Digital Accessibility

Jennifer Smith, Visa, Director of Strategic Initiatives and AccessibilityJen Smith has worked with accessibility at J.P Morgan Chase, Microsoft, and now at Visa as Director of Strategic Initiatives and Accessibility. She talks about the importance of working with colleagues at different experience levels and backgrounds. She also describes the need in accessibility for better ways to present data. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Joe Devon, GAAD Foundation, AI FuturistJoe Devon has had a long career in both web development and the application of accessibility to the digital world. Joe talks about his earliest days becoming aware of the need for accessibility and building his knowledge. That lead to being a co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day and the GAAD Foundation. Joe describes his interest and excitement about the application of AI to accessibility and how it might transform how assistive devices work. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Stéphanie Walter, Maltem, UX Research & Design ConsultantStéphanie shares her experience with a motion disability that affects her in her daily life and when interacting with digital games. She talks about upcoming changes to laws in Europe that will require accessibility in public and private web sites.Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Lars Holm Sørensen, Monsido, Accessibility ExpertLars Holm Sørensen resides in Copenhagen where is works on imrproving a compliance platform for organizations and municipalities. He also helps to build accessibility awareness. Lars talks about his lived life as a person who is blind using a screen reader. It created challenges in his education and early work as a software developer. Now he looks forward to greater attention to accessibility in the digital world. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Tolu Adegbite is Product/UX designer. Her current work includes providing guidance about accessibility to designers and developers, educating others, and creating new experiences. Starting her career as a front-end developer she was introduce to accessibility early on. Tolu talks about how she learned accessibility principles and embraces the importance of communication between designers and developers. She also describes her interest in VR/AR opportunities and the need to consider the intersectionality of our identities. practical work with browser plug-ins, screen readers and keyboard acccess. Accessibility continues to be a central part of her work in helped her make sense of accessibility early on. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Ryan Shugart, Microsoft, Senior Program ManagerRich works as a an accessibility subject matter expert with the cloud and AI teams at Microsoft. He shares his experience being born visually impaired and how that affected his early use of a home computer and technology. Graduating from college in IT, he began his work as a system administrator. As a blind person, he experienced many challenges. Rich talks about some of what is involved in the process of reviewing products for accessibility - from design through to release. He also talks about artificial intelligence, the interaction of applications and assistive technologies, and the limitations of standards. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Erica Ellis, Uber, Head of Product Equity DesignErica Ellis is Head of Product Equity Design at Uber. She explains how accessibility is integrated into the organization through a mindset about service design. Erica shares her early experience with a deaf family member and being an advocate for gender equity for women in technology. As a designer she became familiar with accessibility and helped to build a team to support the development. She talks about the important of top down support couple with grassroots efforts. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Gareth Ford Williams, Accessibility Consultant, Ab11y.comGareth Ford Williams describes his current work as an accessibility consultant. He shares some childhood experiences that made aware of disabilties at an early age. Gareth provide a great review of the decades of pioneering work that the BBC has done in making their content inclusive. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Sharyn Morrow, iCIMS, Principal Accessibility EngineerSharyn Morrow began her career with an early interest in communication and working with early PCs and software. That led to to learning about HTML, graphic design, and working for SiteImprove. She shares her personal challenges with her neurodiversity and how she now advocates for herself, her family, and others. Sharyn now provides accessibility documentation, training, best practices and tools to help internal staff create more accessible products.

