Instructions for Speakers

As part of our efforts at fostering diversity and inclusiveness, we request you to adhere to the following guidelines on how to prepare your conference presentation.

Design for accessibility: Color and hearing perception varies from person to person depending on several factors such as age, color blindness, etc. To ensure that the contents of your paper are accessible to all, consider taking the following steps:

• Use patterns, symbols and textures to emphasize and contrast visual elements in graphs and figures, rather than using colors alone.

• Use a color-blind friendly palette that is designed with accessibility for visually impaired people. Avoid bad color combinations such as green/red or blue/purple.

• Use close captioning (real-time speech to text) in the presentation software of your choice (e.g., MS powerpoint and Google slides). Also please make sure you look towards the audience while presenting your work.

Use inclusive examples: Fine technical writing makes liberal use of examples to elucidate complex ideas. But they also offer an opportunity to promote inclusiveness by challenging common implicit assumptions and biases.

• Avoid the exclusive use of male pronouns (“he”, “his”). Consider interspersing with female (“she”, “her”) or gender-neutral (“they”, “their”) ones.

• Use gender-neutral names in examples: instead of Alice and Bob, try Alex and Jun. Consider names that reflect a variety of cultural backgrounds: Xin, Sergey, Naveena, Tuan, Esteban, Sasha, etc. The same applies to icons.

• Refrain from assuming binary gender. For instance, populate a “gender” column in a table using more than just “male” and “female” values.

• Be mindful of the diverse backgrounds people have: not everyone has two parents, not every married man has a wife, etc.

Instructions for Session Chairs

As part of our efforts at fostering diversity and inclusiveness, we encourage you to adhere to the following guidelines on how to chair your session.

• Please make sure you properly introduce the speakers before their presentation

  • Mention their names and affiliations

  • Take the time to learn how to pronounce their names in case you are not sure

  • Use their preferred pronouns

• In order to make the conference accessible to people with hearing disabilities, please remind the speakers to use close captioning (real-time speech to text) in the presentation software of their choice (e.g., MS powerpoint and Google slides). Also encourage the speakers to look towards the audience while presenting their work.

• Discussion on the presented work is an integral part of the conference. To encourage participation from minorities, please make sure you accept questions from attendees with different backgrounds (e.g., senior/junior researchers, people of color, female attendees).