Welcome to Day 1 of the #ABD21DayChallenge! Today’s task is to imagine you are in a meeting or on a Teams/Zoom call and practice introducing yourself with a self-description.

Self-descriptions provide context about the appearance of the speaker to participants who are blind, partially sighted, or joining with a low internet bandwidth. They help individuals mentally visualize speakers in the context of social media content, video and phone calls, webinars, and conferences, which improves inclusion. Have some fun with it.

When creating a self-description, keep it brief and include your:

• Name
• Pronouns
• Race
• Disability (if you are comfortable to share)
• Distinguishing physical characteristics (e.g., curly brown hair, green eyes)
• Description of your clothing
• Description of your background or physical location

Be factual and avoid opinion or commentary. Check out this example video of a self-description from Virginia Devlin, Current Global CEO.