Time: April 10, 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm
Speakers: Courtney Fleeger
Neurodiversity brings unique perspectives and needs to digital experiences. This session explores how we can support these users through inclusive design strategies grounded in research. Learn how to apply cognitive-friendly design patterns and create interfaces that reduce friction and foster engagement. Whether you’re new to accessibility or deep in inclusive design, you’ll leave with actionable insights to make your work more empathetic and effective.
The live session is canceled, but the speaker is providing a recording of the talk after the conference.
Time: April 4, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Speaker: Cheryl Cline
To reach the widest audience, user-experience writers must strive to write inclusive, accessible copy. I will critique real-world examples of UX copy, list resources that UX writers and teams can refer to when ideating and iterating, and address some of the pushback that UX writers and other stakeholders often face when advocating for an inclusive user experience. Attendees will come away with an introductory framework for evaluating website and UX copy.
The live session is canceled, but the speaker is providing a recording of the talk after the conference.
Time: April 3, 9:45 am – 10:45 am
Speaker: Aurora Cruz-Torres
In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) holds transformative potential for enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the university classroom. This presentation will explore how AI tools and technologies can be harnessed to create inclusive learning environments, address biases, and support diverse student populations. Attendees will gain insights into practical applications of AI, such as personalized learning experiences that accommodate diverse needs, data-driven approaches to identifying and mitigating biases in teaching practices, and AI-powered tools that foster more equitable student engagement. The session will also address the ethical considerations and challenges of implementing AI in a way that genuinely promotes DEI.
Speaker: Aurora Cruz-Torres
In today’s diverse educational landscape, providing equitable support for underrepresented college students is crucial. This presentation delves into the potential of ChatGPT and other AI tools to address these students’ unique challenges. We will explore how AI programs can offer underrepresented students academic assistance, personalized guidance, mental health support, and inclusive resources. By leveraging the capabilities of AI-driven language models, we can enhance access to information, create more inclusive learning environments, and foster the academic success and well-being of underrepresented college students. This presentation aims to discover innovative ways AI can positively impact educational equity and inclusion.
Speaker: Todd Spinner
Unfortunately, little research has been done on adults with Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), or defined as neurodivergent. Many younger creatives may have been diagnosed as being somewhere on the autism spectrum as children. However, many more, especially older individuals may have not been officially diagnosed. This presentation introduces those in the creative and tech fields to strategies for working with co-workers who may have ASD or are neurodivergent, which is not often addressed in diversity and inclusion initiatives. Attendees will learn about strategies for working with, supporting and succeeding with neurodivergent coworkers as well as receive a guide on working with ASD and neurodivergent coworkers and teams.
Speaker: Terresa Moses, Lisa Mercer
Racism Untaught is an iterative framework and toolkit that shows organizations how to recognize racism in designed artifacts, systems, and experiences and how to create anti-racist design approaches. Throughout our keynote, we will explore the foundation of our work which includes our agency as the designers of artifacts, systems, and experiences and how the designs we each develop and implement in the spaces around us affect historically underinvested communities.
We will also explore six major paths of study, including:
- The Racism Untaught research study and the development of the framework.
- Defining design and the agency we each have in the development and implementation of artifacts, systems, and experiences in the spaces around us and how they affect historically oppressed communities.
- The individual’s positionality in the context of racism and oppression and the intersectionality of the conversation on concepts of racism, sexism, ableism, classism, and other isms.
- A shared language that helps participants identify how oppression shows up in the world around us.
- The identification of racialized artifacts, systems, and experiences and how design perpetuates and reinforces the status quo and various levels of oppression; and last.
- The role of equity, ethics, and responsibility in the design discipline leading us to collective liberation. The Racism Untaught workshops have been conducted with over 3,000 participants – over 700 hours of workshops, 12 college-level courses, and numerous national and international presentations in academia, industry, and community. Including PayPal, Target, Apple, Spotify, Shopify, Matterport, and our academic partners including Parsons School of Design, Louisiana State, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, University of Tennessee, University of Cincinnati, and Auburn University.