Episode 150: Creating Inclusive Experiences in the Wedding Industry with Erin Perkins of Mabely Q [Transcript]

In this episode of the I Do Wedding Marketing Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Erin Perkins, the founder of Mabely Q and a passionate advocate for accessibility in the wedding industry. Erin is a deafblind entrepreneur who has transformed her personal experiences into a mission to educate businesses on the importance of inclusivity and accessibility. Whether it’s creating accessible venues, improving communication tools, or refining your online presence, Erin shares practical, actionable strategies to help wedding professionals stand out while fostering an inclusive environment for all.

Erin Perkins of Mabely Q is our guest for Episode 150 of the I Do Wedding Marketing Podcast!

Here is the episode transcript!

Nina: Welcome back everybody to the I Do Wedding Marketing Podcast. This is Nina here and I’m excited for another episode with you guys. Now, at the time this episode goes live, I will either be getting ready for or at the Inclusive Wedding Summit. And while I was getting ready for this summit, Everybody kept telling me, well, not everybody, it felt like everybody. Everybody was saying, you have got to speak to Erin Perkins from Maybelly Q.

You have to speak to her. You’re going to love her and she has so much to say. So who am I to say no to that? I knew I wanted to speak to Erin and Erin was gracious enough to come on the show.

So today we’re going to be speaking with Erin Perkins. Let me introduce you to her, okay? She is your go-to accessibility educator. Drawing from her experiences as a deafblind individual, Erin champions genuine inclusion across all levels and she does speak specifically to the wedding industry. Originally a graphic designer, she pivoted to become an educator and speaker in accessibility when she recognized the widespread lack of awareness in small to medium-sized businesses. Erin empowers socially conscious business owners and organizations to cultivate accessible businesses, not just websites.

She fosters a judgment-free environment, encouraging open dialogue and questions. So that is what we’re going to get to today on this episode. We’re going to be talking about the impact of inclusivity and accessibility, specifically within the wedding industry.

Erin, thank you so much for being here today.

Erin: Thank you for having me, Nina.

Nina: Erin, where are you coming from right now?

Erin: 14 I am actually in South Lake Tahoe on the California side.

Nina: Oh, wow.

Erin: Normally, I’m based in Maryland, but for this winter We have relocated out west so that my husband can teach snowboarding.

Nina: Wow, that’s exciting. Snowboarding. So do you ever snowboard yourself too?

Erin: Yes, I snowboard. Apparently, we’ve been snowboarding for 12 years And don’t get me wrong, I am still terrified every time I go snowboarding.

Nina: That sounds pretty accurate of how I would feel. Even 12 years in.

Erin: Yeah.

Nina: Before we get into the real meat of the interview, I was wondering if you could tell us a bit about Mabely Q and how you got started and how the wedding industry became one of your focus areas.

Erin: Mabely Q I founded in 2018. Right after I got laid off from working for a corporation and I had always done graphic design. And at that point, I was like, if I apply for another job and I had been applying for job I kind of had an inkling my job might not exist. And I wasn’t really getting any interviews despite having like 15 years of experience as a graphic designer. So I was like Let me just try this on my own, do graphic design and virtual assistant.

One of the things about that I discovered as a virtual assistant was I wanted to learn about the new tool all of the different themes. And I found it very hard to learn from other people because they weren’t providing me access because most people will not know this or even realize it because I can speak well and I can hear with the help of tool, that I am deafblind.

So you’re probably like, but she’s beast. She did that put and how can she interact I always had peace therapy.

I had, I wear a hearing aid and a cochlear implant and I only have about 40 degrees of vision. So I think they’ll do things but I do need tools to help me. So for me to like watch a video, Whether it’s a TV show or like a workshop or something and it’s not having caption had always posed difficulties for me.

So I was trying to reach out to different company be like, hey, I would like to learn from you, but can’t because you’re not giving me that asset.

And then because most of these are solopreneurs they would reach back out to me like, well, I would love to, but I don’t know how to do it. Can you show me how? And I was like, I don’t think I can. That when the premise of my business And I was like, I don’t even know how to do this because I’ve always had stuff given to me because, you know, corporation gave it to you, school gave it to you. They already had the system. I just went with it. So I decided I would learn a little bit about it. And during that time, I was also an assistant for a hair and makeup artist that was heavily involved in the wedding industry.

And because I was based in DC, I met a lot of people in the wedding industry. And I just, I love the wedding industry because I feel like they were very welcoming to me.

