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1 – Beyond Compliance: How Accessibility Improves Customer Experience and ROI
Elevator Pitch:
Formal compliance does not always translate into accessible customer experiences. Learn how integrating accessibility into customer experience and business strategy can remove barriers, expand market reach, strengthen customer loyalty, and improve ROI.
Full Description:
Disabled people represent the world’s largest minority — approximately 1.85 billion people with $1.9 trillion in disposable income. Yet many businesses continue to treat accessibility primarily as a compliance requirement or technical task rather than an essential part of customer experience and business strategy.
Meeting formal accessibility requirements does not always mean that disabled customers can use a business’s products and services effectively. Barriers often remain because the people designing, operating, marketing, and delivering them may not understand how accessibility works in practice.
Drawing on more than 25 years of professional experience in design, technology, and accessibility, Sveta explains how businesses can close gaps between formal compliance and the actual experiences of disabled customers. She discusses why accessibility must be integrated from the beginning, understood across teams, and maintained throughout the lifecycle of products and services.
Attendees will discover how removing accessibility barriers can improve customer satisfaction, expand market reach, strengthen brand loyalty, and contribute to better business results.
Takeaways:
- Why formal compliance does not always create accessible customer experiences
- How accessibility barriers affect disabled customers across products, services, communications, and customer touchpoints
- Why accessibility is a shared responsibility across leadership, Customer Experience, Marketing, IT and Digital, Communications, and Operations
- Why accessibility must be integrated from the beginning and maintained throughout the lifecycle of products and services
- How removing barriers can improve customer satisfaction, expand market reach, strengthen brand loyalty, and contribute to ROI
2 – Accessibility Through the Deaf Lens: Coding and Beyond
Elevator Pitch:
Accessibility is more than coding, and it is not solely the responsibility of developers or accessibility specialists. Explore accessibility through the deaf lens and discover how decisions across design, content, technology, and business operations affect disabled users in practice.
Full Description:
Accessibility is often treated primarily as a coding responsibility. Although accessible code is essential, the overall accessibility of a product or service also depends on decisions made by designers, content creators, product managers, marketers, leadership, and other team members.
Drawing on more than 25 years of professional experience in design, technology, and accessibility — combined with her firsthand experience as a profoundly deaf person — Sveta examines accessibility through a perspective that technical teams may overlook. She shares practical examples of barriers that can remain even when a product appears to meet formal accessibility requirements.
Attendees will learn how design, content, communication, technology, and organizational processes work together to shape accessibility. Sveta also explains why accessibility must be integrated from the beginning, understood across teams, tested by people, and maintained as products, content, and technology evolve.
This presentation shows why accessibility is a shared, cross-functional responsibility and how teams can close gaps between formal compliance and the actual experiences of disabled users.
Takeaways:
- Why accessibility extends beyond compliant code and requires shared responsibility across design, development, content, product management, marketing, and leadership
- How barriers can remain even when a product appears to meet formal accessibility requirements
- Why automated tools, AI, and overlays cannot replace awareness, expert involvement, human evaluation, and ongoing maintenance
- Why accessibility must be integrated from the beginning and maintained as products and services evolve
3 – Accessibility for Deaf People: Beyond Captions and Sign Language
Elevator Pitch:
Deafness is a spectrum. Not all deaf people use sign language or benefit from hearing aids. Learn how your business can serve the full spectrum of deaf and hard-of-hearing customers — in real-world settings.
Full Description:
When businesses think about accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, captions and sign language interpreters often come to mind. However, accessibility for deaf customers involves more than offering a single accommodation. Most deaf and hard-of-hearing people do not use sign language; not everyone can lipread; and not everyone benefits from hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Deafness is a spectrum. People across this spectrum have a wide range of hearing levels, communication preferences, and experiences with technology. Effective access may vary depending on the person, situation, and communication setting.
Drawing on her professional expertise and firsthand experience as a profoundly deaf person, Sveta explains how assumptions about deafness can create barriers across customer service, telecommunications, media, and events. She examines why one-size-fits-all approaches frequently fail to provide effective access.
Attendees will learn how businesses can recognize gaps between formal accessibility compliance and the actual experiences of customers with hearing disabilities, provide flexible communication options, and make customer-facing services accessible to people across the full spectrum of deafness.
Let’s think outside the ears!
Takeaways:
- Why deafness is a spectrum and people with hearing disabilities cannot be treated as one uniform group
- Where customers across this spectrum encounter barriers in customer service, telecommunications, media, and events
- How flexible communication options can close gaps between formal compliance and actual customer experiences
- Why understanding deaf access is essential for equitable customer experiences and a stronger brand reputation