Podcasts about accessibility consultant

Grant Hardy speaks with accessibility consultant Zachary Weeks about the importance of advocacy work and Zachary's campaign Zac Sacs. Born from his mother's desire to make sure Zachary could go outside like his classmates, she created a Zac Sac out of an old sleeping bag that could fit over his power wheelchair. Zachary tells Grant how these covers have developed, and about the Zac Sac program. Check out the Pulse on YouTube!About AMIAMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation and positive portrayal. To learn more visit AMI.ca and AMItele.ca.Find more great AMI Original Content on AMI+Learn more at AMI.caConnect with Accessible Media Inc. online:X /Twitter @AccessibleMediaInstagram @AccessibleMediaInc / @AMI-audioFacebook at @AccessibleMediaIncTikTok @AccessibleMediaIncEmail feedback@ami.ca

Grant Hardy hosts The Pulse and speaks with Michell Jorgenson, the founder of ABLE United, on today's episode. Michelle faced many challenges and barriers in environments where people weren't accepting of her disability, and she looked at these challenges as an opportunity to gain confidence in herself. She became a Para-Judo athlete, and an entrepreneur.Michelle and her partner co-founded ABLE United, a company that provides services in areas such as accessible event planning, accessibility consultation, and much more. Grant asks Michelle how she started her journey of true self-acceptance and asks what her entrepreneurial journey has done for her.  Check out the Pulse on YouTube!About AMIAMI is a not-for-profit media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians who are blind or partially sighted. Operating three broadcast services, AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French, AMI's vision is to establish and support a voice for Canadians with disabilities, representing their interests, concerns and values through inclusion, representation, accessible media, reflection, representation and portrayal.Find more great AMI Original Content on AMI+Learn more at AMI.caConnect with Accessible Media Inc. online:X /Twitter @AccessibleMediaInstagram @AccessibleMediaInc / @AMI-audioFacebook at @AccessibleMediaIncTikTok @AccessibleMediaIncEmail feedback@ami.ca

Angela Fowler is the forerunner to make change- helping businesses understand how to make everything accessible to this unique market.  Angela is a successful business woman who is also totally blind. She has a unique insight into what it takes for regular every-day businesses to partake in this 2.1 trillion dollar market!!!  Angela is so open and transparent about this passion; she speaks UP!  She is the one breaking the blind paradigm. SOME PEOPLE may see her disability as a tragedy and she's turned it into awareness, compassion and bettering the world; much more than an asset in life.Listen in for more of life's lessons we need to learn.  Angela runs her coaching and consulting business from her home in Northern California, which she shares with her son and a few pets.She has been amazing to have on our show Feng shui Your Day! Contact Angela Fowler through https://www.reallifeaccess.com   Kathryn Wilking: Author, Decorator, Feng Shui Expert , Podcast HostWebsite : https://www.kathrynwilking.comEmail: kathryn@kathrynwilking.comPodcast: Feng Shui Your DayBOOKS: https://practicalfengshuifortheoffice.com The Feng Shui Advantage by Kathryn WilkingPractical Feng Shui for the Office by Kathryn WilkingFREE GIFT : '10 Ways to Raise Chi-Energy in any Space'www.kathrynwilking.com/resources TAKE THE PEP QUIZ: (Personal Element Profile)https://www.kathrynwilking.com/resources/pepquiz/ Let's Get Your Space Working for you!

Meet a true renaissance man Peter Tonge. From his business as a Accessibility Consultant, to a  life as a lawyer, to fencer, photographer, and now even the District Governor of 5550 my new friend Peter Tong is sure to impress. Join us as we talk about accessibility Rotary and so very much more!

Accessibility consultants work at the intersection of architecture and social justice. It's much more than checking the boxes on accessibility requirements of laws and codes;... The post Career Diaries – What's It Like Working As an Accessibility Consultant? appeared first on Steven Winter Associates, Inc..

Darby Lee Young, Founder and Principal Accessibility Strategist, Level Playing Field and a designated Rick Hansen Foundation (RHFAC) Professional. Darby's ultimate goal has been to combine her lived experience with her professional life as an Accessibility Consultant. As a person born with mild cerebral palsy, Darby has been able to utilize this unique experience to her advantage, and her previous political appointments and competitive career as a para-alpine skier have provided her with an impactful perspective when approaching projects. Darby's previous political appointments and achievements include serving on the City of Calgary's Advisory Committee on Accessibility (ACA) from 2011-2015, serving as the co-chair for two years. Darby also represented the City of Calgary at the International Summit on Accessibility in 2014. From June 2017 to June 2020, Darby was a member of the Premier's Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Over the last five years, Darby has been honoured with numerous awards and achievements. In 2018 Darby was selected as one of Canada's top 40 under 40. In February 2020, John Fluevog Shoes released the "Darby" Shoes. They are now available in multiple colours. In 2021 Darby was named one of the Top 25 Women of Influence 2021. Darby continues to break down barriers for persons with disabilities not only professionally but also personally in hopes that one day it truly makes a difference. LPF has allowed Darby to offer her expertise to a wider range of clients. By incorporating universal design features in new builds and conducting accessibility reviews on proposed and existing facilities, Darby's work continues to make a significant difference for many people living with disabilities and puts her team at the forefront of accessibility consulting. Through this work LPF has successfully contributed to the removal of barriers at the municipal, provincial and national levels, ultimately establishing inclusive environments. In her spare time, Darby can be found at most sporting events, especially Hockey, Tennis and Chuckwagon Racing! She enjoys travelling and exploring new places for accessibility. Darby will always be seen on the sidelines cheering on her friends and family in all their adventures. Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada's economy. To support Canada's businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

In today's episode, Lois speaks with Mitch Creedy, a digital accessibility consultant from Canada. Mitch talks about their background in digital accessibility, and the training they received through the Blind Institute of Technology, also called the BIT Academy. They also refer to the WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, as a tool that can be used by web developers wishing to make their work more accessible. The second half of the conversation revolves around the topic of bullying, both experienced within the workplace and in more casual and social interactions, where Mitch unpacks some experiences that they have encountered. *As a note: this conversation was recorded in December 2023 and, at one stage, Mitch refers to their decision to disengage from social media for a short time. I'm thrilled to let you know that they are back on socials and you can now connect with them there. Reach out to Mitch at: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mitchk20 Blind Institute of Technology website: Podcast Image description: A person with short hair smiling at the camera. They are wearing a grey zip-up top with a high collar. The background is plain and white, providing a clear view of the person. I'd love to hear from you – contact me at Web: https://www.loisstrachan.com/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lstrachan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loisstrachanspeaker This episode edited by Craig Strachan using Hindenburg PRO – find out more on Hindenburg.com Credits and music by Charlie Dyasi of Naledi Media.

CCR Publisher David Corson sat down with Elizabeth Ruggles, Accessibility Specialist for Charles Taylor. Accessibility compliance is an important aspect of any construction or building project and firms need to remember that there are numerous rules both at the federal and state level which can impact them.When most people think about handicap accessibility in the United States, they typically associate it with the familiar blue signs and wheelchair friendly ramps that have become commonplace across the nation. However, accessibility is so much more than this and can be beautiful and a natural component of a project if it is done correctly and built in as early as possible. It requires proper planning, diligence and needs to be an ongoing effort for companies to avoid serious legal and monetary issues. Luckily, most construction companies want to actively be compliant and work to do so, but due to the numerous different regulations and different states having different rules, it can make navigating accessibility a headache for those newer to it. It's never too late during a construction project to ask for experts to evaluate Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and accessibility compliance, but like most things its always best to start as early as possible. By building accessibility in during the design and development phase, companies can ensure that if things need to go back to the drawing board, they are able to address those issues before ground is broken. Similarly, for acquisitions or updates to existing buildings, its similarly best to work with experts to check compliance sooner rather than later. It will always be easier to pivot or change a design element before it's been built in. Enjoy the conversation. https://www.charlestaylor.com/en/#ada #projectmanagement #accessability #design #architecture #planning #constructiontalk https://www.magicmind.com/discountlink, use discount code "DISCOUNTCODE20"

Welcome to the lab and today we unravel the remarkable journey of Dr. Ifeoma Nnaji, MD, MBA, FAAFP—an Accessibility Consultant and family physician based in the dynamic Atlanta metro area. Dr. Nnaji even knew in medical school that she did not want to be stuck in the traditional medicine environment. Realizing that, in the world of medicine, she is the human capital, and fueled by a desire to solve the challenge of relying solely on the traditional medical career, Dr. Nnaji shares her journey of seeking multiple streams of income, touching on her initial reluctance, influenced by cultural expectations, and how the changing landscape of medicine urged her to explore alternative paths. Motivated by her father's success and introduced to the possibilities by Dr. Chau, Dr. Nnaji took the plunge and has since been focused on catering to and solving problems for travelers with physical disabilities In this episode, Dr Nnaji shares the value of time for family physicians, the personal journey from medicine to entrepreneurship, and her experiences with malaria and polio. She sheds light on the impact of being the oldest sibling, cultural expectations, and the drive to overcome societal limitations for individuals with disabilities. The conversation extends to her role in the rental property industry, maximizing profits in real estate, and the founding of Vida Voyage—a company dedicated to ensuring accessibility for travelers with physical disabilities. Dr. Nnaji's wisdom extends to the challenges faced by individuals with physical disabilities in navigating spaces, the importance of catering to specific populations, and the power of solving problems for positive impact. If you're seeking inspiration to break free from the traditional career path and move towards financial freedom, Dr. Nnaji's insights will be your guide. Tune in now and unlock the secrets to transition from the 9-to-5 grind to financial independence! Join us on this transformative journey with Dr. Ifeoma Nnaji and discover the keys to unlocking your own entrepreneurial potential! Get the Midterm Rental Insurance Blueprint: https://experimentrealestate.com/#blueprint HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE: 01:56 Dr. Ifeoma talks about the limitations of a career in medicine 57:29 Dr. Ifeoma about the importance of accessibility and accommodation KEEPING IT REAL: 05:01 The value of time and the journey of a family physician towards multiple streams of income 10:01 Personal journey to a career in medicine 15:01 Understanding Malaria and Polio 20:01 The impact of being the oldest sibling and cultural expectations on decision-making 25:02 Overcoming societal limitations for individuals with disabilities 30:00 The individual's motivation and success in the rental property industry 35:00 Maximizing profits in the real estate market 40:01 Experience with hotel reservations and the potential for smaller companies to compete 45:00 Exploring service delivery for people with disabilities 50:01 Challenges faced by individuals with physical disabilities in navigating physical spaces and traveling 55:01 Considerations for catering to a specific population 1:00:00 The importance of accessibility and accommodation 1:05:00 Vida Voyage: A company catering to travelers with physical disabilities 1:10:02 Ensuring accessibility for individuals with physical disabilities 1:15:01 The power of solving problems and making a positive impact 1:19:14 We are OUT! CONNECTING WITH THE GUEST Email: ifeoma.nnaji@vidavoyage.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifeoma-nnaji-md-mba-faafp-13465042/ #RealEstateInvesting #InclusiveTravel #OvercomingLimitations #AccessibleTravels

This week, Callum Stoneman speaks to Be My Eyes CEO Mike Buckley about their incredible year. Hubert hears about some of the most popular items available for Christmas at the RNIB Products For Life Store. And we'll hear how one blind video game fan made the leap to becoming an accessibility consultant. You can listen to the show live in the UK every Tuesday at 1pm on Freeview Channel 730, online at RNIB Connect Radio | RNIB , or on your smart speaker. You'll hear new episodes of the Tech Talk Podcast every Friday so make sure you're subscribed to never miss an episode. We'd love to hear your thoughts on accessible technology, drop us an email at techtalk@rnib.org.uk 

Today on the show, Steven welcomes special guest Robert Kingett, a blind author, accessibility consultant and journalist. The conversation delves into Robert's background and his journey as a journalist who is blind, providing a unique perspective on advocacy and how it has evolved for him over time. A significant part of the discussion revolves around the importance of learning Braille and the challenges of learning it later in life. Robert shares his personal experience of sudden vision loss and how it impacted his life, highlighting the importance of technology in bridging the gap between people who are disabled and non-disabled.Robert also opens up about his turbulent childhood, growing up with a single mother struggling with drug addiction. He talks about the importance of control and stability in his life, and how technology and creative pursuits provided that for him. The conversation then shifts to Robert's educational journey, where he shares his decision to attend a school for the blind. Steven and Robert discuss the importance of providing children with the tools they need to succeed, regardless of their visual abilities. To learn more about Robert, visit his website: https://blindjournalist.wordpress.com/Get in touch with the Double Tappers and join the conversation:Email: feedback@doubletaponair.comCall: 1-877-803-4567 (Canada and USA) / 0204 571 3354 (UK)X (formerly Twitter): @BlindGuyTech / @ShaunShedMastodon: @DoubleTap

Kris Rivenburgh covers a Target full-time job post for an accessibility consultant with a potential $196,200 salary. This post highlights the need to assist the legal team on "investigations and questions related to digital accessibility compliance." Digital accessibility consultants are in demand and this Target job post demonstrates it. Whether you're looking for career opportunities or starting your own business, there is money in digital accessibility. Link to the job post: https://www.a11yjobs.com/jobs/25e9l-lead-accessibility-consultant-program-managerremote-or-hybrid-target #DigitalAccessibility #AccessibilityJobs #AccessibilityConsultants Do you have a question about ADA compliance for websites? Do you have a success story to share? Join our Reddit community at https://www.reddit.com/r/adabook. Kris designed the ADA Compliance Program as a done-for-you (DFY) service for website owners. The ADA Compliance Program audits and remediates your website for $4,999 (for most websites). Find out more at https://accessible.org⁠. Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instructions you can give your team to fix the most commonly claimed issues in ADA website lawsuits. The ACC is really an SOP for your web team. Your team can get started in minutes at ⁠https://ADACompliance.net⁠. Would you like to learn the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines? With Kris's WCAG Course, you can learn WCAG in three hours. There's a lesson with a plain English video explanation for every success criterion in WCAG 2.0 AA, 2.1 AA, and 2.2 AA. Sign up for Kris's WCAG Course at https://WCAGCourse.com. Kris created Audits 101 so that you can learn how to audit a website against the WCAG 2.1 AA technical standards. Learn how to conduct an accessibility audit at ⁠https://Audits101.com⁠. Connect with Kris directly on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/company/adabook⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisrivenburgh⁠ Kris offers accessibility services including WCAG 2.1 AA manual audits and remediation at ⁠https://accessible.org⁠. Kris also wrote the book on ADA compliance for digital assets. You can find out more about The ADA Book at ⁠https://ADABook.com⁠. Transcript: https://adabook.com/target-196200-lead-accessibility-consultant-job/

Adapting to life with a disability is a challenge many of us won't face.  This week our Host and CEO, Stuart Elliott had the pleasure of speaking to Dr Amit Patel, talking about his journey with an unexpected disability; we hope to enlighten our listeners with his incredible story and how he learned to navigate the world in a completely new way.  Dr Amit is an Accessibility Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Writer, and Disability Activist. Amit lost his vision overnight in November 2013, amid the prime of his career as a Trauma Doctor. Since accepting his sight loss, he has been a powerful advocate for disability rights. In 2020 he wrote his first book Kika & Me, which explores his experiences of being visually impaired and how much having a guide dog changed his perception.  In this episode, Stuart and Amit look into what happened to Dr Amit's vision, how his feelings adapted over time to his sight loss, changing career unexpectedly, coming to terms with his disability and how organisations can break down the barriers to become more inclusive.  For any of our UK listeners with children, you can watch Kika and Amit in Dog Squad on BBC iPlayer here. Key Timestamps:01:04 – Introducing Dr Amit Patel  04:23 – Early career journey 07:09 – What happened to Dr Amit's sight? 16:07 – Feelings around his sight loss 20:49 – Coming to terms with his sight loss 24:03 – How Dr Amit became a Disability Activist 31:42 – Applying for new roles 39:58 – Navigating barriers  41:39 – What are people doing well in the disability space  52:07 – Breaking down barriers and being more inclusive You can listen to and download HR Insights from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and most popular podcast apps, subscribe so the latest episodes are directly available! You can also join our HR Community and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. Thank you so much for listening and please rate and review!

Join us in this episode as we discover the brilliant world of Emily Yates, a Glasgow-based Accessibility Consultant, and Journalism ace. Tune in to hear the compelling journey of Emily, from her volunteer beginnings at the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games all the way to her role as the Head of Accessibility and Inclusive Design at Mima!Emily draws on her personal experience as a wheelchair user to share her invaluable experiences travelling across the globe and helping improve the accessibility of one the world's largest airports.  Don't miss out on this captivating discussion with a truly remarkable champion for disability inclusion and accessibility!You can access a transcript of this episode at https://share.descript.com/view/0E87LiqpQCX Learn more about Emily at, https://www.emilyroseyates.co.uk/Follow Remarkable on Instagram: @remarkable_techSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Spastic Chatter Time! In this episode, I chat with Zachary Weeks about his journey of being an accessibility consultant.  Watch the episode here: hhttps://youtu.be/73Yq5UXanlo You can also listen to this episode on your favorite podcast platform by searching Spastic Chatter. #CerebralPalsy #Disabled #Disability #SpasticChatter #Podcast #Accessibility  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/whitney-bailey/support

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

In this episode, host Julia Streets is joined by Ed Warner, founder of the inclusive design business Motionspot and Ross Hovey, Accessibility Guru, Accessibility Consultant and Lloyds Banking Group Disability Role Model. They explore the importance of inclusive design to serve talent across all protected characteristics, with a particular focus on intersectionality, neurodiversity and different stages of life. The discussion leads to why there we need broader EDI strategies that incorporate an inclusive design mindset. Together they discuss the value of more diverse and all embracing workspaces, designed for wellbeing and belonging, so individuals can thrive, free from potential barriers and obstacles.