And they were like, oh, what you’re doing is really great. So after a while, I switched more of my business over to accessibility because I feel like could benefit more from that.

For me, because I can give them that true insight of what it’s like to be a person with a disability and needing that, that you might not have otherwise.

Nina: Wow. So it’s always, I love the stories that begin kind of with a layoff like it either you either become like the next great American novelist or you end up a business owner. Like sometimes that can really be the catalyst for some incredible change.

Erin: For sure, I never even thought I would be that person to own my own business because for me. I was taught that you would work for a Corporation for the majority of your career.

But that’s not the case. And I feel like things are so different now.

That if I, the most you might say at a corporation in maybe a few years just to get that experience And then you’re going to move on to the next thing.

Nina: Yep. Yep. Especially, you know, based on one’s personality type. And I think that’s what, at least I know I like so much about being in the wedding industry is I get to work with so many other like-minded entrepreneurial spirits and things like that.

Erin: For sure, for sure. There’s so many different personalities that you meet.

And I also get to meet people from other cities. Other country like you know i have like a couple, like, good friends based in Australia and Japan. And then, you know, I’m really close with like a wedding influencer that is in New York City.

So it’s always fun to be like, you know, like I have all these connections. You wouldn’t have that if you stuck with a corporation. So yeah, it’s been a lot of fun for sure.

Nina: Yeah, some of the friends I’ve made through the industry feel as close as just any friends that I’ve had through seeing every day at work or just from school. But I could get sidetracked just talking life with you so easily.

Erin: For sure.

Nina: We have important stuff to discuss. I want to make sure I get to it. So let’s start with for those who may not fully understand What does accessibility mean in the context of the wedding industry?

Erin: Mm-hmm. So accessibility in the context, well, let’s first define accessibility Acceptability is just a way of providing access to a service or a product.

In a way that anybody can use it. So say you have Like you go to the store. I’m talking about like in person like you see how you have like the push button for the wheelchair, you do. But the reality is those aren’t just for wheelchair users they’re also for people who are using stroller to push their kids through. It’s also for people who might have a temporary disability, they use that. Or people that might have their hands full, they have no disability But the handful, they can’t like open your door and stuff, So they use their elbow to push the button to open the door so that they can get in the building.

Now, when we talk about the wedding industry, you might be like, Well, people with disabilities don’t belong in the wedding industry. And that was something that I always felt like growing up that I would not be one to get married because, you know, I’m broken according to the rest of the world. It’s very different because accessibility in the wedding industry to me is like making sure all you get have the same in however way they want to experience the wedding.

Because, you know, we all have grandparents we all have grandparents older people that might be in wheelchairs and you want them to be part of your wedding And if your venue is not accessible, that means they can’t experience the same thing.

It’s also about food. You might not think that Food is a disability isn’t a disability, but people have food allergies, they have food sensitivity and that kind of thing.

You might also think about music. Right. You think deaf people don’t listen to music you could be very so wrong. Because deaf people love music like remember my friend They are always walking out community every single day and they’re like, have you heard of this? And I’m like, no. They still want to be part of dancing on the dance floor, but they would appreciate if you had some kind of karaoke machine that lure so that they can follow along with the song you know it’s little things like that. That really just make the experience of the wedding that much more special.

Nina What I really like about that is that you mentioned the guest experience too, and that’s because from the scope of a business owner and wedding business owners.

Erin: Mm-hmm.

Nina: Business owners can just think about the couple sometimes and essentially the booking, right? But it’s so much more than that. It’s the experience of what happens after the booking too and that it matters beyond the surface. It matters for people’s families, for their guests. For their experiences. So I like that you went into the guest experience right away.

Erin: I know like a lot of couples or even like wedding vendors are probably thinking But it’s always about the couple. But is it really? If it’s really just about the couple, Go elope.

Nina: That’s a great point. Are there other barriers that are common that people with disabilities face when planning or attending a wedding?

Erin: I think for me, from my own point of view. You know, I attended all of my cousin’s wedding And my whole family here next up for me and my sister And one of our challenges is always… How do we understand the people?

That begin or when you have the minister priest talking and having them take the vows.

Like, I don’t get to be part of that because they’re not providing an interpreter. And I can also understand that interpreters are expensive.

Especially if they’re just like, but it’s just you two. And I do legitimately understand that. So I am always proactive and tell them Can you please have like a transcript or something available so that I can follow along? I can understand this. Bye. But if you have a lot more people than just two people that are attending, that’s when you want to consider, do you have an interpreter? You have a person signing everything that’s being said, you know, those little things like that.

