Accessibility and Inclusivity in Design Systems

Excited to announce our 6th Design Systems Community: Toronto Chapter Meetup!

Location
Wealthsimple
860 Richmond St W 3rd Floor, Toronto, ON M6J 1C9

Agenda
18:00 - Doors open
18:00 - 18:20 - Registration, networking & snacks
18:20 - 18:30 - Design Systems Community & Housekeeping (Varun, Enrico & Lucy)
18:30 - 19:05 - Talk #1 The building blocks of an accessible design system by George Zamfir (Slack)
19:05 - 19:40 - Talk #2 International is inclusive by Winter Wei (Shopify)
19:40 - 20:00 - Closing remarks & networking

Sponsored by:
Special thanks to Wealthsimple for sponsoring this meetup!

Who should attend?
Though these talks are more geared towards intermediate and advanced design systems practitioners, beginner attendees are welcome if the topics are relevant to their goals

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Talk #1: The building blocks of an accessible design system
George Zamfir, Accessibility Product Manager @Slack

What does it take to build an accessible product? Among other things, an accessible design system! I’ll talk about Slack Kit, Slack’s design system, and a selection of the building blocks that made it possible and accessible. Today Slack Kit powers product development at Slack but that was not always the case, this is the story of how we got here.

About George
George builds digital products for the variety of human abilities. He's done so with Scotiabank, Facebook, TELUS Digital, design agencies, government and most recently with Slack. He's passionate about helping people build accessible products / programs / teams / culture!

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Talk #2: International is inclusive
Winter Wei, UX Manager of Localization @Shopify

Do you remember the last time you tried to use a website or product that’s not in your language, an app or a payment method that wouldn’t work in a different country? Do you remember how frustrating that was? The world is literally becoming a village. Considering people from different cultures, speaking different languages, having different preferences and limitations is as important as considering accessibility and anti-discrimination when it comes to inclusive design. In this talk we will cover what internationalization and localization mean for a product company, the consequences of not doing it properly, why design system is the natural place to start this work, how we approach it at Shopify, and the lessons we’ve learnt so far.

About Winter
Winter is the UX Manager of Localization at Shopify, leading the internationalization and localization of Shopify foundations while enabling every teams to build for international markets. Previously she grew and led the design team at Kira Systems where she specialized in designing for AI-human interaction and information retrieval. Some of her research and design work are published in reputable academic venues. She’s an aspiring cellist, knowing that she may never be Yo-Yo Ma but keeps on trying anyway.

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About Design Systems Community
Design Systems Community helps bring people together to share ways of working, successes, and other learnings to encourage best practices in building, scaling, and maintaining design systems. No matter how you engage with design systems, we all play a role in making information accessible for everyone, and without barriers.

How can I contribute?
Interested to host, sponsor, or speak at our meetups, email us hello@designsystems.community

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Refund Policy
No refunds.

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