Areas We Serve · Columbus
For the person who has just been asked whether Saturday is accessible and would rather not guess at the answer.
When nobody in the building has done this before
Accessibility in Columbus tends to be somebody's second job. Statehouse tours, gallery openings along the Short North, the conservatory's seasonal programme, the market halls and the science centre floor are run by teams where nobody's title contains the word access, and it can reach the agenda for the first time when a visitor writes in to ask whether Saturday will be interpreted.
At that point the difficulty is rarely money and rarely availability. It is that interpreting and captioning are not substitutes for one another, a described tour and a described video are two different deliverables, and two hours of simultaneous work takes two providers rather than one. Ordering the wrong thing is how an organisation ends up paying for an accommodation that does not serve the person who asked for it.
So an enquiry here is treated as a scoping question before it is treated as a booking. Describe the event, the room, and the audience you are expecting, and what comes back is a list of what would genuinely make it work, a price against each part, and — if your annual operating budget is $250,000 or less — whether ICS C.A.R.E.S. can cover some of it. You are not committing to anything by asking, and you do not have to have decided anything first.
Where we work in Columbus
Anywhere in the city and the county around it. If you are not sure whether your venue counts as central, send the address anyway — the answer is almost always yes, and the travel is quoted openly either way.
The Statehouse and its tours, city and county offices, the courts, the market halls, and the downtown hotels and halls that carry the conference calendar.
Neighborhoods we cover
What we provide in Columbus
Nobody is expected to arrive knowing this list. It is here so you can see what exists; deciding which parts of it your event actually calls for is our job, not yours.
American Sign Language, tactile signing for DeafBlind participants, and International Sign — for guided tours, talks, appointments, classrooms and public meetings, on site or on video.
Learn more about ASL & Sign Language InterpretingSettings we staff here
None of these asks you to know the terminology in advance. Say what happens in the space and who you are expecting through the door, and the list of accommodations comes back from us in that order — rather than you having to guess at it before you are allowed to ask.
Building tours, hearings, and the city and county meetings that sit under ADA and language-access duties, staffed with providers used to the pace of a formal proceeding.
Collection tours, gallery talks and openings, interpreted for Deaf visitors and described for blind ones, with wall material translated where the audience calls for it.
Glasshouse tours, seasonal exhibitions and outdoor events, where description has to carry scent, scale and colour rather than only what a label says.
Exhibit floors and demonstrations where visitors are handling things while somebody talks — placement matters more here than almost anywhere, and it is worth agreeing in advance.
Market days, art walks and neighbourhood festivals, where an audience arrives in ones and twos across a whole afternoon and the languages in the street change with it.
Performances with an interpreter and with audio description, prepared against the text and a rehearsal beforehand so the interpretation runs with the show rather than half a beat behind it.
Consultations, intake and family conversations, handled under HIPAA minimum-necessary practice and matched to the clinical vocabulary involved.
Lectures, labs, student services, school assemblies and family meetings — in ASL, or in the language the household actually uses.
Where Columbus bookings land
Columbus concentrates its public life in a few blocks of downtown and the arts district just north of it, and that is where most of the city's access requests come from.
American and European modern work alongside a contemporary programme. ASL interpreting, live captioning and audio description together cover the galleries, the talks and the education programming.
A National Historic Landmark and a working seat of government. Audio description carries the architecture and the artifacts on tours; spoken language interpreting supports visitors and constituents arriving in another language.
Glasshouse collections and seasonal exhibitions. Guided tours are interpreted on the move, and audio description handles planting that is only ever pointed at.
Hands-on exhibits and interactive programming. Live captioning, ASL interpreting and spoken language interpreting keep a floor built around demonstration accessible to everyone on it.
Galleries, boutiques and street art, and the art walks that run through them. On-site interpreting, live captioning and multilingual translation cover events that move between venues rather than sitting in one.
Working in Columbus
Every accommodation on this page can be booked across the city — the Statehouse and the courts, the museums and the Short North galleries, the conservatory and the science centre, the market halls and street festivals, the clinics, the campuses, and the community meetings in between. Finding out what yours would need costs nothing: a description of the event comes back as a scoped list with prices against it, and where an organisation's annual operating budget is $250,000 or less, that reply also says whether ICS C.A.R.E.S. can carry part of the cost. There is no obligation attached to either answer.
Client Stories
4.8 · Based on 240 Reviews
Carrie Heitman
"I can not recommend ICS highly enough. Hook & Eye Theater had a wonderful experience working with Shelby and the team at ICS from beginning to end. What an incredible organization serving the theatrical community and beyond."
Frank Starling
"Accessibility is an essential part of inclusion, and Inclusive Communication Services delivered it with excellence at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Their ASL interpreting, CART captioning, and service coordination teams supported our conference stages, networking spaces, and last-minute changes with calm professionalism and deep care."
Christina Dixon
"I had the pleasure of seeing the ICS American Sign Language interpreting team at a conference in San Francisco. Their professionalism and expertise puts them in a league of their own. Shelby and her team set the standard for professionalism, coordination, and accessibility."
Laura Mosteller
"Our company has been using ICS for years at our annual conference. Their kind and clear communication leading up to the event and their prompt arrival each day makes the choice a no-brainer."
Patrick McMullen
"Inclusive Communication Services did an amazing job at Cannes Lions Festival. They treated us with kindness and made sure we had full access to interpreters the whole time. It honestly felt like everything was normal."
Emily Johnson — AADMD
"We have loved working with ICS and appreciate their flexible approach to working with our budget. The services have been game changing for what we are able to provide."
What to expect
Two of these are about how quickly we can move. The other two are about how long a decision takes to get through your own organisation, and a first booking almost always stalls on the second kind.
How booking works
What happens, where, for how long, and who you are expecting. If somebody has already asked you for an accommodation, forward what they wrote — it is usually the most useful thing in the enquiry.
You get back what the event would actually need and why, including the parts you did not ask about and, where something on the list is optional, which one that is.
Pricing is itemised so a board or a director can see what each accommodation costs on its own, and so a smaller version can be approved without starting over.
Matched to the subject, sent whatever prep material exists, and travelling in with margin. The coordinator who scoped the job is the person you reach on the day, not a different desk.
Frequently asked questions
Get started
Send what is happening, when, and who has asked you for something. The reply is a scoped list with prices, an honest note about where the budget could stretch further, and no obligation to book any of it.
