Matt is a Technical Program Manager for Meta Accessibility. In addition to his work driving Meta product accessibility, he has long been striving to elevate the global accessibility ecosystem. He has been contributing to the W3C ARIA Working Group since 2011, where he leads the ARIA Authoring Practices Task Force and the ARIA and Assistive Technologies Community Group.
Matt has been immersed in accessibility technology and advocacy since the 1980s when he was a student of electrical engineering and music at the University of Notre Dame. That was when progression of his retinitis pigmentosa led him to embrace the white cane, braille, and screen readers. In 1989 he began his career at IBM as an electrical engineer. After moving into software engineering, he discovered more opportunities to use his engineering skills to advance accessibility. In 1998, he became the accessibility lead for IBM’s CIO. Then, in 2015, he joined the Facebook accessibility team.
Breaking down barriers to accessibility and inclusion is both Mat’s profession and mission. While focused on pushing technological boundaries, he also strives to help redefine cultural expectations of people with disabilities. His mantra while competing in tandem cycling at the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Paralympic games was “Blindness disables eyes, not life.”