Mark Steadman, Fidelity Investments, Director, Software Engineering - Mobile AccessibilityMark Steadman is Director of Mobile Accessibility at Fidelity Investments. Mark has made a career of being a developer who helps other developers be successful in supporting accessibility. He talks about what makes an efficient and consistent process for the developer side of things. His work began at State Farm supporting the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). That led to learning about assistive technologies, working at Deque, and now his current activities with mobile. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Jill Bateman, Ohio University, Digital Accessibility CoordinatorJill Bateman provides comprehensive accessibility support for students and staff at Ohio University. That includes reviewing tools and technology and processes for purchasing. Starting in web design, Jill found similarities between usability and accessibility. She shares the challenge of an elderly family member which helped drive her work and interest. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Jonathan Hassell, Hassell Inclusion, Founder & Chief ExecutiveJonathan Hassell talks about his many years of experience in accessibility. He describes the evolution and challenges at the BBC to make their content available to all across their many services. Jonathan also explains the importance of standards organizations. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Léonie Watson, TetraLogical, Director Léonie Watson's early work as a web designer was interupted when she lost her sight. As she began to use assistive technologies for her own needs, she found her way into accessibility testing. This led to many years of solving accessibility problems for a wide range of organizations. Now, Léonie is the Director of TetraLogical - a consultancy for accessibility. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Jamie Knight, Jamie + Lion (limited), DirectorJamie Knight talks about the many activities he was involved with in eleven years working in accessibility at the BBC. Now he provides consulting and workshops. Jamie also shares his own experience as a person with disabilities and the importance of accommodations in life and work. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Dominique Wheeler provides training and support for accessibility implementation within U.S. federal agencies. She started her career work at a Baltimore education non-profit organization. It was while creating training materials for the Department of Defense that she became familiar with Section 508 requirements. That led to her full-time work as an accessibility specialist. She talks about the Trusted Tester program that is open to anyone for certification. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Derek Featherstone, Saleforce, VP of Accessibility and Inclusive DesignDerek Featherstone VP of PAccessibility and Design at Salesforce. Derek describes how accessibility is integrated in the overall structure at Salesforce. He shared his own disability challenges and starting his own consulting firm that was acquired by Level Access.Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Amanda Powell, Target, accessibility in user researchAmanda Powell works as a senior UX designer at Target. Her exposure to accessibility came from her own challenges of having an autoimmune disorder affecting her sight. She became an advocate for accessibility tools and processes internally at her organization. That expanded to helping research and design address the needs of disabled customers. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Mike Paciello, Pearson, Director of Accessibility ImplementationMike Paciello is one of the pioneers is helping accessibility become an organized discipline for improving products and services. He began his career as a technical writer and that brought him to voluteering with the publishing of braille documents. From there, Mike formed The Paciello Group which brought usability methods into accessibility design. Mike continues his work with braille standards, the IAAP, and immersive interfaces. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Michele A. Williams, M.A.W. Consulting, ownerMichele talks about her wide variety of experiences in accessibility. Much of her work aligned with user experience activities. This included graduate research and study, working as a researcher, and accessibility consulting. Michele has written many papers and articles and has a patent for a wearable device. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Ross Mullen, CANAXESS, DirectorRoss Mullen talks about his extensive experience in working with standards organizations for accessibility. He spent many years working with accessibility for government agencies. Now, Ross has his own consulting practice.Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Meryl Evans, independent, Professional Speaker and TrainerMeryl Evans is an accessibility evangelist who works as a trainer, speaker, and consultant. Her early career was with business writing and digital marketing. She then became involved with making and instructing how to make high-quality captions for video. Meryl stresses the importance of going beyond digital accessibility and considering the touchpoints with the physical world. That includes offering multiple formats for interacting with a product or service. Mentioned in this episode:Info about Accessibility at Blink

Thomas Wlodkowski, Comcast, Vice President, AccessibilityCurrently, leading the accessibility program at Comcast. Tom's team supports both employee-facing or customer-facing accessibility. He shares his experience being blind from birth and finding his way into the media world through radio at WPOP in Boston. That led to work with audio descriptions, policy-making for accessible media and then a position at AOL as director of accessibility.

Miriam Nabinger, independent, Accessibility SpecialistMiriam Nabinger began her work career at IBM where she first became aware of accessibility. She decided to study accessibility and make that the focus of her work. That led to her starting her own accessibility consulting practice. She talks about the current status of accessibility in Austria and the need to create more awareness.

Rajesh Kalidindi, independent, Accessibility & User Experience ConsultantRajesh Kalidindi enables individuals and corporations through his accessibility consultancy by providing training, comprehensive validations, VPATs, usability studies, empathy workshops, etc. He began as a multimedia designer and moved into UX. Joining Microsoft, Rajesh found a passion for inclusive experiences that lead to learning about standards and observing users' challenges in usability studies. He enjoys presenting at conferences.

