0:00:00.413,0:00:13.574 Welcome, everybody, to today's webinar on accessible virtual presentations. My name is Brian Elton. I am the practice manager for training at Vispero, and my pleasure to be here with you today. 0:00:13.574,0:00:31.574 Just a few notes on today's session. There are auto captions available if you would like to turn those on. If you have any questions as we go through, please use the Q&A feature if possible. That way I can kind of keep track of who's asked questions and what's been answered. 0:00:31.574,0:00:38.574 If you prefer, you can put your questions into the chat. I may have to wait to get to those to the end of the session. 0:00:38.574,0:00:52.574 Um, and if you do need to… if you would rather to come off mute to ask your question instead of typing it in, you can use the hand raise feature, and I will pause at an appropriate time and let you come off mute to ask that question. 0:00:52.574,0:01:09.574 I also wanted to note that if you are using JAWS, there are a couple of keystrokes that you can do to quiet things down a little bit. So if you want to turn off the Zoom notifications, you can use the Alt plus Windows key and S, and that'll toggle those notifications on and off. 0:01:09.574,0:01:15.574 And if you want to open up the chat window, the way to do that is through Alt plus H. 0:01:15.574,0:01:30.574 Okay. So let's get started with our session. So what's our agenda for today? Well, we'll talk a little bit about understanding disability and with those disabilities, some accessibility challenges that can come up with virtual presentations. 0:01:30.574,0:01:49.574 I will talk a little bit about virtual platform accessibility support. We'll talk about what we need to consider when we are designing our presentation content to make sure that it's accessible and how we want to manage our presentations, our meetings, so they work well for everybody. 0:01:49.574,0:01:56.574 And then just a quick little bit at the end about being a participant and some of the things to consider there. 0:01:56.574,0:02:14.574 Now, I think it kind of goes without saying that virtual meetings and presentation have presentations have become very commonplace. You know, I guess, since that that thing that happened back about 6 years ago, everything went online. And so this is what we do pretty much on a regular basis. 0:02:14.574,0:02:24.574 And all presentations, whether virtual or in person, can have some challenges for people with disabilities, but virtual presentations have amplified some of those challenges. 0:02:24.574,0:02:28.574 Uh, so, you know, when we're thinking about this, we want to make sure that we. 0:02:28.574,0:02:38.574 assume that our audience includes people with disabilities, and that we should be taking our taking steps in our presentations to be inclusive. 0:02:38.574,0:02:52.574 Um, you know, shared visual material, lack of captions or transcripts, poor technology. They can all lead to people with disabilities feeling excluded. 0:02:52.574,0:03:08.574 So let's understand a little bit about disability. When we talk about people with disabilities, we're usually referring to people that may fit into one or more of these categories. So people who have limited sight or no site or are colorblind. 0:03:08.574,0:03:15.574 vision disabilities, uh, physical disabilities, where people have dexterity or movement issues. 0:03:15.574,0:03:22.574 motion or vision sensitivities, where people are sensitive to movement, or flickering, or flashing. 0:03:22.574,0:03:27.574 uh, deaf or hard of hearing people, you know, people who cannot hear or have limited hearing. 0:03:27.574,0:03:41.574 cognitive disabilities, so people who may have learning or attention difficulties. This could include autism spectrum conditions and speech disabilities. So people who have difficulty producing recognizable speech. 0:03:41.574,0:03:51.574 But along with permanent disabilities, we also want to consider age-related impairment. So a lot of these disabilities can. 0:03:51.574,0:04:04.574 come about with age. So including reduced vision, hearing loss, reduced mobility and manual dexterity, and reduced cognition. 0:04:04.574,0:04:10.574 But some of these conditions also come through through situational impairments or temporary disabilities. 0:04:10.574,0:04:21.574 So for situational impairments, we may talk about maybe a parent who's looking after their young ones while they're trying to focus on a presentation. It could be attending a presentation while stressed about other work. 0:04:21.574,0:04:32.574 They could be attending a presentation on a mobile device, you know, so maybe there's glare from the sun making it difficult to see the screen. It could be in a crowded place where it may be difficult to hear the presentation. 0:04:32.574,0:04:49.574 Um, and then with temporary disabilities, maybe somebody has a broken arm, making it more difficult to type, or they have an ear infection, making it temporarily difficult to hear may have something like repetitive stress injury or carpal tunnel syndrome, making it temporarily difficult to use their hands. 0:04:49.574,0:04:58.574 or even may have a migraine, making it temporarily difficult to even think or see or talk. 0:04:58.574,0:05:10.574 And a lot of these disabilities, whether they are permanent, situational, or temporary, can cause can have some challenges for virtual presentations. 