Nina: Was it hard to get to that place of understanding where it’s, you know, I understand the expense, I understand it’s just me and my sister.

Erin: Not for my immediate family because I feel like they do truly understand, even though like most of them don’t sign. But I think that like, you know, we invited you, we want you to take part of this. So they’re like, okay. Not a problem. They just like tell their planner, can you make sure this happened And we just stay on top of it. But for those who… might not have that close relationship with the guest or attendee or from a writing…A person who is getting married standpoint So me and my husband, my husband here and I’m deaf So one of the biggest things was like trying to communicate to we got married out overseas.

That was an interesting experience trying to communicate to the planner that I need to be able to understand the person who was like marrying us. That didn’t go so well. In hindsight, if I had looked back, I would have been much more like upfront about it, much more of like.

Like make sure these are the words that are being said So I can understand it.

But if you’re speaking from a guest point of view Sometimes it’s helpful to have to whoever is coordinating your event to already have the question in mind. Because as a couple, you’re often not going to be thinking about that. You’re focused on yourself. But if you’re a planner, you’re a coordinator, a planner, your job is essentially to make sure everything goes well for the couple. But you also want to make sure that the guest also having an amazing experience as well. So it’s your job to ask those questions like. Hey, do you have any guests That maybe are disabled? Please do not be afraid to use the word disabled.

No, it does not. It’s not a bad word. It’s not a dirty word. Because then they can think about, then the couple can be like, you know what, let me ask our parents usually your parents are the ones who come up with the guests that we need to think about. And then you can go back And forth with that. And I think that makes things easier Because then a couple not having to think about everything else.

Nina: Great. So would you say that adding these questions into some point of the process or a questionnaire at some point would be a good practice to do.

Erin: Oh, 100%. I think having it part of your Whether it is onboarding, Or it is throughout the process of thinking about Do we need to think about If anybody’s allergic to anything, do we need to think about lighting? Do we need to think about having a quiet space that are for people who need it, that kind of thing.

Nina: Yes. Do you have any other simple, actionable steps that wedding professionals can take to make their businesses more accessible and inclusive, Online or in person.

Erin: I think one of the biggest thing for me, if you’re a wedding professional I’ve definitely different ways for people to reach out to you.

I understand that for… some people they’re like, oh, I only want phone call But like for someone like me I benefit greatly more from virtual communication because I have the captain available to me But if you are like, oh, I only meet my client in person all the time.

If it’s somebody who has a physical disability or even a mental illness, that might not make sense for them.

So like, it takes so much energy for them to have to go meet you are the vendor. Because it’s just a lot of work. So you can like simplify it And say, hey, we can either meet in person We meet online. We can communicate through email. Although I feel like you want some semblance to make sure that person is real. So that’s like how I would look at it. It’s like video Or speaking on the phone or… in person i feel like those cover all the bases.

Nina: How can a wedding professional ask if there are any of these considerations without what’s the proper way to ask this rather than having on a, when somebody says, you know, I don’t want to meet in person, you don’t want to respond going, “why? Are you disabled?” You know, how can they have these conversations?

Erin: Right. I would say one of the questions that you can always include is like,

Do you have any accommodation requests that are needed? So, that kind of like will show to me that you are thinking about if a person has a disability or a person just had different needs than somebody else that is completely able-bodied, but they don’t necessarily want to reveal that then they can say, yes, I want you to consider that. If we need to meet in person or even if you are a baker, say you usually meet with people in person at your bakery.

But they pushed in knowing that They are in a wheelchair, And they can’t necessarily go to your bakery because the bakery is not accessible because you’re in like an older building a historical building. I feel like this happened a lot. That you’re not able to go do that. So the bakery needs to consider that they can bring things and meet with that person or find a public place where they can actually do this experience.

So it’s little things like that that you want to like consider adding it into the questionnaire saying, hey, what accommodation can I make for you?

Nina: Would you say the contact form is a great way to do that or to wait further in the process?

Erin: I kind of want to say… it doesn’t necessarily have to be the contract form.

The contact form can be a way for the vendor to filter out the people.

So I’ll probably wait until like a little further along to like determine yeah this is somebody that I do want to make sure I’m going to hire, they’re going to hire me, that kind of thing though.

