Speakers
Joanne Pak
Joanne Pak is an official NER certifier of live caption accuracy, and she is a subject matter expert for the Inclusive Media and Design Centre at Ryerson University. Throughout her career, Joanne has worked for numerous broadcasters, nonprofits, and educational institutions, specializing in accessible media as a described video writer and narrator, closed caption editor, audiobook producer, image description writer, and NER instructor. She was awarded a Gold Merit from Bell Media for developing a described video (DV) workflow, coaching writers, and creating the Bell in-house DV style guide. Joanne currently leads the production of accessible graphic novel audiobooks at CNIB and trains writers in image description.
Humberto Hernandez
Humberto Hernandez is a Colombo-American accessibility activist and Assistive Technology (AT) instructor who has worked for organizations in the private and public sector to break down barriers for individuals with all types of abilities. Humberto is a certified front-end web developer and Higher Ed Peer Reviewer, and Universal Design Advocate. Humberto has dedicated a significant part of his professional life testing, assessing, and remediating websites and other authorizing tools to make them accessible for individuals with disabilities. He has created nationwide programs like BEBs also known as Breaking Down Employment Barriers for individuals with disabilities and has worked with and for individuals with disabilities for more than 10 years.
Tolu Adegbite
Tolu os a product designer and developer specializing in accessible design, based in Toronto. Tolu enjoys reading, playing the piano, skateboarding (badly), taking care of plants and spending as much time outside as humanly possible.
Cam Beaudoin
Cam is a Digital Accessibility subject matter expert, who wants to help other Accessibility consultants elevate their skill levels.
Jeanne Spellman
Jeanne has worked in accessibility since 1999 as a developer, designer, tester, and change evangelist. She has specialized in W3C standards since 2008, working on WCAG 2.0, Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0, User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0, and How WCAG Applies to Mobile. Jeanne co-leads the W3C Silver Task Force which is designing WCAG3. Jeanne is dabbling in retirement, but WCAG3 keeps her very busy.
Susan Till
Susan has worked as a digital accessibility lead, consultant, trainer, resource creator, and strategist for four years. Prior to that, she was an accessibility advisor and trainer in her roles as content strategist and content designer. She also has a background in instructional design within the educational publishing industry. Her dog is too smart for his own good.
Todd Libby
Todd is a professional web developer, designer, and accessibility advocate. He has been an avid learner of web technologies for over 40 years starting with many flavours of BASIC all the way to React/Vue. Todd is also a member of the W3C doing work on WCAG 3.0. He also hosts the Front End Nerdery Podcast and when not coding, writing, or speaking at conferences, you’ll usually find him tweeting about lobster rolls and accessibility, as well as hanging out by the ocean.
Courtney Craven
Courtney (they/them) is an accessibility consultant and captionist, focused on game development. Courtney has been working in game accessibility for 8 years and has been the captionist for Unreal Engine since 2019. In 2018, Courtney co-founded Can I Play That? to serve both gamers and developers as an info hub and media hub for all things game accessibility.
Nina Baliga
Nina is an accomplished leader and TEDx speaker on accessible technology, with a passion to make every product and service delightful for all users. With 10 years of work in the tech sector under her belt, Nina has focused on user experience design, accessibility, and digital strategy. She’s a disability advocate and influencer who changes thoughts and minds through human connection and deep functional and technical knowledge. Nina believes in the power of graciousness and vulnerability, leads by example, and embraces coaching to help others expand their knowledge and experiences. Nina has spoken at conferences across the country about a variety of issues on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Hector Osborne Rodriguez
Hector has over a decade of software development and consulting working with companies all around the world. He has been specializing - but not solely focus - on eCommerce accessibility. Every day trying to learn, educate & share knowledge about accessible solutions. He's also a casual platform gamer where he finds inspiration in accessibility solutions & inclusive story telling. Currently working in Accenture as Front End Development Manager & Accessibility Champion.
Alicia Jarvis
Alicia is a diversity, equity & Inclusion researcher and strategist. She is a creative force for change and thought-leadership, offering a positive perspective and innovative solutions to complex problems relating to universal usability.
Dax Castro
Dax is an award-winning, Adobe-Certified PDF Trainer and IAAP-Certified Accessible Document Specialist who has been working in the Engineering industry for nearly two decades. Dax specializes in user-centered accessibility approaches that push the envelope of technology to produce more robust accessible documents that still meet WCAG, AODA and PDF/UA compliance. Dax’s helpful tips and real-world insights on time-saving methodologies and solutions help teams and organizations keep projects on track despite having to adapt to unfamiliar accessibility requirements. He also runs a PDF Accessibility Support Group of 1,100 on Facebook and just launched an accessibility podcast with fellow accessibility expert/trainer Chad Chelius - www.chaxchat.com.
Hidde de Vries
Hidde is a front-end web developer and accessibility specialist. Hidde writes about all things HTML, CSS and JavaScript. He has been contracting with organizations like W3C, Mozilla and the Dutch government, to help them deliver sites that put users first.
Meryl Evans
A solo marketing consultant for over 20 years from Texas, Meryl is an author and contributor to books on business and technology. She helps B2B and accessibility companies rock their content marketing initiatives. Prior to striking out on her own, she worked for two Fortune 500 companies and the FAA. A highly sought-after speaker who happens to be deaf, Meryl is renowned for sharing her personal experiences and passion for accessibility and high-quality captioning. Her marketing and education backgrounds come in handy in educating audiences on why accessibility is for everyone and everyone's job.
Victory Brown
Hi, I'm victory from Nigeria. I am a user experience designer passionate about accessible designs and crafting simple user experiences with the users in mind. I believe that a diverse environment can inspire innovation that can solve user problems. The drive for the Inclusion of marginalized users led to my thirst for design advocacy roles. I have over 1-year of experience in User Experience Design, after trying out HTML and CSS which I'm vaguely familiar with. My interests surround working with and advocating assistive and adaptive technologies that improve learning, and other product development that is User-centered. I value collaborative communities, even as a self-starter, I understand and encourage teamwork. It creates an environment for multiple and diverse ideas which helps Innovation. (I highly recommend it if you're trying to be user-centered). I love to learn new trends and approaches to User-centered design.
I contribute to open source projects as a UX designer, and I also help with the onboarding of designers into the communities. I am a Sustain OSS working group member, where we handle issues facing designers in Free and Open Source Software. I write about UX trends I've learned to assist others and I also speak about Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility when given the opportunity.
Mark Farmer
Mark Farmer is an award-winning digital communications professional with 20 years' experience in the field. Mark started in web design and development in the late '90s, and founded his own shop, webness, in 2001. He worked as webmaster and then creative director for Earth Day Canada before shifting to digital communications for organizations such as the Royal Ontario Museum, Intuit's Global Business Division and York University. Currently, Mark is the senior digital strategist at the Ontario College of Teachers, leading a team of digital specialists in building the College's websites, apps, intranets, social media, email communications and other digital channels.
Jennifer Chadwick
I'm a regular lover and volunteer of the fabulous #a11yTO Camp and Conference. I'm a user experience designer who has been focused on inclusive design and accessibility for the past eight years. I'm the Lead Accessibility Strategist at Siteimprove, and work closely as a trainer and consultant on strategy and best practices for designers, developers, content authors and developers.
Ross LaVallee
Ross Lavallee, was born Deaf. He has always been interested in technology, specifically how Smart Homes can help the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.