In the past first months of 2016 I gave presentations at major conferences – World IA (Information Architecture) Day 2016, HighEdWeb New England 2016, The Accessible World Conference 2016 – on various topics related to user experience and accessibility. It was not my first year with public speaking – I have been presenting nationwide for 8 years.
At all presentations I use American sign language and am voiced by sign language interpreters into spoken English, and live captions in English are projected on a separate screen to be read by the whole audience. While I can speak and lipread in both Russian and English, I am able to do it only in certain situations with certain people. Due to my accent (Russian is my first language), it’s easier for me to have interpreters translate my signs into spoken English. Quality live captioning and sign language interpreting were paid for by event sponsors (which is becoming standard at more events and should be as common as sponsorship for food, drinks, space rental, and so on).
My presentation at World IA Day 2016 in New York City was about accessibility through the eyes of a deaf professional, why accessibility is universal design benefiting everyone, and how user experience and accessibility are overlapped:
Great crowd #WIAD16 @IxDA_NYC with @svknyc hosted by ADP Labs. pic.twitter.com/vPrKGZhsTP
— Jose Coronado (@jcoronado1) February 20, 2016
#WIAD16 talks about accessibility by @svknyc. Loving it!! #signlanguage pic.twitter.com/oaRyojAYE3
— Rafa Torres (@RafaTorres) February 20, 2016
"Accessibility is EVERYONE'S responsibility." // @svknyc at #WIAD16 pic.twitter.com/2SFzywYjLR
— Rikki Pennisi (@rikki_a_p) February 20, 2016
My presentation at HighEdWeb New England 2016 in South Hadley, MA, was about communication access for deaf and hard of hearing students and employees – online and on university campuses:
Wonderful, very informative presentation on accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing by @svknyc at #hewebNE pic.twitter.com/wQiOdlxewJ
— Alexandra Puffer (@AlexandraPuffer) March 18, 2016
Inspired by @svknyc’s story and the live transcription at #hewebNE. We can do so much better in #HigherEd. #a11y pic.twitter.com/CYQ1QrdHZx
— Jesse Lavery (@jesselavery) March 18, 2016
A mother’s transcribed recordings of everything spoken in her deaf child’s classrooms. #love #ne13 #hewebNE @svknyc pic.twitter.com/8fbt8ibD9G
— Sven Aas (@SvenAas) March 18, 2016
My presentation at The Accessible World Conference 2016 in Philadelphia, PA, was about accessibility to deaf and hard of hearing people beyond sign language and video captioning and sharing examples of misconceptions about communication needs of people that are more diverse than commonly believed:
@svknyc taking the floor at #TAW16 discussing true accessibility for Deaf/HH. pic.twitter.com/MUyKwSXZGq
— Neil McDevitt (@NeilMcD) April 28, 2016
Thanks to organizers for having me present at their events and making them accessible for me as a deaf speaker. I look forward to giving a few more presentations later this year. My talks are always customized for each new event depending on a topic and audience. Some examples of topics:
- Accessibility through the eyes of a deaf professional
- Accessibility and websites
- Accessibility beyond coding
- Why accessibility is universal design benefiting everyone
- Missing out 20% of potential users: How to make products and services accessible to them
- Communication access for deaf and hard of hearing people
- Quality captioning as universal design: Making aural information accessible for everyone
Do you want me to speak at your event / conference or to give a workshop / training to your organization? Contact me!