Linda Hunt did not start out knowing about or in any way dealing with disabilities or accessibility. She grew up primarily in Canada. While getting her college degree she began a 15-year career with the Superior Court in her town. Along the way she married a man who worked for a screening company that silkscreened t-shirts and other products.   Eventually, Linda's husband started his own screening company and after 15 years Linda began doing work for the new company. In 1999, because Linda began feeling tingling in her extremities, she consulted a physician and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. As it turned out, after ten years she became one of the 50% whose disease progressed until Linda began using a wheelchair. Of course, Linda then became much more interested in the whole concept of accessibility and she began doing more work with organizations and companies in the field.   I asked her about how she remained so positive and how she was able to deal with the unexpected changes in her life. Her answer will show you why I regard her and her actions as unstoppable. Linda's story will show you that no matter what befalls us we can move forward.     About the Guest:   Linda Hunt Is an Award-Winning Accessibility Consultant, Speaker, Podcaster and Author.   She is the CEO of Accessibility Solutions an accessibility consulting firm that aids businesses and organizations to remedy barriers for people with disabilities. Their mission is Making the World Accessible.   Linda is the Treasurer of Citizens with Disabilities – Ontario. A member of The Rick Hansen Foundation – Accessibility Professional Network. A Certified Community Champion on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and it's Optional Protocol.   Linda was elected to Brantford City Council in 2022. She is the first person with a physical disability to be elected as a Brantford City Councillor.   Linda first became a person with a disability in 2004 since then she has become an advocate for all things related to accessibility.    Linda has more than 30 years of experience in senior management roles in the public, private and not-for profit sectors.   Based in Brantford, ON Linda and her husband Greg have operated their own business Grelin Apparel Graphics for over 30 years.     Free Gift– 1:1 meeting with Linda https://calendly.com/accessibilitysolutions/meeting-with-linda-hunt     Accessibility Solutions – Social media links https://www.facebook.com/solutions4accessibility   https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibility-solutions   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRBqblsq_vxrKbdvEp2IOWQ   Accessibility Solutions – Podcast site https://accessibility-solutions.captivate.fm/listen   Website www.solutions4accessibility.com   Email linda@solutions4accessibility.com   Phone 519-753-1233           About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:29 Today we have Linda Hunt as our guest, Linda is an award winning accessibility consultant. She's a podcaster. She's an author, and she now is a politician. She's a member of a city council. We're going to have to learn more about that. And she also happens to be a person with a physical disability. So we have lots that we can talk about. And we hope that this will inspire and educate. And I'm certainly looking forward to it. I hope all of you are as well. So Linda, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Linda Hunt  02:00 Oh, thank you, Michael. And thank you so much for having me.   Michael Hingson  02:03 Well, it's really a pleasure. Let's start, as I love to do tell me a little bit about you growing up and just where you came from, and kind of what got you to what you do as an adult?   Linda Hunt  02:16 Yes. So I'm, I'm a Scottish loss. Actually. I was born in Scotland and I emigrated to Canada when I was about two with my parents. And they came to Canada with me as a two year old had two other children. And then my, my mum was homesick. So we moved back to Scotland and I actually started school here. I started kindergarten here. But when I went back to Scotland, I went to school for a few years and came back when I was in grade three. So I've I've been here ever since I was about eight years old. And as far as you know, growing up, did the traditional school, I graduated high school in the depression of the early 80s. And my parents couldn't afford to send me to post secondary education. So I got a job. Well, I had a job in high school that became a full time job. And and then I started working actually for superior court when I was only 19 years old. So following that, I decided to pursue post secondary education. So I have a degree in business administration, which took me 10 years to get before the days of online learning. I had to commute almost an hour each way to actually attend university. So that's, you know, that's kind of what got me as far as my post secondary education. I have two children, they are grown. They're 25 and 30. Now and wow, that was a that was a forget my own birthdays. My son turning 30 was was a milestone for me, which was just at the end of November. But so and professionally, I mentioned I spent 15 years working in superior court. My husband and I had opened our own business in 1990, which we've had for just coming up on 33 years. I myself spent a significant amount of time working as a business consultant for the federal government, and then went on to be executive director of a national health charity here in Canada until 2009 When I gave up what I called the commute down the highway for the commute down my office or sorry, down the hallway to my office. which is how I ended up starting accessibility solutions, which is an accessibility consulting firm that AIDS businesses and organizations to remedy barriers for persons with disabilities. So that kind of got me to where I am now, from a professional perspective, you've mentioned that I have a physical disability, and yes, I do, I am in a power wheelchair. I was diagnosed in 1999, with multiple sclerosis. For the first five years, I could still jog and high heels. And then we eventually started to see some disability progression. To the point between early 2006 and late 2007, I went from one cane to two canes to a walker to a scooter to a wheelchair in the span of about 18 months. So adapting, adapting adapting to disability progression as we moved along. So that's my history in a nutshell, as we will say,   Michael Hingson  06:07 Well, I like the idea of going down the hall to the office. And so do I very much enjoy it, I think it's a great thing, I think there's a lot of value in being able to work at home, as long as you are able to do it and keep up with what it is that you need to do. It's it takes a lot of discipline to work at home and some cases, more than even working in an office of the when you're in an office, there's a lot of gossip and talking and interaction that takes place and some of that's valuable. But working at home is a lot more of a discipline. And it it has its own challenges.   Linda Hunt  06:46 It does. I know when I first started working from home I that was in as I said in 2009, which I mean, since the pandemic remote working is become a norm for a lot of people. But in 2009, a lot of people thought if you worked from home, what did that mean? You you went on your computer, and then you went and watched, you know, TV or did something along those lines. But I did miss the as you said the watercooler the gossip, I miss the interacting with other adults. And so I've really embraced, especially since the pandemic zoom, and being able to connect with people like yourself, who we would never be able to connect in person just because of geography. But it's certainly become the norm for a lot of people to be working from home. And you're right. I do tend to take a little bit of a break around 430. But I quite often am back in my office at about six o'clock till maybe eight o'clock. So one of the things that I find about working from home is is almost like you live at work, because for me the temptation to go into your office and maybe do something or catch up on something that you didn't finish earlier in the day is just right there.   Michael Hingson  08:21 And that can be a good thing. And it could also be a thing that you have to watch, of course, but I've in my career had several jobs where I have done a lot of things remotely as it were. I remember starting out working well my first job was actually involved with a device called the Kurzweil Reading Machine for the blind. And literally, I traveled all over the country for 18 months, where we in the National Federation of the Blind place machines in various places. So right from the outset, I did everything kind of remotely. So I would interact with people where we put machines, but the other people within the organization, and within the process of my job responsibilities within the organization was all remote. So I got used to that. And then I went to work for Kerswell in an office. And that was great until I was asked to relocate to California to help Kerswell integrate with Xerox on the West Coast. And there I was, again in a situation where pretty much for three years my office was really an room in my home. So I got used to that pretty early. But I do like both settings. I think there's value for both. So I'm I'm glad that you're you're able to succeed at doing it. You seem to be pretty comfortable working down the hall as it were.   Linda Hunt  09:55 Yes. Yes, I really I really am and it and I do a lot of work with companies around inclusive hiring and it makes a big difference from an inclusive hiring perspective. To have to have your workforce be able to work remotely.   Michael Hingson  10:17 Yeah. So when you worked for the Superior Court, what did you do?   Linda Hunt  10:22 I was a, I started out as the Deputy Clerk of small claims court, which is basically, I think at the time when I first started, it was small claims under $1,000. And I think it went to $3,000. In today's, you know, realm, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000. But it was basically civil litigation. So I was a court services, representatives. So basically, in a, in an environment where no one was happy to be there. But the other thing that Superior Court in Ontario, Canada, at least does is trials that get basically bumped from Provincial Court. So things like murders and that kind of thing. So Superior Court. While we do a lot of civil litigation, there, also has a very high end criminal components. So I would do a lot of the work around juries. And basically, it's paperwork that has anything to do with the court system, or anything to do with law or legal work has, has lots and lots and lots of paperwork.   Michael Hingson  11:48 I have too busy.   Linda Hunt  11:50 Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I, as I said, I started there when I was 19. I mean, I left. When I left there, my daughter was only two. So you know, I really grew up in that role. And as I said, the that was the timeframe that I was also commuting to get my degree. So when my you know, I would be working, you know, nine to five at the courthouse and then leaving to drive to university for a lecture two nights a week. So yeah, it certainly kept me busy back then.   Michael Hingson  12:30 What made you decide to leave that and start your own business?   Linda Hunt  12:34 Well, my so my husband was the production manager for a screen printing company for 12 years. And it was the decision to start our business was more a result of his business expertise. And he was working in a family business, he was fairly young. He wasn't quite 30 yet, but he was working in a family business where at the age of 30, he realized that he was never going to go any higher than he was because it was all family members above. So we talked about it and, and then we had a good friend of ours that worked for a company that was looking for a new screen printer, so it was kind of a it was good timing. It was you know, maybe I can do this. And then almost like a ready made customer base, if you want to call it that. That presented the opportunity. So we did so we decided that he would start that now keeping in mind at the time I worked at Superior Court, so I always had the backup full time job will say so it wasn't it wasn't the total leap of faith. I mean, I had the job with the benefits and but anyway, we did our business has been very, very successful. So other than when I left Superior Court and my daughter, as I said was, well she wasn't quite too. There was a maybe a five year span in there that I worked full time in the business but at that point, we had two locations. 16 employees and things were you know, very, very busy. And then I decided to when when my daughter went to school is when I decided to to go and work elsewhere, which is when I went to as I said I went to work for the federal government as a business consultant.   Michael Hingson  15:00 So, now when you talk about the business being a screen printer, what exactly is that? Well,   Linda Hunt  15:05 if you can imagine you've probably got a t shirt with a logo on the front of it. Ah, that would have been printed in a screen printing facility. Got it?   Michael Hingson  15:14 Okay. Yeah. So then you went to work for the federal government? What did you do for them,   Linda Hunt  15:21 I was a business consultant, I ran a program called the self employment benefits program. And I basically took people that wanted to be entrepreneurs, all the way through the business planning, market research, marketing plan, getting their business started, and then mentored them through their first year of business. And I can pleased to say in the, in the, my, probably about the four years that I did that I probably had a hand in launching 200 to 230 small businesses. And I found that I found that very rewarding. So that was really for me, it was, first of all, my experience of starting my own business, or, in my case, my, the business that my husband was, was running full time. But it was also my, my education. So I have a degree in business administration. So but but really, that that lived experience of being that entrepreneur that had to write the business plan, and, you know, go through all of the steps of becoming a business. And I'm pleased to say, I did that in the early 2000. And there I know, because I've used them, I know of quite a few of the businesses that I helped launch during that timeframe that they're still in business today. And we're talking 15 to 20 years later. So I like to think that I had a hand in giving them a great start.   Michael Hingson  17:12 So how long did you do that?   Linda Hunt  17:15 I did that for four years in the early 2000s. And at the time, I was sitting on the provincial board of directors for, as I said that the national health charity that I that so what ended up happening is that they approached me because they were recruiting for an executive director. So I have a degree in business administration basically was sitting on the provincial board of directors and had the was given the opportunity then at that point to be considered for the executive director position. So I was successful, applied and was the successful candidate and left that left that position with the federal government to go and work as executive director for for that, that organization, which anybody that's worked in the not for profit world knows that that executive director level, it's a lot like running a business. So you've got customers or clients to keep happy and you've got funders to to keep happy and you've got payroll to make and marketing to do and you know, all of that kind of stuff. So it is a lot like running the business.   Michael Hingson  18:35 So you did that until when,   Linda Hunt  18:39 until 2009 which is as I said when I gave up the commute down the highway to the commute down the hallway. And so in 2009 was when I saw I started accessibility solutions in 2010 2009 was a tough year. Health wise. We had my dad my father died and then my father in law died a month apart. And we had health wise I was I was struggling so 2009 was a tough, tough year.   Michael Hingson  19:21 Now were you in a chair by that time.   Linda Hunt  19:25 In 2009, I was still shuffling in the house with a walker Okay, or what I call a furniture surfing. So shuffling for one piece of furniture to another but no couldn't couldn't walk independently at that time. At that time I was using a wheelchair outside so I would leave the house get in my wheelchair leave the house go down the ramp and the garage get into my 2009 was when I bought my wheelchair accessible man so I still to this They drive from a wheelchair accessible van that has a side ramp. But yes, so I was still living we were still living in, you know the two story, four bedroom house at that point we installed. So we talked about adapt, adapt, adapt, right. So you adapt to your circumstances can't do that anymore. So what do I need to do so that we can do that so that at some point in 2006, I believe I decided that I could no longer climb this flight of 13 stairs to go from the main level of our house all the way up to the bedrooms. So we installed a stair lift at that point. So when I say I was shuffling with a walker, I was shuffling with a walker on the main level, and then I'd get on the stair lift and go upstairs and shuffle with another Walker. Around the the upstairs the bedroom, my office was upstairs at that time. We Yeah, so in 2010, was when I started accessibility solutions, which at the time was primarily related to compliance with the EO da, which is provincial legislation, somewhat similar to your ADA in the United States. So we were helping businesses comply with new legislation that was that was coming on stream for businesses in Ontario. And while we still do that, we you know, we've we've really grown into quite a few other areas of helping businesses embrace the will say, embrace the culture of, of inclusion and realize that persons with disabilities are is really a market that no business can afford to ignore. And so we have a series of webinars now that we run called Accessibility is good for business. We have some partners with the local Chamber of Commerce and you know, that kind of things. So that's that's really my my passion now is I'm I'm a very strong advocate for accessibility. In no kind of every, every aspect of, of life, I guess is, you know, well,   Michael Hingson  22:36 tell me tell me more about your your concepts of accessibility or inclusion really ought to be part of the cost of doing business?   Linda Hunt  22:46 Well, it's it well, we actually frame it as that accessibility is good for business. So you can enhance your bottom line by being accessible. Why? Well, 22% of the population has a disability. So and then we talk about the sphere of influence of those people. So I, I'm in a wheelchair, so I'm one of the 22%. But if we're going out for dinner, or we're going shopping, then that sphere of influence might be me and a couple of girlfriends or in the case of my family, my husband's family is fairly large. So I think our Christmas dinner was 34 people. So when we set out to decide where we're going to go for dinner for 34 people, the number one concern is is that business accessible, because if it's not accessible, me and the 33 other people in my husband's family are not going there for dinner. So that's, that's real dollars. Right? That's, that's, you know, that's, like I said, that's real dollars and cents. But the other, the other thing that we that we really talk about is the fact that 22% of the population has a disability, but that percentage over the age of 65 is obviously 40% of the population. So everybody, whether you're in Canada or United States is well aware of what we call the silver tsunami. And and as the population ages there are more and more people that have a disability and if you're not accessible, and then you're then you're you're you know those people are not coming to your business or in the you know, they're not coming to your website if it's not accessible to someone like yourself that is blind or For us, as vision loss, we the other thing that that we do a lot of work around right now is inclusive hiring strategies because the world is short staffed, and the most underutilized labor market out there are people with disabilities who want to work, but need need to work in organizations that have embraced a culture of inclusion. And so out of necessity, believe it or not, a lot of businesses are recognizing the fact that accessibility and inclusion needs to be part of their business strategy.   Michael Hingson  25:49 So one of the conundrums I think, that we face, although we don't necessarily talk about it, is that while we have a significant number of people who happen to have a disability, you said, 22%, I've actually heard higher numbers doesn't matter, though. The problem is, we have a lot of different disabilities. And so yes, you have issues where you can't gain access to buildings, and I may have issues where we can't access the menu at a restaurant or read material, but they're different. How do we get people within the minority to work together? Or do they?   Linda Hunt  26:36 Well, I think they do. Recognizing, and, you know, when we talk about universal accessibility, we're talking accessible for everyone. So not just a person with the physical disability, or as you said, not someone that's able to, to read, read a menu, or hear the waitress, for example, you know, giving you the specials of the evening at, at a restaurant, it's, it's really all about how, how a business can accommodate different types of disabilities, and how they, how they can do it, but the culture, that culture of inclusion really starts at the top. So that there has to be a will, for them to want to be able to be inclusive to people of all disability, you know, of all types of disabilities. So, you know, I always start with the, you know, how can I help? It's as simple as that, how can I help? What do you need, and, and then we, and then we go from there, but we, you know, I work with a lot of businesses that that are, they're just, they don't know what they don't know, right. And so, a lot of times what we think are, you know, fairly simple fixes, until there, if you, if you don't have a disability, or until somebody points something out to you, then then you're not even aware. So that awareness for one is definitely, you know, just being aware that you need to be accessible, or you want your business to be accessible. But then also being able to recognize that in order to be inclusive for everyone, that there are different ways that you that you need to make your business successful.   Michael Hingson  28:59 Well, I, I like what you say about it is good for doing business. But I also do think that we need to have more of a discussion about the reality that accessibility and inclusion issue is and should be part of the cost of doing business as well, because we do so many things in business. We do so many things for one group or another, or for most employees, for example, we have lights so that people can see where they're going, and so on. Although some of us don't need it. We have coffee machines to make employees happy and so on. And we regard that typically in a business environment as part of the cost of doing business. But if and we hit when we provide computer monitors, but if somebody comes along and says I need a screen reader to hear what's on the screen. First of all, they may not even get hired because oh that's we don't have budgets for that rather than in reality. It's no different than needing a computer monitor, or it is an issue of what's your priority. And so we at some point have to decide that inclusion really is part of the cost of doing business. And that's a good thing.   Linda Hunt  30:19 Yeah, I agree. And that, I mean, a lot of times I feel like I'm preaching to the converted, right? Because once once they've decided to seek out the services of an accessibility consulting firm, and I'm sure you deal with this, as well, that, you know, once they've decided that they're going to make their website accessible, and they've come to, to see or talk to you about, about your services. You know, they've made that conscious decision that they want to build accessibility and inclusion into their business, which is great. There are though, at least in the province of Ontario, Canada, where we are, there are laws that require businesses to be accessible. And unfortunately, that legislation is probably one of the most non compliant pieces of legislation out there. Because it's what I call the carrot and the stick, right, like people, first of all, they don't know, I've had so many businesses say to me, why don't think that legislation applies to me? And I say, well, actually, it applies to every business in the province of Ontario that has at least one employee. Or they'll say, Well, we don't have customers, well, that doesn't really matter. I mean, you're Purolator delivery guy could have a hearing impairment, and that qualifies as, or your website's not accessible, or, you know, whatever, whatever it is. So it's not about the legislation was, was actually passed in 2005, to make the province of Ontario fully accessible by 2025. Well, we've got under two years to go. And we are nowhere near where where we were supposed to be. And a lot of that you're right has to do with businesses who don't realize that building in accessibility and inclusion is is the cost of doing business.   Michael Hingson  32:34 How do we get speaking of the whole issue in Canada? How do we get that to be more of a national initiative? Why is it a provincial one? I know that I've had discussions with people in various provinces about guide dog access, and some provinces do better at that than others. But why is it that we are not able to get this to be more of a national movement?   Linda Hunt  33:00 Yeah, we, we just in 2019, actually passed the accessible Canada Act. Unfortunately, though, the accessible Canada Act, which was, which was also a very welcomed piece of legislation, but it's only it only regulates federally regulated industries, such as banking for airline trance, transportation, or, you know, those kinds of federally regulated industries. So they're provincially regulated industries. And I'm lucky that we're in Ontario, because we were actually the first that that brought out legislation, and ours is called the Accessibility for Ontarians. With Disabilities Act, which is initially was comprised of five standards. We have two other ones that are working their way through being being adopted now, but the, you know, to answer your question, how do we, you know, I sit on, I sit on the board of citizens with disabilities, Ontario, we do a lot of work around advocating for, first of all, just compliance with the legislation that we do have in the province of Ontario. But then, yeah, you cross the border, and you go into another province, and in some cases, there are some provinces in Canada that don't have accessibility legislation. Yeah. But then there's then there's the whole question is why do we need legislation like for those of us in that who work in the disability space? It should just be you know, Nobody should be allowed to put up barriers. I mean, you know, you've got our on our disability legislation is actually companion legislation with the Ontario Human Rights Code. So the complaint mechanism is is kind of tied with being able to file an Ontario Human Rights Complaint. If someone's not complying with, with the legislation, so you know, which is, which is a long drawn out process for something that should just never happen. And that's where we get into disability rights. And you know, people have a right to, to housing, they have a right to, you know, the same services that are available to, to persons who don't have the same disability as them, you know, that that type of thing. But you know, that, you know, I think you and I are probably going to be long gone for this work from this world before. Everybody gets on the same page and realizes that accessibility and inclusion should just be built into everything from the start. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  36:18 It certainly would be less expensive, if it were, which is I know, something that you think about that you talk about building inaccessibility, as opposed to having to deal with a later and certainly   Linda Hunt  36:32 why one of my comments, or one of my quotes that I its accessibility is cheaper to build it in than it is to bolt it on.   Michael Hingson  36:42 Well, absolutely. And it is an issue where, if you, for example, especially for physical disabilities, where mobility is involved, if you have to modify a building or a structure after the fact, it's extremely expensive, and my wife, what I and I built houses to avoid a lot of those costs. So our most expensive home from a standpoint of adding an accessibility that is to a home we built was when we moved to New Jersey, we had to spend an additional $15,000 to put an elevator in because all the homes in the area where two story homes. But even that became a selling point when we sold the house and moved back to California. But in reality, like the home we're in now that I'm in now, my wife actually passed away in November. So we were going to be married for two years on the 27th of November, we missed it by 15 days. But when we built this, when we built this house up, there were no real extra costs because of the fact that you design it in. And that's in general, true. I work for excessive be a company that makes products that help make websites more accessible. And accessible, I will tell you that if people would design in the inclusion to make websites accessible from the outset, if the basic manufacturers of those tools would design in accessibility and inclusion, it would be less expensive. But that isn't the way we work today. And so we do have to have solutions that work like accessibility to make sure that websites are usable, and include all people.   Linda Hunt  38:39 Exactly. And I and you know, I'm totally in agreement with you in terms of housing. I mean, we've I've done some work with the accessible housing network here in Ontario. And there is a there's a there's a true crisis in accessible housing. And then while there's a crisis in affordable housing, yeah, the crisis and accessible affordable housing is just you know, that's, that's a whole other whole other thing. And the thing is that the accessible housing network will tell you the exact same thing that you just referred to as building a single family home is that it doesn't cost any more to build it with 36 inch doors and you know, whatever accessibility features you need at the outset, well, it's the same if you're building an apartment building. It doesn't cost any more when you're building an apartment building to build it with 36 inch doors and you know, those types of accessibility features. But what people always seem to think accessibility is is like a little add on or something we have to do and that's something that needs to change. So I've just been elected to municipal council, but I'm one of the ones that will push that challenge as to We're building a 45 unit, affordable housing complex and four of the units are going to be barrier free. So I will ask the question, why don't we make all 45? You know that that was going to be my question? Yeah. Because it's not going to cost any more when you're building it. And I don't know anybody that doesn't need a 36 inch door that has a problem walking through one. So, you know, accessibility doesn't offend people. And from that perspective, you know, why aren't we building? As I said, all 45 units with that accessibility feature?   Michael Hingson  40:42 How do we change the basic conversation? I mean, we hear all about diversity. And diversity is always about sexual orientation, gender, race, and so on. disabilities are not included in that, traditionally, while the minority group of persons with disabilities is much larger than any of those except for gender. When you're dealing with male and female, but like LGBTQ and so on, certainly from a percentage standpoint, that population is incredibly, significantly less than the population of persons with disabilities. But we never get that included into the discussion. Why is that? And what do we do about it?   Linda Hunt  41:35 Yeah, it's, it's funny, because he asked you, you'll talk to, well, large businesses that have, you know, the diversity, you know, inclusion and equity. Some of them have entire departments built into their business. But, you know, when you talk about diversity and inclusion, you're right, we we are not just talking about, you know, gender, race, you know, if you're, if you have a inherent bias within your, within your culture against persons with disabilities, then you know, that that's, that's going to get forget any diversity, inclusion or equity department or policies or procedures that you have, there's, there's still the inherent bias. No, I have actually seen the word are the words diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Those are those are ones that are more forward thinking,   Michael Hingson  42:45 well, a little bit, but I'm not sure it helps a lot. Because what do we mean by accessibility? And we're not still not dealing with the issue? And I think you're absolutely right. If we look at it, at its most basic level, the answer to my question about why we're not included in the conversation is bias and fear. For many years, in this country, the Gallup polling organization, doing surveys of people's fears found that one of the top five fears people said they had in this country was blindness wasn't even disabilities. Now, that's many years ago. But still, the biases are there, and whether it's just blindness or all disabilities. We haven't gotten beyond that fear and that bias, and that's the reason that I think we have this issue of not being included in the conversation. Yeah, and if we are, it's just all for the motivation, the inspiration of one person, one one time, one group one time, but the bias, the basic prejudice hasn't changed.   Linda Hunt  43:55 Yeah, and that's, you know, you're right, like the the culture of inclusion. And whether it be any marginalized group needs to needs to be, you know, built, it's like anything else that needs to be built into the, the, the, you know, whether it be the business, their corporate culture, from the leadership level, and then it flows all the way down throughout a business. But if you if you can't get that that bias addressed at the leadership level, then unfortunately, that that kind of toxic type of type of thinking pre mediates the entire business culture. So, I mean, I'll use an example you mentioned that I was that I was a elected to Brantford City Council in in October, but I actually I faced what I'll call, you know, bias at the door with a very nice gentleman he was he was elderly, but he didn't understand how I could possibly be a city councilor because I was in a wheelchair. So the fact that my legs don't work had him somewhat out somehow thinking, the rest of me had deficits that would not allow me to position.   Michael Hingson  45:36 And what did you do about that? How did you address that?   Linda Hunt  45:40 Yes, I had a very nice discussion with them. And I basically said that my legs don't work. But that I, that I'm in a, that I'm in a, you know, I, my educational background, my, you know, my, you know, the fact that I run to businesses, the fact that even as he was speaking to me, I was in as, as you can well imagine, being in a wheelchair, made door to door canvassing, which is knocking on individual doors challenge challenging, but here I was knocking on his door. And, you know, so we, we, we basically had the discussion. And it it was it was just an inherent, I mean, I don't think he was doing he wasn't, in fact, I know, he wasn't doing it to be rude or disrespectful, even though it came across that way. But it's it, I almost felt like I needed to educate them. Yeah. As as we were having the conversation that, you know, assuming that just because I'm in a wheelchair, I'm not capable of making decision making processes at the municipal council level is wrong.   Michael Hingson  46:58 How did the conversation end up?   Linda Hunt  47:00 I think I got his vote.   Michael Hingson  47:03 Well, there you go. What can you ask for?   Linda Hunt  47:05 Because and you know, what I tell people we've got, you know, I do a signature talk on overcoming barriers to leadership, but but sometimes when you're faced with, you know, that kind of thing head on it, it is a lot of times, you know, as you said, like, people don't know what they don't know. And you need to address the, you know, the, whether it be the stigma or the, you know, the incorrect assumption that, you know, that you are somehow inferior, because you have a disability,   Michael Hingson  47:45 right. And that's why education is so important. And that's why among other things, we used to hear terms like mobility impaired, and I still hear visually impaired, which is wrong on so many levels. And we have to get beyond that, rather than equating how much of one thing someone has, as opposed to someone else, recognizing that what we have are characteristics. And certainly low vision makes a lot more sense to say than visually impaired, first of all, visually doesn't make sense. And as far as I'm concerned, you're, you're blind, impaired or your light dependent. Yeah, that's just probably a more polite way to put it. But the the reality is, I think, in answering my question, it is about education. And we have to do it, but we also have to get so many others across the board to become more advocates for this as much as they are for other kinds of things. Yes. And that's where the real challenge begins.   Linda Hunt  48:55 At I and I and the other thing is, is is educating, educating our younger population, so I absolutely love it. When because I always say all the little boys love me because I'm in a wheelchair and they love wheels. So they'll they'll, you know, they'll tell me, you know, how come you're in a wheelchair? I had a little boy, actually, when I was out a couple of weeks ago that said, Does that have a horn? And it does have a horn does the horn forum and he was just totally enthralled. But I welcome that kind of curious initiative of, of children like that. And I think that you know, that, like so many other thing was in schools, that, that learning that not everyone is the same and people are different. Is you know should apply to persons with disabilities as well. Not just not just whether it be race or, or gender or any of that kind of stuff that yeah, it because that's, that's really the, versus trying to change the way of thinking of older people that, you know, as they become adults, if children grew up thinking that disability was just a normal part of life, there are people that have disabilities in our, in our society. And there's, you know, there's nothing wrong with with them or with with that, and that we need to just be inclusive for everybody.   Michael Hingson  50:57 Of course, you probably didn't tell that little boy that the horn wasn't the greatest thing in the world. It's not all that loud.   Linda Hunt  51:06 I got a new wheelchair about two years ago, and this one is actually not bad. But the ones that I had before that my, in fact, my husband, one day was like, I don't even know if the person in front of you at the grocery store can even hear that one. Yeah. fireless, you know, trying to get, you know, a group of people in a crowd to move out of your way. But, but anyway, I don't use it all that often. Yeah, I like the Escort in front of me. That's kind of saying, Excuse me, excuse me. She's coming through.   Michael Hingson  51:39 My wife's last chair was the pride mobility line of sight share. So it's three years old. And the horns still wasn't all that great, as you said, as far as being able to be heard in a crowded area. On the other hand, you really can't put an air horn on on a chair either. So it's a compromise. Yeah. You know, for for you. You have a very positive attitude, you've undergone a lot of changes over the years. How, how do you? Or how did you end? Do you keep up a positive mental attitude about everything? Well,   Linda Hunt  52:16 you know what, Michael, I tell people all the time, if I didn't have a positive attitude, I'd be sitting in the corner crying somewhere. Yeah, I was I was diagnosed on March the ninth and 1999, which was all the internet was fairly new at the time. So I went back to my office after being diagnosed, and at the time I did work. My husband and I was I did have an office in our, in our facility. And my husband came into my office and said, you know, well, what did he say? And I said, Oh, he said, I have that in us. And at the time, my symptoms were tingling in my feet and my fingers. So I was convinced that I had some kind of a tumor pressing on my spine, because he kept talking about peripheral nerve damage, and that there was something causing, you know, this peripheral nerve damage. So honestly, a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis was kind of like, oh, I don't think I can die from that. So I literally drove back to my office and was I was sitting in my office when my husband came in, and I said, Oh, he said, I have MS. But you know what, I really don't know what that means. And I will tell you though, after now 25 years of having Ms. This is a disease that does not have a roadmap. So there's there's no way of knowing from onset to 25 years later. All he did say to me was that 50% of the people need some assistance walking within 10 years. And that could be a cane to a wheelchair. And as I said earlier, in our discussion, I went from one cane to two canes to a walker to a scooter to a wheelchair in the span of about 18 months. But my positive attitude. I think, honestly, it's it's out of necessity. I mean, I you know, I was diagnosed with with children that were like two and seven, like I didn't have time to wallow in any kind of self pity. And the other thing is, is when I was first diagnosed, other than an exacerbation that that would, you know, kind of get me down for maybe about six weeks, which you know, they give me some steroids and I'd be up and going again, but, you know, like I said, I you know, just, you know, I was working full time we had you know, we had a business I had two children you know, so my, you know, I say the the positive attitude really is what has kept me going like to this day, here we are 25 years later,   Michael Hingson  55:05 you made the choice. Yeah, you that's the important part that you, you could have gone the other way.   Linda Hunt  55:12 Well, there and there, unfortunately, there are a lot of people that do go there. And it doesn't matter what kind of diagnosis or not, I'm sure you're an exactly. I mean, you're a very positive person. You know, with that has dealt with a disability, yourself for you know, so it's, to me, it's, it's a part of life. And as I said, you know, unfortunately, having a very good support system. So my husband knows men, I mean, we were married 10 years when I was diagnosed. So we're coming up on 35 years, but you know, it very much is a, you know, a family disease. My, my daughter, I don't think she remembers much. Before I was actually, you know, using starting to use mobility devices, whether it be, you know, a cane or whatever, my son I think remembers more. But having that positive attitude is what's enabled me to, you know, to continue to do the work that I do. I've just never, I've never let my, my, well, we'll call it disability, but I've never liked flat the fact that I can't walk like everyone else. And that's really what it is. Impact, you know, my decision to do whatever I want. So I still drive I still, I still travel a fair bit. I mean, I do a lot of research before I go places to make sure that they're, you know, I'm going to be able to use my left and my wheelchair is going to get where it needs to go. And that kind of thing. Air travel can always be a little bit of a challenge. But you know, yeah, you just, like I said, you just carry on. And it's I think I've always had that attitude, though. It's like, if something gets you down, you just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and you carry on. So   Michael Hingson  57:30 it's, it's as unstoppable as it gets.   Linda Hunt  57:32 Yeah, there you go.   Michael Hingson  57:36 I understand you're an author. I am love to hear about that.   Linda Hunt  57:40 Yeah, so I have the, it's funny, I never thought of myself as an author. Because the first couple of the first couple of published documents that I had, were more what I would consider to be documents, they were policy pieces or so I developed a developed the leadership code for the organization that I was executive director of, so I, you know, writing that kind of stuff, but I had the opportunity to, to be part of a collaborative book a couple of years ago, which my, my chapter was actually on overcoming barriers to leadership, which is one of my signature talks, and, you know, we've had that which kind of feeds into that poll, positive attitude, and you know, that that type of thing. And so, yeah, you know, and that book is on Amazon, I use it, use it in my business as a, as a, you know, a gift, give it away at networking events, that kind of thing. I'm actually working on another book now, which will be which is around the concepts of accessibility is good for business and why. So we've, you know, we've got a couple of kind of chapters that are that are being flushed out on that. And I had somebody you know, that said to me once when I was starting out my podcast was to think of your podcast episodes as chapters of a book, which was an interesting concept, because, you know, my, my podcast accessibility solutions, making the world accessible is is really aimed at that business, that business target market and understanding that that accessibility is good for business. So, you know, we're, hopefully, by later on this year, then we'll have a, I'll have another published book out specifically about how accessibility is good for business.   Michael Hingson  1:00:15 Are you self publishing or going through a publisher? No,   Linda Hunt  1:00:19 I'm using the the Kindle Direct Publishing, through Amazon works.   Michael Hingson  1:00:24 Yeah. Running with Roselle. My second book is as published through Kindle Direct Publishing, so you understand it? And that's, that's great. Is your husband still doing the screen printing business?   Linda Hunt  1:00:37 He is. Although I was after him to retire, but then when I got elected, he's like, oh, yeah, you're after me to retire. And you have four years of city council? Yeah, I would like to Yeah, it is a very much a going concern. He, as I said, he works from the, we have a full production facility, which is off off site about five minutes from our home, which is where him and all of our production staff work. And I'm actually in the process now of bringing on some, I'm trying to replace myself, I'm trying to work myself out of a job, Michael?   Michael Hingson  1:01:18 Well, if you can do that successfully Good on you, as they say, down under it, and it's good to be forward thinking enough to know when it's time to do that.   Linda Hunt  1:01:30 Yes, yes. And I think that's also a key, the key milestone to achieve in order for us to really be able to successfully sell the business, because anybody buying a business that is then operated, you know, by sole proprietor or in our case, you know, a husband and wife team for as long as we have is likely going to want to keep somebody along for the transition. Whereas I tell I tell everybody, when the when the deals done, I am no longer growing girl. So if I've handed off the majority of the work that I do for the day to day operations of the business and have staff in place, then that's, that's part of succession planning and   Michael Hingson  1:02:20 transitions. Well, Linda, this has been absolutely fun. And it's been everything. I hoped that it that it would be and I really appreciate your time, if people want to reach out to you. Talk with you, perhaps or maybe even if you have them available here speeches and so on, how do they do that. And I think you also said that you have a free gift.   Linda Hunt  1:02:43 I do have a free gift. So my free gift is and I'm sure you'll put it in the show notes. We shall, yeah, you can book a time to just talk with me. And I invite anyone to talk with me that it whether it's accessibility, you want to talk about accessibility. If I'm I'm very open to being guests on other people's podcasts or other people's stages, I've done a fair bit of that kind of that kind of talking over the years, conferences, that type of thing. Or if a if you just want to reach out and find out more about what it is that we do, then that link to be able to book that free consultation. Can you   Michael Hingson  1:03:30 say the link?   Linda Hunt  1:03:32 The link is? It's a Calendly link? It's   Michael Hingson  1:03:36 where can people get to through your website?   Linda Hunt  1:03:39 People can get to it through my website there. And you're going to embed it in your show notes.   Michael Hingson  1:03:44 Yeah. What's your website?   Linda Hunt  1:03:46 They can see it there it is. Solutions, the number 4 accessibility.com. And they can also always reach me via email, which is Linda at solutions for accessibility.com.   Michael Hingson  1:04:01 Well, cool. Well, I again, very much appreciate you being willing to come on and have a good in depth and I think good substantive discussion about all of this. And I hope that we're making a difference. I think we are and the more we talk about the conversation, and the more we converse about the conversation, the more conversation we have, which is what we really need to do.   Linda Hunt  1:04:26 I agree and I so very much appreciate you having me on. I'm a big fan of your show.   Michael Hingson  1:04:33 Well, thank you. Well, I hope that everyone listening feels the same way and we'd love to hear from you. So if you would, we'd appreciate you letting us know you can reach me at Michaelhi at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Or you can go to my podcast page which is www dot Michael hingson h i n g s o n.com/podcast. And we'd love to hear from You please give us a five star rating. When you're listening to this, we appreciate your ratings and your views very much. And we hope that this has been educational and gives you some things to think about and Linda once more. I want to thank you for being with us today and we'd love to have you come back and visit some more. Thank you.   Michael Hingson  1:05:24 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

