When Red Isn’t a Warning: The Accessibility Problem with RAG Status

Red, amber and green (RAG) status indicators are everywhere in dashboards and reports. They feel intuitive, fast and familiar, but for many users, they don’t communicate what we think they do.

In this lightning talk, I’ll briefly highlight the accessibility issues caused by relying on RAG colours, particularly for people with colour vision impairments and low vision. I’ll explain why colour-only signalling is a common accessibility failure and how it can undermine clarity and trust in reporting.

I’ll introduce tools that allow us to check accessibility issues in our reports, helping teams spot problems early and make more informed decisions about their designs.

Small Changes, Big Impact: Accessibility Essentials for Power BI

When digital experiences aren’t accessible, they don’t just frustrate, they exclude. In Power BI, that can mean reports people can’t navigate, insights they can’t perceive, and decisions they’re unable to take part in.

I learnt this first hand after a work injury left me with nerve damage in both hands. For years I struggled with a standard mouse, until a specialist device changed everything. That small adjustment transformed my work and made one thing clear: accessible design empowers; inaccessible design shuts people out.

This session covers the essentials of digital accessibility and how to apply them in Power BI. Using the WCAG principles ( Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust ) we’ll look at practical ways to make reports more inclusive, from colour contrast and tab order to keyboard navigation and meaningful structure.

By the end, you’ll understand not just how to make accessible Power BI reports, but why it truly matters to the people who use them.

Sampling Bias: When Data Collection Shapes the Story

Sampling bias is rarely obvious, and that’s exactly why it matters.

In this lightening talk , we’ll explore how limitations in data collection and sampling choices can shape the story an audience takes away, even when the analysis and visualisation are technically correct.

Using real-world examples, I’ll show how certain populations can be unintentionally over-represented, under-represented, or excluded entirely, and how visual design decisions can either mask these gaps or make them transparent.

This session focuses on awareness rather than accusation, understanding the limits of what a sample can tell us, and making those limits clearer through thoughtful data communication and visual design.

Leading with Purpose: Using Ikigai to Shape Your Personal Brand and Influence in Tech

In a fast-moving industry where leadership is often mistaken for seniority, certifications, or job titles, it’s easy to overlook the deeper drivers that shape authentic influence. True leadership begins with clarity of purpose, understanding not just what you do, but why you do it.

In this 20-minute session, I’ll share how the Japanese concept of Ikigai, “life's worth”, transformed not only my career direction, but the way I lead, show up, and contribute to the data community. From navigating a career crisis to becoming an international speaker, STEM Ambassador, and advocate for accessible data design, I’ll walk through the pivotal moments that helped me build a purpose-driven personal brand rooted in service, visibility, and integrity.

We’ll explore how Ikigai can help you clarify your leadership identity, elevate your voice in the community, and build a personal brand that opens doors, not because you chase recognition, but because you stand for something bigger than a job description.

Beyond Red, Amber, Green: Building Colour-Accessible Dashboards

Raise your hand if you rely on red, amber, and green (RAG) to report performance and progress…

Now imagine discovering, as I once did, that a colour-blind user had spent six months quietly struggling to make sense of a dashboard, simply because the colours told a story he couldn’t see.

For millions of people with colour-blindness, those familiar RAG visuals can blur into a single message, or no message at all.

In this session, we’ll explore how to move beyond traffic-light reporting to create dashboards everyone can read and act on. You’ll learn how to apply WCAG contrast principles, introduce accessible colour themes (including a Power BI colour-mode toggle), and strike the right balance between brand guidelines and usability.

Walk away with practical techniques to build colour-accessible dashboards that inform, include, and genuinely empower every user.

Accidental Data Lies: How Poor Visual Choices Can Mislead

Welcome to the world of accidental data lies, where innocent-looking charts quietly twist the truth. And in today’s world, where ethical data visualisation is a hot (and important) topic, it's something we all need to watch out for.

We’ll uncover the most common (and sneaky!) ways charts mislead, from pie chart pandemonium to axis trickery, colour chaos, and scale fail! Expect real-world examples of chart crimes, a few laughs at visual disasters, and sharper instincts for spotting deception.

But it’s not just about dodgy design, this session also dives into the ethics of visual storytelling. We’ll explore how the ‘framing effect’ and ‘sampling bias can quietly distort meaning, and how to design with integrity so visuals inform rather than mislead.

From spreadsheet wizards to Power BI spellcasters, this session will help you create visuals that don’t just dazzle, they tell the truth and earn trust.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Spot the Sneaky Stuff:
Identify the most common ways charts mislead, including bad chart types, distorted axes, and overloaded visuals, and understand why they’re so effective at fooling us.
2. Choose the Right Chart for the Right Story:
Learn how to match chart types to data types, avoid common mismatches (like line charts for categories), and use Power BI visuals with purpose and clarity.
3. Design with Integrity:
Apply practical Power BI techniques to simplify dashboards, label data clearly, and communicate insights with transparency and trust.

Accessible by Design: A Deep Dive into WCAG for Power BI Developers

A work-related injury left me with nerve damage in both hands, and for years I struggled with a standard mouse I could barely control. Everything changed when I finally received a specialist mouse. That one small design adjustment transformed my work and reinforced a simple truth: when design is accessible, it empowers, when it isn’t, it quietly excludes.

This is exactly why accessibility matters in Power BI.

In this deep dive, we’ll bridge the gap between the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and practical, everyday Power BI development using only native visuals and features. You’ll learn how to turn accessibility principles into concrete design choices that make your reports clearer, kinder, and genuinely easier to use, for everyone.

We’ll explore how thoughtful decisions in layout, colour, navigation, and text can meaningfully reduce friction, support diverse user needs, and elevate your reports beyond compliance into truly inclusive design.

This session blends technical depth with lived experience to show how small choices in Power BI can make a big difference in someone’s working day.

By the end, you’ll be able to:
1. Translate WCAG principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) directly into Power BI report decisions.
2. Improve clarity and usability of native visuals without relying on custom add-ons.
3. Establish a simple accessibility framework you can adopt across reports or teams.

Accessibility Considerations in Power BI: Designing for Everyone

Ready to future-proof your dashboards? In this 20-minute session, we’ll explore how to make Power BI reports not only beautiful and insightful, but truly accessible.

We’ll look beyond compliance to inclusive design, uncovering the tools and settings already at your fingertips inside Power BI. From keyboard navigation and tab order to colour contrast and visual cues, you’ll walk away with practical, easy-to-apply tips that work for everyone.

Blink First, Think Later: Designing Power BI Report for Human Instincts

Before users analyse your data, they blink, scan, and make snap judgements.

This session is about designing Power BI dashboards for that split second of human instinct. You’ll learn how layout, spacing, and visual hierarchy guide attention before logic kicks in, and how accessibility plays a key role in making insights discoverable, not hidden.

Expect real-world examples, quick wins, and design techniques you can apply immediately to help users find what matters without being told where to look.