Request for Ensuring Information Accessibility in Presentations

To All Presenters of the Conference

JASID Reasonable Accommodation Working Group

JASID accommodates, as far as possible, the needs of the JASID members with disabilities who want “reasonable accommodation” to participate in academic activities.

In order to make a conference as accessible as possible to members with various disabilities, we ask all presenters to cooperate with us in ensuring information accessibility. Please keep the following points in mind when preparing materials and presenting at the conference. Additionally, by accumulating examples of reasonable accommodations in future conferences, we aim to make JASID activities more inclusive and accessible to a broader range of members. For example, there may be requests for further cooperation based on specific needs of participants in upcoming conferences, beyond what is mentioned below.

◆Advance provision of presentation materials

At the request of participants who have difficulties with speech recognition, we may ask for a copy of the PowerPoint presentation file to be provided in advance.

Additionally, during your presentation, we may ask for the use of real-time transcription (captioning).

◆Information accessibility for hearing-impaired participants

Sign language interpretation or computer-assisted note-taking may be provided for hearing-impaired participants on request. Sign language interpreters need to read presentation materials beforehand. This WG mediates between presenters and sign language interpreters, so that presenters at the session submit a presentation file (even a tentative draft) to this WG a week before the conference. It would be helpful if you could bring a copy of your presentation slides or handout for notetakers.

Please note the following points when making your presentation.

• The content of your speech should be included on the slides.
• Speak slowly and clearly. Avoid using demonstrative pronouns and words such as “as shown here”, and try to explain specific details in words (This will also help individuals with developmental disabilities, for whom ambiguous expressions can be difficult to understand).
• Explain figures and photos in the slides orally so that all audiences can understand the outline.
• In online presentations, consider actively using Zoom chat for questions and answers, and adding subtitles. Also, during Q&A, it helps if the speaker introduces themselves by name to assist transcriptionists or interpreters.

◆Information accessibility for visually impaired participants

The way visual impairments affect participants differs individually, including blindness, low vision, restricted field of vision, and color vision deficiencies.

Please consider the following when preparing your presentation:

• For sessions where participants with visual impairments are present, we may request the provision of materials in braille or enlarged text, so please be prepared to provide materials in advance.
• Ensure that the content (information) of your presentation is accessible to visually impaired participants.
• When presenting visual elements like graphs and photos, explain them verbally so that the audience can understand the content.
• If a participant with a visual impairment requests text-based materials, please provide them. If any information cannot be provided, please explain this accordingly.

Please also refer to the guidance below on color vision deficiency.

◆Information accessibility for participants with color vision deficiency (color blindness)

The information conveyed by color is not the same for everyone.
Please note the following points when making your presentation.

• Make sure that the content (information) of the presentation can be correctly understood, even in black and white.
• White or yellow text on a black background is easy to read.
• Differences in brightness or vividness, font, bold, underlining, framing, shape and the combined use of letters and symbols should be used in such a way that information can be obtained without depending on color.
• Red is difficult to see and should not be used as a color to draw attention to information.
• Graphics and other figures should not only be displayed in color, but should also contain information in the form of patterns or text.

If you have any questions, please let us know by sending an e-mail to the JASID Reasonable Accommodation Working Group (reasonable_accommodation[at]jasid.org) and Conference Organizing Committee Email address (jasid2024spring[at]gmail.com) with “Information Accessibility” in the subject line.
(Please correct “[at]” to “@” in the email address before sending.)