It's an all new That Real Blind Tech Show. Brian and Ed welcome in Justin Yarbrough from Deque Systems. Justin will be presenting at this year's all virtual Axe-Con taking place on March 15 and 16th. You can register to attend the conference here.   We kick the interview off learning a little bit about Justin's backstory. Justin then explains to us what he does at Deque Systems as an Accessibility Consultant.   Justin tells us a little about his presentation at this year's Axe-Con. His presentation will be on the second day of the all virtual conference on March 16th and will be about working in Digital Accessibility with a disability.   Justin explains to us what he enjoys about working in digital accessibility, and walks us a little through Deque's testing philosophy.   We then get Justin's advice for anyone looking to get in to the field of Digital Accessibility, and learn about Deque University.   Next we dive into Justin's role as an advocate for the blind, as Justin has written a few articles about the   on board flight entertainment systems and accessibility issues specifically focused on United Airlines.   We discuss the current state of web accessibility and what is wrong with it. We get Justin's thoughts on what you should do if you come across a website or app with accessibility issues.   Justin then tells us about his go to tech products.   Make sure to tune in to Axe-Con on Thursday, March 16th to hear Justin's presentation, and you can keep up with Justin on Twitter at @FatElvis04 and on his website.   To contact That Real Blind Tech Show, you can email us at ThatRealBlindTechShow@gmail.com, join our Facebook Group That Real Blind Tech Show, join us on the Twitter @BlindTechShow , or leave us an old school phone message at 929-367-1005, and make sure to visit our website where you can listen to any of our past episodes.

Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. Special Guest – Zachary Weeks – Disability Advocate and Accessibility Consultant Find out more and contact Zachary at: zacharyweeks.ca Learn More about BridgingApps: https://bridgingapps.org/ —————————— If […]

India Multiple Sclerosis Day (India MS Day) is the only awareness-raising campaign all over India. This falls on the first Sunday of February every year. This year it is on the 5th of February, 2023. The theme for this year's India MS Day is “Celebrate MS”. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the Central Nervous System, affecting its functioning unexpectedly and repeatedly, resulting in devastating disabilities in young people in the prime of their lives. It is also known as the “Crippler of the Young Adult”. Multiple Sclerosis has various symptoms ranging from minor visual disturbance to total paralysis, due to which simplest everyday tasks can no longer be efficiently performed known as a rare disease, it brings about 41 invisible disabilities hence it has been classified as a disability under the Government of India RPWD Act, 2016. In India there is little or no support for people living with MS i.e., from medicines to Disability cards & pensions and part of our job is to help those people to get together and improve their health & situation. The Chennai Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of India in keeping up with the theme of this year which is “Celebrate MS, is having an Evening of Song/ Games, etc., at the Anna Nagar Tower Park from 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm on 5th February 2023, in order to create awareness of MS. The Chief Guest of the function is Honored by Chief Guest Shri Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation, Chennai. The purpose India MS Day campaign is to raise awareness of four key messages in order to improve public knowledge and awareness of MS: 1. There is no known CAUSE or CURE for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). 2. MS is usually diagnosed between the ages of 25 and 40 and lasts a lifetime – KNOWN AS THE “Crippler of the Young Adult” 3. MS symptoms vary from person to person. This makes life with MS unpredictable. There are more “Invisible Symptoms than “Visible Symptoms”. 4. Medicines only stem the progression of the disease. 5. Treatments and services are improving for people with MS, but the costs of treatment are prohibitive We would like you as the Media, to highlight “What MS is” and its Invisible Symptoms thereby creating awareness of this orphan & rare disease, among the general public. Our guests today are from MSSI -Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ind/ are Ms. Ann Gonzalez & Smitha Sadasivan Ms. Ann Gonzalez whose priority today is MSSI the & MS persons. She believes once an MS person comes into our fold it is a lifelong relationship. This is the driving force for this ex-banker who has served at YWCA in various capacities & in many other associations, Her priority today is MSSI. Her driving forces are her siblings who are in the medical field and her strong belief that the Almighty has gifted us a purpose. Smitha Sadasivan is a Cross-Disability inclusion and accessibility practitioner with Multiple Sclerosis from Chennai. Smitha dons many hats and has multiple roles to play including being a resource person. She is the Accessibility Consultant to the Election Commission of India, apart from being an active member of Disability Rights Alliance India. She is a member of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of India (MSSI). She is associated with different forums, initiatives, and organizations including Vidya Sagar& South Asia Regional Program on Women's Institute on Leadership and Disability. Apart from many awards and recognitions, she was awarded the NCPEDP – Mphasis Javed Abidi Public Policy Award for Universal Design, in recognition of her efforts in promoting accessibility for people with disabilities. Listen in as they share their journey with MSSI and how it has helped patients like Smitha & about India MS day this Sunday, Feb 5th, 2023. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-third-eye1/message

Zoom has a 'Speaker' setting which records the person 'talking' during your conversation. Drisana Levitzke-Gray was speaking using Auslan however the end file never showed her demonstrating her use of language and instead focused on her interpreter. That was our mistake. 2 years later we get to right that wrong and showcase our former Young Australian Of The Year award winner sharing her lived experience as a fifth generation proud deaf advocate. Book Drisana for keynotes, motivational speaking, Auslan and Accessibility Consultant plus much more here: www.drisanalg.com Follow Drisana on Twitter here  Want to learn more about 'Deaf Gain' watch the visual podcast explanation here: Deaf Gain: the benefits of being Deaf Watch this interview captioned and in full on our Youtube page here  Join the 10,000+ legends on Instagram: @ListenABLE_ Podcast Grab our first merch release at our website From Your PocketSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are the important parameters that the businesses are considering to follow, especially in the world post the pandemic. With diverse resources available across the globe, efforts are taken to employ diverse communities and shed off the biases of colour, gender, etc. Another important community that need attention are the disabled people with different challenges. Today, we talk about the challenges of inclusion of disabled people with deaf community in particular. About Meryl K Evans Meryl is a speaker and an accessibility consultant. She is one of 12 people on LinkedIn top voices for disability advocacy. Meryl is also an author of two books. Meryl was born partially deaf and has grown up learning how to speak by lip-reading. She doesn't know sign language. Her career started with the Federal Government when the American Disabilities Act made it possible for the relay service to be provided nationwide. In 2000, I started writing on the side and never planned to do my own business because I knew it would be harder to bring in clients when you have a disability. But in 2005, I decided to work for myself full-time and transitioned from writing to digital marketing. In 2018, I started making videos which were surprisingly taken very well and in 2019. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbcy/support

Randi lost most of her sight at birth and experienced further vision loss later in life. She began her career in Vision Rehabilitation, but ultimately found a passion in Digital Accessibility. She has also completed 15 Triathlons. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/careersfortheblind/message

Kris Rivenburgh discusses the advantages of hiring him as a ADA website compliance / digital accessibility consultant before you pay for any services or products. Kris is an attorney, author of The ADA Book, and has four years of experience in digital accessibility. Read more about Kris's history on The ADA Book's YouTube channel page. Kris offers accessibility services including WCAG 2.1 AA manual audits and remediation at https://accessible.org. Kris also wrote the book on ADA compliance for digital assets. You can find out more about The ADA Book at https://ADABook.com. Transcript: https://adabook.com/ada-website-compliance-accessibility-consultant/

Bob and Peter interview Donna Jodhan an accessibility cons

Join the Enabled Disabled Community: https://www.enabledchat.com Universal Design: How "Inclusive Architecture" Benefits Businesses & People Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic of The New York Times, wrote that the planning and designing of public and commercial spaces for accessibility and diversity shouldn't be seen as a requirement, but instead, as an opportunity, both economic and creative. And he also emphasized that such a vision required a shift in mindset: Universal Design (UD). With one in four American adults living with a disability, it's hard to believe that only a handful of organizations and institutions have truly embraced the benefits of Universal Design, but for some reason, it is still largely misunderstood and rarely applied. Did you know that universally designed spaces don't cost significantly more, are just as aesthetically pleasing, and lead to healthier, more inclusive, and productive environments for more people? This program will change forever–and for the better–the way you look at commercial buildings, public spaces, and bathrooms. Join Gustavo Serafini, host of the Enabled Disabled Podcast, and his guests, Jonathan White, Director of Design Consulting at the IDEA Center in SUNY Buffalo, and Julie Sawchuk, Accessibility Consultant, in a dynamic dialog about the big and small benefits that businesses–and the people in them–derive from UD. In this conversation you will discover: The main goals businesses usually have when designing their commercial spaces How YOUR experience changes, and what you can expect, as a user of universally designed public or commercial spaces What your future house, office building, school, library, government agencies, and shopping centers will look like when they are universally designed And so much more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/enableddisabled/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/enableddisabled/support

Molly Watt is a usability & Accessibility Consultant, as well as a keynote speaker. She  is a passionate advocate for accessibility and inclusion and she has also established,  with the help of her family, the Molly Watt Trust. Stuart caught up with Molly recently to learn all about her work, her thoughts on the  current state of accessibility in the digital landscape and her plans for the future. And, if you use Vispero software and are thinking of upgrading, sit tight and stay  tuned, because we have some great news!

Marco Pasqua is an award-winning Entrepreneur, Accessibility Consultant and Inspirational Speaker with Cerebral Palsy. Throughout his life, Marco has been involved with a number of organizations as a spokesperson, helping to spread advocacy for persons with disabilities across Canada. As an Accessibility and Inclusion Consultant, he has worked with some of BC's biggest change-driven business leaders who are champions for more accessible, inclusive workplaces. It's through these experiences that he is helping to pave the way for all Canadians to have universal access to the programs, services and places that they live, work and play. Male is a male with short dark hair and is wearing a red tshirt with graphics in the front. Marco's Website Marco on Facebook Marco on Instagram Marco on Twitter My Life Without Limits is a podcast from Cerebral Palsy Alberta. Music: Positive Fuse by French Fuse Carlos is a Hispanic male with cerebral palsy. He has short dark hair, dark eyes, some facial goatee hair, and uses crutches/canes to help him walk. In this episode he was hearing a black and white stripped collared tshirt and green headphones. Leah is a white female with chin length brown hair, freckles, green eyes, wears glasses and is able bodied. In this episode she was wearing a gray and black shirt. The podcast is recorded over Zoom and you only see the people talking from the waist up. Follow us on Instagram @mylifewithoutlimitspodcast Support our podcast by buying us a coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mlwlpodcast To suggest a show topic or apply to be a guest: Click here to visit our website! lison@cpalberta.com for any questions!

This episode, Keepers Murph and Bridgett sit down with special guest, Jacob Wood, who is the owner of Accessible Games! This past year he ran a successful KickStarter for Survival of the Able and he's also an industry Accessibility Consultant. Welcome Jacob! Campus Crier The Campus Crier is where we keep all the mythos related news and info for the podcast, this episode was recorded on January 27th, 2022.  Free League announced Heart of Darkness for the Alien RPG. This is billed as a stand-alone adventure, but also serves as a conclusion to the Draconis Strain Saga begun in the cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods and continued in Destroyer of Worlds, all written by our friend and previous guest, Andrew Gaska.  Player signups for A Weekend with Good Friend Gaming Convention begins on February 4th and will run through February 10th. Reminder, this is an online convention sponsored by the Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast! It'll be running from February 18th-20th, so be sure and sign up for as many games as you can! The Discord Plug We have our MUP Discord and we are all there! We invite all of our listeners to come and enjoy the community of horror gaming and cute pet pics. I'd love to give a shoutout to Targrad's absolutely adorable fur children, Bear and Robyn. He recently read them Lynne Hardy's Children of Fear and their facial expressions are… incredible! Targard, thanks for always swinging through with the pup assist and constant pup love!  MU Discord server invite link: https://discord.gg/vNjEv9D  And thank you beaucoup to Sean for editing this episode.  Patreon Plug We have a Patreon! To back us you can click the button on the sidebar of our website, mu-podcast.com or head over to Patreon directly at www.patreon.com/mup! WOW! BACKER LOVVVVVEEEE!!! Thank you new backers!!! Cornysams TammyTheTiger Miranda Adams Evan Perlman JZahler We really appreciate you guys for Backing. We are going through the results of the polling that we did for last show and will be making some changes I'm sure as a result of that.  And you can also help out the show by buying some merch from our Teepublic store!  Thanks to our backers so much for supporting the show!!  Main Topic -- Jacob Wood Accessible Gaming Survival of the Able Robot Claw Entertainment, publisher of Tears of a Machine  SC: http://www.robotclaw.info Russell Collins is @RobotClaw on Twitter Limitless Heroics Kickstarter: Limitless Heroics: Better worlds via Dice & Disabilities 5e by Dale Critchley — Kickstarter Only has 4 days to go, so it won't still be running when the episode goes live. Might be good to recap though. Accessible Gaming Quarterly, Year 3 Kickstarter: http://www.bit.ly/AGQYear3KS Runs from 2/2/22 through 2/16/22 Vision Layers website: http://www.visionlayers.com Broken Ruler Games, the company run by my colleague Todd Crapper http://brokenrulergames.net Todd is the mastermind behind Vision Layers and my go-to for layout and graphic design. Accessibility in Gaming Resource Guide By Jennifer Kretchmer Accessibility in Gaming Resources - Google Docs Accessible RPG, a Wiki designed to help people understand real-world symptoms and how they can impact a gaming experience: http://www.accessible-rpg.com Knights of the Braille, a website and Discord community of mostly blind gamers. They're open to gamers from every background and also helpedhost the Everyone-Games event: Knights of The Braille Everyone-Games, an event we ran in October to raise awareness and charity money for disabled gamers. We hope to run it again next year: Everyone-Games – A vision of accessible gaming for all

This episode, Keepers Murph and Bridgett sit down with special guest, Jacob Wood, who is the owner of Accessible Games! This past year he ran a successful KickStarter for Survival of the Able and he's also an industry Accessibility Consultant. Welcome Jacob! Campus Crier The Campus Crier is where we keep all the mythos related news and info for the podcast, this episode was recorded on January 27th, 2022.  Free League announced Heart of Darkness for the Alien RPG. This is billed as a stand-alone adventure, but also serves as a conclusion to the Draconis Strain Saga begun in the cinematic scenario Chariot of the Gods and continued in Destroyer of Worlds, all written by our friend and previous guest, Andrew Gaska.  Player signups for A Weekend with Good Friend Gaming Convention begins on February 4th and will run through February 10th. Reminder, this is an online convention sponsored by the Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast! It'll be running from February 18th-20th, so be sure and sign up for as many games as you can! The Discord Plug We have our MUP Discord and we are all there! We invite all of our listeners to come and enjoy the community of horror gaming and cute pet pics. I'd love to give a shoutout to Targrad's absolutely adorable fur children, Bear and Robyn. He recently read them Lynne Hardy's Children of Fear and their facial expressions are… incredible! Targard, thanks for always swinging through with the pup assist and constant pup love!  MU Discord server invite link: https://discord.gg/vNjEv9D  And thank you beaucoup to Sean for editing this episode.  Patreon Plug We have a Patreon! To back us you can click the button on the sidebar of our website, mu-podcast.com or head over to Patreon directly at www.patreon.com/mup! WOW! BACKER LOVVVVVEEEE!!! Thank you new backers!!! Cornysams TammyTheTiger Miranda Adams Evan Perlman JZahler We really appreciate you guys for Backing. We are going through the results of the polling that we did for last show and will be making some changes I'm sure as a result of that.  And you can also help out the show by buying some merch from our Teepublic store!  Thanks to our backers so much for supporting the show!!  Main Topic -- Jacob Wood Accessible Gaming Survival of the Able Robot Claw Entertainment, publisher of Tears of a Machine  SC: http://www.robotclaw.info Russell Collins is @RobotClaw on Twitter Limitless Heroics Kickstarter: Limitless Heroics: Better worlds via Dice & Disabilities 5e by Dale Critchley — Kickstarter Only has 4 days to go, so it won't still be running when the episode goes live. Might be good to recap though. Accessible Gaming Quarterly, Year 3 Kickstarter: http://www.bit.ly/AGQYear3KS Runs from 2/2/22 through 2/16/22 Vision Layers website: http://www.visionlayers.com Broken Ruler Games, the company run by my colleague Todd Crapper http://brokenrulergames.net Todd is the mastermind behind Vision Layers and my go-to for layout and graphic design. Accessibility in Gaming Resource Guide By Jennifer Kretchmer Accessibility in Gaming Resources - Google Docs Accessible RPG, a Wiki designed to help people understand real-world symptoms and how they can impact a gaming experience: http://www.accessible-rpg.com Knights of the Braille, a website and Discord community of mostly blind gamers. They're open to gamers from every background and also helpedhost the Everyone-Games event: Knights of The Braille Everyone-Games, an event we ran in October to raise awareness and charity money for disabled gamers. We hope to run it again next year: Everyone-Games – A vision of accessible gaming for all

