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Pronouns: She/Her
Great design is where user needs and business goals meet. Stéphanie seeks to understand how to design user-centered, inclusive, and accessible products and services. She also writes articles, teaches design, and talks at tech events all around the world.
When Stéphanie is not designing, she enjoys drawing, riding my bike, playing video games, taking pictures of buildings, and exploring new cooking recipes.
Watch Stéphanie’s axe-con 2022 talk: “A designer’s guide to documenting accessibility & user interactions“
Pronouns: He/him
Sunil Kumar Suvvari is an Inclusive AI and Digital Accessibility leader specializing in enterprise accessibility governance within Agile transformation environments. He developed a Shift-Left Accessibility Governance Model adopted across multiple teams and hundreds of applications, significantly reducing accessibility defects. He has been promoting accessibility awareness globally, having touched 24 countries so far. Sunil is internationally recognized for leadership in “Tech for Good,” championing inclusion and universal design.
Todd leads Regions’ User Experience (UX) team, a group of designers, content strategists, user researchers, accessibility specialists, UX engineers and architects, presentation architects, motion graphic designers, and SEO specialists. By creating and establishing an environment of collaboration, divergent thinking, and trust, these high-performing teams drive innovation and user-centered design practices at the bank. The group’s scope includes researching and designing intuitive, pixel-perfect, and accessible web and mobile front-ends with realistic behaviors across channels, browsers, and devices. The team also runs the daily web strategy and production, collaborates with product owners, enterprise architects and senior leaders, directs innovation design sprints and focus groups to help the company better understand the needs of its customers.
A native of Alabama, writer/editor Todd Keith has written The Rivers of Alabama, and Cahaba: A Gift for Generations, two books of essays focusing on the rivers of his native state, as well as Old Cahawba, a history of Alabama’s first state capital. His most recent book, Inside Guide to Birmingham, was published by Globe Pequot Press in 2011. His previous book, Birmingham Then and Now, a look at the architectural history of his hometown, was published in 2009 by Thunder Bay Press and a second edition published in 2015.
After completing an MA in English and teaching freshman literature in the early 1990s, Todd taught English in Czechoslovakia, which led to an interest in travel writing. He has produced articles for magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, Coastal Living, Robb Report, and others, as well as edited SweetTea Journal, a custom publishing title about Northwest Florida produced by Southern Progress Corporation. A senior contributor with Executive Traveler magazine, he has covered diverse destinations such as Iceland, Grenada, Sweden, Argentina, South Africa, Switzerland, Mongolia, Spain, and others. He’s built and maintained websites for a number of enterprises, including Better Homes & Gardens, Thicket Magazine and Portico Magazine.
Specialties: UX leadership, design thinking, content strategy, web editorial and design, information architecture, travel writing, feature writing, editing, teaching ESL, script writing.
Pronouns: He/him
Tyler Williams is an Android Engineer at Deque Systems on the Axe DevTools Mobile team. As part of his work at Deque, he has done extensive research to become an expert in Android TalkBack behavior, allowing Axe DevTools for mobile to accurately predict TalkBack behavior. Outside of working for Deque, Tyler has past experience working for multiple start-up companies, creating both native Android (XML and Compose) and cross-platform (Flutter) solutions from the ground up.
Prior to transitioning to a career in software engineering, Tyler was a calculus teacher, where he fostered a mindset of concept learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving. In his spare time, Tyler enjoys playing board games, tennis, golf, hiking, and hanging out with friends.
Victoria Polchinski is a Lead UX Researcher at Arizona State University, one of the largest universities in the United States. Guided by ASU’s charter, which states ASU is “measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed,” she leads a UX Research practice that includes people with disabilities throughout the product development lifecycle.
Pronouns: She/Her
Ailsa is a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft working on Responsible AI with a focus on accessibility and inclusion. Ailsa recognizes the excitement about AI in the accessibility space and is passionate about ensuring this innovation stems from truly inclusive foundations. One example of her work is a co-creation project with developers with disabilities to ensure that Microsoft’s Azure AI Studio is accessible, so that everyone can be part of building and using the technology of the future.
Pronouns: He/him
With over a decade of experience in design, development, and testing, I am a Technical Manager at HCL, specializing as an Accessibility Consultant. I am passionate about advocating for a âshift leftâ approach, ensuring that products and services are accessible from the inside out. Having faced the challenges of inaccessible content myself, I strive to make things better for everyone.
