-native English speakers and viewers, and improves search engine optimization results. Captioning is required for all recordings posted on all platforms affiliated with the UW, including the Simpson Center’s YouTube channel. Videos that rely on visual information must also include audio description.  

The following guidance was developed by the Simpson Center to bring our recordings into alignment with UW’s Disability Access and Accommodations requirements. We benefited from consultation with Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (Do-It). 

Captioning Options

Apply to the Simpson Center or other department for funding to support captioning. Applicants for project funding should include a budget line in proposals for project components  that anticipate video recordings as vitally important. We recognize that some opportunities may arise organically: if you are organizing a Simpson Center-supported event that you’d like to record, please consult our Communications Manager, Yasi Naraghi, as soon as possible.

1. Best practice: For captioning and audio description, 3PlayMedia services are available to UW students, faculty, and departments at a reduced rate. The standard UW base rate through 3PlayMedia for captioning is $1.95/minute.
2. Alternate: Manually edit YouTube auto-transcripts. The time commitment varies significantly depending on a number of factors. Read more about accessible captioning standards and see the guide to adding automatic captions and editing captions on YouTube. If you plan to pay someone to do this (e.g. an hourly employee), please contact Simpson Center Communications Manager, Yasi Naraghi, for information about setting up appropriate payment plans.
3. Stop-gap: Apply to Do-It for stop-gap funds. Applications can be submitted at the Captioning Service Catalyst Survey.

Audio Description

If you are recording an event, please plan to make your recording accessible to the visually impaired and to non-visual learners. If the content requires visual information to understand, please plan to budget for audio description services, or ask your guest lecturers to give brief descriptions of the images they include in their presentations.

How can you tell if you should seek audio description? Listen to the event without viewing the visuals and ask yourself, “Could this content be equally legible as a podcast, with no visuals at all?”  If not, your video recording will need audio descriptions in addition to captions. Standard UW base rate through 3PlayMedia for audio description ranges from $7.50-$11.00/minute.

Reimbursement & Invoicing

To request reimbursement or payment to another party via invoice, please submit receipts through one of following forms:

• Reimbursement for UW Faculty, Staff, and Students
• Reimbursement for Visitors

Please contact scfiscal@uw.edu with any questions about eligible reimbursements and procedures.

Reporting Guidance

Either six weeks after the conclusion of your project, or by June 15, please send us a project evaluation per the request made in your offer letter. Project evaluations serve a valuable function for the Simpson Center. They help us report on and publicize the work we have supported, as well as assess our own proposal and funding structures. 

This truly is your report. Evaluations generally run one to two pages, and we require no formal structure. We want to know what was meaningful to you in your work this year. However, if you would like a leaping-off point, we have found it very useful when reports address the following kinds of items, as applicable:

• PR/Publication: We are always happy to know if your project received media attention or resulted in the creation and/or publication of scholarly works.
• Links to any major online materials, including websites, videos, or social media profiles affiliated with the project.
• Advice you might offer groups conducting similar projects in the future.
• Methods and outcomes – including contribution to your scholarly research, your discipline, the humanities at UW, the Seattle community.
• Critical insights and unanticipated learning opportunities.
• Most successful aspects and activities. 
• Least successful aspects and activities – including what you might do differently.
• Audience feedback and/or attendance counts. If you include audience feedback, please also indicate briefly how the information was gathered. It is useful to us if you include approximate attendance numbers, as well. 

We look forward to reading your report.

Room Reservations 

Funded projects receive priority for use of our spaces at the Simpson Center, as well as staff support to locate and reserve other rooms on campus. Please work directly with the Simpson Center’s Program & Events Manager Caitlin Palo to reserve rooms. All others can submit a room reservation request.

Travel Information

Traveling to Campus

For speakers whose travel is supported by the Simpson Center: please refer to your invitation letter for information about how to make arrangements. We can either book your flight and reserve hotel accommodations or advise you on reimbursable options.

Simpson Center Location and General Accessibility Information

The Simpson Center is located on the 2nd floor of the Communications Building (CMU). (Map location of CMU; additional information about the Simpson Center spaces). The Communications Building has an elevator that serves all floors. M and W bathrooms are located on the Ground and 2nd floors and include accessible stalls; doors to these restrooms are not automated.  Disability parking is available next to the building in lot N22 - pay for a permit at a parking gate house. More information about parking.

More information about UW accessibility is available at the Disability Accessibility and Accommodations Website. Please contact our administrative assistant at schadmin@uw.edu for Simpson Center specific access requests.  

General Travel Information

By Air: Sea-Tac International Airport serves Seattle and is about 30 minutes from campus by car (during heavy traffic, this may take up to an hour), and about 1 hour via Link light rail. 

By Link light rail: The UDistrict station is a short walk from the Graduate Hotel (2 minutes) and the Marriott Residence Inn (3 minutes).  Both the U-District stop and the UW Station are 0.6 miles from The Simpson Center. 

By bus: More than 60 bus routes serve the University District, including many with stops right on campus.

By Car: Driving directions to the Central Plaza Garage gatehouse

From Interstate 5 (I-5), northbound or southbound

Note: Do not use the express lanes.

• Take exit 169 (NE 45th St) toward 45th St.
• Take a right turn from I-5 N or a left turn from I-5 S to travel east on NE 45th St. for about half a mile.
• Turn right on 15th Ave. NE and continue for several blocks to NE 41st St.
• Central Plaza Garage is on the left (east) side of 15th Ave NE.

From the east side of Lake Washington via SR 520 (toll bridge)

• Take SR 520 westbound toward Seattle.
• Take the Montlake Blvd. NE exit, then turn right (north) onto Montlake Blvd. to cross the Montlake Bridge.
• Just past the bridge, turn left on Pacific Ave., and continue west for several blocks. You will pass the UW Medical Center and Health Sciences complex on your left.
• Turn right onto 15th Ave. NE and continue north about three blocks to NE 41st St.
• Central Plaza Garage is on the right (east) side of 15th Ave NE.

Parking on campus

If you drive, we recommend getting to campus at least 30 minutes before your scheduled visit to allow time to park and find your way to your destination. When you arrive, visit the Central Plaza Garage gatehouse to purchase a permit. The Central Plaza Garage gatehouse can be found on 15th Ave NE at NE 41st Street (see map).  Alternately, you may use the self serve parking map to find parking and pay by phone.