01:03 - Not Giving Into Peer Pressure 02:31 - Reaching Outside of the Accessibility World (Demystifying Accessibility) * Everyday Accessibility by Dr. Michele A. Williams (https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/2021-06-14-everyday_accessibility/) * Thinking About Disability Until It's Everyone's Normal Way of Thinking * Power Structures and Erasing Innovation * Recognizing Specialty * Cormac Russell: Four Modes of Change: To, For, With, By (https://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/4510.pdf) 12:37 - The Real Work of Accessibility: Organizational Change * Taking a Stance and Celebrating Innovation * Inclusion 17:52 - Avoiding Dysfunctional Ways of Working * The 5 Principles of Human Performance: A contemporary update of the building blocks of Human Performance for the new view of safety by Todd E. Conklin PhD (https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Human-Performance-contemporary-updateof/dp/1794639144) * Context Drives Behavior * How Leaders Respond Matters * Set Up The System So The Right Thing Is Easy 26:46 - Moral Obligations and Social Norms: Top Down * PAPod 36 - Martha Acosta Returns - The 4 Things Leaders Control (https://preaccidentpodcast.podbean.com/e/papod-36-martha-acosta-returns-the-4-things-leaders-control/) * Roles * Processes and Practices * Values/Norms * Incentives 31:20 - Personas: Translating Ideas and Principles Into Action * Software Security: Building Security In by Gary McGraw (https://www.amazon.com/Software-Security-Building-Gary-McGraw/dp/0321356705) 37:04 - Putting Accessibility Into Action * Knowledge Building: Iterate * Giving Access * “Appreciate the bunt.” * Clearer Consequences * Greater Than Code Episode 162: Glue Work with Denise Yu (https://www.greaterthancode.com/glue-work) 51:06 - “Disability Dongles” – Liz Jackson (https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/disabled-people-want-disability-design-not-disability-dongles-1.5353131) * The Lows of High Tech – 99% Invisible (https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-lows-of-high-tech/) * Infrastructure Disables Blind Navigation * The Models of Disability (https://www.disabled-world.com/definitions/disability-models.php) * The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me by Keah Brown (https://www.amazon.com/Pretty-One-Culture-Disability-Reasons/dp/1982100540) Reflections: Michele: Finding room for everyone to provide their perspective. John: The real solutions are infrastructural. Rein: Accessibility has to be built-in throughout the process of building and designing software. This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep (https://twitter.com/therubyrep) of DevReps, LLC (http://www.devreps.com/). To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode) To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps (https://www.paypal.me/devreps). You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well. Transcript: REIN: Hello and welcome to Episode 257 of Greater Than Code. I'm your co-host, Rein Henrichs, and I'm here with my friend, John Sawers. JOHN: Thank you, Rein, and I'm here with our guest, Michele A. Williams. She's the owner of M.A.W. Consulting (Making Accessibility Work). Her 16 years of experience include influencing top tech companies as a Senior User Experience Researcher and Accessibility Consultant, and obtaining a PhD in Human-Centered Computing focused on accessibility. A W3C-WAI Invited Expert, international speaker, published academic author, and patented inventor, she is passionate about educating and advising on technology that does not exclude disabled users. Welcome to the show, Michele. MICHELE: Thank you so much, John and Rein. Thanks for having me. JOHN: You are very welcome and we'll start the show as we always do by asking our standard question, which is what is your superpower and how did you acquire it? MICHELE: I don't think I have the most creative answer to this. [laughs] I kind of hate those, “Oh, tell us something fun about yourself.” But the thing I thought about that came to mind was my ability to not give into peer pressure. [chuckles] And some ways that manifests for instance, I have a technology background and yet I'm almost the least technical person like I was probably one of the last people to get a smartphone. I love my flip phone and you couldn't take it from me. So this idea that everyone's doing this social media, all of that, I just joined Twitter last year. So I do things dagnabbit; when I need it, not necessarily just because there's groundswell. So I would say that's pretty good superpower. JOHN: All right. So you gave some examples there in your personal life with technology and social media. I assume that that's also a fairly powerful capability in a business context as well. MICHELE: I think so. Particularly when you're advocating for say, disabled people who aren't necessarily always advocated for, it definitely helps to have a more strong will and the ability to take a stance that turns others rather than consistently feeling like you're being turned around about what others want you to do. So I agree with that, thanks. JOHN: [chuckles] Excellent. And so it looks like you've been involved in the accessibility world on a number of different angles and capabilities and so, what have you found to be the most impactful of those? MICHELE: I tend to want to reach people who are outside of the accessibility world. Unfortunately, I think sometimes accessibility people can tend to talk to other accessibility people a little bit too much. I tend to like to recognize that it is something that everyone in the world should know a little something about. It is an expertise, but there are some ways that everyone can do it. I just recently wrote an article for A11Y Project called Everyday Accessibility. That's when you're making a Word document, for instance, using the Ribbon, using headings, and buttons, or bulleted lists. So I tend to want to bring everyone on board, and demystify accessibility and make it more attainable and easier to grasp and that feels so much like this expert field that takes years to break it down to those tangible pieces that still make a big difference. REIN: One of the things that I hear a lot when abled people are advocating for accessibility is, “Sure, this helps disabled people, but you should care about it because it helps abled people, too.” How do you feel about that? MICHELE: So that's a conversation that's been coming up a lot, too and I have a particular colleague that sent me their response, for instance and it's a stance that I don't particularly align with because the problem with that stance is you end up keeping the status quo. So there are real consequences to being in a society that does not value disability and you, as someone who doesn't have a disability, do not feel those effects. So until we are a more equitable society, we do have to call out the characteristics that make someone have negative effects. So the reality is yes, there are things like situational impairments, which is when the situation you're in mirrors the impact of a disability such as walking and texting—you're not seeing out of your periphery—or there's temporary disabilities, like you've broken your arm, and then there's just the natural process of aging. All of that is true and you can also figure designing for your future self for that last part. But again, I think that we have to be very mindful that right now we need to overemphasize and think about disability until it is our normal way of thinking. REIN: It also seems like it's conceding the ground that doing what's right for disabled people is enough of a justification. MICHELE: Explain that a little bit more, what you mean by that. REIN: So when you say it helps disabled people, but it also helps abled people, it seems to me like you're saying it's not enough for me to just say that this helps disabled people. I have to give you another reason. MICHELE: Absolutely, absolutely, and that ties back into ableism and the invisibility of disability and the devaluing of disability. Like you said, it's like a disabled person is not enough. It has to also include absolutely right with that way of thinking and that's another reason not to go that route of segmenting it in that way. JOHN: I think this ties into something that you had mentioned earlier that I find really interesting, this idea that able people are doing something for disabled people. MICHELE: Yes, and that's the big thing. When you say like, “What's been on your mind lately?” That's the one that comes to mind and it comes to mind for a couple of different reasons. None of them new, none of them – I did not discover any of this; people have been saying this for decades upon decades. But for me, my personal experience, I will give a talk, an accessibility talk, I might explain something about say, screen readers, or some other technology, or a particular disability and then the response is, “Well, it should work this way,” or “We should do this.” There's a lot of solutioning around what I've just presented without any context of ever having met say, a disabled person, or particularly a person in the disability community that has been talked about and that comes, I think from this idea, a couple of things. One, again, this idea of a power structure where, “Well, I'm doing this for you, disabled person.” Not understanding the empowerment that the disabled person has, or this misunderstanding and again, invisibility of disability in spaces like tech innovation and not understanding, okay, that touch screen you're using, that text-to-speech you love, those captions that you use at the bar; all of these things [chuckles] came from disability. We erased the innovation that came from someone designing for themselves and designing for their ability and it's assisted technology and therefore, it's an add-on when it's for disabled folks, but it's innovation when it's for people who don't have disabilities. I think we need to have a lot more discussion about this, particularly in spaces like user experience, where we're supposed to be all inclusive and all about the user. There's some ways that we really are reinforcing this mindset and this power structure, for sure. JOHN: So I want to check my understanding of what you're saying, just to make sure. Are you saying that when you present a problem, accessibility problem, the abled people, the other UX designers, the other people who want to be helpful jump in with, “Oh, we can do this, we can do that, or that” rather than saying, “Well, let's go talk to some disabled people and find out what they need and let that guide how we solve this problem rather than us just being like, ‘Oh, it would be great if dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.'” MICHELE: So to two stages to that. For the first one yes, that's the first thing that happens. In the assistive technology, broad accessibility world, this manifests in some very familiar ways. The first is the blind navigation. Every year, some engineer thinks they've solved blind navigation, pedestrian navigation. Meaning they've created a belt with vibrations on the left and right with an Arduino, or something and they go, “You don't need a cane anymore because it's going to vibrate left when you need to turn left and right when you need to turn right, and you can walk like a sighted person,” or some variation of that—robot guide dogs, smart cane, something like that, or the sign language gloves, or the stair climbing wheelchair. There's these sort of assistive technologies that always come out with very little context around whether it's actually happening, whether it's actually needed. But then there's something John, about what you said, too about let's see what people need and we'll build it. We have to be careful even with that, too because that assumes that I can't build for myself and that's not true either. [chuckles] Disabled folks are the most innovative people because the world is not accessible. There is a such thing as a specialty. Like I have an accessibility specialty, I have a design specialty, but I think we often think that's someone without a disability. No, a disabled person can also have these specialties, or they can be someone who has the idea of what they need and you're partnering with them with your specialty in say, design to create those solutions. So again, I think we have to be very careful about our wording and our viewpoints of what's actually happening. REIN: There's a framework that I've been using for this that actually comes from aviation safety and there's a European aviation safety magazine where Cormac Russell published an op-ed called Four Modes of Change: To, For, With, By. The idea is that change to is the mode where change has done to us without us. So this is a sort of authoritarian top-down thing. We've got no say in the matter. It's not even necessarily for our benefit. Then change for is a benevolent top-down approach. “I'm trying to help you, but I'm the one who decides what to change.” Change with is a participatory co-creating the change. And then change by is change done by us for us where if I'm, for example, a manager, my role would be find out what support you need so you can make the changes you want to make. MICHELE: Absolutely. Perfect. Thank you. I knew there was some reference. This appears in disability justice spaces, in any kind of space where you're talking about inclusion, we know that sometimes inclusion can be code for do things the way that the current power structure does it. Do things the way that the current people in charge of comfortable and assimilate rather than no, we're actually going to allow you to be your authentic self and come into these spaces. Part of the reason this has also been on my mind is because I fit into some of these other spaces as a woman and as a Black person. I think that sometimes my cohorts think well, because we have experienced some of that in our lives, we are immune to them giving that out to others. So as a Black person, a woman, even someone with intersectionality, I can't possibly do that to do was done to me to someone else. But we don't realize how much ableism is steeped into our society, such that it is very easy to do that with disability and not even realize it and not even realize you have the mentality that someone is inferior to you, incapable, and particularly when the disability has to do with neurological, or anything that we really don't understand. But even still, even that kind of categorization can go away because the idea is that any sort of disability triggers usually some sort of ableist response and these things can happen even if you've experienced it yourself. JOHN: So like so many of the other things we discussed on this podcast, it sounds like the real work of accessibility is organizational change. It's getting the power structures to change to allow these things to come into being rather than forcing them in there, or trying to – like you were saying, not forcing the change on the disabled people to fit in. MICHELE: I've been thinking about the roots of this, for sure. And thank you for that. Unfortunately, capitalism drives a lot of this and again, if we're talking specifically more to tech worlds and say, including accessibility into your tech, part of that is just because the buy-in sometimes comes from the internal stakeholders, not the end customer. Again, if you're not mindful, not careful, and don't have leadership that are careful. So the dirty little secret is for instance internally yes, you may be making education software for students, but you're really marketing to the teachers who are going to buy it, and you're then even more so really marketing to whoever the management structure is internally who's going to approve it to even be on the market. So you get further and further away from actually helping a student because you have all these other checks that it needs to impress, or you need to make the case for similar to what we were saying earlier, you have to make the case for disability. For instance, you have to say, “Well, blind people to do this.” You get this pushback of, “Well, blind people don't do that so we don't have to worry about it and you keep moving on.” So there is a shift that is hard, but I do think it goes back to what I was saying earlier about taking a stance. I think that people do need to individually start to take the stance that that may be how we do things now, or how it may even need to be done. But we do want to be careful buying into that completely because it's going to perpetuate the same. We know that that power dynamic internally of who the stakeholders are, again, also sometimes doesn't reflect the diversity of who we are designing for. We're going to keep getting the same result if we're not super mindful and super careful to take the stance that we are going to care about the diversity of the end users, the people that ultimately will have their hands on what we're making and celebrate that oftentimes those best solutions, again, come from the community who are doing the work. So celebrating the innovation that comes from being tied back to those end users rather than thinking the solution has to come from within. So changing that mindset around this difficult, but it takes taking a stand and recognizing it, too. JOHN: So it's trying to change my thinking around to the by style change around accessibility and my context is on the team of web developers who develop apps that are eventually used by some disabled people. So I'm trying to think about obviously, we need buy-in from the power structures as a company and to spend time on the work, but deciding what work gets done needs to be – that's where the inclusion comes in and I'm curious about what the steps are there that helped me get to that point where those people are included MICHELE: So here's a few ways that that comes about. One of it could just be, okay, this is the feature we're doing and we're going to make sure that this feature that we're doing—however that came about—is assessable. That can come from anything from how you're going to code, like making the decision to use standardized elements that come with accessibility built-in, or whatever knowledge building you can do internally to just bake it into how you are creating that feature. Then there is what is the feature and making sure that that, if nothing else, is as inclusive as possible, or at least not exclusionary. You're not making a feature that will exclude people. Again, that comes from an understanding of who is the audience and making sure everyone understands that. No one, I don't think has fully solved for how to make accessibility the thing that everyone knows does – it's difficult. It takes time. It takes training. It takes science from top down as well as then knowledge from the bottom up. It's a journey. But I think that there are places where decisions are made, that you know you're going one way, or the other, whether it's, I'm using a div, or a button, [chuckles] whether it's we're going to wait to put captions, or we're going to go ahead and build in time to do that, whether it's, again, we're going to put in this very visual feature, or we're going to take a little bit more time to understand how to have an alternative to that feature. So there's lots of places where you can be very intentional, that you are going to take the steps to learn about accessibility from your point of view and then incorporate it. REIN: So let's say that your VP of engineering mandates that every project has to meet a certain accessibility score, or something like that, but you don't train the developers. So you were saying top down and bottom up have to come together. I have seen things like that lead to some pretty dysfunctional ways of working. MICHELE: I can see that [laughs] and I think part of that comes from a misunderstanding that accessibility is not just something you say we're going to do. Like, it's not like we didn't do it because we just simply forgot, or we didn't do it just for reasons that can then you can flip a switch and turn it on. People aren't doing it because they weren't taught it, they aren't fully aware of the diversity of it, they aren't aware of what's required, and then leadership isn't aware. Therefore, that steps have to be taken. So there's a lot of rally around let's be inclusive, let's be assessable, but then there's less so when you learn oh, that means we have to maybe take half of the time to train and disrupt our workflow, or we have to do our workflow differently, or we have to go back to the code we've already written and been using for years and fix it. Those are some real decisions and those are some real consequences sometimes to that, too when you're a business that is expected to constantly move forward, but they are decisions that have to be made in order to actually put it in place, not just say you are for it. REIN: Todd Conklin has a book, The 5 Principles of Human Performance, and there are two that I think are especially relevant here. One is that context drives behavior. So if you want to know why someone is behaving the way they do, the thing to look at is the context that they're operating in, and the other is that how leaders respond to matters. When I think about this, I think if you have a design systems team, is that design system built to be accessible from first principles? Is the easy thing to do grab a component that's already designed to be accessible, or is the easy thing to do is throw a div on the page? MICHELE: Yeah, and there are, I think that the number one takeaway is none of it is easy because all of it is late. So there are initiatives like teachaccess.org; we really need to be embedding it in how we even learn the things that we learned, because then it does feel like we're almost disrupting industry to do this. When in reality, we just learned it wrong. [chuckles] We learn to cheat and to make it look and feel the way I want it to look rather than learning that there was a reason there's this thing called a button versus this thing called a div. Now, recognizing, too, though that standards come after innovation. So you can't standardize something that hasn't really even been explored, or even invented yet. So we understand that as you want technology to advance, it's more difficult to then say, “Okay, there's a standard for this and that will guarantee us accessibility.” So for instance, using native HTML elements isn't all, or when we look at mobile, native mobile elements is more difficult to do. This is still a new space, a growing space and so, sometimes we don't often know what that looks like. But that then requires again, that awareness piece of what disability looks like and this is where they're trying to catch augmented reality and virtual reality with XR Access and accessibility initiatives. Because if you're at least aware of the diversity of disability, you can catch it early enough so that when the standards come out again, we're making it less hard. Someone on a panel I was on last week, talked about like tech debt and this idea of well, it can be overwhelming. Well, if you have less things you need to maintain, it's less overwhelming and that comes from using standards and being aware of standards. You lessen your tech debt; that becomes part of the overall responsibility of standards bodies, for instance. So there are some again, tangible steps that I think just need more awareness and talking about over and over again until we get it right, that can be put in place, should be put in place. Hopefully, it will be put in place to make this less daunting over time. REIN: Yeah, and then on the how leaders respond thing. If someone builds something that's not accessible to you, do you punish them to just drive that behavior underground, or do you say, “Why weren't they able to do it? Do they not have the right expertise? Were they under too much time pressure?” How can I make the context better so that people are more likely to do the behaviors that we're trying to lead them towards? MICHELE: Yeah. Thinking a lot about that, too. So I tend to have two ways. I guess, it's sort of the carrot stick kind of thing, or maybe some other dynamic like that, but we know some people are going to get the altruistic side. Again, awareness. They just weren't thinking about disability. It's not something that's in their life. It's not something that was exposed to them. Once someone is exposed and understands a little bit of the work that needs to be done, they're bought in and they go for it. There are other folks that just are ablest. They just will not care. If it has not affected them personally in their lives, they are going to look – maybe like you said, maybe their motivations are something like money, even though they don't realize they're excluding more consumers. Whatever those things are, they're just not going to buy in. That's when unfortunately things like the threat of lawsuits, or bad publicity has to be the way that you get those folks to turn around, or again, you just do it. [chuckles] So that's when maybe the folks on the ground can just do it regardless and the one thing, I think about is this video that went around with this little baby and there was a parent and a teacher aide. I presume the baby was supposed to be doing their sound it out cards, flashcards, but didn't feel like doing it. The little baby sitting on the floor back turned, the mom and the teachers, they did it. They did the sound out cards. The baby's looking back still playing, but keeps looking back and eventually, the baby goes, “Wait a minute, that's my game,” and next thing you know, they're playing the game. So there is something also, too to like you said, maybe it's just a peer pressure thing. No one else seems to be doing accessibility so why do we have to be the ones to do it? But if the cool kids start doing it, if the company start exposing that they are doing it, if there's enough groundswell, people will just get on board with the thing that everyone is doing, too. So I think maybe there are three ways now—maybe I've added a third in my mind. There are ways – as a user experience person, I say user experience the person that you're dealing with. Like you said, get in their head, what are they thinking? What do you think they would want? But ultimately, understand that it isn't always going to be because it's the right thing and the faster you learn that, the more you might be able to actually get some results, too. JOHN: Yeah. I like what you said there, Rein about set up the system so that the right thing is easy and I think obviously, there's a lot of work to get to that point where you have the whole system built around that. But once you can get there, that's great because then, like you were saying, Michele, there's so much less effort involved in getting the thing to happen because that's just how everyone does it and you're just pulling the components are, or copy pasting from the other parts of the code that are already accessible so that it that stuff is already built into the process. And then it doesn't have to be quite so much of an uphill. Like even just uphill thinking process where you have to think differently than you used to in order to get the thing done in an accessible manner. MICHELE: Yeah. Again, unfortunately it's not embedded within us to do this, but maybe the next generation will, maybe the next couple of generations If we keep talking about it and we take the effort to start to shift ourselves, maybe it will be the thing that people can't even remember when they didn't do it. I do feel like we're in a cool moment right now where that might be possible. I'm hearing it more and more. I didn't learn it in school when I was doing computer science and software engineering, but I know some students now that are coming out that are. So I'm kind of hopeful, but the conversations really need to be said aloud and often in order for it to happen, for sure. REIN: You mentioned the larger structural problem here, which is that designing accessible software is a moral obligation and we work in an economic system that's not optimized around moral obligations. Let's put it that way. MICHELE: Yeah. [laughs] That will dollar. [laughs] I think again, there's that school, are we changing that, or we're going to work within it. I think you can do both. Some people should – we should really be tackling both, any kind of inclusion efforts, same thing. Do you do it from within, or outside? Do you work within the structure, or do you dismantle it? I think there's benefits to both. I think there's benefit to basically editing what isn't working about what we're currently doing. There's always an improvement and I tend to look at it that way. It's not so much as it's down with this and up with that. I think we just need to recognize, as human beings who can evolve and do things different, learn, grow, and get wiser, let's just do that. Let's do what we're doing better