0:05:10.574,0:05:19.574 So this next section, I'm going to go through some disability types and talk about some of the challenges that may be present for those participants. 0:05:19.574,0:05:24.574 So the first group are people who are deaf or hard of hearing. 0:05:24.574,0:05:29.574 And the specific challenges here is that the user may not be able to hear the speaker. 0:05:29.574,0:05:45.574 And if there is some audio, they may not be able to follow along. If that audio is uncaptioned, or if it's poorly captioned, so particularly with videos, if we don't have any captioned videos, or if the videos aren't… the captions aren't synced to the video. 0:05:45.574,0:05:52.574 Uh, audio, or if the captions are of a poor color contrast, so it's very difficult to read. 0:05:52.574,0:06:02.574 Um, the user may not… or participant, I'm going to confuse saying user and participant a few times, because I'm used to talking about our users of digital content. 0:06:02.574,0:06:09.574 Uh, but participants may not, uh, understand written language as well, if sign language is their first language. 0:06:09.574,0:06:21.574 And if the user is somebody or the participant is somebody who, uh, does some lip reading, it may be difficult if the speaker's mouth is not visible or is obstructed. 0:06:21.574,0:06:30.574 So in the case of my headset, I've got a little microphone, but hopefully it's off to the side enough that it's not obstructing anything. 0:06:30.574,0:06:49.574 for our participants who are blind. Uh, they may not be able to see the visual information that is being presented on screen. So this could include images or graphs. It also could include any actions in a video that may have meaning that is not. 0:06:49.574,0:07:00.574 captured in some sort of audio. So if there's a meaningful action that is not described, then that action could be missed by this participant. 0:07:00.574,0:07:19.574 And this participant may also need to operate the virtual meeting platform using a keyboard alone. Somebody who is using a screen reader may only use a keyboard to interact with the virtual play. Excuse me platform. 0:07:19.574,0:07:33.574 So our participants that maybe have low vision. the participant may not be able to differentiate between different colors. They may not be able to see text that has low contrast. 0:07:33.574,0:07:45.574 I may not be able to see small text on the screen and again may not be able to see that visual information similar to our blind participants. So information that's presented in images or graphs. 0:07:45.574,0:07:49.574 or any action and videos that's not audibly described. 0:07:49.574,0:08:09.574 When I speak about low contrast, really, that it's the difference in light between the foreground and background of, in this case, text is what I'm describing. So we want to make sure that there is a large amount of contrast between those two, so the text is quite perceivable. 0:08:09.574,0:08:21.574 Our participants with physical disabilities? I may need to operate the virtual meeting platform by a keyboard or some sort of keyboard interface device alone. 0:08:21.574,0:08:40.574 Uh, and so that means that maybe they have more difficulty in participating in typed chat discussions, uh, depending on what type of device they are interacting with. And may need more time to answer questions and otherwise participate. 0:08:40.574,0:08:45.574 And in participants with cognitive, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. 0:08:45.574,0:08:56.574 The participants may be easily distracted if there's too much action happening on screen. Maybe overwhelmed with too much text that's on a screen. 0:08:56.574,0:09:12.574 I may have trouble reading text that has certain formatting, so justification or fonts that are… have serifs, italics, all these different types of formatting can cause some challenges for reading. 0:09:12.574,0:09:17.574 Uh, the participant could react to animations or other moving or blinking content. 0:09:17.574,0:09:35.574 Um, could find participating in the presentation anxiety-inducing. And again, may require more time to answer questions or otherwise participate. 0:09:35.574,0:09:46.574 So let's talk a little bit about some of the virtual platforms that are available and the sort of accessibility support for these platforms. 0:09:46.574,0:10:02.574 One of the things we want to consider is that when we are doing a presentation, or we're having a virtual meeting, there are a whole bunch of different ways of possible interactions. There could be audio and video presentations. It could be shared content, such as slides. 0:10:02.574,0:10:15.574 Uh, video or audio, maybe from participants. It could be chat interactions, emoji reactions, formal question and answer management like we have in our Q&A feature here. 0:10:15.574,0:10:26.574 or even breakout rooms. So there's lots of different things to do to consider when having these in, you know, your virtual interactions. 0:10:26.574,0:10:33.574 And these virtual presentations rely on technology, and there's there are many different platforms to choose from. 0:10:33.574,0:10:44.574 Uh, some have a steeper learning curve than others, and some are a bit more accessible than others. But we also rely on strong internet connections for our best clarity. 