Sarah Horton, University of Southampton, Research FellowSarah Horton is currently a research fellow at the U. of Southhamption working on a study about the teaching of accessibility. Her career began by working with instructional technology in academic circles and the led to her work in web development. She was part of the staff in the early days of The Paciello Group, contributing to audits, design reviews, and usability studies. Along the way she has written many books.

Cam Beaudoin, CIBC, Senior Manager of AccessibilityCam Beaudoin is the Senior Manager of Accessibility for a financial institution in Canada. He started as a developer at a consulting company and was immediately charged with understanding the WCAG. That led to his current position as well as consulting, speaking engagements, and his own accessibility podcast. Cam describes a bit about regulatory compliance in Canada. He also talks about the importance of melding our work with business goals, design systems, and metrics.

Rachael Bradley Montgomery, Library of Congress, Digital Accessibility SpecialistRachael talk about her work as the co-chair of the W3C's Accessibility Guidelines Working Group and her charity work in supporting accessibility for small community organizations. In her work at the Library of Congress, she help create accessible experiences for employees and patrons. She talks about her own challenge with having a chemical sensitivity disability.

Ken Nakata, Converge Accessibility, PrincipalKen Nakata helps law firms and corporation understand web accessibility issues. His career began in the Department of Justice working on the original Americans with Disability Act legislation and litigation. When Section 508 appeared, Ken started working in that area and spent a long time in that digital accessibility effort.

Marie Van Driessche, Unc, UX DesignerMarie Van Driessche helps her organization's clients understand the importance of accessibility in their web sites and apps. She shared her own experience with the many accessibility issues specific to being deaf.

David Schleppenbach, Tactile Solutions, PresidentDavid Schleppenbach produces a braille computer for people who need tactile or haptic input. He gives a quick tour of the product and manufacturing facility. As an instructor at Purdue University, he began supporting blind students by creating a better learning environment. This led to participating in the tech entrepreneurship program at Purdue and the start of his accessibility company.

Sam Chandreshekar, D2L, Accessibility Lead Sam is the accessibility lead at an educational technology company called D2L. She began her career as an IT professional. Her post-graduate work focused on online accessibility for people who are blind or vision impaired. She taught a master's program in Inclusive Design at OCAD University in Toronto. Two of her students started Fable - now a prominent platform to connect to people with disabilities for user research and accessibility testing.

Ian Kersey, Thomson Reuters, Senior Accessibility Specialist Ian Kersey supports the designers in customer-facing products at Thomson Reuters.  That includes adding annotations to Figma prototypes and making sure developers have everything they need. Starting in an accessibility office at a community college, Ian continued his career with accessibility consulting, including working at Level Access. 

Lorelei Root, Eagle's Flight, Digital Accessibility Specialist Lorelei Root digital accessibility focus with a focus on video games. She shares her experience of becoming disabled due to multiple sclerosis. Having to learn to speak, read and write again, she used the few accessible video games to help provide the road back. This led her to her work consulting about and evangelizing the need for accessibility in video games. 

Rich Schwerdtfeger, Retired, IBM, Former Chief Technology Officer for Accessibility Rich began his work in accessibility with the early development of a screen reader for Windows. He was a key member of the world-wide team that brought technologies like ARIA into mainstream use for accessibility. Rich chaired the board of Knowbility and currently is President and Creator at A Diver's Life YouTube Channel.

Charlie Turrell, BBC, Change Manager - Accessibility Champions Network Charlie onboards product development staff about accessibility and evangelizes it throughout the BBC. Starting as a personal assistant in many sections of the BBC, she found her way into user experience and then to guiding the internal accessibility champions network.

Sam Ogami, HP, Accessibility Program Manager Sam shares his early personal experience having a learning disability that was helped with assistive technology. That coupled with his interest in technology sparked his lifelong work with accessibility. This included assisting university students with assistive technology and with accessible procurement of products for the institutions. Now at HP as an Accessibility Program Manager, Sam describes how HP supports accessibility across a wide variety of groups within the organization. 

