Original post on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion website

In this event for the Day of Disability and Neurodiversity, a panel of campus experts will provide brief overviews and demonstrations of basic accessibility practices for web design, social media posts, and event planning.

People with disabilities often face barriers to their full participation in the university community. People using screen-readers or text-to-voice programs come up against confusingly organized webpages and social media posts without alt text for images. Those with low vision or visual processing disabilities are obstructed by low-contrast webpages or inaccessible fonts and left out by presentations in which visual displays aren’t verbally described. Deaf and hard of hearing people are excluded by online events or videos without captioning. Those who need nearby parking can’t find out if they will be able to access the venue, and wheelchair users are forced to take roundabout routes to accessible entrances or find themselves barred from physically inaccessible spaces.

A series of brief presentations will convey simple step to make your webpages, posts, and events more accessible. They will cover alt-text, video-captioning, accessible advertising, and accessibility practices for in-person and online events. A question-and-answer session will follow.

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Moderator

Dr. Angela Marie Smith is an Associate Professor in English and Gender Studies. She is director of Disability Studies at the University of Utah and co-chair of the university’s Universal Design and Access Committee. Dr. Smith teaches and researches on the topic of disability representation in film and popular media. She is the author of Hideous Progeny: Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema (Columbia, 2011), and several articles on embodiment and visual media.

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Panelist

Barbara received her Bachelors in Computer Science from the University of Utah. After a brief stint in the video game industry where she learned about work/life balance, she pursued a career in technology at the University of Utah. Starting as the webmaster for the David Eccles School of Business, she was eventually recruited by the University’s main information technology department (UIT), where she proceeded to move into increasingly higher-level positions. Barbara learned about the importance of web accessibility early on in her career and has worked to promote awareness and best practices across the institution ever since.

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This event is part of the IntersectX12 initiative. IntersectX12 is a reminder that we must strive to honor individuals’ intersecting identities not only during nationally recognized months, so we encourage you to honor, celebrate, and engage with our communities every day, 12 months a year. As members of underrepresented groups have made and continue to make countless contributions to our campus community, IntersectX12 serves as a year-round acknowledgment of the work being done to create an inclusive space where everyone feels they belong.

 

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