Interpretation and Closed Captions
Presentation length
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Lightning talk presentations are 5 minutes long (not including Q&A*)
- The lightning talk panel will be structured with sections of 3-4 presentations with around 15 minutes of Q&A in between each section.
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Paper presentations are 15 minutes long (not including Q&A)
- Panels will generally include 3 15-minute presentations with 15 minutes of Q&A that the end
- Pre-composed panels have 90 minutes (including Q&A)
- Workshop presenters have 60 minutes total
- Keynote presenters have 30 minutes (including Q&A)
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Project Showcase presenters will have 30 minutes to engage with attendees.
- This time can be used similar to a poster session and may include a short presentation, may focus on a project or tool demonstration, or may entirely focus on Q&A discussion with attendees.
*Q&A = Questions and Answers
Livestreaming and Recording
The Symposium will be livestreamed on the MSU Digital Humanities Youtube channel with the permission of presenters. The Project Showcase will not be livestreamed. Full details about recording permissions and options are laid out in the Release Form. All presenters* must sign and return the Release Form to the Planning Committee in advance of the Symposium.
In the Release Form, presenters may grant or decline their permission for their presentation to be livestreamed. Presenters also have the option to have their presentation recorded and uploaded to the MSU Digital Humanities Youtube channel after the Symposium.
*Project Showcase presenters do not need to fill out release forms, as the Showcase will not be livestreamed or recorded.
Interpretation and Closed Captions
Simultaneous interpretation will be available for English into Spanish, English into French, and both Spanish and French into English. Before you begin your presentation, ensure you set your interpretation channel to the language in which you are presenting. If you are giving your presentation in English, select the “English” channel. Sélectionnez la chaîne française si vous présentez en français. Seleccione el canal en español si está presentando en español. To ensure interpreters can keep up, speak at a measured pace and incorporate pauses into your presentation. If the interpreter needs you to slow down, they will signal to you from their video feeds.
Closed captions will be provided for presentations given in English.
Presenters are required to submit a draft of the presentation slides with the associated text of what will be said to the planning committee by Thursday, March 10, 2022 to allow interpreters to prepare.
Proceedings
We will publish the proceedings of the symposium on Humanities Commons here. Each presenter will have the opportunity to contribute the artifacts of their presentation (abstracts, polished text, video recording, slides, poster, etc). Presentation materials will then be gathered onto the Proceedings site to document the work done across the Symposium
Submissions to the proceedings are due by Friday, April 29th. Presenters are welcome to make any light revisions to materials, but the purpose of this work is to compile a proceedings collection rather than an edited collection, so extensive revision is neither necessary nor expected.
There are two ways to submit materials to be included in the Proceedings:
- Deposit materials into the Humanities Commons CORE repository. This is a permanent subject repository, where your materials will be assigned a DOI, which makes them more readily cited, and where your materials will be preserved indefinitely. We recommend this approach to submitting materials for the Proceedings site.
- Email materials to dh@msu.edu. They will be uploaded to the Proceedings site directly. This approach is best for materials that you are not comfortable placing in a permanent repository.
Instructions for depositing materials in CORE
- Create an account on Humanities Commons (follow this guide; additional help is available at the Commons community site).
- Once your account is created, join the Global Digital Humanities Symposium group. This step needs to be completed before you create your deposit.
- Be sure you’re logged in, navigate to the CORE repository, and select “Upload your work” (an introduction to CORE is available as you get started, as is a list of frequently asked questions).
- On the deposit page, fill in the appropriate metadata.
- Use the title and abstract for your presentation that correspond to the program.
- For “item type,” you can select “conference paper,” “presentation,” or whatever seems most appropriate to your format.
- “Subjects” are a controlled taxonomy; as you type, a list of suggestions will appear. “Tags” are free-form; you can add anything that will help users find your deposit.
- Be sure to select the Global DH Symposium group under “Groups.”
- Add any other metadata that you choose, including language and creation date.
- Select the Creative Commons license you wish to apply to your deposit (see the Creative Commons page about the licenses for more information).
- Click “Deposit.”
- Repeat for any additional items. If you wish to share a paper, your slides, and a video recording, for instance, each needs to be uploaded separately. You can connect them if you choose by adding information and a link in the Notes field.
Once materials have been deposited to CORE, they will be visible in the “From CORE” or “Deposits” section of the Symposium group. The Symposium team will then compile those materials into the Proceedings site. All presenters who contributed materials will be notified once the Proceedings are completed.
If you need assistance with any aspect of this process, please feel free to contact our office (dh@msu.edu) or Kristen Mapes (kmapes@msu.edu).
Zoom
Presenters are required to join the Zoom meeting during their respective session. For more information about how Zoom will be used in the Symposium, see the Information for Attendees page.
When it is your turn to present:
- Ensure you set your interpretation channel to the language in which you are presenting. If you are giving your presentation in English, select the “English” channel. Sélectionnez la chaîne française si vous présentez en français. Seleccione el canal en español si está presentando en español.