0:10:44.574,0:10:52.574 which can always be an issue, and I think everybody's probably experienced some of that challenge. 0:10:52.574,0:11:03.574 Uh, so one of the present… one of the first platforms I want to discuss is Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Teams. Teams has lots of accessibility features built in. 0:11:03.574,0:11:20.574 Uh, so we have auto-generated or third-party captioning. So the auto generated captions is a feature that could be turned on, and it is just that, it's automated captions. The accuracy of it can be in question sometimes. 0:11:20.574,0:11:36.574 When there are different languages involved, accents, depending on how strong the microphone is, it could be more difficult for the auto captioning to create accurate captions, but there is also the option to have a third-party captioning, where somebody else is. 0:11:36.574,0:11:44.574 doing the captioning live, which is always preference. It tends to be more accurate. 0:11:44.574,0:11:48.574 There's the ability to share slides in real time with PowerPoint live. 0:11:48.574,0:11:58.574 I can discuss that in a moment. We can have. We can pin a sign language view so that there's a consistent on-screen location for sign language interpreters. 0:11:58.574,0:12:16.574 Uh, there's lots of screen reader support information, lots of settings for other accessibility features. They have a VPAT available. So a VPAT is a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, which also creates a is also known as an accessibility conformance report. 0:12:16.574,0:12:31.574 Uh, that Zoom… or sorry, that Teams makes available for each one of its, uh, its platforms. And this, these, uh, conformance reports are ones that describe the, uh, how accessible something is, or more accurately, it describes where there are problems with their accessibility. 0:12:31.574,0:12:46.574 And so it's very handy information to have if you're trying to decide what's going to be the right platform to see what kind of support is going to offer, or where there may be some challenges with its accessibility support. 0:12:46.574,0:13:02.574 Uh, as I mentioned, Microsoft Teams allows for live sharing of content. And it's a really very cool feature. Unfortunately, we're using Zoom today because of the number of people that we were expecting, and Zoom is a better platform for. 0:13:02.574,0:13:30.574 Large numbers of people, but whenever possible, if you have teams available, and you can present using the sharing live content, it is a great feature to use. In doing this, uh, using this, this feature, uh… Attendees can navigate slides independently of the presenter. It works better with screen readers, because the screen reader can actually read the content that's within the slide, as opposed to what you're seeing right now is just sort of like an image. 0:13:30.574,0:13:37.574 It allows Zoom and contrast adjustments and personalized views of the content. 0:13:37.574,0:13:40.574 Now, you can access the links that are in the slides. 0:13:40.574,0:13:57.574 And if you do have sensitive information, and you are trying to, you know, keep your attendees from moving ahead and seeing content too soon, you can have… there's an option for a private view, where the attendees will stay synced with the presenter. 0:13:57.574,0:14:08.574 But all the other features are still available for screen reader access and personalized views, etc. 0:14:08.574,0:14:26.574 just to show how to find this in the sharing feature of teams. If you scroll below the options of presenter mode, where it says screen or window, there's an option for PowerPoint Live, and then it'll have a list of recently accessed files, and then you can also choose one from a. 0:14:26.574,0:14:47.574 from the file system, and… When that is presented, this is the presenter's view. So you still get that preview of what's coming up next. You have your speaker's notes, but you also have the ability to, you know, mark up the presentation with highlighters and laser pointers and. 0:14:47.574,0:15:02.574 Use your arrow, or your mouse pointer, I mean. And then I've also put a little red box around a private view control, which is at the at the top of this screenshot is at the top of Teams. 0:15:02.574,0:15:13.574 If you want to make sure things are synced. But it is a very cool feature and I encourage you to use it whenever possible. 0:15:13.574,0:15:29.574 Okay, another very prominent platform as we're using today is Zoom. It also provides captioning either auto generated captioning, manual captioning where somebody who's participating on the on the call can do the captioning or even third-party captioning being brought in. 0:15:29.574,0:15:51.574 It has live transcription. We can spotlight a sign language interpreter. You can rearrange the gallery view to what suits. And then there's lots of settings for display and keyboard and screen reader support. And Zoom also provides a lot of these accessibility conformance reports for their platforms. 