and when we recognize that we have a negative effect, let's solution something that is going to work better and just recognize that and do better. It's okay to edit. So I don't think we have to toss our hands up and say, “Oh, we'll never get there because of how this is.” That was invented, too. All of these things are constructs. At some point, the way we do things wasn't the way we did things; we did things completely differently. Empires can fall and rise and be redone. So we don't have to stay stagnant, but we can, again, start to make these changes. REIN: I think that even within a capitalist system, there's still a place for social norms. There's still a place for deciding which behaviors we're going to accept and which behaviors we're not going to accept and what we're going to do about those. I just wouldn't expect that to be the CEO's job. I would expect that to be the entire community of the company. MICHELE: The entire community with the CEOs. So the two companies that are the pillars, for instance, of accessibility, Microsoft and Apple, you hear their CEOs say, “We do things accessibly.” So it's not necessarily on them to forego stakeholders and stock prices and all of that. Certainly, you can't do too much if you don't have a company, so they have to do what they have to do, but there is still an okay from that and that's part of that top-down. Again, we need training. Is there money in the budget for training? That has to come from management. So there is still a recognition and it's just always beneficial when everyone is on the same page that this is how we operate; the message then doesn't ever get disconnected. It just shifts to the role of a person and they put it into practice in their own particular way. REIN: Martha Acosta, who is one of the few original women in safety science, she says that there are four things that leaders can control, or have leverage over—there's roles, there's processes and practices, there's values, or norms, and there's incentives. So I think this ties in with what you're saying about what the CEO's job could be. MICHELE: Versus stock prices? Yeah. [laughs] Versus yeah. Which unfortunately is, again, I think it's even upon the CEO to take a stance on what they are going to do with their company and their time. Because certainly, the pressures are coming to them sometimes not necessarily emanating from them. So I think there is opportunity, this is why there's opportunity for everyone to evaluate what are we doing. Like you said, we can decide what is important, how are we going to go about this? And if enough people start to be even more mindful than they were yesterday, shifts are going to inevitably happen. And people who disregard others, discriminate all of these other negative effects that we've seen will inevitably have less effects because the norm will be these other ways that we're trying to include and get better as a society. REIN: So one of the things I like to think about when we have guests, or ask guests to think about, is to think about this challenge from the perspective of a few different people. A few different personas. So I'm a manager, I'm a line level manager and the people that report to me are engineers. What can I do? Or I am a mid-level engineer, what can I do? How do we translate these ideas and principles into action? MICHELE: So what is to understand that there are, for instance, guidelines like there are web accessibility, web content, accessibility guidelines, or author and tool guidelines, because we do need to define what it means. At some point, there needs to be metrics and there needs to be measures that need to be placed to understand, did we do this? One way to do that is to translate those into those various roles. Some of that work has happened and some of it needs to happen. So there's understanding the tangible actions that can and should happen. But I think also, it's simply a matter of deciding that accessibility and inclusion and particularly in my world, disability is just going to be a part of everything. Every check that you make for whatever your role is. You were talking about different frameworks for different levels. Certainly, that's true. I think that we tend to separate out disability from those kinds of conversations as if it's different. It's not different. Making decisions for how you're going to manage your employees should be inclusive of disabled employees. The tools that you want them to use, the ways you want them to work, how “productive” you want them to be, how you're going to measure that. All of that should be mindful of the variety of people that you are supporting. Same with I am a developer so that means that I am writing code on behalf of a group of other people and that means I need to know who these people are. It's funny you say personas because—I know that's not probably what you meant, but in my role, obviously that triggers the user experience personas, which I'm not a fan of. That's all another podcast. [chuckles] But when we're talking about that so in user experience we're saying, “Oh, we're designing for these people, these target audience per se.” It'll be John who's the manager and he does this on his way to work and then there's Mary. Maybe she's a stay-at-home mom, but uses it this way. Dah, dah, dah, all these other characteristics. And then we'll go so now we need disability personas. No. [chuckles] John can also be quadriplegic. Mary can also have multiple sclerosis. So again, it goes back to the idea that we have separated out and made invisible disability. Oh, taboo. Even the word oh, it's taboo. Can't talk about disability. REIN: Yeah. Like imagine having a separate persona for a woman, or a Black person. MICHELE: Thank you. We don't do it. We don't do the whites only school and we'll get to the Black people later. We know that intrinsically, but we do it in everything. So same thing particularly when we're talking about inclusion of disability in all of these phases of say, an organization, we go, “And disability.” No, no, no. If we really want to think about it, disability is the equalizer. Anyone can become disabled at any moment at any time, it does not discriminate. It is the one thing that any human being can become at any time and yet we still separate it out as if it's this taboo, or a terrible thing. Now, again, there are negative outcomes of disability. Not saying that, but we have this tendency to segment it in ways that just absolutely don't make sense and aren't necessary and are detrimental and make it more work, so. REIN: There's a book called Software Security by McGraw. It's kind of old now, but the premise is still very relevant, which is that to make software secure, you have to build security in at the beginning, and you have to keep constructing and repairing it throughout the software development life cycle. So it starts with design, but it includes, you talked about different touchpoints in the life cycle, where you want to sort of check in on whether you still are as secure as you think you are. So that includes design. It includes code review. It includes testing. I wonder if this sort of an approach works for accessibility, too; we just sort of bake it into the fabric of how you design soft. MICHELE: It should be how it works. The moniker is shift left. That's absolutely what has to happen to do it well. You have to be thinking about it all the time. Everything that you do. So that's how my mind works now. It took a long time to do that. But now when I'm sending an email and I put a picture in, “Okay, let me put the alternative text.” I'm making a spreadsheet, “Okay, let me do the heading.” Like, I'm always constantly checking myself as I'm doing anything. “Okay, if I'm doing a podcast like this, is there a transcript, or are there captions?” I'm just constantly doing these checks. That takes time to build up, but it is the way you have to do it to make sure nothing slips through the cracks so that all the hard work that say, the design team, or the dev team did, and then QA comes in and doesn't know how to test it. We're all interdependent so it has to be everyone all the time, all throughout the process in order to get it from end to end to work; the weak link in the chain will break that. So very much how it has to go. REIN: It also seems like this there are small, actionable things that you could do to move in this direction. So for example, when you do code review, ask some accessibility questions. Maybe build yourself an accessibility checklist. Now I don't like checklists, but that's a whole other podcast, but it's better than not thinking about it. MICHELE: Yeah. As you're learning something, sometimes the checklist is helpful because you don't yet have it in your own mind and you don't want to forget. Now you don't want to – I'm sure what you're saying is you don't want to tie yourself to the checklist, too. REIN: Yeah. MICHELE: But as you're building up knowledge, yes, there are so many just tangible did I do this things that you might as well just keep a sticky at your desk, or however you want to do it and just start doing those things. Again, we don't have to keep talking about it. It doesn't have to be this revelation of inclusive buy-in in order to put captions on your videos. [chuckles] These things, you know. REIN: Yeah. This also seems like an opportunity for tech leads to do leadership to say, “Hey, so I looked at this and the contrast ratio is a little bit low. Do you think we could punch this up in a code review?” MICHELE: Yeah. The only thing, though is back to the beginning—being careful about these directives, making sure you understand the directives that you're doing because again, a lot of times, particularly when people are new to accessibility, they overdo it. So they hear a screen reader and they think it needs to read like a novel so they want to add in a summary of the page in the beginning, a summary of this section, and they want to overly describe the alternative text, the image down to the pixels. There's some give and take there, too. There's some learning you want to do, but you can iterate. You can learn one piece, get comfortable with it. Okay, now that this next piece. Knowledge building it's just what it is, is what it is. So there's absolutely knowledge building that you can do to get more comfortable and we need everyone to do this. There's certain parts that should be specialty, but unfortunately, the specialists are doing what everyone else should be doing the basics and so, we've got to shift that so that the specialists can do the specialty stuff, the harder stuff that may not quite get – [overtalk] REIN: That's exactly the same problem is having a security person on your team. MICHELE: Absolutely. So it sounds like you all have a focus on implementation. Like you're implementing and you want to know how best to make – I'm turning it on [inaudible]. [laughs] So you want to know how best to make it work for you, or is that what I'm hearing? REIN: I guess, I lean towards practice. I want to understand the theory, but then if I can't put that theory into practice, the theory is not very useful to me. If that makes sense. MICHELE: Absolutely makes sense. My company name is Making Accessibility Work and a lot of what I say is put accessibility into action, because I am very much tied to this idea that you can be absolutely on board with accessibility and not have any clue how to do it. [chuckles] And then the inverse can be true, too. You can absolutely do not care, but because you care about semantic HTML, you're doing more accessibility than the person who cares. There are these places that people can be in their understanding that neither one is actually, or you think one is helping, but the other actually is. I think people think you have to care. You have to want to Sometimes, you know what, you don't. Sometimes I just need you to fix the color contrast, [laughs] or yes, it's great that you care, but in doing so, you're actually, co-opting a message. You care a little too much and you are actually not letting disabled people speak for themselves because you've now discovered accessibility and now, you're all about it. So I think we've got to meet in the middle, folks. Let's care, let's do, let's demystify, but also understand there are some harder problems to solve, but understand where those are. Putting headings on the page is not the hard problem we need to solve. Just put the headings, making math and science more accessible, particularly when we've made it so visualization heavy. Yeah, let's go over there. Let's tinker with that, folks and that's where we need to be putting all this massive brain power. We've had Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for 20 years. HTML5, which addressed a lot of semantics for accessibility, has been out a decade. Y'all, hurry up and learn that and let's get that going so we can get over to this harder stuff. Get this brain power over to these more complex issues and newer innovations. JOHN: Yeah. I think if you're one of those people that cares, like you were saying, a little too much, or perhaps just a lot, you can end up with option lock because you want to solve all the problems and then you're just like, “But what do we do? What are we doing here?” Like, I'll just put the headings in, put the alt texts in, we'll start there. You've got to get moving. And that's partly where I'm coming from with some of the questions I'm asking is that process of just getting that boulder rolling a little bit so that it takes a little bit less effort to keep going in the future. MICHELE: Yeah, and there's no perfect way to do it. I think everyone's looking for okay, well, how do we do it? You're going to spend a year on how and again, miss the year of what and doing it. It is messy because you're hiring people, you've got people working who don't know how to do it; it's going to be disruptive. We didn't come in with this knowledge. I know you didn't hire people to then train them up and send them to school but unfortunately, you've got to do that. People need to know what to do differently, what they're doing wrong. So some of it is going to be experimental, iterative, and messy, but in the end, start giving access. We talk about language even. Do we say disability? Do we say people with? Or do we say disabled people? And do we say differently abled? Even these – okay you know what, the reality is you do all of that and still don't get access. What would be better is if you have a person with a disability at the table to tell you themselves, but you're worried about language and yet can't even hire someone with a disability. So again, it's getting out of these little zones that we sometimes get in and recognizing the real work that needs to be done and can get done today. REIN: I think there's a real temptation to fixate on the hard, or interesting problems in the tech world that might be wanting to build this distributed database with five nines of durability. But your API server has a bug where 1% of the requests are an error. So if you don't fix that, your five nines over here are useless. MICHELE: The flashy thing, yes. [laughs] The shiny thing, we want to gravitate. Oftentimes, there's no glory in what was considered the grunt work, the foundational work. But I think that's where leadership could come in. I heard someone say years ago, “Appreciate the bunts” in baseball that oh, chicks dig the home run. We love the home run, but sometimes, that bunt wins the game. But that's where a leadership can come in and appreciate laying found a scalable foundation of code that does not add to tech debt, or the diminishing of the bugs that you've kept rolling year after year after year, you close 50 of them. That's where, again, a change in mentality of what we value. Sometimes again, accessibility is not put at the front because sometimes it's just code changes that aren't visible to users. So users are going to think you spent a year and didn't do anything to your code, or some of them will. But again, I think that's a messaging and that's an appreciation of really trying to do, and that's even appreciating software engineering versus just COVID. I have a software engineering degree and that's when I realized, “Oh, we're not just supposed to sit down and start hacking away and make sure it runs for the teacher to check it and we're done.” There's an engineering to this, but you have to value that. But also, I think there needs to be clearer consequences like speaking of engineering. If it's a building, we know the building can collapse. I don't think sometimes we appreciate what can happen if we don't do that foundational work and I think that's a shift overall and then technology and appreciation of that work. REIN: And I appreciate what you did there, which was to subtly redirect me back to the context and to how leaders respond. Because if building that five nines database gets you promoted and fixing that bug doesn't, what are people going to do? MICHELE: Yeah. So what's valued and that's set. Someone sets that. That's made up. You can value whatever you want to value. You can praise whatever you want to praise. Complete tangent, but that takes me to my high school where they were intentional that the students who performed well were going to be recognized by the principal because oftentimes, it was the misbehaving students that went to the principal's office. So the principal knows all the misbehaving students, but doesn't know any of the students that are doing the actual work that the school is asking of them to do. Not trying to get too much into school systems but again, it's an intention that you will honor the work, the unseen work. We do these in other spaces; the behind-the-scenes work, the unsung heroes. That's an intentional step that you can take as well to celebrate that, too. REIN: We have an older episode on glue work and how valuable glue work is, but how rarely it's acknowledged, or appreciated, especially by leadership and also, how it has a gender characteristic, for example. It seems to me like it might be easy to put accessibility in the category of glue work rather than in the category of like you were saying, foundational things that make us have a reliable product and a product that works for everyone. MICHELE: And I don't know if how we've presented technology to consumers plays into that as well. Again, the new flashy wow. The other day, I just looked down at my keyboard on my computer and I just thought about we just take such advantage of the fact that I'm just sitting here typing on the keyboard. Someone had to decide what the material would be that doesn't scratch my fingertips. Someone had to decide how to make the letters so that they don't rub off, or how they light up in the back. There's so much detail that goes into almost everything that we use and we just get so dismissive of some of it. “What's next? Eh, that's okay.” So I think, again, it's a human condition. It's the human condition to appreciate what people are doing for one another in front and behind the scenes and absolutely. But I think that also ties into, again, ableism, too. We see in assistive technology, or an adjustment because of disability as okay, that thing we can do later. But then when it becomes Alexa, when it becomes the vacuuming robot, when it becomes the new latest and greatest thing, then it's front and center and everyone wants to work on it. But it's the same technology. [chuckles] It's the same reasons that you should do it. It just happens to benefit everyone. It came out of disability, but you didn't want to think about it until you've found a benefit for all the “others.” Again, I think that's a human condition we have to correct. REIN: There's a thing that happens once a month on Twitter, which is someone will post an image of pre-sliced vegetables and they'll say, “What kind of a lazy loser needs pre-sliced vegetables?” And then someone will respond, “Disabled people need pre-sliced vegetables.” And then the response to that will either be blocking them, or saying, “Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I had no idea.” I think that there's maybe that dynamic going on here as well. MICHELE: Absolutely what I was thinking about, too, like Nike's shoes recently that you don't have to tie. Well, who doesn't want to sit down and tie their shoes? People who can't sit down and tie their shoes, but that was also a marketing issue. They refused to market it for disability. Like where were the disabled people? Where were the people with chronic illness, or chronic pain, or body size that just does not lend itself to bending over and tying your shoes? Why did it have to be marketed in that other way that then took away the messaging that this is a useful piece of equipment? REIN: Yeah. Like why is this fit model not able to tie their shoes? MICHELE: Exactly. Rather than take the angle that – again, they're all made up. Someone just happened to decide laces. We could have very easily decided this other way at the beginning. We could have very easily decided Velcro was the way. We just, I don't know, somewhere along the way, came up with laces. I think people in general have to go through their own journey of recognizing that what they were told was fact, truth, and stance just with someone's made up thing. Even these companies that we've just hold as pillars started in garages. They may have started in garages a 100 years ago, rather than just 50, or 20 years ago. But these things are just built. So we can build them differently. We can say them differently. It's okay. So taking away that stigma that things have to go a certain way and the way that they've been going, or at least perceived to have been going. We have got to start dismantling that. JOHN: Harking back here, a point earlier about the new shiny is always held up as always better. I read an article recently about prosthetic arms and how everyone's always really interested in building new robotic prosthetic arms. They're the new shiny, they're the cool thing to work on, and people feel good about working on them because they feel like they're helping people who need them. But that in a lot of cases, they're not better than the one that was designed 30 years ago that doesn't do a lot, but has at least a functional hook. They were following one woman through the article who had gotten one of these new ones, but it actually wasn't any better and she ended up switching back to the old one because she could get it to do the things that got her through the day and – [overtalk] REIN: Made with titanium. [laughter] JOHN: And you can clearly see that probably the people that are designing these probably weren't working with people bringing that feedback into the process enough and it was designed for rather than designed by. MICHELE: Absolutely. So Liz Jackson coined the phrase “Disability Dongle.” That's another one that comes up. The prosthetic, the exoskeleton, absolutely. The thing that non-disabled people look at and awe and look at what technology is doing, disabled people are over in the corner going, “That ain't going to help us.” [laughs] If you had asked, we would have told you we don't need that. I think we've also reached a point where we're at the harder stuff and no one's willing to tackle, I don't think always the harder stuff. So for instance, going back to blind navigation, one of the things that makes navigating difficult as a blind person—and I learned this because I talked and worked with like 80 blind people. [laughs] So one of the conclusions that came to with that infrastructure disables blind navigation, you don't need a smart – a lot of people espouse a smart cane. Well, they had this white cane, but it needs an infrared and it needs buzzers and it needs – okay, you're going to give people carpal tunnel. The battery on that is going to die. It's not going to be reliable. And in the meantime, the thing you could have done is educate people on putting stuff at head level. So the way that we design our street signs, for instance, we do everything very car minded. We do a lot of things for cars and we forget people also have to walk and so you put obstacles, or you can educate people about trimming your trees, for instance so people aren't running into them, or how they park their cars so that they're not in the way. Some of it is also just not a technology solution. It may be more an environmental and human education solution, but you can't tell people, who have signed up to work in technology, that they must find a technology solution. So they end up solutioning amongst themselves in ways that actually aren't helpful, but they make themselves, like you said, feel better and they promote within themselves. It's difficult to get people to undo that. JOHN: Yeah, it strikes me like you were talking about the wheelchairs that can go ramps, the exoskeletons, and there are certainly use cases for those sorts of things. But I think the distinction there is those are a solution to make the disabled people more abled rather than making the world more accessible. Like what they need is lower countertop so that in the wheelchair, they can still cook. That's what they need. Not the ability to walk upstairs, or have like you said, this awe-inspiring exoskeleton that just draws more attention to them and probably doesn't even solve most of the problems. MICHELE: I'm just going to say amen. [laughs] That is it. That is the thing we need people to get. So you'll hear about the models of disability, too. Sometimes you'll hear about – you should hear about the models of disability and when people extract that and summarize that, they usually pull out two, which is the medical model, which is generally what we've been under, which is the effects of disability and how that affects the person. Therefore, these things need to happen to overcome and this sort of again, hospital, kind of what the body's doing, or what the mind is doing mindset, which is opposite of one that people often quote, which is the social model. The social model says, “No, no society, the world, my environment is disabling me. If you would just give me something more adaptive, more inclusive, I'd be good.” So a lot of examples of that, I recently read a Kia Brown's book with a book club and you'll have to insert [chuckles] the link. The Pretty One is what it's called. Kia has cerebral palsy and one of the things that was a feat for her was putting her hair in a ponytail and it made you think about scrunchies and the makeup of that. What if we just made the mechanism to have maybe a little bit more to it to grab your hair and put it in the ponytail rather than relying on the fact that you have two hands that you can do that with? So those are the differences in the mindsets of our views of disability that we need people to shift and even go sometimes again, deeper into what it is you're really doing when it comes to inclusion. Are you really being inclusive, or are you saying, “Hey person, come on to what I believe is the way of life”? JOHN: So reflections, then. MICHELE: My reflection, or takeaway would be that my hope is that we can find room for everyone. Everyone who wants to create great tech, everyone who has an idea, everyone who has a contribution. I hope that that doesn't continue to need to filter through say, a non-disabled person, or a certain status of job title. My hope is that we're starting to recognize that there's room for everyone to provide their perspective and it can be valued and it can be included in the ways that we operate at equal opportunity. So that's hopefully, my reflection and my takeaway. JOHN: All right, I can go next. I think really actually the point that that's really sitting with me is what I had just said, which dawned on me as I was saying it, as we were talking in the last minute there about how the real solutions are, like you said, infrastructural. They're changing the form of society to make the disabled person able to do what they need to do rather than bringing them up to the level of whatever was currently built, or whatever that – and even there's a weird value judgment in saying, bringing them up to the level. I'm uncomfortable saying it that way. So just changing the thinking, like you said, the social model is, I think a powerful change and thought process around this, and I'm going to keep turning that one around in my head. REIN: I think for me, I'm coming back to the idea that just like security, accessibility has to be built in throughout the process of designing and building software. You can't have a part of your software delivery life cycle where that's the only place where you think about accessibility. You can't just think about it during design, for example, and you can't just have a team of accessibility experts that you go to sometimes when you need help with accessibility. It's really everyone's job and it's everyone's job all the time. MICHELE: I love it. I'm going to change the world. [laughs] Special Guest: Dr. Michele A. Williams.

