Accessibility in UX – presentation from a deaf professional
People with disabilities make up the largest minority that is 20% of global population, but their needs are sadly the most misunderstood and ignored. Just like user experience, accessibility needs to be baked into any process and is not to be used as an afterthought.
Individuals with disabilities need to be considered in user research in order to improve user experience for more people. Accessibility benefits everyone and not just those with disabilities – including businesses who can improve their bottom lines. Sveta will share her personal experience as a deaf UX practitioner and discuss what needs to be done to make products and services accessible.
Biography
Svetlana Kouznetsova (Sveta) is a NYC-based user experience and accessibility consultant helping businesses make their products and services user-friendly. Sveta is also a founder of Audio Accessibility and provides consultation and training to businesses about quality communication access to audio, video, events. She is an experienced speaker and author of a book, Sound Is Not Enough: Captioning as Universal Design.
Get to know your speaker
Who is your role model, and why?
I have so many role models, but I would like to mention one – Wonder Woman: Read more
What is the core message of your talk?
Diversity and inclusion is not complete without accessibility. User experience is not enough if it’s not accessible to more people.
What do you want attendees to take away from your talk?
I hope they will consider using people with disabilities in their research and collaborating with accessibility specialists on how to improve accessibility for them. Accessibility is a team work.
Why is your subject matter important to researchers?
People with disabilities make up the largest minority, but sadly their needs are often ignored. They are often excluded even from diversity and inclusion and often not mentioned in customer data. So it’s important to include them in research.
How can attendees prepare in advance? Do you have a book, blog post or any other relevant information you’d like to share?
No preparation is needed – just show interest in learning about accessibility and have the motivation to do something about it. My information can be found on about.me/svetlanakouznetsova and my book is on audio-accessibility.com/book.