Alejandro leads and coordinates EDFâs advocacy and policy work at EU level, and supports the work of the European Parliament Disability Intergroup. Among other areas, Alejandro has developed policy positions and recommendations regarding political participation of persons with disabilities, accessible Information and Communication Technologies, Assistive Technologies, and different standardization activities.
Pronouns: She/Her
Alexandra Klepper is a senior technical writer at Google, in Chrome Developer Relations. In this role, she writes documentation for web developers and the web community, primarily focused on AI and accessibility. She has been a web developer, a digital marketing manager, a post-production video editor, a professional stage manager, and a casual ukulele player.
Alice Wong (March 27, 1974 – November 14, 2025) was a writer, editor, and disability justice activist cultivating a vibrant and diverse community of disabled people rooted in joy, abundance, mutual aid, and care. Wong was steeped in disability justice and uses the power of storytelling across various media platforms. She published personal stories that expose ableist attitudes, policies, and practices across a society that pushes disabled people to the margins. She also shared her own experiences navigating the world as a disabled person with a progressive neuromuscular disease.
In 2014, Wong founded the Disability Visibility Project (DVP) to amplify the unfiltered voices of disabled people and explore the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender identity, and disability. DVP began with an oral history project encouraging disabled people to interview one another. It has since expanded to include a podcast, a blog, social media, arts projects, and spaces for connection and community building. DVP centers disabled people's perspectives around topics such as opioid addiction, sexual abuse, mental health, economic insecurity, and education. Wong edited two essay collections Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (2020) and Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire (2024) that capture the diverse experiences of disabled people and the specific challenges faced by people of color, immigrants, and queer people who are disabled. Wong's own writings highlight the shortcomings of systems of care available to people with disabilities. In op-eds, a column for Teen Vogue, essays on DVP, and her memoir, Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life (2022), she gave unflinching accounts of the challenges of living in the community with autonomy, rather than in an institution.
Wong brought broader attention to the widespread ableism and prejudice disabled people face and to the policies that adversely affect them, such as the ban on drinking straws and the disuse of masks in healthcare settings. She used hashtag activism, such as #PodSaveJon and #HighRiskCA, to create change and bring disabled people together in conversation. In 2016, she co-founded #CripTheVote, a nonpartisan online movement that engaged voters and politicians in productive discussions about disability issues in the United States. In another line of work, Wong helped found organizations that provide material and professional development support to disabled people working in different industries. One such project is the BIPOC Disabled Filmmakers Coalition. With visionary and committed leadership, Wong highlights and supports the work of disabled people, builds relationships and collaborations within the disability community, challenges social and systemic ableism, and increases the political and cultural visibility of disabled people.
Pronouns: She/her
Alison Williams is a Lead UX Researcher who helps teams understand what users really need to shape better products and experiences. She has led research projects across both public and private sector for over 10 years. For the past year at Atlassian, sheâs championed research becoming an essential part of the design leadership on a company-wide usability program.
Pronouns: He/Him
Aliyu is a startup founder with a background in software engineering and cyber security. He has worked in several industries including telecoms, housing, edTech, FinTech and consulting. He started Fezzant to help organisations make cyber security trainings, programs and tools accessible. Aliyu has been an active voice in the niche and seeks to make it a mainstream topic in cyber security. He also co-founded CyBlack, a strong community helping to grow black cybersecurity talents. He was recently shortlisted as a finalist for the UK’s National Cyber Awards in the “Cyber Diversity Award” category.
Watch Aliyu’s axe-con 2024 talk here: “A11y in Cybersecurity Panel“
Pronouns: He/him
Al Nemec serves as the Digital Accessibility Program Manager at the Center for User Experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his passion for inclusive web design and digital accessibility shines through. With a rich background as an experienced web designer and developer, Al is dedicated to ensuring digital platforms are accessible to all users, embodying the Centerâs commitment to excellence in user experience. His expertise and leadership in the field drive the development of more accessible, user-friendly digital environments.
Technical Program Manager for the Accessibility team at Pluto TV. Forward-thinking operations and management professional, who believes the world should be inclusive and accessible to all. Strong believer in SAFe and scaled agile approach.
Preferred Pronouns: He/Him
Ben is a Senior Product Manager for axe DevTools Linter, axe DevTools APIs & CLI, and axe Developer Hub. Ben has 20 years of experience in building software and has been an accessibility program manager for 7.5 years, most recently at GitHub. While at PNC, Ben’s team was the inaugural winner of the axe-con “Accessibility at Scale Award” in 2021. Ben loves to learn and claims to be a lifetime student of Python, and more recently, ukulele. Sea Shanty anyone?
