About Testimonials, Speaker Ratings, Press
"I still get compliments on how well Shawn's keynote set the tone for the conference. It was insightful, inspiring, and presented a call to action."
— Alan Houser, STC Summit Conference Manager"Had a wonderful, inspiring panel given by Shawn Henry of the W3C on accessibility this morning to kick off the [SXSW] interactive panels."
— Chandani, HealthEd Interactive"Rated in the top 5 of our 120 presentations"
- Bryan Mason, WEB2000 Program ManagerSXSW panel "Accessibility Wars: A Report From the Trenches" rated 4.6/5.0 (conference average 3.68)
Speaking and Presentations
Web Design World 2010
- 4.67/5 Style and delivery
- 5/5 Knowledge of subject
- 5/5 Speaker open to my specific problems/questions
- 4.75/5 Overall rating of this session
Comments:
- Excellent session!
- Great visuals and examples.
- Very open to the interests of the audience.
- Very well presentation information, probably the easiest to read
- Very good, very informative.
- Heart-felt presentation - The best presentation so far.
UPA - Usability Professionals' Association International Conference 2008
Rating:
- 4.70/5 Content - key points, detail, examples
- 4.58/5 Organization - flow, pacing, structure
- 4.73/5 Delivery - effective presentation, engaging, understandable
- 4.85/5 Benefit - can you apply this in your work or study
- 4.70/5.0 Would you recommend this topic?
- 4.76/5.0 Would you recommend this presenter?
Comments on subject matter:
- Excellent content. Very helpful & useful.
- This was an excellent presentation with very appropriate interaction - not a lot but very rich questioning of the audience
- Very, very informative. Good background information.
- Nice presentation on a very important topic
- Good, very detailed
- Very relevant for me
- Very substantive - excellent
- Informative, interesting, good flow
Comments on presenter:
- Best session I've attended @UPA 2008!
- Wonderful presenter - very knowledgeable and engaging!
- Very knowledgeable, clear - well done!
- Excellent presentation style.
- Clear and understandable
- Shawn knows her stuff!
- Clearly presented
- Very good job!
- Best presentation so far at UPA 08. Thanks!
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
- "Shawn... gave some excellent examples, demos, and personal stories. She was also a particularly dynamic speaker, and engaged the audience throughout the talk." —Angela Dalton blog post
- "Informative, interesting, interactive and practical."
- "... one of the most inspiring and useful talks I attended during this conference."
CSUN
Ratings:
- 4.6/5 The information and materials were clear and understandable
- 4.9/5 The speaker was knowledgeable in the subject matter
- 4.8/5 The speaker was well prepared and addressed questions
Comments:
- Well organized - theory practice, theory practice... & review at end
- Good speed, clear explanations
- Nicely organized
- Well prepared and presented
- Excellent!
Web Design World
"I had the good fortune to attend Shawn Henry's outstanding presentation on web site accessibility at the Thunderlizard conference in Denver this week. She offered a unique and practical perspective on the web, and was easily among the most effective speakers at the conference. You are very fortunate to have such a talented communicator at Optavia."
WEB2001 International Conference
- Good job! This was an excellent session. Shawn was enthusiastic & very informative
- Lots of good information
- Great speaker, I was not aware of how many issues need to be taken into consideration with your sites
- Excellent material
- 5 stars! Inspiring!
- Thanks! Lots of practical info & clarification
- Excellent & informative
- Very specific topic, obviously, but one of the best & most interesting of the conference
WEB2000 International Conference
Participants were asked to evaluate the following on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest.
4. 73 Session Average
- 4. 63 Overall session rating
- 4. 70 ability to hold a crowd
- 4. 96 command of the topic
- 4. 56 visual aids (slides, overheads)
- 4. 80 how prepared or inspired was the speaker
Comments:
- Very knowledgeable! great examples--real life scenarios
- Speaker was great.
- Excellent
- Terrific overview-great for the beginner and medium user
- Interesting topic. isn't addressed in most companies, thanks!
- Good! organized! very important topic!
- Great informative session!
UPA - Usability Professionals' Association International Conference 2001
- One of the best Excellent discussion and excellent use of examples/ videos.
- Very good--useful and open to audience participation
- Very practical presentation--many thanks. Really appreciated that you shared with us concrete tips and do's n' don'ts. It really helped to illustrate your points that you used video clips of usability testing with lo-fi prototypes.
- Well done session. Participation was pertinent and well planned.
- Great session. Offered lots of food for thought.
- Excellent participation exercise
- I enjoyed this presentation because of the presenters' enthusiasm for this topic. It was contagious and made the topic very fun.
- Excellent session! Creative, well-organized, well- researched and presented. This session gave me many valuable, practical ideas I can apply in my work. Audience involvement, slides, videos were great. Presenters were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, great communicators.
HFWeb - Conference on Human Factors and the Web, June 1999
- Easily the best part of the conference, the panel about widespread accessibility within the web was truly excellent. (Cam Barrett)
Training Workshops
"Eye opening! The workshop really opens your eyes to whom your prospective web clients are and what we have to do as developers to make applications more useable and accessible. Shawn incorporated several exercises that showed that even the simplest of tasks couldn't be done if the design didn't take into account all possible users. Now I see that with little effort, our applications can become more user-friendly for everyone. Everyone should take this course!"
"Prior to taking this class, I thought that building an accessible site meant watering down designs. Shawn truly impressed me, when she could demonstrate that the accessibility of a site greatly improved the site for all users. Not only can you design sites that are more useful for more people, you can improve your existing sites with this knowledge."
In the Press
- Deep Ties Bind Accessibility, Mobile Web, IT Business Edge, USA, May 2009
- Software that reads websites like a book, The Hindu, India, January 2009
- Blind to needs of the visually handicapped, The Star, Malaysia, April 2008
- Algunos mitos de la accesibilidad 'web', el Mundo, Spain, November 2005
- Los “galácticos” del diseño Web dialogan sobre usabilidad en Asturias, Macworld, Spain, November 2005
- A More Accessible Web, The Washington Post, USA, August 2001
- Giving the Disabled Increased E-Access, The Washington Post, USA, August 2000
