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Pronouns: He/him
Neil Milliken is Global Head of Accessibility at Atos. His role is to help make the world a better place by delivering better technology for customers and staff, embedding inclusive practice into the processes of organisations with thousands of employees and turnovers of billions.
Neil delivers strategy and services working with a wide range of clients helping them to develop policies, processes, and technology solutions to meet the needs of their staff and customers. He is the Atos representative on the Business Disability Forum Technology Task Force Neil is also an invited expert for the W3C Cognitive Accessibility Taskforce & member of the Atos Scientific Community & Atos Distinguished Expert .
He is co-founder of AXSChat Europeâs largest twitter chat with a focus on Accessibility & Inclusion. Neil is a member of the Board of Directors for World Institute on Disability, a Non Exec at Genius Within & Chair of the Diversity Board for Institute of Coding. Neil was named in the top ten of the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 list in 2018 and was named D&I practitioner of the year in the 2019 Disability Smart Awards
Pronouns: She/her
Nhi Nguyen is an accessibility advocate driven by inclusive design and digital accessibility. She is a digital accessibility specialist who is skilled at Accessibility auditing and testing (Web, PDFs, mobile apps, etc.), UX design training, and strategic planning. Nhi has experiences working with and providing consultancy for Fortune top 500 companies and multinational tech giants. Acknowledged for being a hardworking team player who can manage diverse teams effectively.
Nhi Nguyen is a certified professional in Web Accessibility who has passed both the IAAP CPACC exam and the IAAP WAS exam within a year. Nhi usually volunteers with local non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity or Be My Eyes. Nhi enjoys giving talks and presentations to students about Accessibility to empower them on their journey to make every digital platform accessible for everyone.
Pronouns: She/her
Nicola Richardson is a Senior Accessibility Specialist at Elsevier. She honed her accessibility skills over many years working as a front-end software developer and has previously founded and led organization-wide accessibility programs. She is a coach and mentor and favors data-led but human-centered approaches to tackling accessibility challenges.
Pronouns: She/Her
November Champion is the Director of Accessibility Operations at USAA, where she leads the Enterprise Accessibility Office (EAO). The EAO is responsible for ensuring the companyâs adherence to its Enterprise Accessibility Policy and Standard, providing governance, consulting, and oversight. In this role, November collaborates with leaders across the organization to shape strategies that offer equal access to individuals with disabilities, while also advancing USAAâs accessibility program to meet industry best practices.
With over 15 years of experience in accessibility, including a decade in financial services with Edward Jones and Wells Fargo, November is a seasoned leader in this field.
She lives in St. Louis with her husband Mike (from whom she got her awesome last name) and their two Havanese puppies, one of which is an unofficial Service Dog in Training. In her free time, she enjoys European-style board games, true crime podcasts, sci-fi, and planning water-focused vacations.
Oliver Schöndorfer is a renowned typography expert and freelance UI & app designer from Austria. He is obsessed with everything type, feels physical pain when spotting bad kerning, and even had to switched banks, because he could not stand an updated logotype.
His vision is to make digital projects more successful and beautiful through type. To share his knowledge, Oliver hosts the popular YouTube channel Pimp my Type, runs the weekly Font Friday Newsletter, writes articles, speaks at conferences and podcast. His energetic, unique style sets Oliver apart, while motivating thousands of designers and developers to leverage the power of typography.
When Oliver is not thinking about letters, he practices Yoga daily, enjoys hiking with his wife Birgit, takes care of their three girls, and manually grinds coffee to keep it all going.
Pronouns: He/him
Meet Olivier Fortin, a Senior Digital Accessibility (A11y) Engineer and Designer with over 15 years of experience in front-end web development. Olivier has been working at CBC/Radio-Canada for the past 7 years, first as a Senior Frontend Developer in Montreal and now as a Senior Digital Accessibility Engineer for English Services. Olivier strongly advocates accessibility and equity, ensuring that digital media experiences are available to everyone regardless of ability. He has been involved in several notable projects, like Tokyo, Beijing and Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. Olivier’s expertise and dedication to accessibility and equity make him a valuable asset to any team. He is also contributing to the development of the national accessibility plan for CBC/Radio-Canada.
Preferred Pronouns: He/Him
Patrick Sturdivant is a Vice President and Principal Strategy Consultant at Deque. Patrick has worked in information technology for over 30 years. An experienced software engineer who is blind, Patrick deeply understands the technical challenges our customers and the disabled community face when it comes to accessibility.
