That’s a wrap! Day two at axe-con.

Day two at axe-con 2025 has now concluded, and what a day it’s been!

Before recapping, we want to pause and thank you all—for your attendance, certainly, but also for so much more.

At the conference, you’ve attended sessions, asked questions, and given feedback. You’ve commented and shared on social media, and you’ve created, followed, and contributed to conversations in our Discord community. You’ve connected directly with presenters and each other—even going so far as to help support one another in your accessibility career journeys!

Is it any wonder there is so much positive momentum happening in the world of accessibility? Every one of you is a powerhouse, and we know that the dedication, passion, and commitment you’re demonstrating at axe-con is exactly what you bring to your work every day.

YOU are the reason why huge change is happening. Huge change such as … the European Accessibility Act!

The European Accessibility Act (EAA): Why it’s here and how you can prepare for it

Our opening keynote today was one of the most highly anticipated presentations we’ve ever hosted. And for good reason. The EAA is a world-changing event.

It’s on everyone’s mind, and everyone has questions. But we also have hope. The EAA can potentially accelerate accessibility in ways we’ve never experienced. It’s a moment we’ve all been waiting for, something touched on by Alejandro Moledo during the keynote:

Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, Senior Expert on Disability, The European Commission, joined Alejandro for the keynote, and she, too, noted the far-reaching implications, even as she encouraged everyone to maintain their focus on the specific requirements:

“The important thing at this moment is to concentrate on the accessibility requirements, because not only are accessible products better for persons with disabilities, they benefit society in general.” – Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, Senior Expert on Disability, The European Commission

The keynote supplied a captivating balance of the technical and the aspirational. Alongside explanations of crucial terms such as transposition (the enacting of national laws to ensure EAA compliance) and clarifications around exceptions (e.g., for “micro-enterprises”), our expert hosts also spoke movingly about why the EAA’s impact stretches well beyond a series of compliance requirements:

“I’m convinced that the products and services which are accessible benefit society and consumers in general because they are more flexible, they allow for easy personalization, and they are more adaptable.” – Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, Senior Expert on Disability, The European Commission

As with all our sessions, we encourage questions. In this case, questions about scope were probably the most prevalent. While there are many ways to approach an answer, Immaculada delivered the clearest and best guidance possible when she stated, “Even if you aren’t in scope, you need to explore the benefits of accessibility.”

Axe-con quotes

Attendee engagement is a wonderful part of the whole axe-con experience. It happens in the chats during sessions and continues in our Discord community.

Referring to “Burnout, Bullsh*t, and Broken Systems: Surviving Digital Accessibility in the Trenches”—a provocative and memorable presentation by Kevin Andrews, EIT Accessibility Coordinator at Georgetown University—one Discord community member said, “I have a page of quotes in my notebook now!”

To which we say, “So do we!”

Below are just some of the great quotes we collected from day two.

From her cleverly titled session But…Why? came this quote from Melanie Sumner, Product Accessibility Lead, HashiCorp:

Judging by the high number of follow-up comments and questions in Discord, Melanie’s session was a real hit, and we’re so grateful to her—and to all our presenters—for taking the time to engage directly with our Discord community. Even after presenting for an hour straight, Melanie went right to Discord to continue the conversation!

Accessibility is a very serious topic, and we take it very seriously at axe-con. That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t some lighthearted moments along the way.

Axe-con 2025 attendees will likely never forget All aboard! A trip through Europe’s 7½ accessibility standards—otherwise known as the “train conductor” session—from Shadi Abou-Zahra (Principal Accessibility Standards and Policy Manager, Amazon) and Wilco Fiers (Senior Accessibility Engineer, Deque Systems). This was an actual exchange from their introduction:

Wilco: We are wearing these lovely caps that we got, our beautiful train conductor caps. And we have our lovely whistles because we are train conductors today.

Shadi: In addition to the hat, I also have a stop sign.

As entertaining as they were, they had serious business to cover:

Axe-con is a place for accessibility professionals to come together, swap insights, get inspired, and make important connections. But it’s also a place to empathize and share support.

Working in accessibility can be exhausting and often thankless labor. Passion can go unrewarded, and it can often feel like you’re an army of one. So when Neil Milliken, Global Head of Accessibility of Atos, stated the following, it was a resonant moment:

Neil’s session, cheekily titled “When your role has you spinning plates and all you can hear is the sounds of smashing crockery, was full of memorable quotables, as was a presentation by UX & Accessibility Consultant Michele Williams. Titled Unboxing Accessibility: The Dangers of a Restricted View, the session offered an abundance of insight:

“We should also be learning about disability, not just about the checklists and the items that we’re supposed to accomplish.”

