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Manuel is a frontend developer, consultant, accessibility auditor, blogger, book author, and speaker from Vienna, currently living in Graz. He believes in web standards, progressive enhancement, and user-centric web design and development.
He also specializes in web accessibility and enterprise CSS.
Marcie Roth is Executive Director and CEO of the World Institute on Disability and a global leader in disability rights, accessibility, and disaster resilience. From 2009 to 2017, she served at FEMA, where she established and directed the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination. She advises governments, corporations, health systems, and the United Nations on disability inclusion and building accessible, resilient communities.
I’m Mark “Steady” Steadman, an accessibility leader, public speaker, and general accessibility nerd with a focus on scaling accessibility across large organizations and within product teams
My goal is to bridge the gap between accessibility theory and engineering reality. Using my own experience, starting from an arrogant developer and growing into a leader, to show others that accessibility isn’t an exclusive discipline reserved for experts. It’s a skill any developer can learn, a practice any team can adopt, and a responsibility every organization can embrace.
Megan Biddinger (She/Her) approaches accessibility through the lens of autonomy, both for the people using products and those creating them. Drawing on 15 years in digital technology, a decade focused on accessibility, and a background in research and teaching, she helps teams identify what matters most, make confident accessibility decisions, and create space to go beyond compliance. Today, she leads a team of accessibility designers and analysts who partner across the product lifecycle to create experiences that help more of us feel that products were designed with us in mind.
Michael drives accessibility across Workday's products and services. Over his seven-year tenure, he co-founded Workday’s Accessibility Lab, guided numerous scrum teams on accessibility, and trained more than 3,000 workmates. Today, he manages Workday's broader approach to the intersection of accessibility and AI, hosting a 30+ customer advisory workstream, collaborating with academic and industry partners to define what "inclusive" looks like in the age of AI, and advocating for transformational experiences that benefit everyone.
Dr. Michele A. Williams is the author of "Accessible UX Research" and owner of MAW Consulting, LLC – Making Accessibility Work. With 20 years of experience, she has influenced top tech companies as a Senior User Experience (UX) Researcher and Accessibility Specialist. She holds a PhD in Human-Centered Computing with a focus on accessibility and is an international speaker, published academic author, and patented inventor. Michele is passionate about designing technology that does not exclude disabled users and about building a research culture that centers disability equity.
Mike Gifford is Open Standards and Practices Lead at CivicActions and a Drupal Core Accessibility Maintainer. A longtime accessibility advocate, he has led accessibility improvements in Drupal since 2008 and served as a core maintainer since 2012. A W3C Invited Expert and former founder of OpenConcept Consulting, Mike is passionate about open source, digital accessibility, and sustainability. He frequently speaks internationally on building a more accessible and inclusive web.
Mike Herchel is Lead Evangelist at Acquia, founder of Dripyard, and Drupal Core Frontend Framework Manager. With 19+ years of Drupal experience, he is a primary developer of Drupal’s themes and maintainer of Drupal core’s CSS. Passionate about accessibility, performance, and modern front-end development, Mike is a frequent speaker at DrupalCons and web development conferences worldwide.
Mike (he/him) has worked in the fields of accessibility, assistive technology (AT), and disability services for 20 years. Mike has a Master of Science degree in Assistive Technology and Human Services from California State University Northridge and is a RESNA certified Assistive Technology Professional (ATP). Mike has also worked as a certified assistive technology trainer, accessibility consultant, and director of a low vision and blindness support center. He oversees digital accessibility assessment, usability, training, outreach, and procurement activities within the CU Boulder Digital Accessibility Office. Mike also teaches multiple courses in accessibility and assistive technology at California State University, Northridge.
Nathalie is a part-time wheelchair user and full-time photography nerd, dedicated to raising awareness and improving accessibility both online and offline.
Nina Roby is the Digital Accessibility Program Lead at Red Hat, where she works across teams to embed accessibility into everyday practices. Her work spans accessibility strategy, education, champion networks, and collaboration with designers, developers, and content creators. She focuses on helping people build the skills, support, and shared commitment needed to sustain accessibility through organizational and technological change. Nina has presented at the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference.
Paul Lumsdaine is the Digital Accessibility Program Manager at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also leads user experience research and design in Enterprise Information Technology Services, where he makes products and services more accessible and usable for everyone by leading research and design across multi-disciplinary teams. Over the past 20 years, he has leveraged human-centered approaches to design to inform business strategy and technical decisions.