Coupled with his testing, team building, training, and DE&I strengths, Patrick is a consulting force to be reckoned with. For the last eleven years, Patrick has been dedicated to promoting digital inclusion for all through awareness and the benefits digital equality brings to all users by sharing his own personal story of leading a digital lifestyle using multiple screen readers on both desktop and tablet platforms.
Patrickâs accomplishments include accessibility lab and disability employee resource group establishment experience, US Patent holder for several bank products designed for the blind, and his ability to influence at all levels of an organizationâs business and technical teams.
Watch Patrickâs axe-con 2024 talks here: âIgnite change; 5 sure-fire strategies to locate a C-Suite digital accessibility champion to help remove roadblocks as you transform your organization to one of digital inclusion” and “A11y in Cybersecurity Panel”
Pronouns: She/her
Piper A. Hutson, EdD, is at the intersection of neurodiversity, art, and health, focusing on how cultural spaces can promote well-being and accessibility. As the Arts and Health Specialist for the Missouri Arts Council, she is dedicated to advancing community arts, with a focus on underserved populations. Her scholarly contributions include co-authoring several influential publications in peer-reviewed journals, while addressing critical intersections between NeuroHealth, digital inclusivity, and learning styles. Her accomplishments include curating over 30 art exhibitions across the country and co-author to two books under Palgrave-McMillian Inclusive Smart Museums: Engaging Neurodiverse Audiences and Enhancing Cultural Heritage and Sensemaking and Neuroaesthetics: Neuroarts and the Spectrum of Neurodiverse Experiences.
Pronouns: They/Them
Rachael is a Product Owner at Deque. They joined the mobile team as a web developer in 2018, where they had the unique experience of learning both web and native mobile accessibility at the same time. In 2022, they took on the role of Product Owner for Axe DevTools Mobile and observed how large organizations implement accessibility at scale. They discovered their passion for accessibility while working on a project team at the University of Michigan that developed an Android application to provide indoor navigation for people with visual disabilities. They are a proud cat parent to three fur babies and enjoy spending free time on their hobbies: marching arts, diamond painting, and Zumba.
Watch Rachael’s axe-con 2024 talks here: “What WCAG 2.2 Means for Native Mobile Accessibility” and “Accessible Component Libraries: The Foundation of Accessibility at Scale”
Pronouns: She/Her
Rachel Andrew works for Google as a technical writer, working on web.dev and the Chrome Developers site. She is a front and back-end web developer, author and speaker, author or co-author of 22 books including The New CSS Layout, and a regular contributor to a number of publications both on and offline. Rachel is a Member of the CSS Working Group and can be found posting photos of her cats on Twitter as @rachelandrew.
Pronouns: She/Her
Rebecca Topps is a Senior Researcher at Atlassian with over a decade of experience specializing in accessibility research. Her passion is crafting digital experiences that are inclusive and user-friendly for everyone. Rebecca’s background spans various sectors, including software, retail, finance, and government. She has led numerous accessibility research projects and collaborated with product teams to integrate accessibility into research practices. Rebecca is dedicated to promoting an inclusive product design methodology, emphasizing the benefits of integrating accessibility across all stages of research and development.
Pronouns: She/Her
With over 20 years working in the field, Ronise brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise, having witnessed the power of Digital Accessibility in fostering equitable opportunities, improving the quality of Digital Products and building brand loyalty by enhancing the digital experience for everyone. Now at BT group, she made full use of her strategical nature and sharp focus to build an Accessibility Team from scratch and catalyse organisational change.
Pronouns: She/Her
Sarahelizabeth Baguhn, PhD has taught Assistive Technology skills for a public-school district and to adults in the community as a private contractor. She holds ACVREPâs CATIS & COMS as well as a Wisconsin TVI license. Now a Research Specialist for the American Foundation for the Blind she studies the interactions between blindness and other areas of American life, including barriers to digital inclusion and the interactions between artificial intelligence and disability.
Pronouns: She/Her
Sarah is a digital accessibility analyst at CBC/Radio-Canada. She is a passionate advocate for accessibility and inclusion, with a keen eye for discovering the little things that can make a big impact in creating more inclusive experiences for all. In her day-to-day work, Sarah has played a vital role in raising awareness about accessibility and the importance of âshifting leftâ. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys creating vlogs and making cocktails for her friends.
Pronouns: She/Her
Sara Kjellstrand is a Research Strategist at the Funka Foundation with a long experience of managing research projects and studies on accessibility, digital inclusion and equality. Sara has in the past five years led a series of research initiatives on cognitive accessibility on the web, with funding from the EU and national grants in Sweden and Norway. She is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) and is frequently giving lectures and training on cognitive accessibility and digital inclusion.
