MO Digital Accessibility Summit: Sessions/Schedule

David Sloan
Chief Accessibility Officer, Vispero

We know that technical conformance with accessibility standards doesn’t guarantee a digital resource can be successfully used by people with disabilities. That’s why a critical part of digital accessibility strategy is involving people with disabilities in user research efforts to help define requirements for digital resources and in evaluating what’s built meets those requirements. This session will outline the motivations for ensuring user research includes people with disabilities, and will describe effective strategies for ensuring different types of research activity are inclusive of people with disabilities. We’ll consider practicalities such as selecting the right research activity for the right purpose, scheduling, recruitment, moderation, and making best use of the data gathered from the research – and doing so when budget, resources, and time might be limited.

Key takeaways:

1. Argue for the importance of including people with disabilities in user research as part of accessible digital product design and development.
2. Choose suitable research activities that capture the perspectives of people with disabilities when defining requirements for a digital product and when evaluating a product in development.
3. Identify effective ways to make a research activity more inclusive of people with disabilities so that the data gathered is reliable and useful for project and product stakeholders.

Susie Drake
Teacher, Central Missouri Vision Services

Many accessibility barriers appear in everyday digital materials such as Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, and reports. These barriers often occur not because of complex technical issues, but because content creators are unaware of simple accessibility practices.

This practical session will highlight ten of the most common accessibility mistakes found in digital documents and presentations. Participants will explore examples of inaccessible content and learn straightforward techniques to correct these issues using built-in accessibility tools and design strategies.

Topics will include document structure, heading hierarchy, meaningful alt text, accessible tables, color contrast, reading order, and accessible chart and graphic design. The session will emphasize practical steps that content creators can implement immediately to improve accessibility.

By the end of the session, participants will have a clear understanding of common accessibility pitfalls and how to create digital materials that are more inclusive, usable, and effective for everyone.

Key takeaways:

1. Identify common accessibility barriers in documents and presentations.
2. Apply simple techniques to improve accessibility when creating digital content.
3. Use accessibility tools and design strategies to produce more inclusive materials.

Lainie Strange, Web Accessibility Specialist
State of Missouri, ITSD-Web Team

The Federal 2024 ADA Title II final rule affects both state and local government. For some, this compliance deadline is this month, for others, April 2027, depending upon the population size. A step-by-step roadmap is a great way to assess your current accessibility compliance as well as mature your organization’s accessibility program.

Key takeaways:

1. Where do I start the accessibility process? We’ll review the components of an accessibility roadmap (State of MO example): This includes a comprehensive content inventory, accessibility audit and initial accessibility remediation, among other key elements.
2. Integrating and sustaining accessibility in your organization. The roadmap includes creation of an accessibility policy/plan. We will review the components of that plan.
3. Local Government and Successful Accessibility Implementation. Review a sample accessibility policy and status report presentation from the City of Blue Springs, MO. 

Tori Chance: Coordinator – IDEA Data / Business Systems

Do you want your audience to understand what you are telling them? Do you want to make sure the point you are making is the one that is coming across? Then learning about plain language is for you. Join us as we discuss ways to improve and implement using plain language in your documents as well as how using plain language can improve your communication internally and externally.

Key takeaways:

1. Why plain language is so important?
2. Ways to use plain language.
3. How plain language will improve your overall communication.

Dave Kingsbury

This session addresses how to provide visual accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing people using open and closed captions, sign language, and transcripts. These methods are applicable in a wide range of ICT use cases including live and prerecorded content in virtual meetings and presentations, websites, and social media. Legal and technical standards will be explained with an emphasis on sufficient vs. insufficient techniques and how to use common resources correctly to achieve compliance. The difference between baseline accessibility requirements and requirements when responding to individual requests will also be addressed.

Key takeaways:

1. Understand the various legal and technical standards that apply to visual accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing people on ICT platforms routinely used by the State.
2. Recognize the strengths and limitations of common resources used to create visual accessibility.
3. Be able to select and apply the most appropriate resources to ensure cost-effective compliance with visual accessibility standards.

Sami Jo Freeman

Public trust relies on information that everyone can access, yet many local government teams may struggle with the “last mile” of ADA compliance. This one-hour session will demystify InDesign’s built-in accessibility tools, shifting the focus from tedious manual PDF fixes to a streamlined, accessible workflow in InDesign. We will touch on the basics alt-text and tagging and demonstrate how a few strategic changes in your design process can slash remediation time and eliminate the headache of post-export PDF repairs. By highlighting high-quality examples, we’ll prove that professional, visually stunning publications and ADA compliance aren’t just compatible – they’re easier than you think.

Key takeaways:

1. Unlock hidden InDesign accessibility features
2. Save remediation time with a streamlined InDesign workflow
3. Creating high-quality, accessible publications is possible

Hope Moorhead
Ian White
Daniel Quay

This session explores the journey that the Missouri Tableau Center of Excellence took to equip the Missouri Tableau User Group to become accessibility champions. The journey started with a call for action and an opportunity to make change through the Show Me Challenge program. Through that journey guides, check lists, and the Data for All: Accessibility and External Publishing were developed and launched. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how a holistic approach—blending strategy, practical tools, and community engagement—can successfully make data truly accessible for all users.

Key takeaways:

1. Strategic vision is the catalyst for change
2. Empowerment beings with practical and actional guidance
3. Community and collaboration is what makes change stick

Chad Rohr – DSS, Assistive Technology Coordinator

This session will offer a hands-on look at how people who rely on assistive technologies navigate digital content. Participants will observe how screen readers, magnifiers, and other tools interact with everyday materials such as documents, presentations and web pages.

The session will highlight how design choices can either support accessibility or unintentionally create barriers. By seeing these interactions in action, participants will gain a deeper understanding of what makes digital content truly usable for everyone.

Key takeaways:

1. Recognize Common Accessibility Barriers
2. Understand How Assistive Technologies Navigate Content
3. Apply Strategies to Improve Accessibility

Rachel Plaggenberg
Briana Rivera-McHugh

Ensuring social media is accessible to all people is crucial in the world we live in. It fosters inclusion, promotes wider reach, allows for better user experience, keeps people connected, and it may be legally required. Mostly though, making content available to everyone is the right thing to do.

Key takeaways:

1. Interactive perspective-takingto step outside one’s own mindset to understand content from another’s point of view.
2. Learn basic concepts surrounding social media and accessibility.
3. Critical thinking for reviewing social media content prior to posting.