How can I make my presentation more accessible for the Accessibility Fellows?
Have a read of the Accessibility Awareness for Equersa presenters below and choose a maturity level (there are 3 levels) you are willing to aim for. At RSAA25, we had 3 presenters aim for Maturity Level 3 as well as the organising committee providing Maturity Level 3 for the keynote, Minh Bui.
Slide 1 - Title
- Originally written as “Accessibility Awareness for Research Software Asia Australia (RSAA25) presenters”
- By Rowland Mosbergen, Harsh Kalra, and Sanchit Ghule
- Link to the original Canva version non-accessible version
- Version 0.1
Slide 2 - Learning Outcomes
- Participants will learn about how Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) was encouraged at Research Software Asia Australia 2025 (RSAA25).
- Participants will learn about the needs of the Accessibility Fellows - Seaumul, Sandeep, Safaet - to understand why accessibility is important.
- Participants will learn the 3 maturity levels that they can do to help make their presentations more accessible.
- Participants will have an example (this presentation) of how accessibility can reduce barriers for the Accessibility Fellows.
- Participants will have extra resources to find out more about accessibility in general.
Slide 3 - DEIA design at RSAA25
- Software engineering is essential for making software accessible and ensuring inclusivity.
- Designing DEIA to underpin RSAA25 prevents overlooking the needs of individuals with disabilities who belong to other marginalised groups.
- Highlighting Accessibility Fellows and Managers enhances accountability, provides more confidence that solutions are fit-for-purpose, and raises the profile of these Fellows and Managers.
- Highlighting key accessibility partners shares expertise and raises awareness to ensure a more inclusive framework for marginalised communities.
Slide 4 - Introducing Seaumul
- Photo of Seaumul wearing sunglasses and a red shirt with a building in the background
- Seaumul Khandaker - Computer Science Student at BRAC University
- I’m a visually impaired student studying Computer Science at BRAC University. I use audio-based learning methods instead of Braille and rely on screen readers and magnifiers. Digital reading materials and online resources are my main educational source. Beyond my studies, I earned a Hafiz certificate by memorizing the whole Quran and also study Arabic literature at the Al-Asr Institute. I’m passionate about learning across disciplines, and I care deeply about making digital spaces more accessible.
Slide 5 - Introducing Sandeep
- Photo of Sandeep wearing glasses and a green t-shirt
- Sandeep Kanabar - Lead Engineer at Gen (formerly NortonLifeLock), AWS Community Builder, DEI
- Sandeep works as a Lead Engineer with Gen (formerly NortonLifeLock / Symantec) on cloud technologies. He’s extremely passionate about volunteering and giving back to the community. He has sensorineural hearing loss from the age of 14 and relies entirely on lip-reading and captioning.
Slide 6 - Introducing Safaet
- Photo of Safaet wearing glasses, a business shirt and a tie with a jacket.
- Director, IQAC and Associate Professor, Department of CS and Engineering at UITS. This was taken from LinkedIn.
- I had joined as a Director, Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) and Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS) from July 2023. I had been working as Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering at City University from 2014 to 2023.
Slide 7 - Accessibility Partners
- Special thanks to Society of RSE and WEHI for funding the Accessibility Fellowships for RSAA25
Slide 8 - Understanding Why We Need Maturity Levels
- It is important to recognise that there are different levels of accessibility that can be attained.
- Reading or following a presentation as a person with a disability is usually slower than as an able bodied person.
- So if we want to be more inclusive, we should aim for a higher level of accessibility to make it as easy as possible.
- The more accessible you want your presentation to be, the more effort that you need to put in.
- Therefore we have provided three levels of maturity you can aim for around accessibility.
Slide 9 - Maturity Level 1 - Simple Things You Can Do
- Add alt-text to every image, especially your complex diagrams.
- Write meaningful link text that clearly indicates the purpose of the hyperlink and avoid vague phrases like “click here” or “read more”.
- Run the accessibility checker in Microsoft Powerpoint and work through the suggestions, especially the logical reading order.
- Before your talk, share your slides to the community.
- Make each slide consistent so it is easier for someone to navigate your slides in a screen reader.
- Write down in the slide all the key points you want to make.
- When giving your presentation, try to explain the diagrams similar to the alt-text as well explaining the key points you want to make.
- Limit or avoid transitions, animations, flashing or blinking objects.
Slide 11 - Understanding Why We Need Maturity Level 3
- You have to recognise that reading a presentation with screen readers is slower than reading it like sighted people do.
- And different types of screen readers, like NVDA and JAWS read documents and presentations differently and glitches in the software can mean confusing and unnecessary noise.
- Consequently, crafting a presentation or document that is both efficient and effective for all screen readers can be a significant challenge.
- This means it can require a large number of people who can check the actual usability in multiple screen readers when using one document.
Slide 12 - Understanding Why We Advocate for Two Documents
- In Maturity Level 3, we suggest you use two documents.
- Instead of dealing with the complexity of having to ask multiple people to confirm the usability of a single document, we would recommend creating two documents, one for sighted and one for people who use screen readers.
- This is because we have found that the less complexity in the document, the less noise and confusion happens from the glitches in the screen readers.
- This reduces the need for screen reader users to verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the simpler document as these can be easily read by all screen readers, especially if they are using Headers (eg. H1, H2, H3) alt-text, and hyperlinks.
Slide 13 - Maturity Level 3 - Maximise Accessibility for Screen Readers
- Create a Google Doc and make it published via File > Share > Publish to Web to create a separate highly accessible document.
- Ensure you use H1 for each new slide “page” (similar to this document).
- Make sure there are no extra “returns” that create extra paragraphs. These look nice but slow down the screen reader with extra “new line” being read out.
- Have a glossary of terms can help people with screen readers understand terms to avoid confusion with acronyms eg. RSAA stands for Research Software Asia Australia.
- Share both your standard slides and this new highly accessible document with the community.
- There are a few resources out there:
- Not the Only One has a range of items on why accessibility is important from the viewpoint of those who need it and some tips as well.
- This isn’t the end for accessibility
- We can always improve and this should be considered a draft of what might work for some people.