Pawel is a designer with twenty years of craft behind him and a soft spot for making accessibility feel effortless. At Atlassian he helps design teams build accessibility in from the start, and he has spoken at CSUN, axe-con and A11y Camp. When he is not talking about inclusive design, he is teaching Zumba in Sydney.
Pronouns: She/Her
Preety is the CEO of Deque Systems and founded Deque in 1999 with the vision of unifying Web access, both from the user and the technology perspective. Under Preety’s leadership, Deque has grown to be a market leader in the field of information accessibility, serving corporate and government clients with the highest standards in information technology, such as Veteran Affairs, Department of Education, Humana, Intuit, HSBC, Target, and others. She collaborated with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative and is a nominated member of the Accessibility Forum’s Strategic Management Council: a GSA-sponsored group with representatives from the IT industry, academia, Government Agencies, and disabled user groups that foster information accessibility through mutual cooperation.
Rachele is a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA). She earned her Master of Science degree in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a Senior Accessibility Engineer at Citizens.
Awaited
Sarah leads Apple's accessibility programs, including support for disability communities worldwide, accessibility technologies built into all Apple hardware, software, and services, as well as other initiatives that promote Apple’s culture of inclusion.
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.
Ted Drake is the Head of Intuit Design System and Inclusive Design at Intuit, a financial software company that creates Credit Karma, Mailchimp, TurboTax and QuickBooks. Ted leads a distributed team of Designers and Accessibility Champions; working together to power prosperity. Prior to Intuit, Ted co-founded Yahoo’s Accessibility Lab and was a developer evangelist. Ted speaks regularly at technology and design conferences and is a board member of Magical Bridge Foundation, steering committee for Web4All, and Co-Program Chair for CSUN Assistive Technology Conference. Ted is also the author of Community-Driven Accessibility Leadership.
Thao McKenna (she/her) is a design leader with a user-centric mindset. With over a decade of experience as a creative problem solver and a team collaborator, Thao loves to deliver experiences that can make an impact in people’s lives. Currently, she leads the design foundation workstream at global pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, which includes digital accessibility and inclusive design. In addition to healthcare, she previously led product design in the e-commerce and tech industry. Outside of work, you can find Thao at a local bubble tea shop or strolling on a community bike path with her family.
TJ Pitre is the Product Architect for AI and Design Systems at Figma, and Founder/Owner of Southleft, a design systems consultancy. He works with teams to bridge design and engineering using structured context, modern tooling, and practical experimentation.
Victoria (she/her) is a Lead UX Researcher at Arizona State University, where she leads the UX Research and Accessibility practice. Guided by ASU’s charter, which states that the university is “measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed,” her team partners with disabled people throughout the product development lifecycle to create more inclusive digital experiences. Victoria brings more than a decade of accessibility advocacy to her work, with experience spanning UX research, UX design, UI engineering, and leadership.
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Pronouns: He/him
Alex Haidar is Head of Compliance & Regulatory Affairs at Tech4Access, where he leads the consultancy’s work helping enterprises interpret and implement the legal and technical requirements of the European Accessibility Act, EN 301 549, and WCAG. With a background in accessibility policy, compliance frameworks, and digital transformation, Alex advises organizations across sectors on building sustainable accessibility governance that meets both regulatory and business objectives.
Pronouns: She/her
Alyssa Shock, PsyD. is a technology instructor for blind and low vision individuals, mentor to blind and low vision youth, and a research fellow at the American Foundation for the Blind. She holds a PsyD in Counseling Psychology from Springfield College and has experience working in both community and college mental health settings. She is passionate about research, having completed a dissertation on how nonmeditators perceive meditation to impact well-being, and is now a member of AFB research teams focused on aging and vision loss and the accessibility of artificial intelligence.
Amanda Bolton is one of the accessibility subject matter experts working in Quality Engineering at Cvent and is part of the main accessibility technology team. She comes from a background of teaching in higher education and uses those skills in her current role, helping to create and organize accessibility learnings in addition to testing Cvent’s products.
Pronouns: She/her
Ambika Yadav brings data to life as a Visualization Engineer at Atlassian, where she builds robust platform web chart components for the Atlassian Analytics product. She specializes in crafting intuitive and accessible visualizations, empowering users to explore and understand complex data with ease.
Pronouns: They/them
Dr. Angela Young (they/them) is Advisor, Digital Solutions Consulting/Accessibility Training & Awareness at Epsilon. A deaf, queer, nonbinary accessibility strategist, speaker, and published author, Angela leads enterprise-wide initiatives that transform accessibility from a compliance requirement into a cultural practice. With two decades of experience in education and digital inclusion, they specialize in building accessibility awareness, coaching technical teams, and creating systemic change through empathy-driven design and training.
