Work – Projects & Testimonials

I met Svetlana as a fellow speaker at a conference, and was wholly impressed with her message! So as soon as I started producing my own recordings (course videos, etc.), I reached out to her for help. We had a deep session learning what captions really need to be. She’s right—there are words and attitudes that we use in UX (and in society) that are dismissive of the beautiful variety of souls on this planet. Svetlana taught me the way, but also the why of being supportive. I love her for this! ❤

– Indi Young

Our work with Sveta helped us understand better how we as an organization can make our events more accessible. As challenging as it seemed in the beginning, it turned out it doesn’t take much to create a more friendly and accessible environment for speakers with disabilities. I would definitely recommend Sveta to anyone who wants to make their event more welcoming.

– Vilyana L.

We had Svetlana over for our conference and we were very happy that she joined us. Our audience was captured by her enthusiasm during her talk on accessibility. It was a unique talk that we can definitely recommend to plan in other conferences as well.

– Gill C.

We hosted Sveta as a speaker for World Information Architecture Day 2019, NYC, and it was a pleasure. Sveta is so well versed in the whole speaker process; she always handed me any materials or information I needed well before the deadline. As a first time organizer, it was great to have someone who really knows what is what. She is incredibly knowledgeable and up to date with accessibility laws and regulations, tips and helpful hints. She is very professional through email, and quick with the response time, and delightful in person. Many people raved about her presentation after, saying they had learned so much, and they were so glad they attended.

– Emily L.

Ms. Kouznetsova has been very helpful to IxDA New York in our efforts to make our events more accessible to people of all abilities. She was able to provide detailed information about facility requirements and vendor selection that helped make our process more effective. I would work with her again on future events.

– Peter March, IxDA New York President

Svetlana presented at an event I organized for NYC UXPA in July 2016. She shared an inspiring and actionable approach to generating empathy with the express purpose of making technology products more accessible to a wider variety of potential users. As we increasingly consume online content that relies on audible tools, such as video recordings and podcasts, as designers, it is critical to develop content that is flexible and can be enjoyed through multiple sensory experiences. Sveta’s presentation helps those in the UX community see this as an imperative design choice. Her on-going consulting with NYC UXPA helps ensure that our events are accessible and that our efforts are supported by high-quality communication access providers.

– Elaine Matthias, NYC UXPA President

We learned so much while hosting Sveta and are grateful for her guidance.

– Kristina Halvorson, Founder of Brain Traffic and Confab Events

Meeting Sveta at two conferences in two weeks reinforces for me the MANY aspects of accessibility and inclusion for all!

– Marc Gravez, a conference attendee

I’ve rarely worked with anyone as passionate and reliable as Sveta. We collaborated on a web project for the IA Summit that was only successful thanks to Sveta’s hard work. In addition, she educated me on the importance of web accessibility and accessible content in particular.

– Jackson Fox, IA Summit

Svetlana presented on communication access at HighEdWeb New England, which I chaired. Throughout our preparation for her talk Svetlana shared her expertise, set high standards, and helped ensure that our strategies for access would be successful. I learned a lot from this process and from her presentation. Svetlana is a passionate and articulate advocate for accessibility, a moving and experienced storyteller, and an excellent teacher.

– Sven Aas, Chair of HighEdWeb New England 2016

A great presentation that really provided deep insights into the needs of the deaf/hard of hearing and the importance of accommodating those needs, and methods for doing so. Very timely as my college, and colleges across the country, take a closer look at how they ensure they are meeting the needs of underrepresented groups.

– HighEdWeb New England 2016 attendee

I met Sveta at a NYCUPA meeting several years ago and she opened my eyes to the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing passengers and the use of captioning as part of a universal design approach to the airline passenger journey and in particular the use of captioning on in-flight entertainment systems.Sveta’s knowledge of creating accessible systems and services is extensive and I would recommend her consulting services without hesitation.

