Nicolas Steenhout Speaker Page
A great speaker helps make your event great.
It can be challenging to find the perfect speaker for your event. If you don’t find all the information you need to make your decision, please do get in touch.
On this page
- Why book Nic to speak?
- More about Nic Steenhout
- What to expect working with Nic?
- What people say about Nic’s presentations
- A11y Rules Podcast
- Videos from some past presentations
- Contact Nicolas Steenhout
Why book Nic to speak?
Nic Steenhout has been involved with accessibility (on the web and in the built environment) for over 2 decades. During that time, he has spoken at conferences and private events on the topic of web accessibility, building accessibility, and disability awareness in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. His no-nonsense approach to accessibility makes him a favourite of event attendees.
At AccessU.
Nic began developing websites in 1993 and quickly became aware of the need for web accessibility. While he continued developing websites using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, he focused his energy on helping organizations improve the accessibility of their websites.
More about Nic Steenhout
- Nic has been a public speaker for 20 years and has spoken at:
- Large conferences such as OSCON, Confoo, and Linux.conf.au
- Smaller events such as A11yMTL, A11yTO, and A11yQC
- Private company functions
- Local, Provincial/State and Federal government departments
- Nic has worked with government organizations, health care providers, corporations, tertiary education providers and non-profits
- Nic has been involved in Open Source since the early 2000’s and was on the Joomla! Core Developer team.
- You can catch Nic at one of the upcoming gigs.
- Nic is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers
Nicolas Steenhout, at the start of Don’t turn off that JavaScript just yet at A11Y MTL meetup
What to expect working with Nic?
- Prompt communications
- A professional presentation by Nic that is informative and engaging
- Nic will work with you directly to ensure the details of the event are correct
- Whenever possible, Nic stays on site for the duration of the event and makes himself available for attendees to talk with him
- Follow-up calls in the week(s) following the event
What people say about Nic’s presentations
Before Nic’s talk, I’d been aware of a few tools out there for increasing accessibility of your web applications, but it quickly became apparent that I’d barely scratched the surface. Excellent talk. I appreciated how he balanced detail with pointing attendees to references and resources to further their own understanding later. He has an easygoing, amiable presentation-style.
– Hilary Stohs-Krause
Really great talk that left me mildly horrified about my own sites as I could immediately think of examples where I had been unknowingly doing things wrong. Nic brought many things to my attention that I had not thought of before and moving forward I feel this session will improve my coding and accessibility practices dramatically.
– Crysta McKenney
Even though I have a lot of experience in accessibility, I still learned a lot.
– Derek Binkley
Excellent talk! Really opened my eyes to how many different ways people with disabilities navigate the web and what we can do to improve upon their experiences.
– Michael Sullivan
Nic broadened my understanding of what it means for something have a “barrier.” Accessibility matters to a lot more people and in a lot more ways than I had previously realized. He provided plenty of examples of what to do about it, as well as further avenues for investigation.
– Vesna Vuynovich Kovach
Excellent talk that opens eyes on things we may not think to everyday… although we should!
– Pierre Voisin
Amazing talk. Thank you so much for sharing all of this awesome content and real stories to help me understand and relate to the content.
– Tessa Kriesel
Thank you for bringing attention to this important topic. Your personal stories engendered empathy, your encouragement inspired action, and your practical tips gave us the tools.
– Riley Major
Fantastic speaker! I appreciated the stories that emphasized the importance of accessibility. Plenty of resources provided on where and how to get started with accessibility practices.
– Stephanie O’Neill
An entertaining speaker who spoke from firsthand struggles and experiences. Very insightful. Shows us that simply opening up to other perspectives can help others enjoy the products and services we use.
– Trent Harvey
A11y Rules Podcast
Nic hosts the A11y Rules Podcast, an interview style show with people involved in one way or another with web accessibility.
Videos from some past presentations
My wheelchair, a precision crafted tool – Ignite presentation – A11yMTL 2017
Impromptu presentation about the Mira Foundation – Short presentation – A11yMTL 2017
Accessibility, POUR, and the Pythonista – Pycon Canada 2017
Accessibility and security – OSCON 2014
Accessibility mythbusting – WDCNZ 2013
WDCNZ 2013: Accessibility Mythbusting from WDCNZ on Vimeo.
Accessibility panel – WCDNZ 2013
WDCNZ 2013: The Accessibility Panel from WDCNZ on Vimeo.
Contact Nicolas Steenhout
Phone, email, twitter information is available on the Contact page