Karen Hyder

December 2025 - TD Magazine

Recover with grace from technical setbacks during live, online sessions. 

Prepare for the Probable Tech Mishaps

Join Sarah Mercier, editor of Design for All Learners: Create Accessible and Inclusive Learning Experiences, along with a panel of contributing experts, for an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation on designing learning experiences that are accessible to and inclusive of all people. In this webinar, panelists will discuss what “design for all” means for our work-- whether it’s instructor-led training in the physical and virtual classroom or designing and building asynchronous digital content.

Together, we will explore the following questions:
• What is special about a “design for all” approach?
• How does accessible, inclusive design help us achieve our L&amp;D goals?
• What are the challenges we face when improving accessibility and inclusion in our work?

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear directly from the voices behind the book and gain actionable strategies to foster an inclusive mindset in your learning experience design practices.

Design for All Learners: A Panel Discussion on Accessibility and Inclusion in Learning 

In the new world of work, many believe that face-to-face interaction is the solution to reducing virtual distance and fostering social well-being. This is sometimes true. But in many cases, the need to be in the same room or locale is simply a myth and can lead to disillusioned thinking about what’s possible and what’s not. Think about it: With this mindset, every other form of communication would not be useful. Yet research demonstrates most emphatically that using a variety of communication modes is the best way to produce quality outcomes.Even so, the prevailing perspective that closer is better peeks into public view every now and then, especially when major organizations publish stated policies to abolish virtual work. Take, for example, the latest news regarding Yahoo. The CEO, Melissa Mayer, announced that the organization would no longer tolerate virtual or remote workers. Instead, she said that everyone must report into an office and, if someone did not comply, he would be fired.HP took a similar stance a few years ago. After recruiting the CIO from Wal-Mart, the company established rules mandating that IT workers report into one of 25 offices around the world—or else. In another instance a top executive at Google made the following remarks to a group of technology entrepreneurs in Sydney: “How many people telecommute at Google? … Our answer is: As few as possible.”Strong evidence shows that virtual distance grows mainly because of factors besides physical distance or a lack of face-to-face interaction. Surprised? How often does someone sit in a meeting, busy messaging someone else, when the person right in front of her waits to receive her full attention? Still many others report that even when employees are in the same space, with offices next door to each other, they prefer to email colleagues from their desk chairs, rather than leave the office to look another human being in the eye.Situations like these are common, so virtual distance builds despite the fact that many people are configured in their workplaces in such a way as to encourage face-to-face dialogue. The question becomes: When do people truly need to see and talk to one another, and when is it better to use electronic communication as the main vehicle for information transfer? Here are a couple of tips that training professionals can suggest to employees searching for answers to these vexing questions.Establish face-to-face connection at the beginning of a project. The quickest way to establish trust for the long haul is to meet team members “live” at the start of a new endeavor. When this practice is applied, there’s an 80 percent chance that virtual distance will not grow to the point of negatively affecting goals and outcomes.How do you justify such a gathering? Calculate the total cost of the trip—for example, eight people at an average total cost (air, hotel, food, and so forth) of $2,500 dollars for a two-day meeting, which equals $20,000 dollars. Let’s assume that the project will yield a $1MM dollar benefit. If the team doesn’t meet in person, there’s a good chance that virtual distance will build, costing the project approximately $800,000 dollars. Do you invest $20K from the outset or risk losing $800K? This is the litmus test that managers must consider when all of the focus turns to short-term travel savings. (For more on measurable risks of virtual distance, see www.virtualdistance.com.)When working virtually, talk to other human beings for your own good, and for the good of the team. If you work virtually, it’s likely that you sit down at your home office or remote workspace, join conference calls, and tap the keyboard nearly all day—with the exception of a bathroom or food break now and then.Research shows that people who work remotely tend to put in longer hours. However, this habit breeds virtual distance because when people experience little or no human-to-human contact during the day, they don’t “get out of their own heads” to see the world from a different point of view. And even people locked in their offices can suffer the same fate. Such “burrowing” leads to warped, one-sided perspectives.If you are remote or hibernate among a crowd, it’s important to establish routines that force you to talk to others—even if it’s at the local coffee shop, or running errands that require chatting with others. Similar to getting splashed with cold water to stop hyperventilating, human beings require regular contact, or our minds spin on their own axes, hampering good decision making.In summary, virtual distance can build between people who are separated by miles or continents, but also can grow between people who sit in offices next to each other. Training professionals need to help employees understand when face-to-face is key and when email and phones will suffice.For more on improving workplace well-being, check out Karen’s prior post here.

Karen Hyder

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