Sveta’s book, “Sound is Not Enough: Captioning as Universal Design” provides a comprehensive and extremely informative overview of the challenges that deaf or hard-of-hearing people face during everyday life – at home, at work and whilst traveling. It should be essential reading for anyone who wants to provide services to, or reach out to the market of over 640 million deaf or hard-of-hearing people worldwide. Whilst the use of captioning (closed or open) is covered in detail, the book providing clear guidelines and suggestions to incorporate captioning as part of a system or service, it also focuses on the benefits that captioning brings to all users of the system or service through universal design.

– Jon Norris (Vice President of Sales at Lumexis Corporation)

 Svetlana is driven, and eager to spread her knowledge about user experience, specifically captioning. She is very timely with her responses, and organized in event-like situations.Svetlana presented a five-minute talk at an Ignite event my company held at our Velocity New York conference in 2014. She stood in front of approximately 150 people, while presenting confidentially and being perfectly fluid with her communication. She was very prepared, and it showed. 

– Audra Montenegro (Senior Conference Speaker Manager at O’Reilly Media)

 Like most organizations, we need to be better with accessibility, and can only be better with professional guidance. For that, in both strategy and application, we turn to Sveta. There’s not a more passionate advocate, and her high standards are the right benchmark for our efforts. 

– Adam Churchill (Director, Online Products at User Interface Engineering)

 Svetlana worked with me on the planning and coordination of the IA Summit conference in 2013. Her support was critical to ensuring that the conference was as accessible as possible both at the event and in the materials we share to the community afterwards. Her passion and expertise in this space combined with her strong work ethic and quick turnaround made her an invaluable partner year after year. 

– Crystal Kubitsky (IA Summit 2013 Chair)

 I have had the opportunity a couple of years ago to start first exchanging emails and then meeting last year at this conference our next speaker who is really in my mind one of the brightest people I’ve ever met, particularly when it comes to the specifics of what it means to produce content that is inclusive for everybody around the issues of hearing. We often when we think of disabilities, we often think about blindness and physical mobility issues. But we rarely think about what does what do people with deafness or hearing loss have from an experience perspective. And in working with Svetlana over the last year on this presentation and other issues, I’ve been amazed at how deep these issues go and what we all can do about it. 

– Jared Spool (Founder of User Interface Engineering)

 Svetlana is a strong advocate for accessible design. She has created her own website, which provides a comprehensive list of resources for designers to learn about audio accessibility.In addition, Sveta has helped the Big Design Conference to be more accessible by patiently providing us with her insights and recommendations. We were honored to have her speak on audio accessibility at the Big Design Conference 2012.

Sveta gave an individual presentation at the conference, where designers learned about the challenges of audio accessibility. Plus, she provided a review of the best practices, tools, resources, and method for designers to use.

She has my highest recommendation as a community leader and professional speaker. 

– Brian Sullivan (Usability Principal at Sabre and Founder of Big Design Conference)

 If you are looking for someone committed to hard work with attention to detail, then Sveta is the person for the job. Aside from her fantastic personality and humor, I have rarely worked with someone so eager to get the job done and get it done well and correctly. I highly recommend her in all that she does. 

– Tim Senft (Content Strategist at Cornell University and former Deputy Director of Strategic Communications at NYU)

 Sveta is very passionate about web standards and accessibility, and her enthusiasm for these subjects is infectious. She brings great ideas to the table, and I really enjoyed working with her to implement those ideas. 

– Ed Wheeler (Web Front-end Developer at NYU)

 Svetlana is very detail-oriented and thorough. She is passionate about her work, incorporates the latest web technologies and is 100% reliable. A pleasure to work with! 

– Uwe Kristen (VP Frontend Development at Boyle Software)

 I have supervised Svetlana Kouznetsova for a couple of projects for the United Nations. Svetlana proved to be a very motivated and creative person. All deadlines have been met on time. 

– Petr Vakhranev (Chief of Russian Website Unit, Department of Public Information, United Nations)