Pronouns: He/Him
Ben helps teams at ArcTouch create accessible and lovable experiences for phones, tablets, and smart things that connect deeply with customers.
He is driven by a mission to make digital products more accessible and inclusive for everyone. He works with world-class clients, ranging from Fortune 500 businesses to well-known brands and influential startups, to ensure their products are continually progressing towards the highest standards of both accessibility and usability to meet the evolving needs of all users.
Ben is a co-organizer of the A11yNYC Meetup and serves on the Board of Directors of the GAAD (Global Accessibility Awareness Day) Foundation. He is passionate about disability inclusion advocacy, sustainable accessibility coaching, and helping clients elevate their impact by reaching historically excluded customers.
Pronouns: She/her
Dedicated, collaborative and knowledgeable IT professional with over 20 years of experience in professional consulting, strategic program management, financial services, Federal and state government, health care, higher education, adult learning, universal or accessible design and agile transformation. Passionate about creating solutions to key business problems, explaining accessibility in plain language and providing leadership to all levels of product development with the goal of identifying and removing access barriers. Adept at recruiting, team building, slaying KPIs and executive dashboards and reporting.
Pronouns: She/her
Creative, customer-centric thought leader with 15+ years of experience in a fast-paced eCommerce environment. Data-driven, results-oriented manager specializing in accessibility, customer experience, content strategy, product management and Marketing.
Carrie is a dedicated disability and diversity champion with a passion for universal design and technology-driven solutions that transform innovation and inclusion for people of all abilities. She has a proven track record initiating, building and scaling sustainable, Omni-channel accessibility programs, in a Fortune 1 environment â across multiple platforms and cross-functional teams. She is the former Chair of the Walmart Bay Area chapter of the inABLE Associate Resource Group, focused on promoting disability inclusion in the workplace and community. Carrie is also proud to be involved in Teach Access, a non-profit focused on infusing accessibility into higher education through industry and academic collaboration, where she recently co-chaired the Companies task force, contributed to the accessibility Hiring toolkit and co-created the Employee Hiring Lifecycle.
Pronouns: He/him
Craig Abbott is a Principal Accessibility Consultant at Tetralogical, and former Head of Accessibility in UK Government. Bringing over 15 years of experience in User-Centred Design and accessibility, Craig is known for his contributions to the UK Governmentâs digital transformation, the GOV.UK Design System and the DWP Accessibility Manual. As a frequent speaker on accessibility, inclusion, and neurodiversity, and being neurodivergent himself, Craig is deeply committed to creating inclusive digital services that work for everybody.
Pronouns: She/Her
Crystal Preston-Watson is a Senior Digital Accessibility Analyst at Salesforce. She believes that accessibility is a civil and human right and is passionate about building accessible and inclusive applications.
David Dylan Thomas, author of Design for Cognitive Bias, creator and host of The Cognitive Bias Podcast, and a twenty-year practitioner of content strategy and UX, has consulted major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. As the founder and CEO of David Dylan Thomas, LLC he offers workshops and presentations on inclusive design and the role of bias in making decisions. He has presented at TEDNYC, SXSW Interactive, Confab, An Event Apart, UX Days Tokyo and more on topics at the intersection of bias, design, and social justice.
Read more about Davidâs talk here: ââThatâs great, but how do I convince my boss?â: Overcoming Bias to Advocate for Changeâ
Ashley Shew (she/her) is an associate professor of Science, Technology, and Society where she works as a philosopher of technology focused on disability technology, disabled storytelling, and disabled expertise. She is author of Animal Constructions and Technological Knowledge (2017) and Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement (2023).
Preferred Pronouns: He/Him
Eric Bailey is a Boston-based designer who helps create straightforward solutions that address a personâs practical, physical, cognitive, and emotional needs using accessible, performant, device-agnostic technology. He’s an inclusive design advocate, A11Y Project maintainer, MDN Web Docs contributor, and recovering curmudgeon.
Eudora Struble is Director for Technology Accessibility at Wake Forest University, facilitating engagement to make Wakeâs vibrant digital environment more accessible for the entire community. Eudora earned a Masterâs in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago, where she taught, worked to expand community engagement for undergrads in residence halls, and served as senior staff for international fieldwork.
Exposure to the impacts of inaccessible technology in these spheres instilled in Eudora a commitment to accessibility in higher education as a way to support diversity, inclusion, and a better future. Eudora currently serves as Co-Chair and a Steering Committee member for the EDUCAUSE IT Access Community Group and is co-leader of the North Carolina Higher Education Digital Accessibility Collaborative (a UNC CAUSE Special Interest Group).
