Presentation Tips | Text Resize | Speech to Speech | More to come
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
TO ENHANCE YOUR PRESENTATIONS
I am a woman with Spastic Athetoid Cerebral Palsy who has a BA in Therapeutic Recreation and a Rehabilitation Technology Certificate.I started doing presentations when I was one of the very first people to receive a Service Dog in the area where I live.
The purpose of these first presentations had two goals:
A. Raise people’s awareness of the existence of dogs that assist with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) for people with physical disabilities (other than blindness) and that these service animals have the same access rights as guide dogs,
B. Generate people’s interest in either volunteering for the organization that trained my dog or donating money.
My schooling in Therapeutic Recreation helped me fine tune my skills with these types of presentations but my nine years as an assistant to a friend who has her Masters in Special Education and teaches a “Disability and Society” class at a university has given me the “tips“ I am sharing here.
I have done most of my presentations about subjects that either have positively affected me personally or that I am passionate about and compared to the few mandatory ones required in school on assigned topics, preparing and doing a presentation on something you are passionate about is definitely easier.
#1 Always start gathering the information you are going to present (especially if you have to cover a subject that you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with) early enough to:
1. Arrange it into a speech format,
2. If necessary, program it into an Alternative Augmentative Communication device, (The voices on these devices are becoming easier to understand, there are more choices [i.e., women’s voices, men’s voices, children’s voices] and much more “user-friendly” so if your speech is negatively impacting your ability to communicate it might be worth trying one.) This website has information on Alternative Augmentative Communication devices: http://www.abilityhub.com
3. Practice to make sure you can “say” it in your allotted time.
#2 Presenting the material in a way that will enhance each person’s processing style has the added benefit of making it easier for the audience to understand a speaker with a speech disability. The different learning styles are: visual, audio and kinesthetic. (This web page gives a short definition of each style: ).
A. If it is possible, have a copy of your presentation for every person that will be in the audience.
i. This frees the Audio learner from the need to take notes,
ii. Gives the Visual learner the written word to follow along with as it is being read.
iii. Provides the Kinesthetic learner a place to take notes.
B. I read my presentation word for word in our class because we have many people who have English as their second language and they have a difficult time understanding my speech. However, that does stifle ones spontaneity and creativity so I recommend using your judgment on whether to embellish or stick with the “script”. Doing the first section word for word can get the audience used to your speech and embellishing later may work.
C. Format it into a PowerPoint presentation and/or a DVD.
D. If your presentation site has the technical support to do a PowerPoint presentation, this format allows for creativity while putting every word of your speech in a more user-friendly PowerPoint format.
i.This can be done in lieu of the printed copy but a printed copy is good to have available because it can act as a backup for when the technology decides to stop working.
ii. Add photos or data graphs to your PowerPoint slides: this gives the people who think in pictures a break from the written word.
E. If you have a reoccurring presentation and access to the right computer technology you can record your presentation and play it as a DVD.
i. There is also the option of recruiting a friend to do the voice-over for you on the DVD.
#3 If possible try the microphone (assuming there is one) to see how well it picks up your voice or the voice of your Alternative Augmentative Communication device before the time you are to do your talk. There are some excellent microphones now and you can even get your own personal portable microphone (like the one on this webpage: http://www.iltsource.com/) if volume is a problem for you.
#4 Do your best to arrive fifteen to twenty minutes early. This gives you time to get things set up.
#5 When you start your presentation tell the audience how to communicate with you.This will answer some of their unspoken questions and make them more comfortable while you are speaking to them.
The most common of these may be, Always ask me to repeat something if you do not understand me.
The second is, Never pretend to understand me because I will know. Your body language and very wrong answers give you away every time.
One of my personal things is “Never watch my head for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer because my cerebral palsy causes my head to shake ‘no’ when I am really saying ‘yes’.”
Here is a website that has other tips and I highly recommend “The Ten Commandments of Communicating with People With Disabilities” video: http://www.diversityshop.com/
#6 I do a lot of presentations dealing with disability awareness and I am the type of person who gets into very interesting situations that are frustrating at the time but very funny afterwards. So I tell some funny stories if appropriate and let them know it is okay to laugh because I am laughing.
#7 One thing I have learned in over fifteen years of doing presentations is that after I give my speech the audience always has a more positive opinion of me. So try to relax and don’t worry about any mistakes you make.
Most people are impressed that you are willing to get up in front of people because they wouldn’t do that.
There is no text resize tool on this site. This is because it is much better if you set your preferences in your browser for bigger type if that is what you need. You can set it so nothing ever displays at smaller than 14pt font or any other size you need. You can also set your preferences to Arial as a default font because it is easiest to read.
This article written by Ian Lloyd, in cooperation with Accessify.com, tells IE and Firefox users how to resize their text. (I guess Safari users are so smart they don’t need help!) Its also a video.
If you are finding it difficult to read some text when viewing a web site you can resize the text up and down to suit your needs. However, by default web browsers — for example Internet Explorer and Firefox — do not make it obvious that you can do this; effectively they hide these useful controls.
Using Internet Explorer, otherwise known as IE, you can change the font size by selecting the View menu item and then selecting the Text Size option — you have 5 size settings to pick from. This is useful to know and once you select this setting, it is remembered for all web sites that you visit.
