Schedule

Claudio is a certified accessibility professional with over 20 years’ experience in UX design and front-end development. He is an accessibility expert that handles digital experiences that include web, mobile, native, augmented reality, kiosks and gaming.

• @modulist

Veronica Lewis is the writer/blogger behind Veronica With Four Eyes, a vision impairment and assistive technology blog she started out of her dorm room at George Mason University in November 2016 that has been featured by major companies, organizations, and news outlets from all around the world. She is currently finishing up her degrees in data science and assistive technology and lives in Virginia.

• @veron4ica
• veroniiiica.com

Lainey Feingold is a disability rights lawyer and an author who works primarily with the blind community on technology, digital, and information access issues.

Lucy Greco is a Web Accessibility Evangelist who has been blind since birth and leads the Electronic Accessibility Committee (EAC) at UC Berkeley.

Stewart Hay is the Managing Director and co-founder of Intopia, a social enterprise focused on creating an inclusive digital world.

• @lflegal
• @accessaces
• @ohmydeity

Dr. Michele A. Williams is owner of M.A.W. Consulting, LLC – Making Accessibility Work. She has 15 years of academic and industrial experience in UX, accessibility, and technology including training, UX design and research with people with disabilities, and code remediation for building WCAG-compliant technology. Along with industry project contributions, her academic research and designs have resulted in numerous cited publications, international presentations, and a patent application for an inclusive wearable technology.

Ms. Synge Tyson, MA, OMS, CPACC is a researcher, rehabilitation specialist, and Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). She holds six degrees, and has held positions within federal government, industry, and nonprofit. As research faculty at Georgia Tech, she conducted policy development research regarding human interaction with wireless communication technologies. She has presented at numerous local, state, and international conferences and works to broaden accessibility and inclusion across various industries.

• @mawconsultngllc
• mawconsultingllc.com

Rachel is pursuing a degree in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. She has published a book, Our Exclusive Society in July 2020, which stemmed from her interests in learning more about Inclusive Design, and how 'makers' (anyone who is creating things to be used by people - so designers, educators, programmers, etc) can have a more inclusive mindset in their work.

• @RachelHRodney1
• rachelrodney.myportfolio.com

Gian Wild is the CEO of AccessibilityOz, with offices in the United States, Europe and Australia. She has worked in accessibility industry since 1998, when she worked on the very first Australian accessible web site. Her major achievements include: six years’ active membership in the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group contributing to WCAG2; her speech on the importance of web accessibility at the United Nations Conference of State Parties in 2015; and the release of the ICT Mobile Site Accessibility Testing Guidelines as the Mobile Sub-Committee Chair of the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium. In 2019 Gian won the inaugural Accessibility Person of the Year. Gian speaks at conferences in Australia, US, Canada, South America and Europe.

• @gian
• gianwild.com.au

Joshue O Connor is emerging web technology specialist with the W3C/Web Accessibility Initiative. He is ex co-chair of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines working group as well as ex Head of Accessibility (Interim) for Government Digital Services (GDS) in the UK. He was the first in Ireland to graduate with an MSc in Assistive Technology and Universal Design.

He’s a tech skeptic, has written a couple of books, one of which isn’t bad - likes to cook Indian vegetarian food, learn Irish trad tunes in tricky tunings, do the occasional Jazz noodle on the guitar - and rocks out as ‘A Bit Wonky’.

• interaccess.ie

Sarah Higley is a web developer who works on accessibility at Microsoft. She has been convincing people to give her money in exchange for code since 2011, and is happiest when working on weird web components. She is always up for listening to or participating in rants about accessibility, the importance of front-end skills, and diversity in tech.

• @codingchaos
• sarahmhigley.com

Russ Weakley is an author, speaker, and CSS expert, with a detailed knowledge of web design and development. Russ runs the Web Standards Group and has produced a series of widely acclaimed online tutorials on CSS, Responsive Web Design and web development.

• @russmaxdesign
• maxdesign.com.au

Simon is a Reader in Education at the University of Bath, UK. He is also a Centre Associate in the Centre for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, an Associate of the Scottish Sensory Centre, University of Edinburgh and Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organisation. Simon is currently co-editor of the Routledge book series, Qualitative and Visual Methodologies in Educational Research. He has also won several awards and fellowships, including a Fulbright All Disciplines Scholar's Award and fellowships of the British Computer Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA).

• @SimonHayhoe

Max is a front-end developer based in Vienna, Austria. He has been building on the web for the last 15 years, focused on creating engaging, accessible & performant interfaces. He’s a big fan of trash movies, HTML and the IndieWeb.

• @mxbck
• mxb.dev

Chad Gowler is an accessibility consultant working for a government department based in Sheffield. They specialise in diversity and inclusion especially around mental health and LGBTQ+ issues. In their spare time, they are in various usergroups talking about gender, accessibility, mental health and gaming for social good, or chilling out on their Animal Crossing island.

• @kitation
• kitation.co.uk

Manuel is a front-end developer from Vienna, specialized in HTML, CSS, accessibility, and performance. He likes to write about these topics and talk at meetups and conferences. He’s organizer of the webclerks conference in Vienna, and he maintains htmhell.dev and frontendbookmarks.com.

