Axe-con 2026: Full agenda reveal!
When it comes to the most exciting digital accessibility event of the year, there’s no better time to start planning than right now, because we’re revealing the full agenda today.
If you thought last year’s event was amazing, wait until you see what we’ve got in store for you in 2026!
We’ve already announced Dr. Rana el Kaliouby and Haben Girma as our opening keynotes; if you weren’t able to read about these incredible visionaries and allies in our previous announcement, you can learn more about their accomplishments and impact below.
But right now, let’s discover who else will be bringing their insights and knowledge to the Axe-con community at our 2026 event!
We’ve got experts from Adobe to Zendesk, and all points in between, including Amazon Web Services, Atlassian, Coinbase, GitHub, Harvard Business School, HSBC, IKEA, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Northwestern Mutual, Peloton, Walmart, Wix, Workday, and more.
Day one highlights
Here are just some of the special sessions you can attend:
Accessibility in the End of Deterministic Design (Again), with Anna Cook of Microsoft
We’re elated to have Anna return to Axe-con, and this will mark her third conference appearance. Anna is a Senior Inclusive Designer at Microsoft, where she specializes in building inclusive products. In this talk, Anna will discuss non-deterministic design, a way of building systems that remain accessible even when no two interfaces are exactly alike. If you’re interested in questions such as “How do we ensure accessibility when outcomes aren’t fixed?” “How do we test what we can’t predict?,” this is the session for you!
Building for a new next billion users, with Ire Aderinokun
Ire is an invited Google Expert in Web Technologies, and the co-founder of Helicarrier, a Y Combinator-backed blockchain company for Africa that built some of the continent’s earliest crypto-fintech products. In her presentation, she’ll discuss what digital inclusion means in 2026, and demonstrate how accessibility-first design can be the foundation for reaching your next billion users.
Integrating Axe for automated testing in a distributed engineering environment, with Thomson Reuters
This incredible session brings together three experts from Thomson Reuters to discuss how to scale automated accessibility testing and achieve the best outcomes. Peter Bossley leads the Standards and Practice team within the Thomson Reuters accessibility program. He will be joined by Corey Hinshaw, Lead Accessibility Specialist, and Pavan Mudigonda, Lead QA Engineer, Developer Experience. All three will be debuting at Axe-con 2026!
The Accessible Design Specialists Playbook, with Pawel Wodkowski of Atlassian
Pawel is an Accessibility Lead Designer at Atlassian with over 20 years of design experience. Pawel will share insights into how Atlassian has embedded Accessible Design Specialists and supported them with clear growth profiles, simple processes, and focused tools. He will also share strategies for recruiting and growing specialists, defining day-to-day expectations, and partnering with them in their day-to-day work.
Day two highlights
Here are some of the fantastic options for day two of Axe-con:
The Accessibility Impostors Game Show, with Jennifer Gorfine of Zendesk
Jennifer is a founding member of the Product Accessibility team at Zendesk, and was recognized as one of 14 Power Women in Code by the DCFemTech Awards. In this cleverly structured presentation inspired by the TV shows “Is It Cake?” and “Candy or Not Candy?,” this interactive session will help you learn how to tell accessibility impostors (interfaces that look accessible but aren’t) apart from the real deal.
Scaling Accessibility in a Complex Enterprise: Lessons from Audits, Adoption, and Shared Practices, with Ryan Schoch of Wolters Kluwer
Ryan is Director of CX/UX Advisory Services at Wolters Kluwer, a global leader in information, software solutions, and services. In his presentation, Ryan will share insights into his organization’s focus on strengthening interaction expectations and reusable UI foundations through accessibility reviews, design system improvements, and the centralization of practical authoring guidance.
Day two will also feature presentations from Mali Fernando of HSBC (recipients of the Accessibility Culture Award at the 2024 Axe Awards!) and Matt King from Meta.
Mali Fernando, Group Head of Digital Experience and Accessibility, HSBC
Mali is a multi-award-winning digital leader in banking. He was recognised in the King’s New Year’s Honours list of 2023, where he received an MBE for his contribution to banking and technology.
Matt King, Accessibility Specialist in UI Engineering, Meta
Matt King is a groundbreaking engineer and a champion for software accessibility. As the first blind engineer at Facebook (now Meta), he works to ensure that technology is designed for everyone, including people with disabilities.
Keynotes
In case you didn’t see our previous Axe-con announcement about our keynote presenters, here are the details!
Day one opening keynote: Dr. Rana el Kaliouby
Rana is a true pioneer in artificial intelligence. She co-founded Affectiva, credited with creating and defining the new technology category of Emotion AI. Rana has since founded Blue Tulip Ventures, an early-stage venture firm that invests in startups building human-centric AI. She is also an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School and co-chair of the Fortune Brainstorm AI conferences. If that’s not enough, Rana is also the author of a best-selling memoir, “Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology,” and has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list, Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech, and Boston Globe’s Top 50 Tech Power Players.
This will be Rana’s inaugural appearance at Axe-con, and we are elated to have her open our conference in 2026. If you’re interested in the intersections of humanity and technology and are eager to glean deeper insight into the future of AI, you’ll want this right at the top of your itinerary.
Speaking of itineraries, make sure to register for free today so you can start building out your agenda with your favorite sessions. February 24 will be here before you know it.
While Dr. Rana El Kaliouby will be debuting at Axe-con 2026, our day two opening keynote will be delivered by someone we’re all very excited to welcome back to the conference: Haben Girma!
Day two opening keynote: Haben Girma
We have been very fortunate to have so many incredible Axe-con presenters join us over the years, and the days and weeks following each conference are always a joy as we gather event feedback and hear from the community about which presenters you most loved and appreciated. It’s no exaggeration to say that Haben is one of our most requested returnees, and we’re thrilled to have her back.
Among her many achievements, Haben is also a celebrated memoirist. The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, and TODAY Show have all featured her book, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.
In addition to being the first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change. She has also received the Helen Keller Achievement Award and been included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Chancellor Angela Merkel have all honored her work as a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice.
Register for free today
Mark your calendars for February 24-25, 2026, check out the agenda, and complete your registration today!
All told, Axe-con 2026 will feature more than 45 sessions across development, design, organizational success in accessibility, and the wildcard track.
Truly, Axe-con has something for everyone. Please consider this your invitation to join your fellow developers, designers, business users, and accessibility professionals of all experience levels as we rally to advance digital accessibility programs everywhere.
And remember, your registration ensures that you’ll have access to the conference recordings, so even if you’re not able to attend all your favorite sessions live, you can still experience every inspiring and insightful moment.
“I’ve been working to advance digital accessibility for over twenty years. In that time, I’ve seen both successes and setbacks. But like everyone committed to this mission, I have never wavered in my faith that digital accessibility is the future. Well, that future is here.” —Preety Kumar, CEO and founder, Deque
Please join the global Axe-con community at Axe-con 2026 as we come together to create the future of digital accessibility in real time!