Pronouns: She/Her
Sayali, an Experience Designer at Deutsche Telekom, a lecturer at ReDi School of Integration, and a mentor at ADPList, is also a change strategist. She specializes in research, design operations, and accessibility with a passion for problem-solving. In the past, she has taught at Politecnico di Milano and worked with organizations like Unilever, Phillip Morris, Frog, Deesha Education Foundation, and Kirloskar.
A published illustrator and comics creator, her expertise in service design and strategic leadership has helped her drive positive change.
Pronouns: She/her
As a Senior Accessibility Consultant at HCLTech, Seneca is dedicated to helping product teams move beyond mere compliance to develop genuinely usable solutions informed by feedback from the disability community. With over 12 years of experience in assistive technology, Seneca’s insights are shaped by her personal experiences as a person with a disability, a caregiver, and an occupational therapist. Her passion lies in ensuring that accessibility solutions are both functional and practical for diverse user needs.
Pronouns: He/him
I’m Simon Ellis, an Accessibility Project Manager dedicated to promoting an accessible by design approach within internal project teams and for clients. I work to embed an accessibility-first mindset throughout the software development lifecycle.
As an experienced accessibility subject matter expert, I specialize in identifying and removing accessibility barriers in accordance with W3C WCAG 2.1 standards, ADA, Section 508 and other accessibility regulations. I guide product owners, designers, developers, and testers to implement usability-focused, technically robust best practices. Throughout the agile lifecycle, I manage and review accessibility-related user stories and defects, working with stakeholders to improve both compliance and the overall user experience for everyone.
IAAP Member and CPACC Certified
Pronouns: She/Her
Pronouns: She/Her
Surbhi is a passionate accessibility advocate who became visually impaired at the age of 18. With over a decade of experience in the field, she has worked across various technologies, honing her expertise in accessibility. Currently serving as a subject matter expert at Accenture, Surbhi is dedicated to promoting inclusive design and improving digital experiences for all. At a personal front, Surbhi is committed to breaking barriers and championing the rights of individuals with disabilities, making the world a more accessible place for all.
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War Veteran, Purple Heart recipient, and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who was among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Duckworth served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years before retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2014. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 after representing Illinoisâs Eighth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms.
In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard. On November 12, 2004, her helicopter was hit by an RPG and she lost her legs and partial use of her right arm. After spending 13 months recovering from a double amputation, Duckworth became Director of the Illinois Department of Veteransâ Affairs, and in 2009 she was appointed Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs by President Barack Obama. Three years later, Duckworth left that post to join the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2016, she was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Senator Duckworth is the first woman with a disability elected to the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. During the 115th Congress, Duckworth saved the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically, she led public opposition to a controversial bill, H.R. 620, and led 42 senators in pledging to oppose any effort to pass H.R. 620 through the Senate. The Veterans Service Organization and Paralyzed Veterans of America recognized Duckworth’s leadership in defending the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Her legislative accomplishments also include expanding Medicare coverage for durable medical equipment, making public transit stations accessible, advocating for students with disabilities, ensuring fair rates for communication between incarcerated individuals and their families, addressing maternal mortality among veterans, and securing resources for State Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services.
Learn more about Senator Duckworth by visiting:Â Duckworth.Senate.gov/About-Tammy/Biography
The Honorable Anthony “Tony” Coelho has spent his entire adult life helping advance the lives of people with disabilities. He calls this his “ministry” while those in the disability community call him their “voice” and “champion.”
Diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 22 years old, Tony’s ministry is marked by significant milestones: primary author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) â the most important piece of civil rights legislation in the last 30 years; advocating for the ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and persuading President Bill Clinton to establish the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor. Tony continues to advocate for civil rights for individuals with disabilities. He persuaded President Barack Obama to issue an executive order enforcing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to hire people with disabilities — something they have been doing since 1973 for women and minorities.
Tony is a former six-term United States Congressman from California, elected in 1978 and serving until 1989. He served on the Agriculture, Interior, Veterans Affairs, and House Administration Committee during his tenure, specializing in disability rights. In 1986, Tony was elected House Majority Whip, the third most powerful position in the House of Representatives.
Vitaly loves beautiful content and does not give up easily. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he studied computer science and mathematics in Germany. While writing algebra proofs and preparing for software engineering at nights in the kitchen, at the same time he discovered passion for typography, interface design and writing. After working as a freelance designer and developer for 6 years, he co-founded Smashing Magazine back in 2006, a leading online magazine for designers and developers. His curiosity drove him from interface design to front-end to performance optimization to accessibility and back to user experience over all the years.