0:15:51.574,0:15:59.574 So you can you can see what what level of accessible support it has. 0:15:59.574,0:16:15.574 And there's some others as well, Webex. is one that's been around for a while. It's, uh, had… Been quite poor for accessibility for a long time. It has improved a lot, but it still is a little bit less accessible than Teams and Zoom. 0:16:15.574,0:16:34.574 Google Meet less used commonly used professionally, but used a lot in educational settings, has lots of documented accessibility features. I will admit, I have not used Google Meet much for these sort of situations. So, I mean, if anybody has comments about how they feel about Google Meet as far as accessibility goes, please feel free to. 0:16:34.574,0:16:43.574 to throw those into the chat. 0:16:43.574,0:17:01.574 Okay. Just looking at some comments in the Q&A, find it hard to focus on presentations with a white background. Yes, that is is quite common. And unfortunately is one of those situations where everybody is different. Try to provide. 0:17:01.574,0:17:16.574 a presentation that is going to suit as many as possible, because I will actually say that I'm actually the opposite. I find it difficult to read content that's on a dark background. 0:17:16.574,0:17:27.574 Uh, with light text. I prefer the white background, and it's how people are. People have their own preferences for things, and we try to be as flexible as possible, which is the point. 0:17:27.574,0:17:37.574 Another question. I know you guys primarily work in the Windows world, but how many of these teams presentation features, especially Powerpoint sharing, are available for teams for Mac by chance? 0:17:37.574,0:17:55.574 Uh, that is a great question. I don't use a Mac, and I'm actually not sure if sharing… I do believe it is available. I'd have to have that confirmed with somebody else. But my understanding is that the features are quite… have… have parity, as far as I understand. 0:17:55.574,0:18:01.574 Um, how about I welcome more comments about that? 0:18:01.574,0:18:16.574 All right. So now let's talk about designing accessible presentation content. So when we're actually designing our slides and what we're presenting, what are some things that we need to consider? 0:18:16.574,0:18:23.574 So when it comes to our text content, we want to write clear and understandable content. 0:18:23.574,0:18:32.574 Uh, we want to use a simple language, plain language, for our general audiences, and keep the content on each slide brief. 0:18:32.574,0:18:40.574 Now, when we talk about using plain language. We are wanting to use language that targets our audience. 0:18:40.574,0:18:55.574 And so when we talk about a general audience where we don't know who's attending and it is just out there, something like today, we want to do our best to use plain language so that it is easily understood by the majority of people. 0:18:55.574,0:19:09.574 If your audience is a bunch of professors in academia, then the language that is used can suit that audience. But for general audiences in general, we want to keep our languages plain as possible. 0:19:09.574,0:19:24.574 want to use simple font faces wherever possible. There is some discussion around what is the best type of font face? There's many arguments for and against, but typically speaking, sans serif fonts are. 0:19:24.574,0:19:32.574 are the best to use. Try to have a consistent design in the slides, so it'll reduce that cognitive load. 0:19:32.574,0:19:39.574 A good idea to have an overview at the beginning, sort of an agenda, or what's going to be discussed, and then a summary at the end to pull it all together. 0:19:39.574,0:19:55.574 And we want to make sure all of our text has sufficient color contrast, and that includes text that's overlaying images. Quite often. That's where we can get into trouble or have a lot of issues is if you have an image with a variety of colors on it, or maybe some gradients, or that type of thing. 0:19:55.574,0:20:01.574 Uh, the text contrast may be fine at one point in that image, but in other places in that image, it may not be. 0:20:01.574,0:20:12.574 Uh, so I always want to make sure we have good, strong text contrast. 0:20:12.574,0:20:38.574 When we're including our in our images and graphs and videos, we want to consider a few things, so… particularly for graphs, we want to make sure that we're not using color as the sole way of providing information. And this this happens quite often in things like bar graphs or pie charts, where perhaps we've got, you know, a pie chart that's, you know, one place on the screen, and then on the other part of the screen there's a legend to say, you know, this color represents this, and this color represents this. 0:20:38.574,0:20:45.574 For somebody who has low vision or is colorblind, you know, has trouble discerning between different colors. 0:20:45.574,0:20:50.574 could be quite difficult to be able to see where that, you know, what the legend matches up to on the actual chart. 0:20:50.574,0:21:05.574 So we want to use other visual indications, such as patterns or icons. So use color. I'm not saying don't use color. Absolutely use color, but when it is providing information, make sure that there is another indicator to help with that. 0:21:05.574,0:21:24.574 Uh, make sure our images are, excuse me, simple and easily to understand. We want to consider the fact that quite often we're on a slide only for a certain amount of time or a short amount of time. And you know, if you have very complex image, somebody may not be able to consume all that information in that short amount of time. 0:21:24.574,0:21:37.574 And we certainly do want to try to avoid animated images. Again, that could be distracting for some people, and really pull their attention away from what is being spoken, what their other content that is on the screen. 