Interview with Brenden Gilbert

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?

I am a deaf leader raising awareness on the importance of accessibility and disability inclusion. Deaf since birth, I’ve successfully navigated challenges to arrive where I am today through support from family, allies, and friends! I also am a server and unix engineer by trade.

My disability, deafness, impacts my experience daily, everywhere. It is most impacted at live in-person and virtual events due to always needing to request a sign language interpreter be present for me. Getting approval for the request is sometimes like pulling teeth – and sometimes like eating candy. This is because not every company or organization or person is the same in understanding how to ensure all people with disabilities who need equal access are provided such with no questions asked.

Also, depending on the disability, sometimes the seats or layout of the event will not accommodate the disabled person well. For example, if there is a in-person speaking event or panel, deaf people like me need to sit or be somewhere in the front with a clear view of where the interpreter will be. And the speaker. If there is a virtual event, more work is needed to ensure an accessible video call platform is used – especially with the ability to pin. Zoom is one such platform.

Other examples for deaf people like me are providing interpreters for the deaf person to be able to communicate with anyone at the in-person event or virtual event.

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?

Some of the worst things they can do are not be inclusive.

By being inclusive I mean ensuring their content is accessible with captioning, there are available seats up front for me to have the best view for an interpreter or the captioning part, and skipping us if we have questions or want to have a dialogue. For virtual events – pacing the event to ensure that people like me can actually participate and not get lost.

Some other things I can consider for other people with disabilities – colorblind safe and readable slides (no small fonts that can’t be read), ample room for people with assistive devices or wheelchairs to get around, and especially content that is digestible for people with neurodiversity, if possible.

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?

Some great people have engaged me, and were willing to have conversations with me on various things.

In my experience, the majority of in-person events were amazing as long as I could get an in-person interpreter to walk around with me or be present at the event. For virtual, I’ve seen more and more events ensuring they are captioned – and in some instances, ASL interpreters were provided (example – Google I/O and Meta Connect).

Great presenters or events have easily digestible content, provide breaks, and ensure everyone is able to participate and feel included.

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?

Please plan your event or presentation with everyone in mind. By everyone I mean ensure people from all walks of life can be included. Find out who is going, and accommodate them. Or, ensure it is very easy to find the accommodation request form, and that it will be followed up on.

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.?

An opposite view – I wish more and more organizations were more inclusive and invited more disabled speakers to speak at events!

I am a registered speaker at allAmericanSpeakers.com – and it is hard to market myself for events where inspiration and motivation are needed for anybody.

I have found that by presenting often at new hire orientations at Meta (35 times in 2 years!) that everyone is inspired and brings the message back to their home office or country. And it DOES spread. I’ve gotten people messaging me a year or two later thanking me for my message! Even one person recently left a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile!

Don’t focus too hard on DEI! Focus also on people with disabilities – we deserve more visibility. The more visibility we get, the more people get used to it. And as a result are amazing allies or will be more inclusive!