The first speaker this morning spoke about accessibility. He had a webpage demonstration that illustrated the problems that some users might have with websites and applications. For example, movies that don’t have adequate sound, text displayed with inappropriate background and text colors, text that scrolled too fast, text that is too small, etc.

He began an exercise that was just so frustrating for me. He wanted us to caption a sample clip of video using a spreadsheet with macros that he designed. As he was explaining it, I couldn’t read the screen at the front of the room to follow how he was explaining the task should wanted us to comple.

NOTE TO SELF: If I do a presentation, and I have instructions that I’m explaining on screen, make sure to increase the text size so that everyone in the room can read it.

Then, I didn’t realize how hearing impaired I was. I couldn’t hear the sound well enough on the video clip with the first set of borrowed headphones in order to try and capture the sound as text. Plus, with so many other people in the room talking, it didn’t help me hear the sound. I was really surprised at how quickly I got really frustrated with not being able to do the activity and keep up with the class. Scott went to grab me a better set of headphones, but by the time I got back and sat down, the instructor stopped everyone to complete the next part of the activity.

It’s really ironic that in a session on accessibility, I was stopped from fully participating by accessibility issues.

NOTE TO SELF: When facilitating a session like this myself, make sure to get everyone set with tools before beginning the activity. For example, if I am going to be doing an activity where everyone needs to hear something, then make sure they have headphones that work before I begin explaining the activity. If not, then maybe direct them to follow along with the person sitting next to them before I get started with my preso.