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Dismissing Audience Members as Edge Cases
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to inclusive speaking typically occurs when I discuss the needs and expectations of audience members with disabilities with professional speakers. At some point or another, almost invariably, someone who’s otherwise well-intentioned will refer to these needs and expectations as a series of edge cases.
I’ll tell you right off the bat, the words “edge cases” just make my skin crawl. They just do.
What they mean is that the particular needs of people with disabilities relate to unlikely situations that are far from what would otherwise be considered a direct or obvious business priority. Their focus automatically goes to the expected effort needed to make their content accessible, as opposed to the benefits of including more people in the conversation. I can hardly blame them.
Designing a presentation or a workshop so that it works well for a potential client makes sense, when that particular client represents your expected, average audience member. But what happens when that same potential client (let’s call him John), turns out to be visually impaired, deaf, or dyslexic?
All of a sudden, John no longer fits within the parameters of what you would call expected, or “normal”. Yet John is still, in every other aspect, a perfect representation of your target…
