Digital Accessibility

Lorelei Root, Eagle's Flight, Digital Accessibility SpecialistLorelei Root digital accessibility focus with a focus on video games. She shares her experience of becoming disabled due to multiple sclerosis. Having to learn to speak, read and write again, she used the few accessible video games to help provide the road back. This led her to her work consulting about and evangelizing the need for accessibility in video games. 

Rich Schwerdtfeger, Retired, IBM, Former Chief Technology Officer for AccessibilityRich began his work in accessibility with the early development of a screen reader for Windows. He was a key member of the world-wide team that brought technologies like ARIA into mainstream use for accessibility. Rich chaired the board of Knowbility and currently is President and Creator at A Diver's Life YouTube Channel.

Charlie Turrell, BBC, Change Manager - Accessibility Champions NetworkCharlie onboards product development staff about accessibility and evangelizes it throughout the BBC. Starting as a personal assistant in many sections of the BBC, she found her way into user experience and then to guiding the internal accessibility champions network.

Sam Ogami, HP, Accessibility Program ManagerSam shares his early personal experience having a learning disability that was helped with assistive technology. That coupled with his interest in technology sparked his lifelong work with accessibility. This included assisting university students with assistive technology and with accessible procurement of products for the institutions. Now at HP as an Accessibility Program Manager, Sam describes how HP supports accessibility across a wide variety of groups within the organization. 

Betty Troy, Yahoo, Accessibility SpecialistBetty Troy started her career through engineering with an emphasis on biomedical programs. That led to specializing in rehabilitation engineering and a position designing physical assistive technology devices for the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs. She further developed her skills as an accessibility auditor at Applause. Now she is an accessibility specialist Yahoo with a focus on user studies.

Jennison Asuncion, LinkedIn, Head, Accessibility Engineering EvangelismJennison talks about his lived life being blind and growing up with an interest in computer technology. He describes his challenges in getting employment early on until he found a place at Royal Bank of Canada working with UX and web development and accessibility. That led to his current position as Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism at LinkedIn.

Mary Jo Mueller, IBM, Worldwide Accessibility Standards Program ManagerMary Jo talks about her long career with accessibility at IBM. She talks about the challenges in supporting digital accessibility in a large, global organization. 

Richard Morton, Head of Accessibility for Government, UK Central Digital and Data OfficeRichard talks about his early work with usability testing that also exposed him to the opportunities working with accessibility. He describes the community and knowledge-sharing in the UK. Now he works for the UK Digital and Data Office where the team support accessibility in government organizations. 

Julie Romanowski, State Farm, Senior Digital Accessibility SpecialistStarting out as a web developer, Julie is now supports a wide range of accessibility activities with State Farm. She takes about the efforts to help executive leadership understand the need for a digital accessibility team. Her team provides training and individual teams work on accessibility for their own roles. That include a focus on communication documents and video media. 

Jeremy Katherman, USAA, Lead Accessibility AdvisorJeremy talks about his early work with accessibility through tech support at his university. After that he has enjoyed a lengthy career at USAA where he helped build an accessibility team that supports activities throughout the organization.