Presenters: How to Deliver an Inclusive Presentation

The DIS/C&C conferences are becoming increasingly diverse, with attendees from all over the world who represent varied gender, racial, ethnic, disability, and other identities. As a presenter, there are steps you can take to ensure that your message can be heard and understood by the widest possible audience. The following guidelines draw from and extend Kyle Rector’s Accessible Presentation Guide. Please refer there for more details.

Please see the DIS and C&C Accessibility FAQ for more details. See also the following General Gender Inclusivity Guidelines.

When designing your slides, please:

• use large font (size 30+) and high color contrast.
• check that slides are suitable for color blind audience members. Consider using a simulator like Colblinder.
• include captions in videos for deaf and hard of hearing members.

When presenting your slides to the audience, please:

• warn the audience if you will be presenting violent or sensitive content in your talk.
• speak clearly into the microphone. Please test and adjust before you begin. Be careful not to turn your head away as you speak when, for example, referring to the projection.
• speak at your normal speed, unless a sign language interpreter asks you to slow down.
• speak every word on the slide, or otherwise verbally cover all the information, for people who are blind or low vision or deaf (so they do not have to split attention between slides and the interpreter)
• avoid using too much jargon or regionally-based idioms that may confuse an international audience.
• ensure that any audio in your presentation will be processed through the room’s speakers and audible to hard of hearing audience members.
• ensure that you verbalize a description of the diagrams, photos, and videos in your presentation which are used to convey important information (not just decorative). This will assist blind and low vision audience members, as well as those who do not have a clear line of sight to the projection.
• ensure that any audience questions can be heard. If an audience member does not speak into the microphone, always repeat the question into the mic before answering. This will assist those who are hard of hearing and those who are using amplified hearing devices that rely on the microphone feed.

If you have any questions or concerns about accessibility, please feel free to reach out to this year’s Accessibility and Diversity Chairs:

Stacy Branham & Foad Hamidi
accessibilitychair@dis2019.acm.org
accessibility2019@cc.acm.org