Table of Contents

Summary

All annual meeting presenters, whether in-person or virtual, are strongly encouraged to join us in supporting collective access*- a meeting with accessibility requirements for many diverse attendees built into the fabric of the meeting. This includes members of the disabled community, members whose first language is one other than English or French, and many more. One in five people need accessibility accommodations of some kind, and by creating a culture of collective access, we can expand the reach of our work and our audience to as many people as possible and allow for more rich and diverse participation and more seamless inclusion.

While preparing for your session during the 2023 AAA/CASCA Annual Meeting, this page outlines the materials and formats we are asking for and is also a resource so that you learn more about the accessible practices that are recommended to be incorporated into your presentation at the meeting. You can also find much more information here on our main landing page about accessibility.

All presentation documents and materials should be submitted in the Speaker Resource Center by Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – 11:59 PM ET.

What do I need to prepare for my session?

These are the minimum requirements to meet the AAA’s standards for accessible materials and have your session marked as an accessible session at the Annual Meeting:

1. List of terms

2. Outline

3. Visual Descriptions

4. Accessible slides, poster and/or PDF (depending on session type)

5. Slower pace of speaking

6. Introductions of speakers

Review needed presentation materials in the 2023 Presenter Materials Table Excel Sheet!

The same downloadable document can be reviewed in table format below. If you are a screen-reader user or otherwise do not benefit from tables, skip the table to select what session type your are presenting, which will direct you to more information about needed features for your presentation.

Presenter Materials by Presentation Type (Excel Spreadsheet)- French

Select the type of session you are presenting to learn what you need to do and prepare to support collective access as a presenter.

I am presenting…

All presentation documents and materials should be submitted in the Speaker Resource Center by Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – 11:59 PM ET.

Recommended Speaker Tasks Benchmarks

AAA/CASCA understands that some of these tasks may be new to Annual Meeting Speakers. To help AAA/CASCA Annual Meeting Speakers complete their speaker tasks, the AAA Meetings Team has developed recommended speaker tasks benchmarks. These benchmarks provide an outline that breaks down the time that speakers and organizers have into weeks and days, from the moment when you receive your presentation/session acceptance notices to the presentation materials due date on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. We hope that these benchmarks may be a helpful tool to you and your co-panelists as you develop a planned workflow that supports the inclusion of accessibility into the preparation of your AAA/CASCA Annual Meeting session!

You may view these benchmarks in numbered-bullet point Word document and Excel sheet formats.

The Word document has an interactive table of contents that allows you to navigate to the session type you are preparing for, whether as a speaker or organizer, and the Excel sheet provides a breakdown on two sheets based on whether you are presenting in a Group Session or as an Individual.

You may also view and add the tasks to your Outlook and/or Google calendars, based on your session type, using the links below:

Accessibility Features for Live (In-Person or Virtual) Group Sessions

All live group sessions are highly encouraged to prepare all of their materials according to accessible standards, and many sessions will be required to submit accessible materials in advance if accessibility is requested by members who will attend your session.

We will provide the materials through the virtual platform for members to use on site, and these resources are also used to support ASL interpreters and CART captioners from the Kyle Duarte Company. The Kyle Duarte Company is a team of highly professional academic interpreters, who specialize in translation for events similar to our Annual Meeting. They require these resources in advance in order to do their jobs with excellence.

Below you will find details on the materials you need to create and submit to the speaker resource portal. You can also find further information here: In-Person Access Guidelines and our Virtual Access Guidelines pages.

All live group session presentation documents and materials should be submitted in the Speaker Resource Center by Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – 11:59 PM ET.

Which session types are considered live group sessions?

  1. Oral Presentation Sessions (including those made of individually volunteered papers) (In-Person AND Virtual)
    • Session Length: 105 minutes for entire panel
    • Maximum Time per Presenter: 15 minutes per paper presentation or discussant
  2. Roundtables/Town Halls (In-Person AND Virtual)
    • Session Length: 105 minutes for entire panel
  3. Conversations or Debates (In-Person AND Virtual)
    • Session Length: 105 minutes for entire conversation/debate
  4. Interviews (In-Person AND Virtual)
    • Session Length:105 minutes for entire interview

Materials for Live Group Sessions

  1. List of Terms– feel free to use these templates:

    1. Template standard print English; Template standard print French

    2. Template large print English; Template Large Print French

    3. Or, you can create your own following these guidelines: accessible Word document.

    4. Why? A list of terms helps allows CART captioners, ASL interpreters, and others to do their jobs, and helps anyone who may need support with language.

