Interview with Kyle Pelligrino-Hartman, CPACC

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?

1. I’m a creative problem-solver with a passion for connecting with people/audiences and have served in multiple people-facing roles (teaching, sales, partnerships, etc.)
2. As a person with Type 1 Diabetes and ADHD, a couple of key things that can negatively impact my experiences are over-stimulation (lots of noise, bright lights, people talking over each other during presentations), distracting behavior (such as someone’s “nervous mouse” moving all over a screen), and presentations that are extremely text-heavy. This interferes with my ability to engage with content in a meaningful way (i.e. I not only learn but am able to retain and apply information).

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?

1. Text-heavy presentations & jargon,
2. No clear goals or “ways to apply” what I’ve learned, and
3. Lack of passion from the presenter.

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?

1. Start with a 2-3 minute warm-up,
2. SMART Learning Objectives that inform
   1. a) the material being presented,
   2. b) the means by which a presenter can evaluate how effective the training/presentation is, and
   3. c) what your participants/learners should be able to do coming out of a session. It’s not enough to simply present material. The internet does that all day, and at a much faster pace. Great speakers help participants contextualize, situate, and apply knowledge.
3. Agenda,
4. Concise use of slides,
5. Use of analogies to illustrate points,
6. Providing opportunities for participants to engage in the content.

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?

1. Understand and address the multitude of learning styles – this by definition will help be more inclusive, as learning styles are impacted by disabilities,
2. Research – what specific needs do PwD’s require to be able to engage in content,
3. Stay humble – no way to be perfectly inclusive; if you slip up, acknowledge it, apologize, and move on,
4. Limit text-heavy presentations and jargon as much as possible.

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.?

Learning to present more inclusively is fundamentally part of being an effective presenter/trainer/communicator, and understanding the role that digital accessibility plays in reaching audiences is a valuable tool for engaging a broader audience. This isn’t something just “to do,” but rather another way to improve your craft! Also, ADHD folks love lists if you can’t already tell! 😉