No organizer deliberately designs an exhibition so that an exhibitor in a wheelchair can't reach their own booth. But it happens, and usually because nobody asked the question beforehand. The registration form has no box for special needs. The venue contract doesn't mention access. The hall plan was drawn around booth density, not aisle width.
Why organizers should care even where the law doesn't require it
Exhibition management training material notes that rules on people with disabilities differ between countries. In the US the rules sit in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the same material observes that compliance is becoming more important worldwide. Vietnam has its own Law on Persons with Disabilities and construction standards, so an organizer shouldn't apply US figures as they are, but use them as a reference point to ask the right questions.
The practical reason is simpler than the legal one. Every exhibitor or visitor who can't get into the exhibition is a customer the organizer has shut the door on, usually together with the people who would have come with them.
Exhibition accessibility is more than a ramp at the entrance. It is a chain of decisions from the moment a guest registers to the moment they leave.
Step one: ask the right questions on the registration form
The IAEE's list of rules, cited in that material, starts with the registration form: it has to ask about special needs. The planner should distinguish three groups: limited mobility, limited vision and limited hearing, because each needs different support. A ramp does nothing for a blind person, and a sign language interpreter does nothing for a wheelchair user.
The hotel form should also offer a barrier-free room type. That box sits next to the box for special dietary needs such as allergies, and should be given the same prominence.
Step two: the contract and the request documents
According to the same list, hotel and venue contracts need a clause on compliance with accessibility rules. The request for proposal (RFP) and the event specification sheet should also state this requirement from the start. The article on the event RFP explains how to put these requirements at the quote-request step so the venue cannot say it didn't know.
The venue selection material also reminds you to check the necessary improvements, including safety upgrades and accessibility requirements, on the first site visit. If the venue needs repairs before the event date, the completion date must be written into the contract appendix.
Step three: check the site with numbers
The IAEE guidance gives some minimum dimensions, per US standards. Entry doors at least 81.28 cm (32 inches) wide. Thresholds no higher than 1.27 cm (half an inch). Corridors at least 91.44 cm (36 inches) wide. Floors must be non-slip. Meeting rooms should be in a central location.
Use these figures as a starting point to measure during the site visit, then check against current Vietnamese standards. A tape measure and fifteen minutes walking along the hall's main aisle will tell you more than any drawing.
Commonly missed spots at exhibitions
Four spots are often overlooked even when the main route is fine. Aisles between booths narrowed because exhibitors added items. Power cables lying across the aisle without a cover. A registration counter too high for someone in a wheelchair. And a parallel seminar area with no space for a wheelchair, only a row of joined chairs.
These details belong to operations, so the on-site team needs its own checklist. The article on the on-site operations team describes the floor manager role that can check these points every morning before opening. Industry materials also give an assignment benchmark for floor managers: usually each is responsible for about 150 booths.
Where to start if the budget is limited
If you can't do everything yet, do the three cheapest things first. Add a special-needs box to the registration form. Put an accessibility clause in the venue contract. And survey the site once with a tape measure and someone who has used a wheelchair or supported a wheelchair user.
All three cost almost nothing, and all three reveal more problems than any internal meeting on the subject.
A more accessible exhibition is an exhibition with more visitors, and that is reason enough to do it.