Pronouns: They/Them
Faith McGee is an Inclusive Research professional with over 15 years of experience working for large Fortune 500 companies, such as Zelle, Electronic Arts, and Meta. They are a crusader for centering underrepresented groups in product development to amplify their voices for making a more inclusive and resilient product for a wider market.
Specifically, they study how issues like low vision, depression, and neurodiversity guide user behaviors. They have managed large, inclusive, research-focused teams that bring new thinking and product development practices to companies. At Meta, they are an Accessibility Champion and Inclusive Research Leader who builds company-wide inclusive training materials.
They are also working on a book, Revolution as a Habit: Using Inclusive Research Every Day, with co-speaker Natashia Tjandra. They live in San Francisco, CA, with her family and are very active in human rights organizations with a certification from the International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination.
Pronouns: She/her
Faith Obafemi is a Cyber Accessibility Officer at Fezzant. She is a lawyer with a vast background in actionable tech policy covering digital rights to emerging technologies. She recently pitched and won an AWITAI and UNESCO grant to bring digital accessibility to the cybersecurity industry. Faith’s core philosophy is being a lifelong learner and contributing to equity in humanity.
Pronouns: She/Her
Feriyal Hallajarani is a Lead Accessibility Specialist at Thomson Reuters, where she has contributed to accessibility efforts for nearly four years. Her journey in accessibility began in 2012 when she pursued a Master of Design in Inclusive Design at OCAD University. Since then, she has worked across industries including government, banking, and education, focusing on digital accessibility.
Currently, Feriyal leads the accessibility efforts for one of Thomson Reutersâ main products and supports key AI initiatives. She works closely with product teams to prioritize accessibility and promotes a shift-left mindset, integrating accessibility early in the development process. She is deeply passionate about inclusive design, with a focus on incorporating feedback from users with disabilities to improve product development.
In recent years, Feriyal has also led the companyâs inclusive research initiative, establishing processes for inclusive recruitment and accessibility research. Feriyal believes that diverse perspectives fuel innovation. By engaging with users with disabilities and underrepresented voices, she helps create more inclusive, successful solutions for everyone. At this conference, she looks forward to sharing how Thomson Reuters is embedding accessibility at the core of AI and product development efforts.
Pronouns: He/him
Accomplished corporate learning program manager, offering 25 years of diverse learning and development experience in a dynamic corporate setting, and 20 years of adult education and program delivery.
Pronouns: He/Him
Accessibility product manager at Walmart with over 8+ years of experience in accessibility, specializing in design, UX, and accessible development. I currently lead development accessibility for Walmart US ecommerce covering, web, ios, and android.
Pronouns: She/Her
Gouri is the Lead Accessibility Engineer at ADP. She grew up in India and did a bachelor’s in Computer Engineering. After coming to the USA, she started her career as a Frontend Web Developer and began her accessibility journey with Level access 8+ years ago. While working alongside people having disabilities, she became more and more passionate about accessibility. She is one of the fortunate few whose passion became her career!
She has wonderful experience advocating accessibility for various organizations including Charter Communications, College Board, and Twitter.
In her free time, she enjoys reading books, spending time with her daughters and watching sitcoms!
Pronouns: She/her
Hanna Fredholm works as Accessibility Manager at the Nordics’ largest public transport company, SJ. She has previously worked as an accessibility consultant and valued lecturer for both the public and private sector for over 10 years, with a background as a developer.
Inmaculada Placencia Porrero is a Senior Expert in Disability and Inclusion at Directorate-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission.
Her unit is responsible for the coordination of European policies for persons with disabilities. She works on European disability policies including the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020, and the EU implementation of the UNCRPD.
Inmaculada holds a degree in Physics and Computer Science and worked in research and development before joining The European Commission in 1991.
She has worked on research programs addressing accessibility as well as assistive technologies and was Deputy Head of Unit for various disability-related units in the Commission. Her work in the âe-Inclusionâ unit of the Directorate-General for Information Society and Media addressed accessibility policy.
While at the Directorate-General for Justice, she contributed to disability-related antidiscrimination legislation. She was responsible for the Task Force for the preparation of the European Accessibility Act and remains responsible since its adoption in 2015. Currently, under the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion, she is also leading the team working on the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030.
Pronouns: She/Her
Jackie Pysarchuk is an Enterprise Content Strategist at the American College of Cardiology. She offers a data-informed approach and a dedication to advocating for company goals while focusing on providing the best experience to end users. She is committed to creating content experiences that are sustainable, accessible, and thoughtful.