  2. Session Outline- feel free to use these templates:
    1. Template standard print English; Template standar print French
    2. Template large print
      • Why? An outline of your session allows CART captioners, ASL interpreters, and others to do their jobs, and helps anyone else who may need support with processing content.
  3. Accessible introductions of all speakers
    • Why? An accessible introduction helps support blind and low-vision attendees, as well as others whose processing requires additional auditory information of visuals and provides visual access to each speaker.
  4. Be mindful of your speaking pace
    • Why? Speed talking/reading makes it difficult for a variety of people to follow a presentation and understand the most critical information you want them to leave with.
  5. Announcement of each speaker prior to speaking (i.e. “This is Ed.” “Nate speaking.”)
    • Why? Announcements prior to speaking helps people who are D/deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, low-vision, or have an auditory processing disorder more easily follow the conversation.
  6. Visual description of relevant visual moments
    • What are “relevant visual moments”? Relevant visual moments are moments in which the visual during the presentation changes.
      • This may be something such as you as the speaker lifting up a model of an artifact and describing the artifact (e.g. “I am now holding up to the camera a model of a skull of an Australopithecus afarensis. The skull is narrow and includes a smaller neurocranium, or braincase. There are also large canines visible and the jaw juts out forward. The parts of the model which indicate having been found are in a rough texture, whereas the rest of the model is a smooth plastic.”)
      • Alternatively, this may also include a complete change in scenery. (e.g. “I am now walking outside, wearing a mask, on a beautiful sunny day, and the green lawns of the university campus surround me on either side of the walkway. Three people may be seen walking in a group at a distance wearing masks.” or “A scene pans to the front podium of an otherwise empty classroom. The black chalkboard includes in writing “2019 Words of the Year” underlined, followed by a list: (my) pronouns, they, quid pro quo, ok boomer, and I oop-, nobody, people of means, im [drawing of a peach].”
    • Why? Visual descriptions helps support blind and low-vision attendees, as well as others whose processing requires additional auditory information of visuals, gain access to the visuals of the video.
  7. If slides are used: Accessible slides provided in advance in PPT and/or PDF format

Accessibility Features for Individual In-Person Sessions

All live individual sessions are highly encouraged to prepare all of their materials according to accessible standards. Many sessions will be required to prepare and submit accessible materials in advance, depending on your audience, and if accessibility is requested by members who will attend your session.

Below you will find details on the materials you need to create and submit to the speaker resource portal. You can also find further information here, on our complete In-Person Access Guidelines page.

All individual in-person presentation documents and materials must be submitted in the Speaker Resource Center by Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – 11:59 PM ET.

Which session types are considered individual in-person sessions?

  1. Flash Presentation Sessions (In-Person)
    • Maximum Time per Presenter: 5 minutes
    • Session Length: 105 minutes
  2. In-Person Posters (In-Person)
    • Session Length: 105 minutes, presenters can engage with attendees at their posters throughout this time

Materials for Individual In-Person Sessions

  1. Visual descriptions practices when referencing and discussing visuals on your slides or the poster
    • Why? Describing visuals, such as graphs, maps, pictures, cartoons, etc., and reading text on your slides or poster helps support people who are blind or low-vision, who have a visual processing disorder, or who better process information through verbal explanations of visuals gain access to the visuals of the poster.
  2. Accessible slides/poster and PDF (PDF must be confirmed for accessibility using Acrobat Pro) – these will be shared on the virtual platform

Extra Tip:

  1. A QR code or short link to direct people to a digital access copy of your slides or poster
    • Why? Providing a QR code or short link can help guide people who use a screen reader to a version they can engage with outside of the physical presentation space.

Materials for View-on-Demand Sessions

All view-on-demand sessions are highly encouraged to prepare all of their materials according to accessible standards. Many sessions will be required to prepare and submit accessible materials, depending on your audience, and if accessibility is requested by members who will attend your session. Note- if you do not provide all of the materials, then some of your presentation may be missing from the view on demand site.

Below you will find details on the materials you need to create and submit to the speaker resource portal. You can also find further information here, on our complete Virtual Presentation Access Guidelines page.

All view-on-demand presentation documents and materials should be submitted in the Speaker Resource Center by Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – 11:59 PM ET.

Which session types are considered view-on-demand sessions?