Nina: While we’re talking kind of about the contact form, I know this is more so especially kind of back in the day where so many things would be required forms and required pieces of the contact form. And let’s say not being able to accept a form until you put in a phone number, for example. You know, are some of these things that we’re requiring becoming really not really accessible or helpful to others?

Erin: One other thing I will say is, test. Do… have your website and your contact form evaluated and to make sure that they’re adjustable to people who might use a screen reader? Who might not be able to physically use a mouse, so they have to use the keyboard to access the form?

And all you really need to do using the Keyboard is testing it out with a tab and like play around with that They learn how other people need to access your content.

And then… some forms is also something that is interesting because I can’t test that out.

Because I can’t understand the screen reader. So that is something that is designed for people who have low vision or blind or blind that would rather… have the contact form for them to fill out. If they can’t fill it out

They will probably want to email you or call you. And I know for a fact that the vendor that would be like, please fill out the form. I understand why because you want to streamline things. But there might be a reason why they’re emailing you. Because they can’t access the form. And I will say that 95% of the problems come from the form is not acceptable.

Nina: Where can people go to check these things like you mentioned?

Erin: I will actually send you some links to show you how you can test and check the forms and stuff. To make sure that they are accessable. But the number one thing I do recommend is for you to do a website adaptability audit to make sure that your website is accessible.

Nina: Great. And now is that something… you offer or that you recommend through other services?

Erin: Website specifically, I refer to other people because… It is a beast in an other style.

So I’d rather have somebody else do it. But I evaluate and audit every other part of your business. From social media, podcast if you have one. Um… email marketing, your brand, your event, whether you do in-person online, And am I missing anything else? No, I think that’s it.

Nina: It’s a lot. You do a lot of great work. And there’s so many things to consider, you know we got a bit into the consultations. What about how can wedding professionals ensure other communications like emails and contracts are accessible to everyone.

Nina: This is really tough because like, honestly. I know that a lot of wedding professionals are probably using customer CRM and a lot of these… tech company were not built with accessibility in mind. And that I feel like has hurt a lot of different companies that have children to use the platform. I know this for a fact because it’s affected me as well.

Because, for example, I use Thrivecart for my learning platform. However, it was not designed with a accessibility in mind. But because I’m a one person company, I can’t afford like the big fancy stuff.

So I need to put a disclaimer in saying, like, I understand that if you are not able to access this, please reach out to me and I will give you another way to access, because that is the easiest way that I can go about it. Because I still want to give them that similar experience but I can’t necessarily do that without… putting myself thousand and thousands of dollars into debt.

So with that said… when you were talking about contact form and using CRM I want to encourage you to go through it as if you were the client or an see what that experience is like. Cutting it out using a screen reader touching it out using the keyboard, touching it out just by thinking what the actual user experience would be like. Because I know for me, there was one wedding website I ended up on. The brand color, beautiful pink white but I could not read the website! Could not read it at all. And I was like, oh, goodness. I can only imagine how many people deter from wanting to go to the website because the Color contract just wasn’t there.

And that’s like what I do basically is i look at like your branding. I look at your business partner and I find the gap and tell you how you can improve that experience without forcing you to feel like you have to change your whole system. And I think that’s like one of the biggest things that people are so scared of is so like if I have Erin audit I’m going to have to shame everything. That’s not my goal my goal is not my goal For you, if you have been in business for 10 years, five years, you’ve built a product, I just want to go in and look at it and be like, “There’s something missing here and we need to add this piece in. We need to add this piece in to make it that much better.”

And one of the number one way that we can do that is by making sure that your colors, your brand colors meet the color contract standard. And that usually will improve the accessibility experience by 50%.

Nina: And what’s the color contract standard. I’ve never heard of that before?

Yeah. Really? So like a lot of the time colors like branding color, especially in the wedding industry, you’re always using various light colors. You be surpised at how many colors fail that color contrast.

Nina: Wow. I will have to check that out. What I want to also, as you were speaking about that, it made me think of Brian Lawrence and the Inclusive Wedding Summit, which is how we got connected because Brian was somebody where He went through that with you and was like, you know, asking for that feedback, asking to get eyes on the product. So could you tell me a little bit using that as an example of some things maybe you brought up to Brian or what that experience was like.

Erin: Sure. So one of the things that Brian had reached out to me was saying that he wanted to build any website accessibility overlay. And I point blank then that’s not going to work. And he was like, “but why? It’s supposed to be wonderful.”