0:21:37.574,0:21:54.574 And if we are showing videos, make sure that all the videos have legible captions and audio descriptions. So an audio description, as I was sort of talking about a little bit earlier, if there is some visual action on screen, that is important to understand the context of what's happening. 0:21:54.574,0:22:10.574 We need to make sure that there's some sort of audible description of that action. Or another example could be the text that's on screen that's not announced. And this happens quite a bit when we have, say, a speaker and you know, on screen there's the text that says, you know, the speaker's name and what they're. 0:22:10.574,0:22:15.574 job is, or whatever, you know, text to introduce that that individual. 0:22:15.574,0:22:23.574 Quite often, that text is not announced, and so anybody who can't see the screen is not going to necessarily know who it is that's speaking. 0:22:23.574,0:22:41.574 And so, we want audio descriptions to announce any of that text content that's not being announced in the regular dialogue, or any other visual actions that are happening that are important to understand the context of what's happening in the video. 0:22:41.574,0:22:50.574 Now, when we actually are within our presentation, we want to make sure that we're managing it well so that it is as accessible as possible. 0:22:50.574,0:22:58.574 First, when we're setting up our meetings, if you have some registration process, make sure that registration process is accessible. 0:22:58.574,0:23:13.574 It could be very difficult if somebody has to go to a web page to register for an event, and they're… the form is, uh, is not accessible, then they're never going to get to the… or have trouble getting to the presentation in the first place. So make sure any sort of registration process is. 0:23:13.574,0:23:27.574 accessible. In that present in that process, you can ask for if there's any specific accommodation needs. It's not, it would not be a requirement. We don't want to insist that people self-identify, but if somebody. 0:23:27.574,0:23:41.574 has a need that they would like, an accommodation they would like during that meeting or during that presentation, and they are… they would like to, they can self-disclose that, and then you have that information to be able to be considerate of it. 0:23:41.574,0:23:55.574 Whenever possible, provide the documents of the meeting or presentation ahead of time, so that people can either review the document or have it available so that, in a case like we have today with Zoom. 0:23:55.574,0:24:09.574 A screen reader's not able to convey the content that's on screen, but if they have that PowerPoint in their possession, that screen reader user can use JAWS to navigate through the actual document itself. 0:24:09.574,0:24:19.574 Make sure that you have sign language interpreters sourced and a plan to have them contribute. 0:24:19.574,0:24:29.574 and make sure that captions and transcription features are enabled in your virtual platform. 0:24:29.574,0:24:36.574 Now, while you're speaking, make sure that your microphone is positioned well to capture your voice, and. 0:24:36.574,0:24:52.574 use a good quality microphone. This is one that I use for when I'm doing presentations that I have on right now, this headset. I don't necessarily use this if I'm just chatting with one of my colleagues in a one-to-one situation, but in this case, I want to make sure everybody's able to hear me clearly. 0:24:52.574,0:25:10.574 I want to speak at a reasonable pace and try to be as clear as possible. And this is both for the benefit of the participants so they can understand what you're saying, but also for any sort of captioning that happens or sign language interpreter, whether that is live or automated. 0:25:10.574,0:25:19.574 You want to make sure that you are speaking clearly so that your audio is captured properly by the captions and sign language interpreters. 0:25:19.574,0:25:35.574 Try to avoid slang and colloquialisms perhaps unless it's very well understood by your audience. And you know, there's many industries that have acronyms that, you know, everybody knows and is very commonplace. That's fine, but. 0:25:35.574,0:25:52.574 In general, you want to avoid the acronyms, or at the very least, we want to say what the acronym means for the first time you want to use it, and then, you know. So, for instance, one I often will say is for assistive technology. So a screen reader is considered an assistive technology. 0:25:52.574,0:26:07.574 also known as AT. And quite commonly amongst my colleagues, we'll call it AT. So if I'm going to do that in this setting, I would 1st of all, introduce that. That is what I mean when I say AT, it is assistive technology. So it's very clear. 