In June 2019, the USABLE team attended RightsCon 2019 in Tunis. In addition to having face to face conversations and meetings with kay UX players in the Internet Freedom community, the team was able to co-facilitate a UX and Human Rights Zero Day event alongside AccessNow, Simply Secure, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The morning of this full day event was focused on individual introductions and a mentoring/paired problem-solving activity, whereas the afternoon held participant-led breakout sessions with topics such as collecting user feedback, funding UX sustainability, queer interfaces & internet, and working in high-stress environments. The full-day event brought together a group of 30-35 designers, UX researchers and practitioners, tool team representatives, and digital security trainers to grow a community that advocates for rights-respecting and consent-based user experiences.
The following day, we co-hosted a UX help desk at RightsCon, where RightsCon attendees were able to learn about UX organizations, receive resources from Okthanks and Accessibility Lab, and connect with individuals from these organizations.
Our program officer, Ashley, also facilitated a meetup session at RightsCon entitled “Creative Ways to Support Diverse Tool Teams,” where tool team representatives and community members met with donors to discuss their limitations and discuss potential solutions. The session was attended by smaller organizations and provided a good starting point for new solutions.
