Schedule

Dr. Joel Snyder is known internationally as one of the world’s first “audio describers,” a pioneer in the field of Audio Description, a translation of visual images to vivid language for the benefit, primarily, of people who are blind or have a vision impairment.

Since 1981, Dr. Snyder has introduced audio description techniques in over 40 states and 64 countries and has made thousands of live events, media projects and museums accessible. Most recently, Dr. Snyder was named a Fulbright Scholar to train audio describers in Greece and Ukraine over a four-week period in 2019.

• audiodescribe.com
• adp.acb.org

Charlii Parker is the Equitable Design and Research Lead at Intopia, where she champions inclusive design and accessibility. With extensive experience in usability testing, Charlii has played a pivotal role in developing accessible digital solutions for diverse user groups. Her passion for ensuring equitable access to technology drives her work and inspires her contributions to the field. Charlii frequently shares her insights and strategies at industry conferences, helping to advance the conversation on digital accessibility.

As an inclusive design researcher, Jacinta is passionate about creating products and experiences that are accessible and usable for everyone. With a background in community-based development and human-centred design, she brings a deep understanding of user needs and behaviours to her work.

• intopia.digital
• charlii-parker
• jjgdesign

As a Design Research Lead at IDEO’s London studio, Annie applies qualitative and quantitative research to inspire design.

Passionate about social innovation, she aspires to use design to make the world more equitable and inclusive. Before joining IDEO, Annie led research on urban mobility and digital health in Berlin's tech start-up scene. Annie is also an insatiable traveller. She has taught Design Research in Peru, co-created curriculums with refugee women in Germany and researched healthcare access in Tanzania. At IDEO, she has designed inclusive spaces for hospitality chains and helped companies envision sustainable product strategy. When she is not working or travelling, she enjoys dancing, writing and having a laugh doing improv.

Annie holds a Research MA in Social Sciences from Humboldt University, a MA in Design Anthropology from UCL, and a BA in International Business from National Taiwan University.

• liuannies

Anh Duong wears multiple hats in all her roles. Practising in different disciplines has helped her see how accessibility ties into every part of the product lifecycle. Anh is passionate about helping others and is always looking beyond the rules and standards of UX or WCAG to find practical ways to create awesome accessible web designs. She has delivered web accessibility training and audits to many clients and actively participates in creating and maintaining a culture of accessibility and inclusive design throughout the company. Anh is proudly made in Vietnam with a healthy obsession with Banh Mi and Ca Phe Sua Da.

• anh-hp-duong

Michelle isn't your typical design researcher or accessibility specialist; she's on a mission to make the digital world more inclusive. With expertise in mobile and TV accessibility, Michelle ensures all digital experiences meet diverse needs of everyone. Through inclusive design and research, she ensures no voice is unheard. She goes beyond compliance, to advocate for inclusivity at every step. Join Michelle to learn how she's shaping a more inclusive digital future!

• chu-michelle

Dom Parker (she/her) is a digital accessibility consultant at Intopia with a passion for video games and audio design. She has provided quality assurance and audio design for a number of games (under NDA) through the lens of accessibility. Dom uses her mix of technical audio skills and game design knowledge to assist developers in creating inclusive games. Her audio design has been ranked 7th in the world for itch.io jams since 2021. Additionally, Dom is a skilled double bass performer, having performed at UNSW and traveled the world to represent Australian music in Japan, the USA, Thailand, and London.

• intopia.digital

Joe is a Senior Accessibility Specialist at TetraLogical. Over the past few years, he has been working to understand how we can make XR experiences more accessible, authoring blog posts about 3D model viewers and augmented reality.

In addition to his familiarity with WCAG through his role at TetraLogical, Joe has a keen interest in developing websites and personalisation. He utilised these interests and skills to create an accessible, personalisable, toilet roll selling website as part of his MSc by Research degree.

• joelamyman.co.uk
• @JoeLamyman@indieweb.social

Interviewing persons with low vision for her day job at the assistive tech development company Hope Tech Plus, Laura is learning more about barriers every day. And enthusiastic about sharing it! With a special interest in all things accessibility (both online and offline) she's enthusiastic to talk about braille keyboards, inaccessible trashcans and bad urban planning, how blindness is a spectum, and most importandly: That web accessibility is a tool to build an inclusive society.

• laura-wissiak.com
• @laura_a11y

Elizabeth is a UX consultant and independent researcher who specialises in design for older adults and for transcendent experiences. In almost five decades in industry she has contributed to the UX of websites, mobile apps, kiosks, and control systems, for audiences from NASA controllers to the worldwide general public. Elizabeth is passionate about adapting academic research methods to UX practice, promoting design to be inclusive of older adults, and singing medieval polyphony. She holds a PhD in design research from Northumbria University.