0:26:07.574,0:26:25.574 And whenever possible, use your camera. If you're comfortable in doing so. It can help with group engagement, it can help our deaf or hard of hearing participants who, if they're lip reading. But I also say, if you're comfortable to do so, because one of the things that is possible for somebody who is presenting is that it is. 0:26:25.574,0:26:40.574 quite anxiety-inducing. It can be a challenge for some people, and perhaps being on screen is something that's going to increase that anxiety. And we want everybody to have a comfortable experience and, you know, be able to convey the information that needs to be conveyed without any sort of this. 0:26:40.574,0:26:47.574 added distractions and whatnot. 0:26:47.574,0:26:55.574 We want to make sure that when we're speaking, we use inclusive language that avoids, you know, quote-unquote, othering people with disabilities. 0:26:55.574,0:27:02.574 You know, we want to say things like, those of us who have disabilities, rather than talk about them, quote-unquote them, as they are not in the room. 0:27:02.574,0:27:07.574 that is not, you know, that is not what we want to do. We want to be inclusive. 0:27:07.574,0:27:18.574 Um, but we also want to be mindful to not do things that we don't need to over-describe content, or even oneself. I mean, we want to make sure that we are accurately describing content. 0:27:18.574,0:27:21.574 Uh, but we don't need to go, you know. 0:27:21.574,0:27:28.574 don't have to over-describe it and, you know, perhaps even, you know, add too much information. 0:27:28.574,0:27:41.574 I also don't necessarily need to fret about using language that might seem offensive, but generally isn't, right? So the idea of asking somebody who's blind, did you watch the Super Bowl last night? That isn't typically offensive. 0:27:41.574,0:27:58.574 And also want to be mindful of being really fundamental about or fundamentalist about using really specific disability language, because there are valid, reasonable regional and disability group differences in those preferences. 0:27:58.574,0:28:12.574 So, uh, one of those is people first versus identity first language. So people first would be, say, someone who is blind or a person who is blind, and identity first would be a blind person. 0:28:12.574,0:28:28.574 And there are differences on what the preference is between different disability groups and different regions around the world. So that's why I say, you know, we don't want to necessarily be so fundamentalist about what we're using. I try to mix between. 0:28:28.574,0:28:35.574 people first and identity first. And I certainly, if somebody tells me their preference, then that is what I will use. 0:28:35.574,0:28:45.574 Uh, but, uh, you know, I don't want to be over concerned about it. 0:28:45.574,0:28:54.574 Let the participants know what accessibility features are available. And so as I. 0:28:54.574,0:29:09.574 I did at the beginning to let you know that, you know, what was available as far as chat and Q&A, raising your hand to come off of mute, let people know if there is captioning or transcript, or if there is a sign language interpreter. 0:29:09.574,0:29:30.574 And whether the captioning is automated, or is it live, you know, just let everybody know what the situation is for that session, and how they can participate, and how they can… the options for consuming the… the content and information. 0:29:30.574,0:29:39.574 As you're going through the content in your slides, or whatever your presentation is, describe the visual content. Don't assume that everyone can see it. 0:29:39.574,0:29:51.574 Right, so this comes for a lot with imagery, and particularly we want to avoid things like, as you can see here, or as this shows, we want to make sure that we are describing what is on the screen. 0:29:51.574,0:29:54.574 And if you're pointing at something with your mouse. 0:29:54.574,0:30:11.574 Make sure you use a high contrast mouse, increase the mouse size, and so that it's a little more perceivable and obvious on the screen. But still describe what it is that you're doing. Still describe what you're pointing at, and you know the text that's involved, or whatever the description is that you are. 0:30:11.574,0:30:24.574 you're trying to convey with that. And then also announce any sort of visual reactions that are within the quote unquote room, right? So if you have a pool, and you ask everybody to raise their hand. 0:30:24.574,0:30:30.574 Then you want to announce what the results are of that, and not assume that everybody can see the raised hands. 0:30:30.574,0:30:43.574 Also, give people a warning when you're switching the mode of presentation. So if you are… Excuse me, if you're going to start a video or you're switching away from your presentation to go to an application, any sort of those things. 0:30:43.574,0:30:54.574 You want to give some warning that it's going to happen. So it's not jarring for any of our attendees. 0:30:54.574,0:31:10.574 Make sure we provide flexibilities, flexibility. As I mentioned, if we're showing videos, inform the group when it's about to start and that if there are captions or audio description. If there is no audio description in the video, provide that yourself. 0:31:10.574,0:31:21.574 Uh, so that is an alternative if you don't have a track, an audio description track within the video. As the presenter, you can describe what's happening, even pause the video for a moment if you need to, to describe. 