A better option is to place a text resize control permanently on your toolbar. To do this, press your right mouse button on the toolbar area to bring up the contextual menu and choose ‘Customize’. A list of available toolbar buttons appears on the left. Scroll down to the Text icon and then select ‘Add’. You can also change the display of the icons while you’re hear, just in case you find the toolbar icons a little small too. Once you hit the close button, you’ll see a Text Size control there, making it much easier to change the size.
If you are using IE 7, the process is much the same — right click on the toolbar, but you need to select ‘Customize Command Bar’ then ‘Add or Remove Commands’
In Firefox, you can increase the font size in a similar way to Internet Explorer. Unlike IE, you are not limited to 5 sizes (that being two notches up and two notches down from the default).
Unfortunately Firefox does not provide a toolbar icon for text resizing, even if you choose to customise. However, Patrick Lauke from the University of Salford has created an extension that creates a set of buttons that you can add to your toolbar. Simply go to the Firefox Extensions page and search for the ‘Text Size Toolbar’, or go to tinyurl.com/2ztudx. Once you’ve installed the extension and restarted Firefox, right click on your toolbar and choose customise. There you will find the resize buttons which you can drag and drop on to your toolbar.
There are other ways that you can change text size on a web page. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, simply hold down the CTRL key — or the command key if you are a Mac user — and move the scroll wheel up and down. For Firefox users, hold down the CTRL key and press the plus (+) and minus (-) keys. Finally, if you are using Internet Explorer 7, you can hold down the CTRL key and press the plus or minus keys which will zoom the whole page in and out of view.
HOW TO USE SPEECH TO SPEECH (STS) SERVICE
by Rita Roberson
First, for those who have not heard of this service, Speech To Speech (STS) is an ADA mandated free service that provides access to telephone communication for people with disabilities that affect their speech. It is also available in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Australia (is not free), New Zealand and Sweden.
Each state has a number you can call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to have a Communication Assistant (CA) revoice every word you say during a phone call. Phone calls are strictly confidential: the Communication Assistant is trained to forget the conversation as soon as he/she disconnects with the caller. This website has the number for each state as well as a training video and other useful items www.speechtospeech.org. You can also dial 711 and ask for Speech To Speech. This number is for the relay service for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and they will transfer you to the Speech To Speech service. This number can also be used by a friend or colleague who needs assistance understanding you over the phone to call you.
Here is how Speech To Speech works.
A. Call Speech To Speech and give them your name.
B. Now you can:
I. Give the Communication Assistant the information needed to proceed with the call.
II. Choose a person or business you have saved to a Frequent Call list.
III. And/or choose a message you have prepared and saved under a name.
Here is how it works:
i. Say “I want to call Dominoes and use the message named Sausage.” And they will call the number of the Dominoes Pizza that you stored and say, “Hello, this is Rita Roberson calling with Speech To Speech CA #123, do you know how to use Speech To Speech?” If they don’t know how to use it, here is what they say, “The person who is calling can hear you but has a speech disability and I will revoice everything she says. When you hear me say, ‘Go ahead.’ It is your turn to speak.” (That is called “Announcing” and there may be times that you may not want them to do that. You can ask them not to announce.) Then they will say “The caller has prepared a message for you.” and read the message, “Hi, My name is Rita Roberson and I want to order a sausage and tomato pizza with a bottle of cola to be delivered to this address, please.”
ii. If you are going to use the Saving option, they give you a Pen Number and you have to give them the number when you want to have them use anything saved on your lists.
IV. If you have a hearing loss and the Communication Assistant is not coming through your phone loudly enough for you, they are able to turn the volume up when you ask them to.
V. The Communication Assistant is there to help facilitate communication and it is okay to ask them to only revoice if the person is unable to understand you. Some will notice that the person is understanding you and stay in the background unless a problem arises.
VI. This service also can be utilized by people who use Augmentative, Alternative Communication devices.
VII. Due to the unreliability of cell phone connections they discourage use of STS with cell phone.
I use this service and I love it. My PCA also likes it because she doesn’t have to help me make phone calls and talk for me as much as she used to. I’ll admit, old habits are a little hard to shake but I am using it more often now. My last bit of advice is: if you are like me and take a few seconds to respond when the person answers, use this service (even if you know that the person you are calling understands you). Speaking from experience, it will save you the frustration of being hung up on and save the person you are calling the embarrassment of accidentally hanging up on you.
How To Access Free Books On Tape
The NLS provides books on tape free of charge to people with vision impairments, physical disabilities that make it difficult to handle books and also for people with learning disabilities. This service is really easy to use and totally free.
Toll-Free: 1-888-NLS-READ
(1-888-657-7323) to connect to a local library
FAX: (202) 707-0712
The paperwork must be signed by a doctor, social worker, etc., to verify that you do have a qualifying condition and mailed to the address provided.
They will send you a catalog (also available on their website) of the books and you list the books you want to read and send it free of charge in an unsealed envelope back to the library.
They provide the special four track player that are required to listen to their books (one of the options is a player that doesn’t require flipping the tape over)
Tapes from your list are sent through The mail and when you are finished listening to them you slide the mailing address card out, flip it over, slide it back in and drop it in the mail (postage is free).
