CUDE

Many conferences, both on-site and online, offer opportunities for researchers and practitioners to present their work. There are steps you can take to make your poster accessible to conference participants who have disabilities. The following tips apply to both on-site and online posters.

People of all ages, interests, and abilities use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms to share content and engage in conversations. Millions of social media participants have disabilities, including those that impact their ability to see, hear, and access a standard keyboard and mouse. Many use assistive technologies such as screen readers to read aloud content on the screen and alternate keyboards that emulate the computer keyboard but not the mouse.

The Intrepid Museum is an excellent example of an informal STEM learning program providing information about accessibility to the community. Through their Accessibility Resources website, information is structured into four categories: Online resources, on-site resources, specialized programs, and the Community Advisors program.

Highlighting efforts at the Royal Ontario Museum, the video Making Museums Accessible promotes the full inclusion of individuals on the autism spectrum in museum offerings through focused efforts such as community partnerships, custom tours, and staff training.

The Visitor Voices session at the 2015 American Alliance of Museums Annual Expo highlighted the practice of listening to perspectives and access stories from museum visitors who have disabilities such as vision impairments, hearing loss, and autism.

The Access Informal STEM Learning (AccessISL) project supports efforts to develop a capacity building model for making informal STEM learning (ISL) opportunities more welcoming and accessible to individuals with disabilities.

There are many ways that informal STEM learning programs can support individuals with mobility impairments. Staff should consider adopting universal design (UD) principles. Universal design means that rather than designing for the average user, you design for people with differing native languages, genders, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and abilities. For more information, visit Equal Access: Universal Design of Your Informal STEM Learning Project.

With thousands of fonts to choose from, selecting a font with accessibility in mind is no easy task. Several fonts have been developed specifically to address the needs of individuals with reading-related disabilities such as dyslexia. Examples include OpenDyslexic, Dyslexie, Read Regular, and Lexie Readable.