0:31:21.574,0:31:32.574 Um, make sure that you don't assume that all participants are connecting in the same way, so some may be connecting through a desktop, or may have a laptop, could be a smaller screen on a mobile device. 0:31:32.574,0:31:42.574 They may be connecting by the phone alone. And so, you know, the size of the screen and the ability to see what's on the screen may be different for every single participant. 0:31:42.574,0:31:49.574 So don't assume that it's going to be big and grand and very obvious for everybody. 0:31:49.574,0:32:08.574 Uh, and don't require all questions to happen through the chat and Q&A. So, as I mentioned before, allowing people to come off mute to ask questions is important. So, you know, using the raise hand feature, uh, and just, you know, give explicit instructions on the best way for people to engage, but allow people to. 0:32:08.574,0:32:21.574 engage in the way that works best for them, whether that is a typed interaction through the Q&A or the chat, or if it's better for the person to come off mute and ask the question verbally. That, you know, you want to give those options. 0:32:21.574,0:32:40.574 And then, ideally, if somebody is asking a question, particularly if it's in the chat, you want to repeat the question so that everybody is able to hear it and it will be accurately captioned. 0:32:40.574,0:32:44.574 And then a few things to look out for some quote unquote gotchas. 0:32:44.574,0:32:51.574 Uh, we want to make sure that we are avoiding, as a presenter, you want to avoid any background noise. Again, that could be distracting. 0:32:51.574,0:33:11.574 Uh, and then other potential distractions you want to avoid if you're using a background that has a video as a background could be very distracting. That's that animation part that we discussed earlier. You know, somebody may get focused in or drawn in on that animation and not be able to concentrate on the actual content that's being presented. 0:33:11.574,0:33:28.574 Um, any sort of movement in the background, so if you have a ceiling fan, uh, you know, moving up above your head, that's visible on screen, could be distracting, uh, pets and children. I mean, I think we've all seen… I'm not gonna make any assumptions of who's seen it, but there's a very hilarious video of a. 0:33:28.574,0:33:37.574 BBC reporter having his children come in the room while he's doing a very serious topic. And it's a very funny video if you haven't seen it. 0:33:37.574,0:33:55.574 know how to mute all participants. So it happens where somebody may not realize that they're not on mute, and they are talking to somebody, one of their colleagues, or, you know, they're at home, and they're talking to the child. So it's when you have the ability to just mute all the participants at once. 0:33:55.574,0:34:16.574 Uh, it avoids any sort of awkward situations. And as a presenter, ensure that your internet connection is strong so that your the audio is strong, both for the participants to be able to understand and also for captioning. 0:34:16.574,0:34:22.574 and then just briefly talking about some participant considerations. So as a participant. 0:34:22.574,0:34:29.574 you know, what are some of the things you want to think about to ensure that it's a good experience for the other participants? 0:34:29.574,0:34:42.574 Um, so use those features that are available to participate, right? So, you know, try and follow as best as possible what, uh, what has been, uh, suggested, so chat or Q&A or raise hand. 0:34:42.574,0:34:55.574 Um, you know, the try in an effort to, in a large setting, you don't want to, you know, maybe interrupt in the middle of, uh, of something. Again, it could be jarring, could have problems with captioning and whatnot. 0:34:55.574,0:35:01.574 Uh, stay muted unless you're speaking again to avoid extra noise and whatnot. 0:35:01.574,0:35:10.574 Uh, when you're in a large settings, perhaps in a meeting, and you're in a large setting, or a large setting, I mean, when you're in a meeting with a larger amount of people. 0:35:10.574,0:35:26.574 Uh, you want to announce yourself when you start speaking so that everybody is aware of who is speaking. There may be participants that don't see the screen and see your name underneath your avatar or your video, or whatever it is. So good idea to announce yourself. 0:35:26.574,0:35:36.574 If you're in a meeting with 2 or 3 people, and you know, everybody is aware of who the participants are, then you won't necessarily need to do that. 0:35:36.574,0:35:54.574 Uh, and if possible, request necessary accommodations in advance of the presentation. Like I said before, ideally, that's part of the registration process, and obviously you only do it if you're comfortable with it, but if you… if there is a specific accommodation that you would like, uh, make sure you ask in advance so that the presenters have. 0:35:54.574,0:36:02.574 time and ability to prepare for that accommodation. 0:36:02.574,0:36:11.574 All right. So in conclusion. Ensure registration processes are accessible and ask attendees for any accommodations needed. 0:36:11.574,0:36:17.574 provide materials ahead of time. Ensure your presentation content is clear and concise. 