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Events marketed for marginalised groups of people (including BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQ+) that don’t actually serve any of these audiences are always going to do more harm than good. It’s not ever accessible enough to just offer captions and transcripts.
I think a fundamental problem is not understanding the intersections of marginalised groups. You’ll have disabled people who need more accessibility than just captioning. That’s the tip of the iceberg. What you say matters. How you say it matters.
Not considering tone, language access, clarity of instruction, accessibility of slides in a screen share (are they busy? Good text and background contrast? Clear points? Is what’s written down matching what you’re saying?) is going to discourage, not encourage.
That makes these events about the organisers and not about the people they’re allegedly for. Target audience has to be involved in the construction of these events. Otherwise it’s “you” putting something on for “them” and clapping yourself on the back for a job poorly done.
I think it’s worse when it’s specifically supposed to be for disabled+ groups of people. All events should be accessible. All the time. Always. Especially online. And access needs are different, so what works for some will be difficult for others.
But there’s a base expectation of access for events for disabled+ groups and not meeting that means your company or your agency or your publishing house is not presently equipped to work with these groups. That needs to be fixed, immediately, before reaching out.