Interview with Trudy Karl

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 have multiple disabilities. Two are specifically relevant and impact my ability to participate in live and virtual events: tinnitus and likely undiagnosed dyslexia.

Tinnitus, in particular, creates a unique form of hearing loss for me, with a persistent tone at 11,000 Hz, a very high frequency. Occasionally, I may also experience lower audible tones. Unfortunately, I have not learned of hearing aids that are truly helpful for my condition. I am also very cautious about protecting my hearing. Amplified sounds could potentially cause more harm to my ears or trigger even louder tinnitus, making me highly sensitive to loud noises.

As I learn more about dyslexia, I have started to suspect that I may have it. While I am not entirely sure, I do recall struggling with reading comprehension as a child and confusing lowercase letters like “d” and “b” and numerals like “3” and “E.” Additionally, large blocks of text on a page or screen have always appeared to jump around, which continues to be the case for me.

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?

As someone with tinnitus, I struggle to comprehend speech when a speaker does not enunciate, speaks softly, or fades off at the end of their sentence. My newer tendency to read lips adds to the challenge, particularly when a speaker has their back turned while talking. In virtual events, unclear speakers can also pose problems for auto-captioning, potentially leading to inaccuracies and a loss of meaning. All of these issues can be incredibly frustrating and diminish the overall experience.

Protecting my hearing is a top priority for me. During in-person events, excessively loud audio speakers can have a detrimental effect on my hearing. Loud noises can trigger my tinnitus to become even more severe, resulting in a prolonged and uncomfortable increase in volume that can last for hours.

In regards to my dyslexia, presentation slides that contain an excessive amount of text can be challenging to read quickly enough. It would be helpful to either provide sufficient time for reading a slide or, even better, simplify the text or utilize bullet points. Doing so would aid in faster comprehension and offer a contextual overview to supplement the presentation.

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?

With all conferences I have attended, both live and virtual, speakers who enunciate clearly and face the audience while speaking make it much easier to understand them.

At one live conference, in particular, I noticed appropriate sound levels. They must have performed careful sound checks to ensure the audio speakers were not too loud, which was a significant relief for me. Safe sound levels at conferences can still be rare. Additionally, concise and impactful presentation slides with clear verbiage significantly improved the experience for myself and everyone in attendance.

It became evident that with each of these experiences, consideration of presentation style and materials can increase accessibility and inclusivity.

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?

Inclusive speaking and presenting are incredibly valuable to many people, not just those with disabilities or special needs. As a speaker, it is worth the extra effort and time spent carefully crafting what you deliver toward being inclusive. With that said, anyone involved in professional communication could gain a great deal from resources on inclusivity, such as offered by Denis Boudreau.

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.?

Anything we can do to communicate more clearly and effectively is worthwhile. In my work as an Accessibility Consultant for Deque Systems, I know the value of empathy toward anyone who has felt marginalized or forgotten. All of us can benefit from putting ourselves in another person’s shoes to imagine their challenges, and we then can do what is necessary to be more inclusive.