• nexerdigital.com
• @ebuie@hci.social
• @ebuie
• elizabethbuie

Malin is a senior UX Designer and Accessibility Specialist at the Funka Foundation with over a decade of experience. Malin collaborates with both public and private sector clients to create inclusive products and services. A Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), she is dedicated to ensuring equal digital access for all. Malin specializes in Accessibility, Inclusive Design, and Usability. An experienced speaker, she has led numerous events and courses, sharing her expertise and passion for creating truly inclusive digital experiences.

Sara Kjellstrand is a Research Strategist at the Funka Foundation with a long experience of managing research projects and studies on accessibility, digital inclusion and equality. Sara has in the past five years led a series of research initiatives on cognitive accessibility on the web, with funding from the EU and national grants in Sweden and Norway. She is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) and is frequently giving lectures and training on cognitive accessibility and digital inclusion.

• malinhammarberg
• sara-kjellstrand-32192219

Ross is director of CANAXESS and works with private industry and government improving their accessibility efforts with auditing, training, and consulting. He presents and writes regularly on digital accessibility in current and emerging technology, creates digital accessibility courses for Udemy and Pluralsight, and likes to really unpick the true intent of WCAG success criteria.

• canaxess.com.au
• @mrrossmullen

Alessandro Carducci, founder of Cardeis Art. Artist, animator, Game dev and video creator, Since 2014, he has been a partner of Channel Frederator Network and creates digital drawing, animation and video game content.

He is teacher of Animation and Computer Games at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catanzaro and Teacher of 3D Modeling at the Academy of Fine Arts in Pisa.

He is co-author of XS2Animation, Inclusive Design Toolkit to make animation accessible. He is the author of the Robin Tech game currently in development by Cardeis Art.

• cardeisart.com
• @CardeisArt

Janaki Konar IAAP WAS is an Accessibility Testing QA Lead at BarrierBreak with over 7 years of experience in the field of Accessibility. Janaki Konar has mentored multiple people within the company. Due to her keen interest in understanding how differently-abled people access digital content, she entered the space of Accessibility. Apart from exploring different accessibility standards and guidelines, she is also implementing those understandings in audits on different platforms.

• @janaki34610865

Owen Niblock is a Software Engineer on GitHub's Accessibility Team and a member of Microsoft's Mental Health Tech Council. He's autistic and passionate about making the world a better place for as many people as possible. Special interests include stand-up comedy, Star Trek, his cats, Accessibility, Neurodivergence and his growing collection of fidget toys.

• @owenniblock

I am a User Experience Researcher with a Master's degree in psychology. After gaining experience in academic research and mental health care, I have been helping create user-friendly websites and products, with a special interest in inclusive and trauma-informed design. For somebody who spent almost a decade supporting people, the aim to make this world more human-centred will always remain a priority for me with the skills I learned while working with vulnerable people.

I have extensive experience in academic, business and user experience research within different organisations, where I had the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects and to talk to hundreds of users. I also completed design tasks and was happy to take part in that phase of the design life-cycle.

In my free time, I am still passionately involved in mental-health-related activities and trying to increase awareness of the impact of trauma and the importance of self-awareness.

• erikamenczigar

Fahad Lambate is an Associate Accessibility Director at BarrierBreak! He is a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) with an experience of more than 8 years in accessibility space. He is passionate to make technology inclusive. He work determinedly to ensure that he provides the required guidance to the team to make digital space accessible. Fahad brings an approachable leadership style to the team, emphasizing the importance of accessibility. In his role, Fahad collaborates with various teams to make sure the digital offerings are equitable usage, experience along with ensuring the quality expectations and standards are met as per the organization.

• barrierbreak.com
• fahad-lambate-1079b3a0

Kaye is MD of DRUM, an agency with a mission to craft accessible user experience, by overcoming barriers and inequality, for brands leading the way. Kaye set up the agency in 2006 and then suffered a few brain injuries resulting in both physical disabilities, but also sensory processing disorder and overload. This moment in time fuelled her passion for digital accessibility even further. Since then DRUM has been providing support, toolkits, talks and accessible design to help reshape the industry into an inclusive space.

Lizzie is Lead Designer at DRUM and has worked in UX/UI for 8 years. It is important to her to shift digital to be better for people and the planet. With several close family and friends having sensory digital accessibility needs, she has naturally become a disability inclusion ally. Having not been taught accessibility as part of her digital design training she is passionate in changing the mindset of design education.

