Improving Accessibility for your Events with Svetlana Kouznetsova

This interview is a little different than most. See, Svetlana Kouznetsova is an accessibility consultant who’s also deaf. Our interview was conducted completely using Google Docs. The voice you’ll hear on this episode is Erin,  my wife, who graciously agreed to do Svetlana’s side of the conversation. Svetlana’s story is an interesting one. We talk about how she immigrated to the US from Russia, and what it was like growing up deaf there vs. in the US. We also discuss the importance of accessibility at events; why it’s a must and not just a “nice to have.”

Show Notes

* Svetlana Kouznetsova
* Svetlana on Twitter
* Code of Professional Ethics for Captioners and Interpreters – Audio Accessibility

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Transcript
Break: Hey everybody. As we gear up for 2020, I want to hear from you and the things that you’d like to see on this show. If you have a question, a comment, a topic, a guest, or any suggestion for How I Built It in 2020, let me know by going to HowIBuilt.it/feedback. That’s HowIBuilt.it/feedback if you would like to see something on this show in 2020. And now, on with the show.
Intro: This interview is a little different than any other episode I’ve done for this show. You see, Svetlana Kouznetsova is an accessibility consultant who’s also deaf, so our interview was conducted completely using Google Docs. The voice you’ll hear on this episode is Erin, my wife, who graciously agreed to do Svetlana’s side of the conversation. Svetlana’s story is an interesting one, so we are excited to tell it, my wife and me. We talk about how she immigrated to the United States from Russia, what it was like growing up deaf there versus what it’s like here with the accessibility act that was passed here in the United States. We also talk about the importance of accessibility at live events, and why it’s a must and not just a “Nice to have.” This is a conversation that I’ve had with people about transcripts for this show. While it’s an added cost, I feel having them is incredibly important. I was convinced of that, by the way. That wasn’t always my position. But now that I have them and now that I’ve seen the impact that they’ve made, I know that they are incredibly important so that my show can reach everybody. So we’ll get into all of that in a minute, but first, a word from our sponsors.
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