With Karen Lai of the City of Vancouver and inclusionaccessibility.com Does inclusion mean “everyone belongs”? Why do so many organizations aim for a segmented rather than blended population? What role does personal vulnerability play in this discussion? Inclusion and Accessibility Consultant Karen Lai joined us to talk about how to navigate the messiness and complexity of accommodating many-layered people in outdoor settings. There's no one-size-fits all approach, but with open communication, outside-the-box thinking, and adherence to the principle that “it takes two to tango,” people can usually figure out a path forward. (Oh, and we talked about kayaking with orcas, too.)    Guest: Along with being the Accessibility Planner for the City of Vancouver, Karen Lai is an Inclusion and Accessibility Consultant through which she facilitates inclusion training for companies, educators, organizations, and other special interest groups. Karen completed her undergraduate degree in outdoor recreation and her master's in human kinetics with a focus in examining the social theories of inclusion. Karen lives with cerebral palsy and loves to get out to play in the outdoors. Learn more at https://www.inclusionaccessibility.com/.

This week, we continue our conversation with Dr. Andrea Leifer, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Lymphatic System Specialist, and Accessibility Consultant. In today's episode we cover:

Dr. Andrea Leifer, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Lymphatic System Specialist, and Accessibility Consultant joins Kelly for an important 2-part conversation. In today's episode we cover:

Michelle Salt was born and raised on a game farm outside of a small Alberta town called Calmar. From an early age, Michelle had a passion for sports. When she was 13, she fell in love with snowboarding and chased the dream of someday becoming a professional snowboarder. Though she never made it to the pro level, her love for the sport never died. In June, 2011, Michelle was out for an evening ride when she lost control of her motorcycle. Upon impact, she broke several bones and severed her femoral artery, causing her to almost bleed to death. She spend 7 days on life support, 5 months in the hospital recovering, and lost her right leg 10 inches above the knee. Though she knew she was going to have some tough times ahead of her, Michelle was determined to get back on snowboard and carve her way to the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games. In March of 2014, Michelle made that dream a reality when she competed in the debut of snowboarding becoming the first ever Female Canadian Paralympic snowboarder. She pushed herself to new levels leading into the 2018 games with 13 World Cup Podiums, ranked 3rd Overall and was the most Marketed Canadian Winter Paralympian. She just missed the Podium with a 4th place finish in Boardercross and 5th in Banked Slalom with the top finish for Canada. Michelle loves to try it all! Her favorite hobbies currently are riding her Dirtbike, Snowmobiling in the backcountry, learning new tricks on her wakesurf board, volunteering her time to Adaptive sport and exploring the beautiful Okanagan with her Dog Lenny. Michelle is an Interior BC Realtor, Mobility and Accessibility Consultant for Motion, a Motivational Speaker and a competitive Wakesurfer. For more on Michelle and what she's currently up to, visit her website, or follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Taylor has been blind since birth. She planned to major in Computer Science, but circumstances as a result of COVID lead her to start her own business. She is now a Freelance Accessibility Consultant, and WordPress Professional. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/careersfortheblind/message

Emily Yates is an Accessibility Consultant and Journalist living in the U.K. She currently works as an Inclusive Design Associate at CCD Design & Ergonomics. Emily frequently presents and writes on disability, having fronted several documentaries for BBC Three and written for the Guardian, the Independent and Telegraph Travel. She authored the Lonely Planet Guide to Accessible Rio de Janeiro, endorsed by the International Paralympic Committee and available to download by athletes, tourists, and locals alike ahead of the 2016 Games.A wheelchair user herself, Emily is also a disability awareness trainer for Enhance the UK and manages their Undressing Disability campaign, championing the right for disabled people to have access to sexual expression. She recently delivered a TEDx talk on this issue and is currently studying for a PhD in Women's Studies at the University of York.​If you'd like to collaborate on a project, hire her as a speaker or just have a chat, here's how to get in touch with Emily:Visit Emily's website.Connect with Emily on Twitter.Connect with Emily on Instagram.Connect with Emily on LinkedIn.Thank you for listening to Allied! For transcripts, show information, and updates, visit our website: https://www.3playmedia.com/alliedpodcast/Follow us on social media! We can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Press Play for:  Importance of Independence of Marco’s Journey Living with Cerebral Palsy Overcoming Adversity Why You Should Never Judge a Book by It’s Cover By 72 Hours there Are Solutions That Will Present Itself Why The Universe Has an Interesting Way of Showing us the Lessons Not Letting your Disability be an excuse to be below average The Law of Attraction Finding Your Goal in Life to Fill Your Purpose We Meet: Marco Pasqua, Speaker, Consultant and Entrepreneur Straight Truth:  Somebody without a disability can fall in love with somebody with a disability. Somebody without a disability could like somebody who wants to spend their life with somebody with a disability.   Episode References:  Red Robinson Virtual Event, October 14th  The Secret Book  C.U.B.E. is an acronym that stands for “Creatively Utilize your Best Energy”   Connect: Connect with Rick: https://linktr.ee/mrrickjordan Connect with Marco: https://www.like.ventures/   Subscribe and Review to ALL IN with Rick Jordan on iTunes Subscribe and Comment on CastBox:  Subscribe on Google Podcasts or Google Play Follow on Spotify  Subscribe and Review on Stitcher About Guest:   Marco Pasqua was born on July 4, 1985, weighing only 2 pounds 10 ounces and was 3 months premature; he would later be diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. When he was only 10 years old, Marco was invited to be the ambassador/host of the Timmy’s Christmas Telethon with local radio legend Red Robinson. This was his first opportunity to speak in front of a large audience; it was then that he realized the impact that words can have but he had no idea that this would later turn into his career.    Marco Pasqua is an award-winning Entrepreneur, Accessibility Consultant and Inspirational Speaker. After graduating from the Art Institute of Vancouver, he spent 5 years in the video game industry. During the recession of 2010, he lost his job, which turned out to be the biggest blessing in disguise. Marco decided it was time to use his voice to make a positive impact on the world, so he built his own brand as a professional speaker and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, he has remained focused on social impact, keeping a philanthropic approach to the work that he does. Some of his most memorable talks include TEDxStanleyPark, The United Way as an impact speaker and The Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Throughout his life, Marco has also been involved with a number of organizations as a spokesperson, helping to spread advocacy for persons with disabilities across Canada.

Press Play for:  Importance of Independence of Marco’s Journey Living with Cerebral Palsy Overcoming Adversity Why You Should Never Judge a Book by It’s Cover By 72 Hours there Are Solutions That Will Present Itself Why The Universe Has an Interesting Way of Showing us the Lessons Not Letting your Disability be an excuse to be below average The Law of Attraction Finding Your Goal in Life to Fill Your Purpose We Meet: Marco Pasqua, Speaker, Consultant and Entrepreneur Straight Truth:  Somebody without a disability can fall in love with somebody with a disability. Somebody without a disability could like somebody who wants to spend their life with somebody with a disability.   Episode References:  Red Robinson Virtual Event, October 14th  The Secret Book  C.U.B.E. is an acronym that stands for “Creatively Utilize your Best Energy”   Connect: Connect with Rick: https://linktr.ee/mrrickjordan Connect with Marco: https://www.like.ventures/   Subscribe and Review to ALL IN with Rick Jordan on iTunes Subscribe and Comment on CastBox:  Subscribe on Google Podcasts or Google Play Follow on Spotify  Subscribe and Review on Stitcher About Guest:   Marco Pasqua was born on July 4, 1985, weighing only 2 pounds 10 ounces and was 3 months premature; he would later be diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. When he was only 10 years old, Marco was invited to be the ambassador/host of the Timmy’s Christmas Telethon with local radio legend Red Robinson. This was his first opportunity to speak in front of a large audience; it was then that he realized the impact that words can have but he had no idea that this would later turn into his career.    Marco Pasqua is an award-winning Entrepreneur, Accessibility Consultant and Inspirational Speaker. After graduating from the Art Institute of Vancouver, he spent 5 years in the video game industry. During the recession of 2010, he lost his job, which turned out to be the biggest blessing in disguise. Marco decided it was time to use his voice to make a positive impact on the world, so he built his own brand as a professional speaker and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, he has remained focused on social impact, keeping a philanthropic approach to the work that he does. Some of his most memorable talks include TEDxStanleyPark, The United Way as an impact speaker and The Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Throughout his life, Marco has also been involved with a number of organizations as a spokesperson, helping to spread advocacy for persons with disabilities across Canada.

Sei es für blinde Menschen oder Ältere, für Menschen mit kognitiven Einschränkungen oder solche, die die Computermaus nicht bedienen können. Ein barrierefreies Internet ist nützlich, wünschenswert und machbar.

