Digital Accessibility

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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