News

15 February 2022

Rewatch our “Accessibility, Part Two: Using Technology While Blind” webinar

On Jan. 12, our executive director Rose Robinson invited back Jennison Asuncion, Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism at LinkedIn, and Synge Tyson, a Principal Accessibility Consultant, for part 2 of our “Accessibility: Using Technology While Blind” webinar series.

In part two, Tyson and Asuncion’s discussion kicked off with a live demonstration of how screen readers do and don’t work in conjunction with websites. Screen readers are a piece of technology that helps people who have difficulties seeing digital content, like websites or applications, through audio. Those who rely on screen readers are met with challenges when websites don’t utilize alternative text. When creating websites and applications, the conversation about accessibility begins with overall inclusion.

“When we think about inclusion, we’re thinking about how do we make and create content that’s accessible for everyone regardless if you are born with a disability or born with a vision loss or acquired it later in life,” Tyson said.

Building products with an inclusive mindset also means that accessibility will not always look the same across the board.

“You’re making it accessible to be inclusive, and that’s why context matters,” Tyson said. “Sometimes people want to get bogged down into doing it this way every time [and] accessibility is not cookie cutter.”

If you missed the webinar, then you can access the full conversation below.

CMD-IT Using Tech While Blind Part 2 from CMD-IT on Vimeo.

We have more conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion this year. Register for our next webinar in March with the one and only Telle Whitney. For more information about our upcoming events, subscribe to our email newsletter.