Why We Need Universal Design | Michael Nesmith | TEDxBoulder

Michael is a deaf and native American Sign Language speaker working as a creative designer for Amazon. Throughout his career, Michael's visual/conceptual way of thinking and problem solving have served him both as an asset and a challenge. He finds solutions around his disability through Universal Design.

Michael Allen Nesmith, a Chicago native, was born into a deaf-culture family using ASL as the primary language. He attended Gallaudet University (an all-deaf college) in Washington DC and then moved back to Chicago for his MFA in Visual Communication Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to Portland, Oregon to begin his advertising career in W+K12; an experimental advertising school housed inside Wieden+Kennedy's Portland office. He is now a visual designer at Amazon in Seattle, WA. Throughout his career, Michael's visual/conceptual way of thinking and problem solving have served him both as an asset and a challenge.

[gesuindia]

We need universal design everywhere. Thank you for highlighting its significance so well.

[SDavidCSUN]

As mentioned by others, clean captions (with proper transcription of words, punctuation, and capitalization) would be helpful and would enable those who cannot hear AND do not know ASL to benefit from this video. (Kinda ironic, since this is about UD.)

[sanjuansteve]

As a deaf person, he naturally has more empathy than most of us and with empathy skills, he can put himself into the shoes, hearts and minds of people from all over the world. Empathy is the best skill for someone in marketing! :D

[jamesshurtleff]

Truly an excellent Ted talk with something important to say about something ubiquitous and at times forgotten.

[bobpilkey]

Yes, I thought the same thing as the last comment, quite ironic. I am hearing but spent 10 years volunteering within the deaf community. When I watch videos, like this one, I turn the sound off. Although the techs doing the video recording do an excellent job when it is a hearing person, they need to be aware that an ASL "speaker" with an interpreter, is a different situation.

[sarahalmeida]

This is an amazing talk. I’m an educator, but thinking of my job as innovation of education and how learning disabilities (or different learning styles) and teaching in a way that is accessible to all benefits ALL students, not just the ones with said disabilities. Thinking of disability as driving innovation is an incredible way to frame education and teaching. Thank you for this!

[fuerteybrava]

This was great! I do wish the camera work had been more deaf-friendly: the cutaways to the audience were frustrating, and some of the close-up shots of the speaker were too close in, so you couldn't see the full signs.

[fionasmith]

amazing to watch this, with the deaf interpreter speaking live... that was a beautiful dance :) And a great introduction to Universal Design too.

[nellamc]

God bless these minds and everyone! May we bring each other closer to him through spreading blessings!

[cyndiwiley]

I wish the captions were more accurate. That is my only critique. Otherwise, a great talk!

[tserrant]

Bold, brave, and to the point. Sure we all are disabled in some way. Not all of us can use a cell phone, computer or laptop to its full potential. An encouraging speech! Congratulations!

[tapslagata]

love love love this!!! will be sharing it as part of a DEI project

[audioaccessibility]

Based on comments from deaf people, majority of them don't like to use glasses to watch captions. Many complain about Sony Glass and Captiview. They would prefer to watch OPEN captions on a screen - it's what is universal design, not eyeglasses.

[SuperWinnieB]

This is an amazing talk!!. Currently going through a Universal Design and Accessibility course, and it everything now resonates

[chriswixtrom]

I enjoyed this excellent presentation. Thank you for providing it!

[elizabethcanalejo]

That camera work needed adjustments. When they cut away to the fullscreen images it completely messed me up and I had no idea what he was talking about. they should've done partial images

[maxhornick]

Fix these captions. It's ridiculous that you would have inaccurate auto-generated captions on a video about accessibility.

[ashleyboyer]

The camera angles need to be better. It cut off the sign around the 4min mark

[nitag]

i really enjoyed this and learned alot.

[professorjess]

Can you upload more accurate captions? Thank you!!