Betty Troy, Yahoo, Accessibility Specialist Betty Troy started her career through engineering with an emphasis on biomedical programs. That led to specializing in rehabilitation engineering and a position designing physical assistive technology devices for the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs. She further developed her skills as an accessibility auditor at Applause. Now she is an accessibility specialist Yahoo with a focus on user studies.

Jennison Asuncion, LinkedIn, Head, Accessibility Engineering Evangelism Jennison talks about his lived life being blind and growing up with an interest in computer technology. He describes his challenges in getting employment early on until he found a place at Royal Bank of Canada working with UX and web development and accessibility. That led to his current position as Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism at LinkedIn.

Mary Jo Mueller, IBM, Worldwide Accessibility Standards Program Manager Mary Jo talks about her long career with accessibility at IBM. She talks about the challenges in supporting digital accessibility in a large, global organization. 

Richard Morton, Head of Accessibility for Government, Central Digital & Data Office Richard talks about his early work with usability testing that also exposed him to the opportunities working with accessibility. He describes the community and knowledge-sharing in the UK. Now he works for the UK Digital and Data Office where the team support accessibility in government organizations. 

Julie Romanowski, State Farm, Senior Digital Accessibility Specialist Starting out as a web developer, Julie is now supports a wide range of accessibility activities with State Farm. She takes about the efforts to help executive leadership understand the need for a digital accessibility team. Her team provides training and individual teams work on accessibility for their own roles. That include a focus on communication documents and video media. 

Jeremy Katherman, USAA, Lead Accessibility Advisor Jeremy talks about his early work with accessibility through tech support at his university. After that he has enjoyed a lengthy career at USAA where he helped build an accessibility team that supports activities throughout the organization. 

Lainey Feingold, Author, Negotiator, Lawyer, Speaker at Law Office of Lainey Feingold Lainey describes her career as a legal advocate for people with disabilities. She talks about her process of structured negotiation to foster change without litigation. 

Christopher Land, Oracle, Senior Accessibility Technical Program Manager Chris started out in web development and was first exposed to accessibility working for the University of Michigan. That led to accessibility consulting work at Deque and Level Access where he learned from a great team of experts and did a lot of training. Now he is Senior Accessibility Technical Program Manager at Oracle. 

Poornima Subramanian, Princess Cruises, Sr. Digital Accessibility SME Poornima talks about learning on the job about disabilities and getting started as a tester with assistive technologies. She moved into the role of subject matter expert and assisted developers to understand what was relevant to their role. Her work at Holland America merges digital accessibility with a user experience that takes place in the physical world of a cruise. 

Glen Walker, TIAA, Principal Accessibility Architect Glen talks about his early years as a software engineer and his personal interest in keyboard support. This lead him to accessibility work that included solving screen reader issues and compliance with Section 508 and WCAG. In his consulting work he continues to help other developers by sharing knowledge in a variety of ways. 

Joanne Lastort, Booz Allen Hamilton, Digital Accessibility Specialist Joanne talks about her first career as a professional pastry chef. The loss of use one of her hands moved her to working in IT. Her desire to still be a keyboard user brought her into accessibility testing at the IRS and the FCC. Now she is part of the Section 508 team at Booz Allen Hamilton at the Department of Labor.

Zack Klein, iSoftStone, Software Test Engineer II Zack talks about his work as an accessibility tester and his unique perspective as a person who is totally blind. His love of technology helps him solve issues with the accessible content he relies on. He describes the tools he prefers including his Mac, iPhone and refreshable braille display.

Jen Devins, Google, Head Accessibility UX Jen talks about her journey into user experience and design and then an opportunity to work with accessibility. She considered accessibility from a UX perspective as a champion of the user. Jen describes how research helped to develop training to create more awareness about the need for accessibility. 

Andrew Hayward, Twitter, Accessibility Engineer Andrew Hayward talks about discovering accessibility in his early years as a web developer. He describes his path that weaved through Mozilla and most recently found him helping to set up an emerging accessibility team at Twitter. 

Nicole Bergstrom, Hilton, Senior Director of Digital Accessibility Nicole Bergstrom talks about her first exposure to accessibility while working in the federal government. She describes her move to Hilton and how they are building accessibility into all the touchpoints of their customers for digital services.