“We need to always remember that there are people that we are trying to do this for.”

“Accessibility is not a set of features for a bounded technology that you’re using. It’s an experience that is lived every day across every area of your life.”

Given that axe-con’s primary audience is made up of accessibility professionals, it’s a given that there is always a great deal of focus on process and a lot of hard-earned wisdom shared on this topic. One of the more memorable quotes came during Speed without Sacrifice: Building an Accessibility-First Culture in Agile Teams:

John’s partner for the presentation made some similarly potent observations:

“You want to make sure that your testers have accessibility test cases that they’re looking at before you release, so that you’re releasing products that are born accessible.” – Andrew Walker, Senior Technical Program Manager, Accessibility Compliance, Paramount Streaming

As working professionals in the field, accessibility experts are understandably often anxious these days. As promising as the future feels with things like EAA on the horizon, there is also a lot of uncertainty. During our panel discussion on Digital Accessibility in Higher Education, Eudora Struble, Director of Technology Accessibility at Wake Forest University, was a reassuring voice:

We mentioned the admirable quotability of Kevin Andrews at the start of this section, and we’ll close with him again here, as he said something that I think every single attendee felt deep in their hearts:

The axe-con spirit

So many good things emerge from axe-con. Leading up to this year’s conference, we had the great honor of announcing a new initiative that has its roots in axe-con 2024:

After last year’s event, an anonymous user asked, “What can we do to help increase the number of qualified and passionate accessibility professionals?”

Acting on this feedback, we approached our IAAP partners to gauge their interest in creating a fund that would enable individuals with financial hardships to access IAAP certification exams. IAAP didn’t hesitate, and the “Fund the Future” Certification Scholarship Fund is the result.

To build momentum for this scholarship program, we’ve been actively inviting axe-con attendees to make donations, and we’re thrilled that event sponsors and speakers are already making significant contributions.

All donations to the “Fund the Future” Certification Scholarship Fund are tax-deductible as US law permits. Donate today: https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/certification-scholarship

What exciting new initiative do you think could emerge from this year’s conference?

More axe-con quotes!

We just can’t get enough of axe-con quotes, so here are even more nuggets of wisdom we collected:

“I want to emphasize that we want innovation, but with human consideration.” – Lesley Hanlin, Sr. Director, Head of Accessibility and Inclusion, TIAA (from the panel What it really takes: Building an Accessibility-first Corporate Culture)

“Being non-typical is actually pretty typical.” – Craig Abbott, Principal Accessibility Consultant, TetraLogical (from Designing for neurodiversity)

“When products and services are accessible, this is an opportunity for business. It could mean increased revenue if they stay accessible. Accessibility makes it more available for more people to use.” – Faith Obafemi, Cyber Accessibility Officer, Fezzant (from The Fallacy of Balance: Challenging the Notion of Security and Accessibility as Opposing Objectives)

“If you have more diverse folks in the room when you’re building software, it’s likely to impact the inclusivity of the software and have a positive impact.” – Ailsa Leen, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft (from 3 Dimensions for Inclusive and Accessible AI)

Great insights, right?

With so much expertise on offer, it was a real challenge to choose a closing quote. But ultimately, axe-con is about action. It’s about taking what we learn at the conference and using it to power meaningful change out in the world—every minute, every hour, every day. Accordingly, these words from Kristin Harvey, Director of Design at Cisco, felt particularly appropriate:

“Even small pivots can impact big change wherever you are.”

Looking ahead to day three

Speaking of making change happen, if there’s one morning when you do not want to be running late, it’s day three of axe-con. Our opening keynote is something truly magical: Making change happen: How the power of storytelling can drive accessibility forward.

The movie Crip Camp is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting, powerful, and moving works of art ever to emerge from the disability community. And our guest for this session is none other than Jim LeBrecht, co-director of Crip Camp!

Jim will be joined in conversation by Patrick Sturdivant, Vice President and Principal Strategy Consultant at Deque. This session will explore the transformative power of storytelling in the fight for disability rights and inclusion.

And that’s just the opening keynote! There are twenty other sessions to attend as well!

Which means it’s time to log off, relax, and get a good night’s sleep.

Thank you for two great days of axe-con. Let’s do it again on Thursday!