Accessible Presenting

One of my concerns at any conference is the accessibility of presentations to differently abled audience members. Academic presentations are typically delivered orally. Audience members who are hard of hearing, have auditory or cognitive processing differences, or favor other modes of learning must work very hard to try to follow the typical conference presentation if it does not accommodate their needs. Orators must speak slowly and clearly to the entire room, organize their content and provide cues to that organization, and provide modified paper or electronic texts. These features are, of course, the elements of effective oral communication as well as accommodations to include differently abled people in the audience.

Some presenters provide visual textual supports with projected slides, whiteboards or smart boards, posters, or props. Like the oral delivery, visual aids must be carefully designed to include audience members of various abilities. Slides must use large readable text and simple designs, props and whiteboard writing need to be visible to the entire room, and the visual message should relate to, not distract from, the oral message.

The constraints of academic conferences, even at national and international levels, require creative planning for accessible presenting. Renting audiovisual equipment at conference hotels, for example, is very costly so not all conference sessions will have access. For the two papers I'm delivering at the 2012 RSA Conference, I fortunately will have access to an overhead projector for slide presentation from my laptop. I will also provide a few handouts with large print text of my speeches. But I'm still mulling over some accommodations:

• Slides: I know that presentation slides that supplement the speech rather than replicate it are generally more interesting and meaningful for an academic audience. I have heard critiques when presenters interrupt the extemporaneous flow of their presentations to read slides word-for-word: "Everyone can read your slides." But I know this is not true even if the slides are well designed to account for visual differences. According to "Creating Accessible Presentations at CCCC" (a tip sheet from the Disability Studies SIG), I should read each slide out loud. But I would like to present information in my slides complementary to but different from that in the oral presentation. Some of the visual information, such as a list of metaphors or a table comparing points of character and setting in my artifacts, will disrupt the oral argument if I read the slides out loud. Right now, I'm thinking that I'll briefly describe the content of each slide and make the slides available online. But I'm still thinking this problem through.

• Handouts: I want to provide a one-page outline of my presentation and references for audience members to help them follow my points, annotate the session, and remember these ideas afterwards. Ideally, I would save a tree and provide a URL for audience members to access this material online while I'm speaking. But will we have good connectivity in the session rooms?  Will the people who most want my online materials have a computer and connection to access them? And if not, do I provide copies for everyone and risk a lot of wasted paper or just a few and risk unhappy audience members?

After the presentations, I'll provide some links to illustrate the accommodations I ended up using. And I would love to hear how others have created accessible presentations within the time, money, and environmental constraints of academic conferences.