Vitaly is the author, co-author and editor of Smashing Books (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/books), and a curator of  Smashing Conferences (https://www.smashingconf.com). He is the UX lead with the European Parliament and Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com) and front-end/UX consultant in Europe and abroad, working with large and small companies and organizations like Haufe-Lexware, Axel-Springer and others.
He also runs Measure UX (https://measure-ux.com) and Smart Interface Design Patterns (https://smart-interface-design-patterns.com), friendly video courses on UX and design patterns, along with a live UX training for passionate UX and product designers.
Pronouns: She/Her
Zenab Khan is a Senior Accessibility Specialist at Thomson Reuters, where she leads accessibility efforts for one of the companyâs AI-driven legal products. She also led Thomson Reutersâ first dedicated accessibility study focused on AI chats, contributing to the broader inclusive research initiative within the company.
Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, she was as an Accessibility Consultant at AbilityNet, where she advised clients across public and private sectors and delivered trainings on digital accessibility. In addition to her accessibility work, Zenab has implemented process improvements in the retail and manufacturing industries, driving cost savings and operational efficiencies. She holds two undergraduate degrees, in Industrial Engineering and Applied & Computational Mathematics, from the University of Washington.
Digital accessibility coach, engaging and entertaining public speaker, blind entrepreneur, and ex-professional blind snowboarder.
Anja Harport is the Head of the Competence Center for Digital Accessibility and a Business Developer at adesso SE. As a strategic ambassador and leader, Anja focuses on scaling accessibility initiatives, building business value, and navigating the complex regulatory landscape for clients undergoing digital transformation. With a strong background in change management, she is dedicated to raising awareness and embedding accessibility into the core of digital product development. While she leaves the deep technical implementation to her expert team, Anja excels at bridging the gap between compliance requirements and business strategy. She is convinced that accessibility is the ultimate key to successful digitalization.
Anja Harport leitet das Kompetenzzentrum für digitale Barrierefreiheit und ist als Business Developerin bei der adesso SE tätig. Als strategische Botschafterin und Führungskraft konzentriert sie sich darauf, Initiativen zur Barrierefreiheit zu skalieren, geschäftlichen Mehrwert zu schaffen und Kunden bei der digitalen Transformation durch die komplexe regulatorische Landschaft zu begleiten. Dank ihrer fundierten Erfahrung im Change Management setzt sie sich engagiert dafür ein, das Bewusstsein für das Thema zu schärfen und Barrierefreiheit fest in der digitalen Produktentwicklung zu verankern. Während sie die detaillierte technische Umsetzung ihrem Expertenteam überlässt, versteht sie es hervorragend, die Brücke zwischen Compliance-Anforderungen und Geschäftsstrategie zu schlagen. Sie ist davon überzeugt, dass Barrierefreiheit der entscheidende Schlüssel zu einer erfolgreichen Digitalisierung ist.
Experienced cross-sector accessibility practitioner with a strong background in research.
Currently part of HSBC’s Group Digital Experience and Accessibility Team primarily ensuring Wholesale and Commercial Banking products meet digital accessibility standards working with a range of product, project, UX, design and development stakeholders.
Leading on the development of a global accessibility user research program. Actively contribute to the accessibility change management program working on research, development and innovation projects such as Standards and Virtual Reality.
As Head of Design at Nexer Digital, Chris oversees five dedicated teams (Research, Service Design, Content Design, UX, and Accessibility) to ensure that every project is user-focused throughout its life cycle. With 20 years of experience as a strategist, user researcher, service designer, and interaction designer, he brings strong technical understanding and management skills to help organizations—from start-ups to global multinationals—build UX capabilities that deliver tangible business value through inclusive, user-centered products and services.
Chris Coyier is a web designer and developer that tries to help other people get better at those things.
He is the co-founder of CodePen, a social development environment for web designers and developers. CodePen is a front-end focused IDE in the browser allowing people to write HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and related languages. It’s as much of a community and social network as a coding platform.
Along with Dave Rupert, he is the co-host of a podcast called ShopTalk, a show about (you guessed it) building websites. We’re over 10 years and 500 episodes strong!
Chris also built CSS-Tricks, a website all about building websites, and ran it for 15 years, from 2007 to 2022, before selling it to DigitalOcean.
Deaf from birth, bionic (two cochlear implants), and above all, a Fullstack Angular .NET developer at SHODO, I fight every day for accessibility. In my ideal world, everything should be accessible in real life as well as on the web.