- Ensure you have your slides ready, if applicable
- Pin the moderator video
Pinning the Moderator Video
When it is your turn to present, the moderator will introduce you, then put you into “Spotlight” mode so that your video stream and screen share will be expanded for all viewers. You will need to “pin” the moderator’s video feed by clicking on the “…” icon with three dots on their thumbnail and selecting “Pin video.” This enables you to see the cards the moderator holds up that will indicate how much time you have left. If you join the meeting through a mobile device, you will need to enter Gallery View and double tap on the moderator’s video feed. For more information, please see Zoom’s guide to Gallery View and Zoom’s guide to pinning video feeds.
Here are also video resources on Gallery View, and pining video feeds.
Sharing Your Screen
If you are presenting with slides or any kind of visual aids, you will need to share your screen with the rest of the participants. You can share your screen by clicking the “Share” button in the middle of the toolbar at the bottom of your screen. A pop up will appear on your screen, allowing you to select the window you wish to share. If your presentation includes any audio elements, such as a sound clip or video, make sure to check the box next to “share computer sound” in the bottom left corner of this window.
If you are using Powerpoint or Google slides to present, make sure you have opened the slides in presentation mode before sharing in Zoom.
If you are unable to share your slides yourself or are concerned about internet connectivity issues, a Symposium volunteer can run your slides for you. If you choose this option, keep in mind that there is a delay in Zoom, and it may take a few seconds for the slide to advance after you cue the volunteer. To mitigate this issue, it may be helpful to number your slides and cue the volunteer using the slide number.
Please use accessible presentation practices (see below) by describing your slides and keeping visual aids to a minimum. Some participants may call into the meeting and won’t be able to see your slides, while others may need to turn off video due to connectivity issues. Additionally, attendees may not read your language and rely on audio interpretation to learn the content of your presentation.
Interpretation
In order to improve the quality of interpretation, presenters should:
- Change their interpretation channel to the language you will be speaking
- Speak at a measured speed and incorporate pauses into the presentation to ensure presenters do not fall behind
- Be mindful that any text on slides will not be interpreted
- Where possible, refrain from switching languages to avoid confusion
Accessibility
We request that all conference presenters ensure their presentations are as accessible as possible. Considering that the virtual event will involve people joining via audio only or through a livestream with limited connectivity and that live interpretation will be used to support multilingual attendance and presentation, presenters should:
- speak at a measured speed – with auditory challenges, connectivity issues, and to allow interpreters time to work, alongside as well as the global nature of the event, speaking a bit slower will allow more people to follow along
- describe your slides – rely on visual information from your slides as little as possible since some attendees will join with audio only or need to turn off video for connectivity reasons; these reasons build on accessibility measures we already recommend for people with low to no vision; additionally, interpretation will not involve translating text or imagery from slides
Slides
To ensure visual accessibility of slides, please keep font size reasonable, use sans serif fonts (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica), and avoid large blocks of text. Any videos played during presentations should be captioned if at all possible.
Do not use color as the only method for distinguishing information or use a color-blindness simulator to ensure that your color scheme is accessible to all viewers. Make sure that there is a high degree of contrast between the color of text and the color of the background of a slide, e.g. black text on a white background, light grey text on a black background, dark blue text on a light blue background, etc. Stark white text on black background is best avoided due to fuzzing and halation. Please also avoid rapidly flashing or strobing lights in slideshow special effects.
This webinar by Yue-Ting Siu provides a thorough guide to making accessible conference presentations.
Transcripts
One way to greatly enhance the accessibility of your presentation is to make your slides or a transcript of your talk available to the audience. Since presenters are asked to share the text of their talk with interpreters in advance of the Symposium this year, transcripts or assistive written information to accompany talks may be more readily prepared than in previous years.
If you share your slides via a link, please make sure that you have used the “alt text” feature on any images in your slideshow. Similarly, if you share your transcript via a link and have turned it into a PDF or any other format that does not allow the easy manipulation of font size, please increase the font size to at least 18pt and use a sans serif font (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica).
For more information about specific accommodations and accommodation requests, please email us at dh@msu.edu.
Adapted from the ACH 2019 presentation guidelines.
Technology Problems
In the week leading up to the Symposium, the planning committee will host practice sessions in which presenters can practice using Zoom, including sharing screens, checking audio feeds, and understanding how interpretation and captioning function.
If you encounter any problems while you are in the Zoom room during the Symposium, contact the Zoom monitor in Zoom chat for assistance. If you are unable to access chat, please email dh@msu.edu or send a text message to the contact phone number for the Symposium, which will be provided to presenters via email in the week prior to the event.
If you are not able to access the Symposium Zoom on the day of your presentation, please contact the Symposium through one of the following channels:
- Direct message the MSUGlobalDH Twitter account
- Email dh@msu.edu
- Send a text message to the contact phone number for the Symposium (will be emailed to presenters in the week prior to the event)
