Speakers

Billy Gregory

11:00 a.m. – #SUX: Some User Experience

Bio: Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Billy Gregory is the Director of Training with The Paciello Group. Before joining TPG, and after failing to realize his dream of becoming a rock star, Billy focused his attention on front-end development working at small agencies, and at large corporations. It was during this time that he discovered his true love of the internet, and his wish that everyone be able to use it.

In his spare time, Billy is active in the Accessibility Community as Co-Organizer of “#a11yTO” which organizes Accessibility Camp Toronto, its monthly meet-up group, and #a11yTO Conf. He was also one half of the popular duo “The Viking and The Lumberjack. He is still not a rock star.

Twitter: @thebillygregory

Jeannette Washington, M.Ed.

10:00 a.m. – The Dyslexic Code

Bio: Jeannette is a former Speech Language Pathologist with nearly a decade of experience working with students that exhibit special abilities. My expertise in the field of dyslexia has been solicited for articles in The Washington Post and The Detroit Free Press. After attending a coding boot camp and working as a back end developer, I began boasting the importance of accessibility, inclusivity and neuro diversity in the tech industry. I currently work with Microsoft Philanthropies and Detroit Public Schools Community District teaching high school students how to code.

Twitter: @BearlyArtic

Jon Gunderson

1:00 p.m. – Understanding ARIA 1.1 and the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide

Bio: Dr. Jon Gunderson is the Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology Accessibility in the Division of Disability Resources and Education Services (DRES) at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois. He leads the development of open source web accessibility evaluation tools and coding practices resources to help web designers and developers understand accessible coding techniques. He is the past chair of the W3C User Agent Working Group and currently involved in the W3C ARIA Working Group. As a member of the W3C ARIA Working Group has been a major contributor to the ARIA Authoring Practices and the automated testing of ATIA implementation in browsers for the Windows platform. He has given numerous presentations, workshops and courses related to web accessibility. He leads the development of the Accessibility Inspector for Firefox and the Functional Web Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) service. The tools can be used to help verify the use of the HTML4, HTML5 and ARIA techniques to implement the requirements of the Section 508 and W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

Liz Davis

3:00 p.m. – Including people with disabilities in the process

Bio: Liz has been a problem solver since birth. She has used a wheelchair all her life. Her experience in dealing with the obstacles of an environment lacking accessibility has granted her a useful perspective in handling design. She’s currently a UX Designer in Chicago at QuikOrder and pursuing a graduate degree in HCI at DePaul University.

Twitter: @lizdavis__

Melanie Sumner

4:00 p.m. – A Practical Guide to Common Accessibility Challenges for Developers

Bio: Melanie is a military veteran who taught herself how to write code. She’s an accessibility advocate in the open source community as a member of the Ember.js core team, and co-organizes the Ember Chicago Meetup. You can find her mostly on Twitter or Instagram (melaniersumner), posting photos of her cats or all of the amazing foodie spots in Chicago!

Twitter: @melaniersumner

Molly Lee

9:00 a.m. – Accessibility as a Driver for Design

Bio: Molly is the Lead User Experience Designer at Adage Technologies in Chicago. She has been in the user experience field since 2009, and has been working on accessibility for the past 6 years. Today she is most interested in looking at the role accessible patterns and technology play in paving the way for a truly personalized digital experience.

Sharlene King

2:00 p.m. – Straws and Straw Men: The Costly Argument Against Accessibility

Bio: Sharlene King is a branding, product, and user experience designer focusing in accessibility and behavior. During business hours she works at Morningstar Inc, an independent financial research firm, building software that helps investors improve their financial health. In the after-hours and weekends, she corrupts the youth by teaching design through the Adler Planetarium, Chicago Public Schools, and other mentorship programs. You can also find her volunteering to keep Illinois and Chicago beautiful by planting trees, cleaning up parks, and forest preservation programs. She prefers food to booze, and will ask before taking the last slice of pizza.