Interview with Dennie Declercq

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 Dennie Declercq, Microsoft MVP and a person on the autism spectrum, and identify myself as a person with autism (person first language). In addition to this, my sight is not good, but I am not blind and with contact lenses, I can help myself. Although there are times when other speakers present their slide deck that the font is way too small for me, but it seems that the slides work for everyone else.

Also, my mental health, especially anxiety, raised very high during times of the pandemic. Crazy enough, I wasn’t that afraid to catch Covid and die, but I was/am afraid to be in isolation, to be locked up for some time. This is directly related to my PTSD (that I also have) for an experience when I was 13 (undiagnosed).

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?

First of all, this is a nice question! Thanks for asking. I give you my top 3:

1. Too small font type
2. Bad color contrast
3. Too many assumptions (some talks increase anxiety)

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?

For virtual conferences it’s engaging, extending the conversation with tools like Slido. I also love if they are telling a personal authentic story in addition to the tech-related stuff. For in-person conferences, I also like the authentic and personal touch. For interaction then, I love it if they are engaging with the audience with a “raise your hands, if…” game.

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?

My top 5 suggestions would be:

1. Be conscious about color usage,
2. Be conscious about font-size,
3. Be authentic,
4. Engage with your audience,
5. Be aware for own assumptions because there is danger of ableism.

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.?

I LOVE research into inclusion and (dis) abilities on all fields on living. I love that you do this at the moment for public speaking!