  1. Podcasts (Virtual)
    • Maximum Recording Time: 40 minutes
  2. Virtual Posters (Virtual)
    • Maximum Recording Time: 10 minutes
  3. Talks (Virtual)
    • Maximum Recording Time: 20 minutes

Needed Features for View-on-Demand Sessions

  1. Transcript
    • This doesn’t have to be exactly what you say, but should cover your main talking points, similar to an outline. Here is a template.
    • Why? A transcript ensures that people who are D/deaf, hard-of-hearing, DeafBlind, or have an auditory processing disorder are able to engage with the audio of your recording.
  2. Be mindful of your speaking pace
    • Why? Speed talking/reading makes it difficult for a variety of people to follow a presentation and understand the most critical information you want them to leave with. So remember to take a breath and speak clearly and at a medium pace.
  3. If slides are used:
    1. Accessible slide(s) and PDF (PDF must be confirmed for accessibility using Acrobat Pro.)
      • Feel free to use this Slides template, or create your own following our guidelines
      • Why? Developing accessible slides helps people who use screen reader; are blind, low-vision, or colorblind; and who need visuals that are not overwhelming and easy to follow.
    2. Visual description practices when referencing and discussing visuals on your slides or poster
      • Why? Describing visuals, such as graphs, maps, pictures, cartoons, etc., and reading text on the slide helps support people who are blind or low-vision, who have a visual processing disorder, or who better process information through verbal explanations of visuals gain access to the visuals of the poster.
  4. If video (of the speaker or surroundings) is used:
    1. Accessible introduction
      • Why? An accessible introduction helps support blind and low-vision attendees, as well as others whose processing requires additional auditory information of visuals and provides visual access to each speaker.
    2. Visual description of relevant visual moments
      • What are “relevant visual moments”? Relevant visual moments are moments in which the visual during the video changes.
        • This may be something such as you as the speaker lifting up a model of an artifact and describing the artifact (e.g. “I am now holding up to the camera a model of a skull of an Australopithecus afarensis. The skull is narrow and includes a smaller neurocranium, or braincase. There are also large canines visible and the jaw juts out forward. The parts of the model which indicate having been found are in a rough texture, whereas the rest of the model is a smooth plastic.”)
        • Alternatively, this may also include a complete change in scenery. (e.g. “I am now walking outside, wearing a mask, on a beautiful sunny day, and the green lawns of the university campus surround me on either side of the walkway. Three people may be seen walking in a group at a distance wearing masks.” or “A scene pans to the front podium of an otherwise empty classroom. The black chalkboard includes in writing “2019 Words of the Year” underlined, followed by a list: (my) pronouns, they, quid pro quo, ok boomer, and I oop-, nobody, people of means, im [drawing of a peach].”
      • Why? Visual descriptions helps support blind and low-vision attendees, as well as others whose processing requires additional auditory information of visuals, gain access to the visuals of the video.

Recommended Features for View-on-Demand Sessions

  1. A reminder for the audience to find digital access copies on the 2023 AAA/CASCA Annual Meeting virtual platform
    • Why? People who need additional time to review content or who use a screen reader can then access your presentation materials in their own time and engage with it at their own pace.

Important Final Reminders

A few reminders to keep in mind include:

  1. List of terms for all live sessions are needed to support our access provider teams, who are providing ASL, CART Captioning, and French live translation. This allows them to share your important work in an accurate and meaningful way.
  2. If submitting slides, we do encourage you to provide slides that are nearly, if not completely, finalized.
    1. If you know you plan to provide more specifics to your slides at a later time, instead of providing finalized slides, instead please provide a framework for your deck at a minimum. These slides can each have a topic and be simple white slides with black text, and ultimately, they should not change in order if you do choose to update them prior to the meeting. Also feel free to use our template if that is helpful.
    2. For guidance on how to prepare your slides for the meeting, please review Dr. Cassandra Hartblay’s Tweet Thread/Primer: How to Make a Slideshow for your Conference Presentation Before Writing Your Presentation – Unrolled Version on Threadreader
  3. Importantly, finalized, written papers are not required. However, if you do complete your paper by the September 13, 2023, deadline, we invite you to submit your paper in addition to the list of terms so that the access provider team and other attendees may engage with your material through the access copies to be uploaded onto the website.

* ‘Collective Access’ is a term that was coined by Mia Mingus and Sins Invalid and has been used in the disabled community since 2010. Collective Access is access that we intentionally create collectively, rather than individually. The goal is to create a culture where the norm is that accessibility needs are built into the fabric of an event, in this case the Annual Meeting, automatically, rather than having to be requested and individually and/or separately added on. This creates a space that is more seamlessly inclusive to more people with diverse needs. This is an ongoing process that we are constantly seeking to improve.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these collective access practices for presenters, please reach out to the AAA/CASCA Access, Meetings and Conferences Coordinator through our Contact Form!