Conference Accessibility Guidelines

Critical Femininities Conference Accessibility Guidelines 

Attendee Tips for Accessibility 

🔶 Make sure your microphone is muted when others are presenting or asking questions 

🔶 When asking questions, speak clearly and at a moderate pace 

🔶 Feel free to take breaks as needed. The Zoom room will remain open for the duration of each panel, and a tech person will be moderating the waiting room 

🔶 Access copies for each presentation will be made available so you can follow along (these documents are not to be saved or shared) 

🔶 Closed captioning will be enabled, and you can turn captions on using the “Closed Captions” feature in the Zoom dashboard at the bottom of the Zoom screen 

🔶 Flag any accessibility needs to the panel tech person or email us at criticalfemininities@yorku.ca 

 

Presenter Tips for Accessibility 

🔶 If possible, turn your camera on and face towards the audience when presenting 

🔶 Speak clearly and at a moderate pace 

🔶 Test your microphone beforehand to ensure your audio is clear 

🔶 Try to mitigate background noise while presenting 

🔶 Make sure that you verbally describe all images, graphs, charts, or videos included in your slides; this is helpful for Blind and low-vision attendees 

🔶 If your presentation contains potentially sensitive or upsetting content, consider stating a trigger or content warning at the start of your talk. 

🔶 Keep to your presentation time of 15 minutes to allow for breaks between sessions 

 

Presentation Slides Dos and Don’ts 

Do: 

✅ Use PowerPoint, Google Slides, or a similar platform to create your presentation. 

✅ Use a high contrast colour scheme, i.e. black background with white font or the reverse 

✅ Use a Sans Serif font and maintain a font size of 20-points or more. 

✅ If sharing links to additional resources in your slides, ensure you provide them in your access copies. 

✅ If pasting links in the Zoom chat for attendees, please announce this verbally to the audience 

✅ Accompany any video or audio with text captioning 

    Note: Uploading a video to YouTube makes it possible to use YouTube’s captioning editor 

Don’t: 

🚫 Create visual presentation slides using excessive motion or strobe effects. 

🚫 Use a low-contrast colour scheme where text is difficult to read 

🚫 Overload slides with too much text 

    Note: If you want to provide additional information, including links, you can include it in your access copies 

 

Access Copies 

Access copies of your presentation script allows people to read along while you present, and can be important supplements for people with accessibility needs. Even if you are an improvisatory speaker, providing an access copy of your notes, outline, or slides will still help improve the accessibility of your content. 

You can send a copy of your script/notes to the chair of your panel to be uploaded and shared with panel attendees, or you can share your own link to your access copy when you present 

If you are concerned about pre-published material circulating following the conference, you can add a non-circulation notice on your work in the header or footer. 

All access copies sent to the conference committee will be deleted immediately after you present