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My Speaking Engagements of Early 2016

Svetlana presenting in an auditorium with two screens behind her - a left one with slides and a right one with live captioning

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:

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:

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:

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!

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