• @mmatuzo
• matuzo.at

Charlie Turrell has recently joined the Accessibility team at the BBC and has taken over the management of their Accessibility Champions Network. Charlie has a varied background, including working with young people with additional needs. Charlie is looking to evolve the network using a more people centred approach.

Gareth sits on several BBC internal management groups including: the diversity groups for the BBC North and BBC Future Media Divisions, Future Media’s Senior Leadership Team and the Creative Leadership team, as well as pan-BBC groups for Accessibility. Gareth also represents the BBC at ATVOD (the Authority for Television and Video On Demand) as well as at public speaking events such as conferences, symposiums and forums.

• @garethfw
• @AccessibilityC3

In 2005 Gareth founded the BBC’s Digital Accessibility Team. Over the course of the first 3 years the Accessibility Team worked as an integral part of iPlayer’s core Product Team ensuring BBC iPlayer V1.0 launched as an accessible product in 2008.

By 2011 he was heading-up both the User Research and Accessibility teams. Two of the outcomes were the establishment of the champions Network in 2019 and in 2012 The BBC launched its Mobile Accessibility Guidelines.

• @garethfw

Eriol is Lead designer at the Open Food Network working on an ethical, open-source food supply chain product. From research, ideation through to visual execution. They focus on user-centred design and research that is inclusive of marginalised folks by default. With 10 years of experience as a professional designer, Eriol has worked in-house at large corporates that have dealt in electronics, insurance, risk management, housing, parental tech and crisis response. They have worked for non-profits and community groups and is actively involved in various non-profits from environmental the arts to LGBTQ+ issues. They are part of the core team at opensourcedesign.net advocating for designers contributing to and collaborating on open-source software. Eriol is a queer, non-binary, trans person who uses they/them pronouns.

• @erioldoesdesign
• erioldoesdesign.com

As well as being a highly-regarded fashion blogger and one of the editors of the W3C’s HTML5.3 specification, Bruce co-wrote Introducing HTML5 and was on the committee drafting the British Standard for commissioning accessible websites. Previously, he’s been a front-end tech lead for a large UK legal website, a tutor to a princess’ daughter in Thailand, a movie extra in Mumbai, a tarot card reader in Istanbul and a musician.

• @brucel
• brucelawson.co.uk

Njoki Kamau is a UX/UI Designer in Maryland, USA. With a background in psychology, she understands the motivations users have and how important honing empathy can be in the design process. She enjoys thinking inclusively, especially in an intersectional fashion, and finds comfort in tackling abstract problems to produce novel solutions. Njoki believes that technology is always transforming and advancing and designers need to be at the forefront in order to help make people's lives a bit easier.

• jokamau.me

Designer, developing digital products for 20 years. Today I work in the Design Ops team at Itaú (the largest private sector bank in Brazil) with a focus on UX and Accessibility. Creator of WCAG Guide. Invited professor of Accessibility in courses at ESPM and Belas Artes and Accessibility Instructor at Mergo UX (recognized institutions in Brazil). Member of the W3C Brasil Web Accessibility Specialists Group.

• @msales
• acessibilida.de

Kiran leads a diverse Accessibility program team for Search, Assistant and news at Google, ensuring that these products are helpful for everyone including users with disabilities. Kiran brings a unique perspective to disability, accessibility and inclusion due to his background in working in corporate and non-profit sectors and in a number of countries around the world.

• @kirankaja12

Crystal Preston-Watson is a quality engineer who focuses on accessibility at Salesforce. She has a decade of experience working with online media and software companies throughout North America.

• @ScopicEngineer
• crystalprestonwatson.com

Sarah works as the Principal Advisor and Competence Manager for Universal Design at the Norwegian Health Network, which develops digital services that enable Norway's residents to communicate with healthcare providers and take control over their own health. She has a background in linguistics and cognitive psychology and over 20 years' experience with front-end web development and user experience design, and is an IAAP Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA). She particularly enjoys teaching others about universal design via hands-on workshops and geeking out about the minutiae of semantic HTML.

• @sjbrodwall

Natalie Patrice Tucker has nearly two decades of experience building the accessible web. Committed to a web that works for everyone, she spends her days (and far too many nights and weekends) serving as a subject matter expert in the area of web accessibility and training an army of developers and stakeholders to carry the charge.

Lori Samuels is the Accessibility Director at NBCUniversal. She leads strategic accessibility programs to institute best practices in inclusive design, provide training for product teams, drive cultural maturity in disability inclusion, and fortify executive sponsorship.

• @NataliePatriceT
• @lorisamuels18

Billy Gregory is one of the driving forces behind the #A11yTO events (#a11yTO Conf, meetups, #a11yTO Gaming, #a11yIRL, #a11yTO Camp).

Before #a11yTO, and after failing to become a rock star, Billy focused his attention on front-end development. It was during this time that he discovered his true love of the internet, and his wish that everyone be able to use it.

Billy never shuts up about SUX (Some User Experience), which happens when design stops short of including all users.

He is still not a rock star.

• @thebillygregory
• a11yto.com