Her career combines content strategy, content operations, and user experience strategy. She previously worked at Yes& Agency, Northrop Grumman Corporation, American Bankers Association, and American Council of Engineering Companies. In 2018, Jackie was named an Association Technology Star by DCA Live.
Pronouns: He/Him
At nine plus years with accessibility, Jason works to enable equal access for everyone. Connecting like minds, working with people where they are, and setting solid goals. Partnering with an elevation of communication around the need for accessibility, he also makes sure that great minds and solid checks are in place for complete conformance. In his personal time, Jason enjoys drawing and illustration, listening to audiobooks, hiking, playing video games with his son, and going on adventures with his family. He also has a strong background in design, sculpture, quality assurance, creating magic, and was a 3D modeler for the movie industry.
Pronouns: She/her
Jaunita George joined Navy Federal in 2020 and currently works as an ADA Digital Program Manager leading the Enterprise Technical Accessibility Team, as well as chairing the Accessibility A11ies Community of Practice and serves on the leadership team of Navy Federal’s disability Employee Resource Group. Represents NFCU on the Accessibility Guidelines and ARIA Working Groups at the W3C. She is also on the leadership team of the Internet Societyâs Accessibility Special Interest Group, where she’s working on developing an accessibility engineering bootcamp. She contributed to ARIA 1.2, WCAG 2.2 and is listed as a notable contributor to WCAG 3.0. She is an attorney and developer with a background in instructional design, communications, program management and technology and people leadership. She is active in the accessibility community and is passionate about creating an internet that’s open, free and accessible to everyone.
Pronouns: They/them
Jay Brite is a content strategist with over ten yearsâ experience in content strategy, UX research, UX writing, SEO, CMS administration, web accessibility, and information architecture. Jay has worked in the professional association, scholarly publishing, and library spaces. They especially enjoy training and mentoring others in user-focused best practices, as well as work related to accessibility.
Pronouns: She/her
With a background that spans financial analysis, UX qualitative research, and design, Jency brings a unique, data-informed perspective to the world of user experience. Now a leader in product design, she helps teams build user-centric solutions for partners and admins as part of the Webex Design-Platform UX org. When she’s not wrangling teams, decks, and pixels, she’s spending time with loved ones and her dog Eevee, reading, doing pottery, thrifting, or just trying to be a decent human being. Spoiler: it’s a work in progress.
Jenn joined Deque in March 2023.
Before joining Deque, Jenn spent over 12 years with Google. Since 2017, she held the role of Accessibility Program Manager focusing on release processes, change management, product, testing, and helping teams to build & sustain healthy accessibility programs.
Her passion for accessibility has also been demonstrated through education. Pulling upon her past roles in corporate training and her accessibility passion, she developed and delivered training to grow accessibility awareness within Google. This â along with performing product assessments, heuristic evaluations, surfacing customer issues, creating accessible user support documentation, and starting a demo program â has enabled her to successfully lead teams responsible for creating experiences and products that are accessible and delightful.
Prior to 2017, while holding engineering roles working in both IT Support and Security, she created and led an Accessibility Service team. This team administered training for Googleâs support teams on how to use assistive technology. Additionally, Jenn built an internal accommodations methodology to ensure all Googlers were able to experience productivity parity in their day-to-day work.
Jim LeBrecht co-directed and co-produced, with Nicole Newnham, the 2021 Oscar-nominated documentary, Crip Camp.
Crip Camp received the 2020 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for feature-length documentary, the 2021 Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature Documentary, and a 2021 Peabody Award.
He has over 40 years of experience as a film and theater sound designer and mixer, filmmaker, and disability rights activist.
LeBrecht is a co-founder of FWD-Doc and the 1in4 Coalition, two organizations that support people with disabilities in the entertainment business. He has been a character consultant for Pixar Animation Studios for 2 of their films.
Jim is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He is also a member of the Disability Futures Fellowship, an initiative of the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Joe Humbert is a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) who is currently focusing on native mobile application accessibility. He has been working in the assistive technology and accessibility industry since 2007 and has helped companies in the education, streaming media, ecommerce, banking, and healthcare industries ensure their digital products are accessible. As an Invited Expert at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Joe is collaborating with other accessibility industry experts to create guidance on how to apply the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to the native mobile applications. He also volunteers his time with a W3C community group to test interoperability of Accessible Rich Internet application (ARIA) authoring practice design patterns across common desktop screen reading software.
Digital accessibility coach, engaging and entertaining public speaker, blind entrepreneur, and ex-professional blind snowboarder.