0:36:17.574,0:36:26.574 Using simple imagery to convey information. use easy to read fonts have with excuse me, that have strong contrast. 0:36:26.574,0:36:35.574 Describe visual content enable captions and transcripts. Take advantage of the accessibility features of the virtual platform. 0:36:35.574,0:36:42.574 and ensure attendees can participate in a way that is comfortable for them. 0:36:42.574,0:36:57.574 There are a few references for the content today that this presentation was sent out in advance, as I understand. I think there is a trouble with our font and how it's being perceived. That is a bit of an embarrassing step on our part. 0:36:57.574,0:37:12.574 We will send out another version of this presentation to ensure that there's not going to be issues with font, and therefore you'd be able to access these links that are here from a reference. 0:37:12.574,0:37:22.574 And that brings us to the end. If there's any additional questions. 0:37:22.574,0:37:27.574 Let's see. What is your experience with Eventbrite, if any? 0:37:27.574,0:37:49.574 Um, it is not a… Eventbrite is not something that we use ourselves. Uh, I have registered for… Events using it. Um… I… don't generally require any special accommodations, so I have not had too much trouble with it, but I do recognize it. It seems to me that it may be a bit of a. 0:37:49.574,0:37:56.574 challenging registration system. If anybody else has had experience with Eventbrite and has any comment on that, I welcome that. 0:37:56.574,0:38:01.574 Um… 0:38:01.574,0:38:14.574 Just reading the other Q&A here. One second. 0:38:14.574,0:38:24.574 So a question here. Some organizations which I belong to do not allow slides, handouts, or other written materials. They want participants to focus on the speaker and not. 0:38:24.574,0:38:35.574 be distracted with slides or handouts, uh, or they refer to death by PowerPoint. Any suggestions on how I can respond to these organizers? 0:38:35.574,0:38:52.574 So 2 2 sort of parts I could think about this. Well, the 1st argument I would make is that it's not necessarily providing the documents is not an attempt to have somebody use them necessarily at the exact same time that they're paying attention to the presentation. 0:38:52.574,0:39:00.574 It is so that they can consume the information in the way that's best for them and at the pace that's best for them. 0:39:00.574,0:39:15.574 Uh, you know, sometimes the speed at which we may move through content in presentations may be too quick for some participants. They may not have time to properly understand and absorb the content, and so having that documentation ahead of time. 0:39:15.574,0:39:30.574 So they have had time to read through it and absorb the information that when it comes time to the actual presentation, they already have a sense of what the content is, and perhaps that frees the participant up to, you know, present, have questions and. 0:39:30.574,0:39:44.574 Ask for clarifications and whatnot, where, you know, that may not be the case if they haven't had a chance to review the documentation ahead of time. The one challenge I do see in this is I understand that there may be cases where. 0:39:44.574,0:39:50.574 The material that's being presented is. sensitive, it's confidential. 0:39:50.574,0:40:05.574 Uh, you know, they may not want to distribute something that then could be forwarded outside of the organization, which is, you know, a totally valid point. I think the idea there would just to make sure that there is opportunity for people to, you know, maybe follow up. 0:40:05.574,0:40:14.574 with questions about the information to have some access to it in some way that is beyond just the presentation itself. 0:40:14.574,0:40:22.574 Uh, because again, that may be challenging, especially for, you know, I think about something like financial reports that usually have. 0:40:22.574,0:40:39.574 You know, you throw a graph on screen or that's got just a ton of information on it, and that's difficult for anybody to consume, but it could be, you know, particularly difficult for somebody with a cognitive disability to consume that information. And so making sure that that… what is being conveyed is. 0:40:39.574,0:40:53.574 somehow presented to the… to the user in another way is very helpful. And if that is just even just a one-on-one connection with the presenter and that attendee, maybe that's a way to get around that, but… Um, I would say that… 0:40:53.574,0:41:09.574 It is important that people are given the opportunity to consume the information in the way that works best for them. So they get the most out of it. And frankly, this sort of, you know, especially in a virtual case of having one person talk at them for. 0:41:09.574,0:41:24.574 45 minutes or an hour isn't always the best way for people to learn. So yeah, I sort of emphasize that part. 0:41:24.574,0:41:40.574 All right. We have any other questions? 0:41:40.574,0:41:48.574 All right. I don't see anything else coming through. 0:41:48.574,0:42:04.574 Okay. Well, then we will wrap it up there. Thank you, everybody, for attending. It's been my pleasure to be here with you today. And if you want to get in touch with with Vispero, our website is www.vispero.com. 0:42:04.574,0:42:16.574 Our U.S. Headquarters telephone number, 727-803-8000. And our European headquarters plus 31886783.