Digital Accessibility

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ross Mullen, CANAXESS, DirectorRoss Mullen talks about his extensive experience in working with standards organizations for accessibility. He spent many years working with accessibility for government agencies. Now, Ross has his own consulting practice.

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

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

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