Interview with Amy Amantea

QUESTION 01 Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and how your disability might impact your experience, as someone who attends live in-person and virtual events?

My name is Amy Amantea and I identify as a white settler who lives with blindness, dyslexia, chronic pain and chronic illness . I am a well respected accessibility consultant in Vancouver, BC, and am and actor and creator as well.

I attend a lot of conferences and virtual workshops and find that mostly they don’t take my access needs into consideration in the way that they are designed and presented. As a leader of workshops, I do my best to create safer spaces where people can access the content in an accessible way for them.

With dyslexia, my brain is wired differently and so I find that some speakers speak too fast and don’t utilize inflection and tone of voice to help punctuate a message. As a blind person, I can’t see presentations, slide shows, videos, photos. Nothing is available with audio description, and no one reads out the slide in their presentations. There are a series of words that I don’t have access to, and no one shares a description of a photo or graph that may hold important content.

Speakers also don’t identify to me who they are. I call this a “diversity description”, like the one I shared in my introduction. The framework of audio description has set up white and able bodied as the default. This is both racist and ableist. I don’t know what the diversity of a space is, unless someone tells me, leaving me to make assumptions based on accents or the pronunciation of a last name – this is not a world I want to live in.

Documents that are distributed don’t often come in accessible formats for me to even follow up on any resource materials. As a person who lives with chronic pain, a seat is much needed, but is hard to find without sighted guide assistance. And if we are watching a panel discussion or multiple presenters, having someone say their name before they speak means that I can better follow the conversation. It is a misconception that blind people remember voices all the time – it is very labour intensive.

QUESTION 02 Thinking back on some of your experiences attending in-person or virtual events, what are some of the worst things speakers, trainers, and other communication experts can do to ruin your experience as an attendee?

• Using the term “as you can see”. I hate this, it is a filler term that reminds me that since I can’t see, my lived experience is not valued in the space. That the sight centric world is the only world in which we should be living in.
• When presenters don’t inform me of all the detailed information on a slide, or in a presentation. If everyone else is seeing this and I cant, I am missing out on the basic content.
• Assuming that putting something in the chat makes it accessible for everyone.
• Responding to the chat without reading out what the question is first. If I don’t know what you are responding to, then I am not able to connect the content. For example, reading the chat and saying, “yes, Johnny, you make a valid point” – well what was the point? I can’t read it.
• Speaking so fast that I can’t follow the conversation.
• When multiple speakers speak on top of each other and don’t identify who they are before they speak.
• When someone assumes I can read their name tag, or the name in their virtual square.
• Assuming that I can read/see the screen being shared.

QUESTION 03 Can you share some of the great things speakers, trainers, and other communication experts sometimes do that make a positive impact on your ability to fully enjoy your in-person or virtual event experiences?

• Saying your name every time before you speak. “This is Amy speaking…” when there are multiple presenters. This is so helpful.
• Using “diversity description”, so I know who I am sharing space with. If you are a presenter talking about racism in the workplace and you are not a BIPOC person, that lens is important to know.
• Providing materials in advance of a presentation, so I can go through them in advance and follow along with them if I choose to. Taking notes is hard for me, so having the materials is a great benefit.
• Describe images and read all the text on your slides.
• Not using phrases like “as you can see”.
• Having video content available with audio description or made with integrated description.

QUESTION 04 If you had one piece of advice to give speakers, trainers, and other communication experts, so their content became more inclusive of people who have disabilities, what would it be?

Think of your presentation like it is on a radio show. This will help you build the muscle of describing and reading out your slide content, and it will remove the “as you can see”, because on the radio we are all in a non sight centric environment. Please share your name before your speak and your “diversity description”, and help combat the structure of racism and ableism that needs to be dismantled and unlearned for us to share a safer space together where we can better learn.

QUESTION 05 Thank you for sharing some of your insights with us today. As we wrap up our conversation, is there anything that you’d like to add, such as another thought, another piece of advice, another perspective, etc.?

Training people on disability etiquette, language, and equity means that I can enjoy a space without having to spend the emotional labour to be the “teaching moment”, and not have to advocate for myself in every moment. What a gift it would be to be able to access content and spaces the same as a typical person!