I want to introduce Remy Alexander, Program and Communications Manager with Justice in Aging, formerly the National Center on Law and Elder Rights.
Remy is joining us on April 18 -19th to answer your questions about developing accessible documents and presentations. Remy presented on this topic and produced a valuable handout, both of which you can access freely from these hyperlinks. I encourage you to have a look at these resources and ask any questions you might have.
To begin, I want to ask Remy to share with us why it's so important to make your documents and presentations accessible, even if you don't think there's a need by your target audience.
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Hi Michael. Thanks for the introduction. To begin with answering your question about why make documents and presentations accessible, it boils down to being as inclusive as possible and not excluding groups from accessing information. As the creator of a document or presentation, you have the responsibility to do your best to ensure that everyone can access the information you are communicating. Even if you think your target audience may not have the need for accessibility considerations, over 56 million people in the US (and over 1 billion worldwide) have disabilities, many of which are invisible disabilities--it is important not to make assumptions about who does or does not need accessibility considerations. Many people with disabilities use assistive technology to navigate documents, and it is very necessary for the creator of the documents to go through accessibility checks to ensure the technology can correctly communicate the information.
There are also many ways that making documents/websites/presentations accessible benefit everyone. For example, many people use closed captions when they are watching a video on social media and are not in a place they can turn the volume on, or even just to closely follow a movie and not miss what is being said. Websites and documents posted online come up more on search results when they are accessible, as the metadata entered for accessibility purposes translates to search engines as well.
Thanks for your thoughtful response, Remy! You make an excellent point about not making assumptions about who does or does not need accessibility considerations. Would you tell us more about what you mean when you said, "metadata entered for accessibility purposes translates to search engines..."? Is there a way to ensure that accessible materials that are shared online are read and categorized correctly by major search engines?
When you enter document properties, including the title of the document, author, subject, company, language, and keywords, it helps people using assistive technology to have a preview of what's to come in the document to decide if it's something they want to read. It's similar to how someone would quickly scan a document to decide if it's something they want to read in depth. Entering document properties is an essential part of accessibility.
These properties also become metadata (data that provides information about other data). This metadata is utilized in search engines, so if someone is searching for "Public Benefits for Older Adults," a document on Medicaid might pop up if you have included older adults or public benefits in your keywords in the document properties.
You can enter properties or metadata for most types of documents, including word, spreadsheets, or presentation programs. For many programs, if you go to file, you will see an option to edit document properties there. Here's a video for how to change properties in a Microsoft Word file: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/video-change-document-properties-d23cc86c-bbd9-4e0b-b821-16ff90970d3e
Thanks for that explanation. I also found this site helpful in understanding how to change the properties for an Office file.
In the tip sheet, Strategies for Developing Accessible Documents and Presentations, you include a section on hybrid events. COABE 2022, adult education's largest annual conference, just ended last week. It was the first time the event was offered as a hybrid conference, and there were a lot of lessons learned. I wonder if you have any other suggestions for making hybrid events accessible to in-person and virtual participants, since the tip sheet was written last year?
During the pandemic, virtual events opened experiences up to many people who would not otherwise have been able to access the event in-person because of a disability, as well as ensuring people had a way to access events and information while feeling safe from COVID. As events transition back to being in-person, it is great to still be able to offer a virtual experience of the event to those that are unable to attend or feel safer attending virtually. However, it can be challenging to focus on creating a great experience for people in-person while not losing sight of the experience people will have virtually.
A good first step when thinking of creating a hybrid event is to communicate clearly to those receiving invitations about what accommodations will be available, and to have a survey or include an email for people to respond to the invitation and communicate if they intend to attend virtually or in-person, and if there are additional accommodations they need. This will allow you to plan ahead if you need to hire or buy things for accommodations, such as hiring an ASL interpreter.
Additionally, think about the platform you will be using to include people virtually. Make sure it has a place for live captions, and consider the ways in which you want virtual attendees to be able to interact--whether it be by asking live questions during the event, being able to write on virtual white boards, typing in comments or questions in a chat box, etc. It is best practice to have a dedicated AV producer to run the presentation--ensuring the presenters and slides fall within the recording frame.
You should ensure any slides you are showing or documents you are sharing during the event still meet accessibility standards, and try to send out a copy to all attendees, especially those attending virtually, so they can use assistive technology to read them if needed. You should have a live captioner available to provide captions to your live stream of the event. Sending a recording, including the captions or transcription, is also a great for attendees to be able to review the event again.
I'd be curious if anyone else has any tips for hybrid events--to be honest, I haven't attended very many of them yet, so would be curious to hear from others if they faced specific challenges or have tips!
Those are excellent considerations! I want to echo Remy's request for your feedback on specific challenges and/or tips from leading or participating in hybrid events. What works well? Where do we still need to work on figuring out how to make these events accessible to all?