EDUCAUSE strives to hold meetings, conferences, and other professional events where all attendees feel welcome and barriers of any type do not exclude people from attending or participating. EDUCAUSE recognizes that long-term and lasting progress on this front will require time, sustained effort, and the cumulative impact of incremental and individual actions.
If you have any questions about our policies, or need special accommodations, please email [email protected] for assistance.
Priority Seating
Please pay special attention to attendees with disabilities. Be aware that registrants with disabilities are to be given priority seating. Every session room will be set with one or two ADA cutouts for wheelchair users.
PowerPoint and Video
The following guidelines have been developed for presenters for creating and delivering PowerPoint slides:
- Provide sufficient text descriptions of graphs and tables for presentations posted online or sent digitally.
- If using video, make sure the video is captioned.
- Use the PowerPoint default font of 44-point bold font for headings.
- Use 32-point or larger font for bulleted verbiage.
- Include no more than six lines of text on each slide.
Presentation Materials
When developing your supplemental session materials, please be sure that the font size is readable, no less than 12 points. These should be uploaded to the speaker portal for attendee access. It's also helpful (though optional) to bring a few large-print handouts. These handouts should be printed in a minimum of 18-point font. Here’s a great resource from Wesleyan University on making documents accessible if you need it!
Reaching Participants with Vision Impairments
- Describe the slides briefly (e.g., "This slide covers these three key points…" or "This graph illustrates these key points...").
- Avoid pointing to something on the slide and using words like "this, that, these, and those" unless you indicate what those words mean (e.g., "This map shows…" not "This shows…"). People who can't see you pointing to a slide don't know what "this" used alone means.
Reaching Participants with Hearing Impairments
- Always, ALWAYS use the microphone. Even if you believe your voice is loud enough.
- The practice of speaking audibly, clearly, and directly into the microphone also promotes understanding in the audience and gives sign language interpreters or CART transcribers time to translate what you are saying.
- Look at your audience rather than the screen or your paper. Keep your hands away from your mouth so that people who speechread can understand you. Use active words and short sentences. Words should reinforce visual material.
- Always repeat audience comments and questions into the microphone.
- Videos used in presentations should be captioned.
- Ensure that only one person speaks at a time by asking members of the group to wait until they are acknowledged before commenting or asking questions.
Interpreters
EDUCAUSE provides accommodations for attendees who are hearing impaired. For more information, contact [email protected].
- Do not walk in front of interpreters while they are signing.
- Let interpreters know if you are willing to be stopped during your presentation if they need clarification.
- When you address a person using an interpreter, speak directly to the person, not the interpreter.
- Spell unusual terms, names, and foreign words.
- When using visuals, allow extra time for the audience to look at the items after you discuss them. People using interpreters cannot examine items when they are watching the interpreter.