Takeaways from An Evening with Marcy Sutton and Derek Featherstone: Panel Discussion

Seated in chairs in front of room, Marcy Sutton and Fen Slattery listen to Derek Featherstone discuss alt text for images.

At their August 2019 meetup, the Chicago Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Design group hosted a special panel discussion with Derek Featherstone and Marcy Sutton discussing accessibility and inclusive design.

Moderated by meetup group co-organizer Fen Slattery, Sutton and Featherstone had a wonderful conversation answering and discussing questions submitted by group members.

While I wasn’t near Chicago, Illinois to attend the meetup in person, I was able to attend via their livestream and follow the conversations on Twitter.

Here are my notes. Continue reading Takeaways from An Evening with Marcy Sutton and Derek Featherstone: Panel Discussion

Recap: Disability Inclusion Panel: Making Events More Accessible

Disability Culture at the University of Michigan

This week I attended the Disability Inclusion Panel: Making Events More Accessible event at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Originally planned as a 100-person interactive workshop with panelists, the event grew beyond the original intent.

Over 500 people registered for the free public event, requiring the organizers to look for another venue. (The final count was 400 people attended in person, plus 52 people attended via the livestream.)

The event was moved to the larger Rackham Auditorium venue and the format of the event became more of a panel discussion. Continue reading Recap: Disability Inclusion Panel: Making Events More Accessible

Takeaways from 7 Principles of Inclusive Design

The Inclusive Design Principles

In her 7 Principles of Inclusive Design webinar today, Henny Swan, director of user experience at The Paciello Group, discussed how accessibility and inclusive design fit together to create usable websites and web apps that work for everyone.

Swan explained how we need to think early in our design process about how we can make our products and services inclusive. Continue reading Takeaways from 7 Principles of Inclusive Design