Episode #22: On today's show, I'll be talking about tech & accessibility with special guests, Marco Pasqua & Linsey Feit from LIKE Ventures. LIKE Ventures promotes the utilization of innovative technology to increase parity and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. The venture firm is made up of three synergistic business units working towards one mission: To promote innovators working towards a more equitable world by increasing accessibility for people with disabilities. Marco Pasqua is an award-winning Entrepreneur, Accessibility Consultant and Inspirational Speaker with Cerebral Palsy who happens to use a wheelchair. Throughout his life, Marco has been involved with a number of organizations as a spokesperson, helping to spread advocacy for persons with disabilities. As an Accessibility and Inclusion Consultant, he has worked with some of the biggest change-driven business leaders and organizations who are champions for more accessible, inclusive workplaces. It's through these experiences that he is helping to pave the way for all Canadians to have universal access to the programs, services and places that they live, work and play. Linsey Feit is a Healthcare Consultant focused on delivering technology solutions to problems faced across all facets of healthcare. After receiving her B.S. in Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, she directed her skills to the government and patient sectors, helping launch multiple programs including a 24/7 global Telehealth service. Currently, she focuses on implementing solutions within the payer and provider realms. Linsey is a co-founder and managing partner at LIKE Ventures. Be sure to follow LIKE Ventures for the latest updates: Website - Like.Ventures, Twitter, Facebook - @VenturesLIKE, Instagram - @likeventures, LinkedIn - LIKE Ventures Want to support this podcast? Visit https://anchor.fm/coffeyandcode/support or leave a rate & review on Apple Podcasts. *Subscribe to Coffey & Code to be notified when new episodes go live!* If you'd like to give feedback on the show, I'd love to hear from you. Visit https://anchor.fm/coffeyandcode/message to drop me a line, or find me on twitter @ashleycoffey_ and instagram @ashleyrcoffey89. Thanks for listening! Special thank you to Just Good Coffee Company, the official coffee partner of Coffey & Code. Just Good Coffee offers a carefully crafted selection of coffee from some of the most revered coffee-producing regions around the world. Their commitment to offering exceptionally good experiences extends beyond just the products themselves, but extends well into the community. Their mission is simple, to offer good coffee, and coffee for good. From cup, to community. That is the sole purpose of Just Good Coffee. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coffeyandcode/support

 Aya Abdullah Jibreal – Inclusion and Accessibility ConsultantAn Inclusive Design and Accessibility Consultant/Trainer with 7 years of experience in inclusion and accessibility.Worked with many entities around Saudi Arabia, exploring successful accessibility adoption for different business environments.Saudi Arabia representative at G3ict/Smart Cities for All global initiatives.First CPACC certified in Saudi Arabia.Certified in Disability Case Management.IAAP Strategic Leader in Accessibility (SLiA) initiative committee member. 

Join me and my guest, Marco Pasqua, as they talk about enabling others to live happy lives. Marco is running his business as an inspirational speaker for about nine years now. He does accessibility consulting, which means to help organizations and businesses realize where they could support individuals with disabilities by building universal design.  In this episode, you'll learn:Taking a gamble at yourself to transition into a life of inspiring and motivating others.You can prove social expectations wrong. The difference in having confidence from having a big ego.The happiness behind living below your means.Rediscovering play and integrating it into the work you do. ~ About Marco Pasqua: Marco Pasqua is an award-winning Entrepreneur, Accessibility Consultant and Inspirational Speaker. After graduating from the Art Institute of Vancouver, he spent 5 years in the video game industry. During the recession of 2010, he lost his job, which turned out to be the biggest blessing in disguise. Marco decided it was time to use his voice to make a positive impact on the world, so he built his own brand as a professional speaker and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, he has remained focused on social impact, keeping a philanthropic approach to the work that he does. Some of his most memorable talks include TEDxStanleyPark, The United Way as an impact speaker and The Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Throughout his life, Marco has also been involved with a number of organizations as a spokesperson, helping to spread advocacy for persons with disabilities across Canada. As an Accessibility and Inclusion Consultant, he has worked with some of BC's biggest change-driven business leaders who are champions for more accessible, inclusive workplaces. It's through these experiences that he is helping to pave the way for all Canadians to have universal access to the programs, services and places that they live, work and play.~ You can find Marco Pasqua on…Website: https://www.marcopasqua.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealMarcoPasqua/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcogpasqua/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Marco_Pasqua ---

The summer brings the heat and the box fans out from their hiding places from within the closet. We have been laying low to stay cool. And there is nothing like lying under the ceiling fan on a lazy summer day with a big pile of Braille to keep you company. In this episode, courtesy of J.J., you will find two demos and an interview with Jared Rimer discussing Braille Translation. Grab a cool beverage and relax in your best outdoor lawn furniture while you enjoy BBQ 212. Demonstration: Windows Virtual Desktop The latest update to Windows 10 is not a groundbreaking release, however, there is a lot to unpack if you rely on Narrator. One area that saw improvement with speech was the Virtual Desktop feature of Windows. In this demonstration J.J. will use Narrator to customize and give a brief tour of the virtual spaces he inhabits. Interview: Jared Rimer - Braille 2000 J.J. notes at the top of the interview that it has been 10 years since we last discussed the Braille 2000 product at CSUN. A lot has changed in a decade and we learn that The Talking Edition is the only known tool that can read contracted braille files as naturally spoken prose. Jared Rimer, Accessibility Consultant for Braille2000 LLC, takes us through what has come along in the new Braille 2000 Talking Edition for Windows. The pair chat about the issues that can arise from converting text to Braille, the mysteries that come from Back Translation and there is even a demo of the training materials that are available that can assist you in learning the product. There is an evaluation trial available and you can find out more by heading over to the Braille2000 website Demonstration: V7 Deluxe USB Stereo Headset with Microphone, J.J. demonstrates one of the new summer products over at our sister site A. T. Guys. The V7 USB stereo headset with microphone is ideal for Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, and other video chat applications. They feature high quality sound output and a noise -cancelling microphone, perfect for busy environments. The microphone also has 300 degrees of range to move out of the way when not in use, and it can be worn on the left or right side. The Headset has an adjustable headband and memory foam ear pads for all day comfort. The USB powered Headphones also feature a nearly 6-foot cable that has convenient in-line volume and mute buttons Compatible with most desktop and laptops PCs through a standard USB port. Simply plug the USB cable into your Windows or Mac computer, no drivers required. On the cable, you will find three buttons. The longer, rectangular button near the top will mute or unmute your microphone. Below this are two smaller buttons for Volume Up, then Volume Down. All buttons are easily found by touch. This is an on-ear headset and quite comfortable. It does not go over the ear. To learn more, visit the A.T. Guys V7 Deluxe product page for the headset. Tip: Narrator Scan Mode J.J. notes that the recent Windows update brings tones and more to Narrator's Scan Mode, that's Modifier Key plus Spacebar, for browsing in Edge, Chrome and even Firefox. Give it a try if you have updated to the latest Windows that arrived recently in the 2004 update. The next episode will find us talking about news and new hardware. Then it will be all fun and games for a while.

The second Institute of Coding annual conference was held from 24-25 February 2020, at the IET: Savoy Place in London. In this podcast, Neil Milliken leads a panel discussion on how assistive technology can support and improve learning outcomes at all stages of digital skills education. Chair: Neil Milliken, Chair of the IoC D&I Board / Global Head Of Accessibility (Atos) Panellists: Molly Watt, Accessibility Consultant, Robin Spinks Senior Strategy Manager, RNIB, Professor Amanda Kirby, Do-IT Solutions, Piers Wilkinson, Disability Officer, NUS Designed for a diverse audience of policy makers, employers, educators and learners, the IoC brought together a broad group of participants to find collaborative ways to respond to topics of national interest, including the digital skills gap and the need for better diversity and inclusion in the sector. Start your digital skills journey today: https://instituteofcoding.org/courses/search Follow the IoC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/IoCoding Follow the IoC on Instagram: https://instagram.com/instituteofcoding Visit our website: https://instituteofcoding.org/

We're hearing from even more members of the disabled community who are outraged at the Vancouver Taxi Association   Guest: Marco Pasqua Inspirational Speaker, Entrepreneur and Accessibility Consultant

Abi James is a researcher of assistive technology and digital accessibility and senior accessibility consultant at AbilityNet.  Diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of nine, Abi has used computers and technology to help her succeed throughout her education and in employment. Her work at AbilityNet focusses on helping organisations such as schools, universities, public sector bodies and companies to create websites and apps that are accessible and inclusive for everyone. She also works closely with policymakers and researchers to understand how assistive technology can be used effectively within the education system and the role standards and regulation play in improving access to a digital society for all users. She is Chair of the British Dyslexia Association Technology Committee. She collaborates with the University of Southampton to identify best practices for supporting assistive technology and accessible content including contributing to the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.Transcript AXSChat with Abi James 15th November 2019NEIL:  Hello and welcome to AXSChat, and I'm delighted to welcome back Dr Abi James, Abi is a long-time friend and former colleague of mine, so we worked together for the best part of two decades. So, yeah, giving away our age there. Yes, we started at primary school, so, Abi, great to have you with us, you're now working for AbilityNet which is one of the UK's pan-disability charities, and the topic today is really we're focusing around the recent changes in legislation for Web accessibility because in the last couple of months the public sector web accessibility regulations have come into force, and this is a big change, so welcome back.ABI:  Thank you Neil, great to see AXSChat has grown so much in the few years since I was last on, and really pleased to contribute.NEIL:  Yes, thank you, we're five years by the way, amazingly.  Five years of doing this.  I know!  Everyone says I like the sound of my own voice; I won't lie.ABI:  I know that!NEIL:  Excellent.  So, the will let's stop me talking and let's talk about the web accessibility directive.ABI:  Yeah so the EU word which is a difficult word to talk about in our UK context but essentially, now a few years ago, three years ago next month EU released the web accessibility directive which was requiring all member statements make their public sector bodies meet accessibility requirements, and also, critically publish accessibility statements on their websites and mobile applications and that is now rolling out across the EU, including the UK, because it is well into our law last year, so, there's also UK law and will remain UK law wherever we are, and also, now the EU states like Norway are also looking at moving it into their regulation, so, for Europe it is quite a big change for many countries it is the first time we've got specific accessibility regulations, although we've already had a lot of disability and equitability legislation, this is actual technical standards.  So, it is interesting to see it roll out.  There seem to be lots of countries and organisations grappling with the actual mechanisms of implementing it, both on the practical side and public sector side and Governmental side because there's a huge requirement on them to monitor it as well.NEIL:  Yeah and I think this is something that will take a while to bed in.  Norway has a bit of head start because we've been monitoring stuff through UFIDIT for a while, but, yeah, and the different methodologies between the different European member states are swap marked.ABI:  Yeah, so essentially, and Norway's still grappling with their changes because they are different.  All websites produced by public sector bodies will have to meet the equivalent of wick action point level AA the European standard EN 301549But t

This year marks charity RNIB’s 150th Anniversary and to celebrate we’ve reached out to those without whom the charity could not continue its important work, the volunteers.   Hussein Patwa is an Accessibility Consultant who also works with Mobility and Access within transport in Scotland. Hussein has been volunteering with RNIB for a number of years and also happens to be visually impaired. Speaking with RNIB Connect Radio’s Simon Pauley, Hussein explains how he became involved with RNIB and why volunteer work is so indispensable. You can join our Anniversary celebrations on social media by using the hashtag #RNIB150.

Christian Perera, Accessibility Consultant, UK Digital Team at McDonald’s Corporation joins the program to discuss his journey from having a spinal cord injury to becoming an accessibility consultant. Christian discusses some of the obstacles that he encountered along the way and how he overcome them. 

Blind Abilities moves north of the US border and chats with Geoff Eden. Geoff has been a long time advocate in the Canadian blindness community, with his work for CNIB as a Manager, his procurement of early assistive technology and other adaptive equipment for CNIB clients. Geoff worked for the City of Toronto as an Accessibility Consultant, working with city planners and carving his notch in the city’s accessibility strategy. Listen as Geoff shares his story of working with the architects as they designed and built the original Air Canada Center, home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors, and his specific efforts to mold accessibility into the initial design plans. Geoff sits on multiple provincial and local planning committees, and has devoted many years of his life to Canada’s Radio reading Service and the creation of the nation’s Accessible Media Network, AMI.   Pete and Jeff first met Geoff on the Out-Of-Sight.Net online community, a wonderful platform for engaging with other BVI folks in a variety of activities. check them out at:   www.Out-Of-Sight.Net   Geoff is also a talented musician, and you’ll hear excerpts from his guitar and vocal work with several audio clips from ‘back in the day’!   Join Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane as they chat with this multi-talented and articulate advocate for the Canadian disability community, as they present Geoff Eden in the way that only the Blind Abilities Team can offer!   You can reach out to Geoff via email:   Eden.Geoff@Gmail.com   find Geoff on Skype: Geoff.Eden   You can find out more about AMI,  the Accessible Media Network at:   http://www.ami.ca/   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store.  

Joyce welcomes Johna Gravitt and Jim Homme to the show. Johna has served as an Accessibility Consultant at Bender Consulting Services, Inc. for over 3 years. Jim has served as a Digital Accessibility Consultant in various capacities with Bender Consulting for over 20 years. Both guests will discuss their roles as valued team members delivering in Bender's HighTest Accessible Technology Solutions line of business. The HighTest team ensures web applications, proprietary software, business processes, and electronic documentation are accessible to everyone. The team evaluates and ensures compliance with accessibility standards in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, for electronic and information technology and the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (W3C WCAG 2.0).

Accessibility for web applications typically gets added at the end of development cycles with different tools and low priority. This ruins the experience for many users and generally causes a huge impact on the quality of code. Because many companies are not held to supporting the standards of Section 508, Web AIM best practices, and WCAG by their clients and the impact in ROI is hard to measure it usually doesn't happen.   Karl Groves (@karlgroves), Accessibility Consultant at The Paciello Group , creator of Tenon.io, & viking web developer leads by example, being an unstoppable developer community advocate for integration of accessibility over supplementation. Tenon takes a very interesting approach in that it integrates with tools we already use. Karl goes through developer resources. Tenon, and how we can make Web Accessibility a ‘first class' citizen in our applications by making it part of our workflow and a fully integrated part of our process. Resources Tenon - http://tenon.io/ Tenon Chrome Plugin - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tenon-check/bmibjbhkgepmnehjfhjaalkikngikhgj?hl=en-US grunt-tenon - https://github.com/babaskate/grunt-tenon gulp-tenon-client - https://github.com/egauci/gulp-tenon-client Tenon Node - https://github.com/poorgeek/tenon-node tenon for Silverstripe - https://github.com/joshkosmala/silverstripe-tenon React & Tenon demo - https://bitbucket.org/tenon-io/tenon-demo-javascript-reactjs Modern Web Toolsets & The Next Generation of Accessibility Testing Tools (warning - content explicit)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uq6Db47-Ks&t=247 Karl's Viking Site - http://www.karlgroves.com/ Karl's Sandbox -  http://www.karlgroves-sandbox.com/ Marcy Sutton's Protractor Plugin - http://marcysutton.com/angular-protractor-accessibility-plugin/ Chrome Vox - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromevox/kgejglhpjiefppelpmljglcjbhoiplfn?hl=en-US Steve Faulkner's Web Accessibility Toolbar - https://github.com/ThePacielloGroup/WebAccessibilityToolbar/releases/tag/2015-02-04 Tenon Visual Studio plugin - https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/0ad320bc-80e4-402a-bf2b-d6c23a3a6730 MDN Docs - https://developer.mozilla.org Accessible Wordpress Templates - https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/accessibility-ready/ Microsoft Accessibility Resources for Developers - http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/28725.accessibility-resources-for-developers.aspx?Sort=MostRecent&PageIndex=1 Panelists Erik Isaksen - UX Engineer at3Pillar Global Danny Blue - Senior Front End Developer at Deloitte Digital Adi Chikara - Advanced Technology Group Lead at 3Pillar Global

Baruch College hosts the 2nd annual Employment and Visual Impairment Conference "Changing Vision, Changing Lives." Karen Gourgey, Director, Computer Center for Visually Impaired People (CCVIP), moderates the event. The conference is co-sponsored by New York State Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped, Johnson & Johnson, and Colgate-Palmolive. The event takes place on April 2, 2009, at the Baruch College Vertical Campus, Room 14-220. [Part I -- 58 min.] Opening Remarks Karen Gourgey, Director, Computer Center for Visually Impaired People, Baruch College; Ann Clarkson, Assistant Dean, Continuing and Professional Studies, Baruch College; David Birdsell, Dean, School of Public Affairs, Baruch College; Brian Daniels, Associate Commissioner, NYS Commission for Blind and Visually Handicapped Keynote Address: "Dare to Succeed" James Kutsch, PhD, President & CEO, Seeing Eye, Inc. [Part II -- 55 min.] Technology - Recent Trends Moderator: Dawn Suvino, VISIONS Presenters: Dr. Aries Arditi, The Lighthouse. Steve Landau, Tactile Kiosk Directory; Pratik Patel, Director, Information Technology Access, City University of New York [Part III -- 45 min.] Lunch & Metropolitan Placement Consortium "Breaking Barriers" Awards & Seiko Karate Demo [Part IV -- 80 min.] Technology - Web Usability Testing Moderator: Sandra Kupprat, Project Director at NYU Presenters: Michael Burks, Accessibility Consultant; Kate Schrauth, Executive Director, icouldbe.org Lynnette Tatum, Senior Instructor, computer Center for Visually Impaired People, Baruch College Comments from the audience moderated by Julie Jansen, Freelance Corporate Consultant and Career Coach and Sandra Kupprat, Project Director at NYU

So WCAG2 - version 2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as set out by the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative - has been released as a Candidate Recommendation. What does that mean for Australia? There are many issues that were addressed in WCAG1 which have been left up to policy makers and developers in WCAG2. This session will highlight these issues and talk about what kind of impact they will have on your development and on your audience. From testability, to cognitive disabilities, we’ll go into the nitty gritty differences between WCAG1 and WCAG2 and what you will need to know to make sure that your site isn’t a potential target for litigation. In addition to development principles, we’ll address the current state of play in Australia; what the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) are doing and what each state has decided to do with WCAG2. Gian Wild is the Manager of Usability and Accessibility Services within the ITS Web Centre at Monash University. Gian has worked in the accessibility industry since 1998 and consulted on the development of the first Level AAA accessible web site in Australia. She ran the accessibility consultancy PurpleTop from 2000 to 2005 and built the accessibility tool, PurpleCop. Amongst other sites, Gian has worked as the Accessibility Consultant for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and wrote the original and updated versions of the Victorian eGovernment Resource Centre Web Accessibility Toolkit. Gian was a Member of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group from May 2000 to August 2006 (with two notable absences) and completed a peer review of the alternative accessibility guidelines, the WCAG Samurai Errata. She remains actively involved in WCAG2 and also liaises with the Australian Human Rights Commission on the status of WCAG2. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).