• wearedrum.com
• kaye-moors-02bb203
• lizziethomas

Simona is an ESRC post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Health Sciences and the Institute of Mental Health Research at the University of York. She is a researcher in interactive media specialised in participatory methods and co-design strategies to support communities in exploring how innovative digital technologies can be informed by their expressive needs and lived experience. Simona worked developing resources on the adaptation of digital platforms for autistic users as part of the research project Autistic Adults Online.

Belen has been an interaction designer and design researcher in the software industry since 2007, working within in-house teams, design agencies and as a consultant. After obtaining her PhD in 2021, she is now a Lecturer at City University. As part of the Autistic Adults Online project, Belen partnered with autistic people to figure out how to make social media better.

• york.ac.uk/healthsciences/our-staff/simona-manni/
• city.ac.uk/about/people/academics/belen-barros-pena

Wilco is principal product owner of axe-core and axe DevTools at Deque Systems, based in The Netherlands. He has worked in accessibility for over 18 years. In this time he has worked in auditing, consulting, standards authoring, and accessibility tool development. Notable work includes project manager of WCAG 3.0, founding chair of ACT Rules Community, lead developer of axe Linter and WCAG-EM report tool, and industry advisor to the EU's Web Accessibility Directive Expert Group.

• deque.com
• wilcofiers

Heydon is a designer, front-end developer, technical writer, video producer, and dubious, self-appointed mascot for The Web. They have written several books about web accessibility and co-authored the CSS layout primer Every Layout with Andy Bell. Bulb Energy, The BBC, Spotify, and SpringerNature have all asked Heydon to help them develop their design systems. They play baritone guitar, synth, and theremin in a psychedelic punk and roll band.

• heydonworks.com
• @heydon@front-end.social

Chancey Fleet is a Brooklyn-based tech educator and activist who identifies as Blind. Chancey is the Assistive Technology Coordinator at the New York Public Library. In that role, she curates accessible technology in the branch, collaborates across the NYPL system to improve equity of access, and coordinates a diverse team of staff and volunteers who provide one-to-one tech coaching and group workshops, free of charge and open to all. Through a 2017 NYPL Innovation grant, she founded and maintains the Dimensions Project, a free open lab for the exploration and creation of accessible images, models and data representations through tactile graphics, 3d models and nonvisual approaches to coding, CAD, and “visual” arts.

Lauren Race is an accessibility designer, researcher, and educator, working in academia and industry. Her process combines human-centered, multisensory, and co-design methods to remove barriers to information access. She earned her master’s from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and currently works at the NYU Ability Project, a research lab dedicated to the intersection of disability and technology.

• @chanceyfleet
• lauren-race

Donna Bungard, an advocate for disability inclusion and accessibility, holds certifications in accessibility and brings extensive expertise to her role. As a member of the disabled community, she emphasizes the importance of inclusivity in all aspects of work. At Indeed, Donna plays a crucial role in embedding disability inclusion into the organization's fabric, ensuring that understanding the disability community is a core part of Indeed's perspective on job seekers.

• donnabungard

Heather is the Founder of Equivalent, the leading global accessible graphics firm for advancing disability inclusion and equality. Her more than 20 years of leadership experience driving accessible design was ignited by challenges she experienced having motor and vision disabilities. As a designer, she’s been forced to adapt, by becoming both a voice control user, and using accessibility settings on her devices such as dark mode and contrast themes.

As a sought-after speaker, Ms Neff has graced numerous stages, captivating audiences with their engaging style, deep insights, and innovative approach to inclusive design. Her expertise spans across graphic design, web development and accessibility, making her a versatile and knowledgeable speaker on various fronts.

A natural storyteller and communicator, Heather Neff has the exceptional ability to connect with audiences, leaving a lasting impact with their compelling narratives, actionable advice, and thought-provoking ideas.

• equivalentsvg.io
• heathersneff
• @HeatherSNeff

Kai Wong (she/they) believes in the transformative power of accessible technology for better health outcomes. At Teladoc Health, Kai is a Principal Manager of Digital Accessibility, founder of Accessibility Champions for Change, and serves on the leadership board for their disability-focused Business Resource Group (BRG). They are an inventor of a US patent pending, a recipient of the 2021 DC FemTech Award, and hold certifications in accessibility, health education, and quality assurance. Dubbed as a presenter who “could make stale bread interesting,” Kai’s strategy for advancing accessibility is simple: make it fun and inspire action.

• kwong4a11y