Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Navigating accessibility and climate
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Share the love for this talk
Navigating accessibility and climate
Speakers: Ned Gartside , Mike Gifford , Zoe Lopez-Latorre and Tzviya Siegman
Link:

Summary

The fourth in a series of discussions centered around Climate UX. The adverse effects of climate disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, but what does this mean in the context of UX? How does accessibility affect climate? What lessons can we draw from the accessibility movement to enhance our efforts in scaling climate action? Join our conversation to hear perspectives from those who have worked at this intersection. Panelists: Ned Gartside, Tzviya Siegman, Zoe Lopez-Latorre; Moderated by: Mike Gifford  

Key Insights

  • Accessibility principles like simplification and user choice inform sustainable web design successfully.

  • Sustainability in digital design is multi-dimensional and cannot be judged by page size alone.

  • Video, while data-heavy, can be an energy-efficient and inclusive form of user communication.

  • User empowerment can include toggles offering choices between higher and lower carbon footprint options.

  • Government digital services exemplify leadership in integrating accessibility and sustainability standards.

  • Sustainability adoption succeeds when linked to business outcomes like conversion or user experience.

  • There is a shortage of sustainability-trained professionals, but the field is rapidly evolving with new educational resources.

  • Digital sustainability responsibilities need to be clearly assigned using maturity models and cross-organizational collaboration.

  • Digital impact compounds across millions of users, making even small efficiency gains significant at scale.

  • The climate crisis urgency requires applying lessons from accessibility work: combined grassroots efforts and organizational leadership.

Notable Quotes

"Accessibility is a better sell than sustainability when engaging clients."

"We need to have a planet before we can have dignity, and sustainability and accessibility are tied basic human rights."

"There is no direct correlation between data size and energy consumed; many factors interplay."

"User choice can include opting for a higher carbon or lower carbon version of the same content."

"73% of users are willing to choose a more sustainable browsing option even if image quality decreases."

"Sometimes the best solution for users isn't digital - for example, farmers often prefer face-to-face interactions."

"Sustainability can accelerate adoption when it aligns with business impact, like improving conversions."

"You need the whole organization involved, from engineering to marketing to legal, to make sustainability work."

"There are risks that sustainability tools become gatekeepers or quasi-standards themselves, which we must avoid."

"The digital sector’s compounded impact on carbon footprint exceeds industries like airlines when aggregated across millions."

Ask the Rosenbot
Robin Beers
Navigating organizational systems: Rethinking researcher’s role in driving change
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Kristen Honey
"Let’s Talk About Data and Crisis”: Public Digital Service Delivery = Open Data + Human Centered Design
2021 • Civic Design Community
Aurobinda Pradhan
Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Nick Lewis
Designing and building low-carbon websites independently
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Patrick Boehler
The service shift: transforming media organizations to create real value through design
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Welcome / Housekeeping
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Roberta Dombrowski
5 Reasons to Bring your Recruiting in House
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Brenna Fallon
Learning Over Outcomes
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Mansi Gupta
Drawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Francesca Barrientos, PhD
You Need Your Own Definition of Design Maturity
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Greg Petroff
Design is the Differentiator: Bringing New Design Innovations to a Very Antiquated and Very Large Industry
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Russ Unger
Getting Out from Under Everyone: How to Escape the Paralysis of Getting Started
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Frances Yllana
D.E.A.R.R. Diaries (Discipline, Experience, Architecture, Reflection + Revolution)
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Briana Thomas
When Design Ops Comes in H.O.T. : A Tale of a Transformed Design Org
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Catt Small
Moving from Execution to Strategy as a Designer
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Sarah Fathallah
A Typology of Participation in Participatory Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold

More Videos

Lavy Kumar

"Bringing tasks directly into meetings lets you work where collaboration is happening without jumping between tools."

Lavy Kumar Kat Temple Shan Sebastian Tara Jensen Jenn Chou

Future of Work

June 9, 2021

Sarah Sgarlato Pierini

"The biggest pain point in my life was tracking research projects through a disjointed flow of Airtable, Google Docs, and hand-curated emails."

Sarah Sgarlato Pierini Kevin Newton

From Passion to Execution: A Story of Evolving Research Maturity at LinkedIn

September 9, 2022

Louis Rosenfeld

"This is absolutely not the time for us to be throwing our hands up in the air and giving up on Research."

Louis Rosenfeld Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

March 27, 2023

Josh Clark

"LLMs don’t give you answers—they give you something that most likely resembles the fact you’re looking for."

Josh Clark Veronika Kindred

Sentient Design: New Design Patterns for New Experiences (3rd of 3 seminars)

February 12, 2025

John Mortimer

"Language is very important; sometimes new vocabulary helps because people didn’t have a word before."

John Mortimer Milan Guenther Lucy Ellis Patrick Quattlebaum

Panel Discussion

December 3, 2024

Megan Clegg

"Situational use cases help us consider the realities outside the business problem that impact user success."

Megan Clegg Michael Haggerty-Villa Alexis Morin

Space for Everyone: Reframing Accessibility Through a Wider Lens

June 10, 2021

Christian Crumlish

"Have you just asked what scares us or keeps us up at night? Those repeated fears highlight the risks we need to avoid."

Christian Crumlish Wendy Johansson Rich Mironov Aditi Ruiz Adam Thomas

Afternoon Insights Panel

December 6, 2022

Andy Barraclough

"How do you build in the context of what you specifically need rather than having tools drive the research process? That’s the future."

Andy Barraclough Betsy Nelson

From Costly Complexity to Efficient Insights: Why UX Teams Are Switching To Voxpopme

September 23, 2024

Ned Dwyer

"Everybody approaches it with a lot of curiosity and empathy."

Ned Dwyer Jadyn Aguilar

The Future of DesignOps is Tool Consolidation

September 23, 2024