4 Disabled Women
Practical Suggestions to Enhance Presentations
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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/aac/aac-devices.htm

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: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.berman/different_learning_styles).

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/JustAMP_Digital_Voice_Amplifier_p/justamp.htm) 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/store/10comvid.html.



#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.