It can be wonderful. But the reality is overlay it usually one of the buttons that you see in the corner of your website, that has like a little like man thing and you click on it and it’ll allow you to change different things In terms of color, dark mode, light mode Making the font bigger, all of that stuff.

But the reality of the overlay is literally a band-aid. We all know how a band-aid will fall off after a day or two. And that’s like what that is for the website. It’s just a bandaid fix.

It doesn’t mean you have fixed any of these problems. And that’s like how I’m approaching it.

You resolve the problem. And you’ve created a much better experience from the start because you fixed the problem. And it’s actually cheaper for you to fix the problem than it is for you to put a bin if And then the problem couldn’t keep getting worse and worse and worse.

Nina: Yeah, and then so I think what we discovered happened was that Brian then just kept trying and wanting to listen and wanting to do more. So now we’re gearing up for his summit that will be happening. I’m not sure if it will be already happened when the podcast goes live or the week of. I want to get it out before, just so we can kind of celebrate it happening. But I know he was really grateful to break you down and get some of your insights.

How can wedding professionals advocate for accessibility beyond their own businesses to encourage broader change?

Erin: I will say if you are connecting with other wedding vendors And you notice something by a planner or you’re working with a caterer and they have a buffet table set up and you’ve noticed that they don’t have any labels on any of the food.

That’s something where you can say, “you know, it would be really helpful for you to include label on food and the ingredient so that people can make their own decision whether that is a food they they can eat or not eat.” Little things like that and speaking up. Things like you know , um Have you noticed that a brand new venue had been built, And you’ve noticed that it’s off there and there’s no ramp? Although I’m pretty sure that can’t happen because you have to meet the American Disability Regulation in terms of building, that’s a whole other ball game.

But it’s like picking up and standing up Learning from people with disabilities, like follow them on Instagram, follow them on social media, or whatever platform you prefer. Learn from them, ask questions And really be genuine about like, you know what, I really want to learn. I might not have been perfect. That’s the one thing that I… try to create a judgmental free zone and my wall because I realized that I might actually be the first person with a disability that people have met. And they never really interacted with somebody with a disability, and you might have questions. Try to ask that question that you’re like genuinely curious about.

Don’t make fun of people with disabilities! Take it in stride, know that like, hey, if you messed up How can I do better next time? Because we all have to acknowledge that we’re not all perfect. And we’re all really just trying to create an amazing experience for the couple that are getting married.

Nina: So in that spirit What do you hope to see in the wedding industry in the next few years regarding accessibility and how individual vendors and venues can lead the way?

And fostering true inclusion.

Erin: One of the biggest things that I really hope to see in the wedding industry is More… like I stepped in amongst showing that people with disability do get married.

And that… It’s not going to cost them 10 times as much to get the same access.

People with disabilities are already incurring a lot more costs, in their own life.

That it can be very frustrating when you’re like, well, that going to be an added cost.

Because we need to provide you XYZ. But the reality is like we just want to live normal lives as everybody else. So I hope with the wedding industry you’re going to start bringing in and including people with disability in your…whenyou do those like vendor creation like what are those called? My brain is blanking

Nina: The vendor lists or vendor collabs?

Erin: Yeah, the vendor list, the collab, all of that. Include people with disabilities in that decision-making practice so we can help you make the whole experience that much better.

Nina: Not only did this conversation leave me feeling informed, but really inspired.

I imagine everybody else is going to feel too It makes me feel excited for the changes I can make and the knowledge and power, right, that you’ve provided with us all. So I really want to thank you for that. Where can people, and I will have everything in the show notes.

But where do you recommend people reach out to you first if they’re really inspired about this journey, where should they begin?

Erin: I would say reach out to me through my Instagram account, which is maybe M-A-B-E-L-Y Q. Or you can go to my website, which is maybelyQ.com, no space.

And I also do want to share, I do have an event attached bully event accessibility booklet that i designed it with keeping the wedding industry in mind. And it’s not just for wedding planners or coordinator Because I feel like any vendor, and I’ve included everything

I’ve many vendors are possible and tips of how they can improve adaptability in their own business. An easy way that’s not going to cost you… as much money as you think. You might think a taxability is going to cost me money but I’ve done it in a way that I feel like you wouldn’t feel confident and making improvement to your business. And being more accessible to everybody.

Nina: Thank you so much. I’ll include all of the show notes below with all those links. And Erin, thank you again so much for being here.

Follow Erin Perkins:

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/mabely_q

• Website: https://www.mabelyq.com/

• Access Erin’s Event Accessibility Booklet

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