Pronouns: She/Her; They/Them
Anna E. Cook is a Senior Inclusive Designer that specializes in building inclusive products. With ten years of experience, she is dedicated to creating scalable systems to support accessible practices across digital product teams.
Read more about Anna’s talk here “Microsoft Inclusive Design: The Cognitive Model.”
Watch Anna’s 2021 talk here: “Auditing Design Systems for Accessibility” and her 2022 talk here: “Why We Need More Accessibility Designers”
Pronouns: She/her
Arielle Silverman, Ph.D. has a 20-year research career, focusing on the lived experiences of people with disabilities and especially people who are blind or have low vision. She has published more than a dozen papers and reports relating to accessibility barriers and the benefits of mentoring and resilience for people with disabilities. She also published a disability justice memoir titled Just Human: The Quest for Disability Wisdom, Respect, and Inclusion, in 2021.
Pronouns: She/Her
Dr. Bhuvana Narayanamurthy is a UX designer, researcher, and consultant with 15 years of experience in digital transformation, where accessibility is part of her work. She holds a PhD from Northwestern University, focused on Technology Use Behavior. Her current work spans cognitive accessibility, human-AI experience, and governance. Through her consulting practice, she helps healthcare and enterprise companies scale responsibly by embedding accessibility in the solutions she designs for them.
Pronouns: She/her
Carmel Heydarian, MS, is currently a Research Fellow at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), where she focuses on researching how to improve the lives of people who are blind or have low vision (BLV). She has worked on projects about improving indoor navigation for BLV people. She is also a contract researcher with UTRGV where she aids in the research on pregnant or recently pregnant people with I/DDs and their interactions with healthcare. Carmel is dedicated to removing barriers for people with disabilities through her research.
Cherisha Agarwal currently works as a Senior Product Designer at Microsoft and has a deep passion about inclusive design and accessibility. She is a design professional with 12+ years of experience in design and technology and has completed an MS in Integrated Digital Media & Design from New York University. She strongly believes design creates communicative value by filling gaps with effective creative solutions. With a user-centered design mindset, she aspires to craft accessible and intuitive digital experiences that add significant value.
Pronouns: She/Her
Cintia Romero is a Senior Staff Designer on the Adobe Product Equity team, where she leads the integration of inclusive design into the core of the user experience. Prior to Adobe, she was part of the Design Systems team at Pinterest, focusing on scalable components and digital accessibility. As a Brazilian-American with over 14 years of experience crafting cross-platform products, she brings a global perspective to her work, firmly believing that accessibility is a primary driver of innovation rather than a secondary constraint. She holds a CPACC certification and is a frequent speaker on inclusive frameworks. Additionally, she is a dedicated mentor committed to empowering the design community to build a more equitable digital future with empathy at its core.
Pronouns: He/Him
Damian Sian is a Principal (Staff) Engineering Program Manager on the Product Equity team in the Adobe Design organization. Prior to Adobe, he served as the Director of Web Accessibility at Prudential Financial and the Senior Accessibility Advisor at Princeton University. He holds his CPACC, WAS, CPWA, and ADS certifications from the IAAP. Damian is also adjunct faculty at Rutgers University where he teaches an Intro to Web Accessibility course in the School of Communication and Information (SC&I).
Pronouns: (He/Him)
Daniel Henderson-Ede (he/him) is a leading voice in accessible design at scale. He has built and evolved design systems at Pinterest and CVS Health, and his annotation toolkits are used by design teams around the world. Daniel is a Design Engineer who helps organizations bring design and engineering together to embed accessibility into every layer of the product. He has spoken at Axe-con, CSUN AT, AccessU, and Figma, sharing practical strategies that make accessibility efficient, impactful, and people-centered.
Read more about Daniel’s 2022 talk: “Building Accessible Design Systems – Try, Try, Try again“
Pronouns: He/Him
Daniel Yuschick is a Senior Frontend Developer and Design Systems Lead. Throughout his 15-year career, he has advocated for digital accessibility, empathy in software development, and leveraged his background in design. Daniel previously taught as a Frontend Engineering Instructor before following his dream to Helsinki, Finland, where he moved his career into Design Systems Engineering.
However, the passion for teaching continues as he writes articles for various web development publications and volunteers as a mentor at Codebar, a charity for empowering underrepresented groups in tech. Daniel is most passionate about great chocolate, beautiful tattoos and bridging the gap between design and development to create accessible and resilient design systems.
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.
