2022 Sessions

Session Recording

All sessions will be recorded, captioned, and shared with participants after the conference has concluded. Don’t worry if you can’t attend all sessions! We’d love to have you for as many, or as few, sessions as you can attend.

Tuesday, April 19

Creating Accessible PDF Files Using Adobe InDesign

In this session, learn how to add appropriate properties to your InDesign document to facilitate the export of an accessible PDF file. We'll discuss controlling tags as well as tag order along with tips and tricks to get InDesign to produce the best accessible PDF file possible.

ARIA Spec for the Uninitiated

Specs are usually not very fun, but I have learned that reading the ARIA specs is important to fully understand all the various options that are available. In this presentation, I will walk you through the ARIA spec and show you how to make the most out of it to create custom components with ARIA.

Keynote: Forget Accessibility! Think Inclusive Design.

Nic will talk about the idea of disability vs impairment and look at some barriers related to disabilities and technology. He will also explore how thinking about inclusion rather than accessibility helps everyone. And more importantly, some things we can all do to reduce or eliminate those barriers.

Disabled people use technology and the web to function and communicate. That's pretty straight forward. What happens when a site or an app isn't coded in a way that makes it accessible and usable by people with disabilities? We've created barriers, we've caused the person's impairment to become disabling, reducing their ability to communicate. Effectively, we're shutting people with disabilities down!

Developers and designers are more aware than ever of the need to build accessibility for disabled people into their product. But thinking about "making things work for people with disabilities" risks creating an us vs them mentality. And that mentality will, in the end, cause more harm than good to the disability community.

Wednesday, April 20

9:00 Central
Kaitlyn Hundt-Lippett
Kaitlyn's Session Materials (PowerPoint)

How to Run User Research with People with Disabilities (PWD)

User testing is a common UX research method and often leads to better inclusive design. However, often the people most affected by design decisions (people with disabilities) are left out of the user experience. In this session, Kaitlyn will speak about things to consider when planning and running user research and will include a short demo of a screen reader user exploring a site. This session will share tips about running user research with assistive technology users and how this works in practice.

Working with High Contrast Mode

Accessibility is more than just making things work in a screen reader. This talk discusses Windows High Contrast Mode's capabilities and limitations, the upcoming Forced Color mode, and how to best design and develop for it.

Intro to Designing for Accessibility & Inclusivity

Many designers understand the importance of accessibility but don't know where to begin. When it comes to design, the standards are more geared toward what not to do & less on actionable takeaways. In this session, Shell Little, an Accessibility Specialist & Inclusive Design leader, will break down the responsibilities designers have in creating inclusive products. This will be done by separating the applicable WCAG criteria by role (content writer, interaction & visual designer). Real-world examples will give attendees a deeper understanding of how to apply these principles in their everyday work. Accessibility is everyone's job: let's start improving design together.

12:00 Central
Moderators

Roundtable Discussions

Topics:
• Accessibility Policy
• PDF Accessibility
• Accessibility in Design and Planning
• Microsoft Office Accessibility

Choose your Roundtable Room!

Thursday, April 21

Design for S.C.H.I.T.

Creating accessible and inclusive presentation experiences doesn’t have to be boring or difficult. But where do you start? What exactly is accessible and inclusive design? Who are we building our presentations for? Stephy will reintroduce you to your audience and give you tips on how to create an equally amazing presentation experience for each of them--whether that's through how we speak or what we put on our slide.

Accessible Social Media is Community Care

Disability spaces have always found ways to create accessible social media content. We do this as an essential act of community care, to remove online barriers. Join Jess as we explore some of these accessibility practices including general techniques and platform-specific work-arounds. That way everyone has the right to access your social media content.

The Impact of COVID on People with Disabilities

Learn about many of the problems that were faced by people with disabilities throughout the last two years of the pandemic. Learn how people with disabilities face a more devastating outcome from this situation. This talk will go into some of the ways that people with disabilities were overlooked or left out of society's responses to these situations.