Marketing Legend/Icon
SETH GODIN
epic interview
I still remember seeing my disabled father fall at a gas station.
Even though it was over 30 years ago, the traumatic “flash-bulb” memory is still (and forever will be) ingrained in my mind.
My husky, 6’3” father was taking a couple of steps back after filling up the tank, and had no way of seeing the short, concrete poles designed to protect the pumps from collision.
Continue reading Design for others’ current disabilities… and your future ones.
I had the great honor of being invited back to An Event Apart Denver (2019) to record a live podcast episode with Mina Markham, Farai Madzima, & Derek Featherstone on the important topics of Accessibility, Design Inclusion & Ethics, Hiring & Retaining Diverse Talent and Landing a Job in UX.
Amazingly, we were able to cover all of this in just under an hour!
Thanks to the co-founders of An Event Apart, Jeffrey Zeldman + Eric Meyer for letting me share a stage I’ve revered for over a decade now, thanks to Toby, Marci, Mike & company for the amazing work behind the scenes at every AEA event. Also, very special thanks to Todd Libby for capturing this amazing 4K video on his new iPhone he got just to do this for me. 🤗
Derek Featherstone teaches us how designing for people with disabilities is really just better design for everybody. He shows us how people with disabilities aren’t different from us, they just use different tools to accomplish the same things. He encourages us to apply empathy to grow our skills in learning how to design for accessibility. He also reveals how taking small steps to incorporate something new into our design process could change everything.
Derek Featherstone is an internationally known speaker and authority on accessibility and inclusive design. He has been working on the web since 1999, starting as a web developer. He migrated to the field of accessibility and quickly discovered the need to move thinking about accessibility and inclusion into the design process. He founded and led an international team of accessibility and usability experts at Simply Accessible, which was recently acquired by Level Access, where Derek is now the Chief Experience Officer – focused on ensuring that accessibility and inclusion are seen as an integral part of user experience and service design, rather than as a simple checklist afterthought. Derek lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife and their 4 children. He’s also a fitness instructor and 3 time Iron Man triathlon finisher.
Continue reading 051: Accessible Design = Better Design with Derek Featherstone