As a public law specialist, I coordinate the social justice unit at the association *Intérêt à Agir*, which supports the organizations *Api-DV* and *Droit pluriel* in developing litigation strategies regarding digital accessibility.
Juriste en droit public, j'assure la coordination du pôle justice sociale au sein de l'association Intérêt à Agir, qui apporte son appui aux associations Api-DV et Droit pluriel dans le cadre de stratégies contentieuses en matière d'accessibilité numérique.
Since graduating in 2011, Erwin has built his career at Schiphol, one of the most dynamic organizations in the Netherlands. Over the past 14 years, he has held a wide range of roles across the airport, including Advisor at Airside Operations (with a focus on winter operations), IT Project Manager leading diverse projects at headquarters and in the terminal, Manager of the Baggage Control Room, Manager of a Process Enabling department, and most recently, overseeing the entire passenger process.
With this broad background and experience, Erwin is well placed to address accessibility at multiple levels within the organization and help drive meaningful progress. He works alongside colleagues who share his energy and commitment to making accessibility a priority at Schiphol.
Gene Kim has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999. He was the founder and CTO of Tripwire, Inc., an enterprise security software company, where he served for 13 years. His books have sold over 1 million copies—he is the WSJ bestselling author of The Unicorn Project and The Phoenix Project Graphic Novels, and co-author of The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook, Vibe Coding, and the Shingo Publication Award-winning books Accelerate and Wiring the Winning Organization. Since 2014, he has been the organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit (now Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit and Enterprise AI Summit), studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations.
Georgiana Frincu is a mathematician, digital accessibility consultant and trainer. Her work combines professional expertise with lived experience as a blind user, offering a practical perspective on how accessibility shapes the usability of digital products.
Georgiana Frincu es matemática, consultora y formadora en accesibilidad digital. Su trabajo combina la experiencia profesional con la vivencia como usuaria ciega, ofreciendo una perspectiva práctica sobre cómo la accesibilidad moldea la usabilidad de los productos digitales.
Imani Barbarin is a disability rights and inclusion activist and speaker who uses her voice and social media platforms to create conversations engaging the disability community. Born with cerebral palsy, Imani often writes and uses her platform to speak from the perspective of a disabled black
woman. In the last few years, she has created over a dozen trending hashtags that allow disabled folk the opportunity to have their perspectives heard while forcing the world to take notice. #PatientsAreNotFaking, #ThingsDisabledPeopleKnow, #AbledsAreWeird and others each provide a window into disabled life while forming community.
Imani is from the Philadelphia area and holds a Masters in Global Communications from the American University of Paris, her published works include those in Forbes, Rewire, Healthline, BitchMedia and more. She runs the blog CrutchesAndSpice.com and a podcast of the same name. She currently serves as the Communications Director for a nonprofit in Pennsylvania.
Inés Abroug (ENG) is an Associate at PwC France & Maghreb, where she leads CSR projects specialized in environmental issues. She oversees carbon footprint reduction trajectories, the structuring of ESG reporting (CSRD), and preparation for non-financial certifications and evaluations (ISO 14001, CDP, EcoVadis). As a digital accessibility focal point, she also contributes to team onboarding through training, awareness, and innovation initiatives in the service of a more responsible and inclusive digital landscape.
Inès Abroug (FR) est Associate chez PwC France & Maghreb, où elle pilote des projets RSE spécialisés sur les enjeux environnementaux. Elle assure le suivi des trajectoires de réduction de l’empreinte carbone, la structuration des reportings ESG (CSRD) ainsi que la préparation aux certifications et évaluations extra-financières (ISO 14001, CDP, EcoVadis).
Référente accessibilité numérique, elle contribue également à l’embarquement des équipes via des actions de formation, de sensibilisation et d’innovation au service d’un numérique plus responsable et inclusif.
Ioana was 32 when she found out she is dyslexic. At that time, she didn’t understand dyslexia, but a lot of things were suddenly making sense – including why her typos are a bit of Schrodinger’s cat (she can’t spot them, but everyone else can). Ioana works at the intersection of AI and accessibility, making sure AI models are representative of people with disabilities.
Ivan Novegil is a journalist, digital accessibility consultant and trainer. His work brings together accessibility expertise, communication skills and lived experience as a blind user to support clearer, more inclusive digital services.
Iván Novegil es periodista, consultor y formador en accesibilidad digital. Su trabajo reúne experiencia en accesibilidad, habilidades de comunicación y vivencia como usuario ciego para apoyar servicios digitales más claros e inclusivos.