Accessibility Matters^™ Video Interview Series

Meryl Evans, digital marketing consultant, speaker, author, and presenter for AccessibilityPlus 2021.

Accessibility is not just digital, it’s also real life.

Meryl Evans, advocate and content marketer, has spent her entire career working to improve access to online technology and effective communication. Meryl Evans is a social media marketer, writer, editor, and public speaker. She is currently serving as Marketing and Captioning Specialist for Diamond. 

You can hear more from Meryl Evans this October at AccessibilityPlus 2021. 

Andrew Houghton, President of Disability Inclusion Solutions

When I left the hospital I promised them they'd never see me again

Andrew Houghton, founder and president of Disability Inclusion Solutions has used a wheelchair since a 1986 motorcycle accident resulted in paraplegia. Disability Inclusion Solutions is a leading global diversity supplier source for clients seeking inclusive products and services, Universal Design consultation and in partnership with Bender Consulting Services, Inc. launched the iDisability eLearning software solution. 

Sheri Byrne-Haber, Senior Staff Architect, Accessibility at VMware

Disability is the one intersectional identity that everybody is always pretty much guaranteed to have at one point in their life.

Sheri Byrne-Haber is a senior accessibility evangelist and sought-after writing and public speaking expert with a history of successfully architecting strategic global accessibility programs in a Fortune 200 environment, including deploying corporate policies, accessible digital property design, and remediation using LEAN and AGILE software development techniques, analytics, and maturity modeling.

Joe Devon, Chair at the GAAD Foundation

There is a tremendous amount of work to be done. But I'd say the practitioners, they feel like there's a moment right now that accessibility is having a moment and that that there is hope that things are going to get better.

Launched on the occasion of the 10th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD May 20, 2021), the GAAD Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement. Our vision is for accessibility to be built into the product development lifecycle for technology and digital products.

Patrick Bardsley, Co-Founder & CEO, Spectrum Designs Foundation

It's the inherent self-worth, the being part of a team, the reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Patrick's organization employs individuals with autism once they've become adults at age 21, building an inclusive workforce and talented pool of employees.

Craig Leen, Partner at K&L Gates, Former OFCCP Director

Accommodations, by definition, increase productivity. They're always good.

Craig's career as Coral Gables City Attorney, Director of the OFCCP, and Partner at K&L Gates — and his lived experience as a father fighting for his daughter's inclusion — support his call for leading by example.

Gavin Neate, CEO and Founder, Neatebox Limited

The truth is that disabled people aren’t going to wait to be included. They’re not waiting to be included. They are being included themselves.

Gavin's innovative inventions are changing the ways individuals control the accessibility and inclusion of their physical and social spaces.

Christopher Patnoe, Head of Accessibility Programs and Disability Inclusion, Google

You want to design with it in mind, you want to build with it in mind, you want to test with it in mind.

Chris's career in tech has led him to an incredibly-visible and globally-impactful role leading with accessibility program management with empathy at Google. 

Susan Gordon-Ryan, Creator of the Empire Games

I really built it out of things that I wanted as a kid that I never had.

Susan had polio as a young child, which led to disability that helped shape her life's work and her crowning achievement — creating the Empire Games.

Cat Noone, CEO, Stark

It's very hard to unsee.

Cat is a fierce advocate of building accessibility at scale in a way that works for real people.