Presentation Summit 2023: Conversation with Stephy Hogan


Presentation Summit 2023: Conversation with Stephy Hogan

Created: Monday, July 24, 2023 posted by at 9:45 am


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Stephy Hogan 2023

Stephy Hogan 2023
    
A Founder of the Presentation Guild, Stephy Hogan has been a digital designer and front-end developer for almost 20 years and in that time, she’s seen a LOT—of ego-based design. It’s been her mission over the years to educate as many people as she can about the importance of accessibility in digital design, whether we’re talking about websites and apps or presentations.

In this conversation, Stephy talks about her participation at the upcoming Presentation Summit 2023, being held on location in Monterey, CA this year from October 15 to 18, 2023, and virtually from November 5 to 8, 2023.

Indezine.com is the official media partner for the Presentation Summit.

Geetesh: Stephy, you are delivering two sessions in this year’s Presentation Summit in both the in-person and virtual formats: Accessible Design Gotchas and Goodies and Neurodiverse Makeovers. Tell us more about these sessions. Also, why is it important for everyday presentation folks to be aware of what you will teach in these sessions?

Stephy: Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m SUPER passionate about accessible digital design. And if you don’t know me yet… you will! Over the years, as I’ve been deep diving into accessible design, I very quickly noticed that NO ONE was talking about making presentations accessible—they were all talking about websites and apps. I mean, I wasn’t surprised, to be honest. The guidelines used to make accessible digital things starts with the word “web.”

The thing is, the needs being served by those web guidelines are the same needs that have to be met for anyone using something on a screen. So here we are.

Microsoft has been doing a FANTASTIC job leading the way with accessibility. If you haven’t been to their inclusive design website, I HIGHLY recommend you take a look around. What hasn’t seemed to quite catch on is habitually creating presentations (or other documents for that matter) in an accessible and inclusive manner. That’s where I’m trying to help.

This year, I want to dive a little deeper into more than just the basics. In Accessible Design Gotchas and Goodies, we’re going to review how the accessibility checker in PowerPoint gets things wrong. Sometimes it’ll tell you everything is ok when it’s not. Sometimes it’ll tell you something’s wrong when it’s not. Both are really important to be aware of and know how to fix it. There are also some crazy things that happen with regards to accessibility when advanced design techniques and hacks are used. We’ll review all of that. AND I’ll have a bunch of cool resources to give out as well.

In Neurodivergent Makeovers, we’ll get into a side of accessible design that isn’t usually the first thing anyone thinks about. In fact, most of the time, it’s never thought about—designing for neurodivergents. You’re considered neurodivergent if your brain doesn’t work in a way that is considered to be the societal norm: Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, all that jazz. So in this session, we’ll take some heinous slides and make them more neurodivergent friendly. And by making a presentation accessible for someone with, let’s say, focus issues, you’re making it better for everyone in the room. Trust me.

Geetesh: Everybody says accessibility is important, but how much of accessibility is implemented in most presentation slides created? Can you tell us more about how someone who has no idea can get started with creating accessible slides?

Stephy: Currently, I don’t really think accessibility is a priority when presentations are being created unless there’s either a LONG lead time or people and companies are absolutely required to create accessible slides. I have, however, had more people ask specifically for accessible presentation templates both in PowerPoint and Google Slides. I think the root of the problem, again, is lack of understanding that accessible design applies to websites, apps, and sometimes PDFs. Good news is that it’s super easy to start learning. And it’s also important to know that you’re not going to get it all right on your first few tries which is OK! As long as you improve as you go, you’ll be good.

There are some great places to go to learn about accessibility: Microsoft has a fantastic site, Deque has a lot of great resources, and I just happened to release a foundational course about accessible design. I’m also working on a deep dive course for PowerPoint accessibility. If anyone wants to sign up for the Foundational accessibility course, readers can use the code INDEZINEFOUNDER50 to get the Founding Member price (50% off).

What is the Presentation Summit?

Presentation Summit 2023: Conversation with Stephy Hogan

Presentation Summit 2023: Conversation with Stephy Hogan

For over two decades, Rick Altman has been hosting the Presentation Summit, a highly popular event that is geared towards users of PowerPoint and other presentation platforms.

Indezine.com is the official media partner for the Presentation Summit.

In-person: October 15 to 18, 2022 at Monterey, CA
Virtual: November 5 to 8

Register now!

      

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.




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