Editors

Lainey Feingold

Lainey Feingold is a globally recognized disability rights lawyer, author, and international speaker who has worked in the digital accessibility space since 1995. She helped negotiate the first web accessibility agreement in the United States in 2000 and has worked with the blind community and dozens of companies on accessibility initiatives since then. Her first book is Structured Negotiation: A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits (2d Edition 2021).

Lainey is a global thought leader in the fields of digital accessibility and collaborative problem solving. She has delivered keynotes, trainings, and other talks across and outside the US and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and NBC News, among other news outlets. In 2025 she was included in the Forbes inaugural Accessibility 100 list.

Lainey was named a Legal Rebel and Problem Solver of the Year by the American Bar Association and twice received a California Lawyer Magazine “Attorney of the Year Award.” More information on Lainey’s website at https://www.lflegal.com/

Reginé Gilbert

Reginé Gilbert helps people and organizations reimagine possibilities at the intersection of inclusive design, emerging technology, and transformational change. Her research explores how inclusive design principles can guide the development of artificial intelligence, immersive realities, and spatially aware systems to better serve diverse communities. Reginé is a recognized voice in the field of Design, featured in publications including the Developer Advocate by Packt and Equal by Design by Aaron Mann. She is the author of “Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind,” first published by Apress in 2019 to wide acclaim from industry professionals. The second edition was released in 2025, also through Apress. She is currently collaborating with Doug North Cook on “Human Spatial Computing,” forthcoming from Oxford University Press. She works across North America and internationally. Reginé Gilbert LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginegilbert/
Reginé Gilbert website: https://reginegilbert.com/.

Chancey Fleet

Chancey Fleet is a Brooklyn-based tech educator and activist who identifies as Blind. Chancey is the Assistive Technology Coordinator at the New York Public Library. In that role, she curates accessible technology in the branch, collaborates across the NYPL system to improve equity of access, and coordinates a diverse team of staff and volunteers who provide one-to-one tech coaching and group workshops, free of charge and open to all. Through a 2017 NYPL Innovation grant, she founded and maintains the Dimensions Project, a free open lab for the exploration and creation of accessible images, models and data representations through tactile graphics, 3d models and nonvisual approaches to coding, CAD and “visual” arts.

Chancey is a 2018-19 Data & Society Fellow and current Affiliate-in-Residence whose writing, organizing and advocacy aims to catalyze critical inquiry into how cloud-connected accessibility tools benefit and harm, empower and expose communities of disability. She was recognized as a 2017 Library Journal Mover and Shaker. She currently serves as president of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB)’s Assistive Technology Trainers’ Division, is a board member of the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and is a member of New York State’s Regents’ Advisory Council on Libraries. Her writing has appeared in Urban Omnibus and MIT Technology Review.
Chancey Fleet LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chancey-fleet-35063317/

Contributors

Ariana H. Aboulafia

Ariana H. Aboulafia is a disabled attorney with expertise in disability, technology, criminal law, and the First Amendment. She was first introduced to technology policy while serving as a fellow to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and later worked as an assistant public defender in Miami-Dade County. Ariana currently leads the Disability Rights in Tech Policy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington DC, United States, where her work focuses on how people with disabilities are impacted by AI and other technologies.

Erin E. Brown

Erin E. Brown, PhD (hc), is a Bahamian Disability Inclusion Consultant, IAAP member, and Director of Disabilities and Compliance at the University of The Bahamas. An osteosarcoma survivor and above-the-knee amputee, she leads the Bahamas Paralympic Committee. With 20+ years of global advocacy, she advances inclusive emergency preparedness and digital equity.
Connect at https://qrco.de/ebconnects.

Laura Brady

Laura Brady is an accessible publishing expert who works with eBound Canada, the Accessible Books Consortium, and Adobe among other organizations. She has more than 25 years of trade publishing experience, working in digital publishing for the past fifteen years, creating and converting ebooks, training publishers on accessible workflows, and consulting for organizations about how to publish inclusively while worrying about everyone’s reading experience. She teaches about ebooks, publishing, and accessibility at Simon Fraser University and Toronto Metropolitan University.

Sheri Byrne-Haber

Sheri Byrne-Haber is a global disability inclusion expert who is a dual US-Canadian citizen and spends time in both countries. She is best known for launching digital accessibility programs McDonald’s and VMware. With degrees in computer science, law, and business and as a person with both congenital and acquired disabilities, Sheri has a complete 360-degree view of all the issues impacting people with disabilities and their use of technology. She has contributed to many global accessibility efforts including as the co-lead of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Maturity Modeling group, and as a member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) Global Leadership Council.

Meenakshi Das

Meenakshi Das is a software engineer at Microsoft based in Seattle, Washington in the United States. She has a speech disability and draws from her lived experience to advocate for inclusive technology and workplace practices. Meenakshi serves as Vice Chair of the non-profit Teach Access, promoting accessibility education across industry and academia. She is passionate about empowering people with disabilities through technology, design, and community. Her work has earned her honors such as the Disability:IN NextGen Leader of the Year 2022 and induction into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame.

Mónica Duhem

Mónica Duhem is a Mexican accessibility expert who has led projects supporting countries in LATAM to develop policies for digital inclusion, as well as training organizations of persons with disabilities and private companies. Some of the most important projects led by Mónica in recent years include creating recommendations for accelerating the inclusion of persons with disabilities in Uzbekistan’s digital economy and collaborating with the World Economic Forum to develop policies for the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance.

Carly Findlay

Carly Findlay is an award-winning writer, speaker and appearance activist. Her first book, a memoir called Say Hello, was released in Australia in January 2019. She also edited Growing Up Disabled in Australia with Black Inc Books, released in February 2021.She received an Order of Australia Medal for her work in disability advocacy and writing in 2020. She is an ambassador for Face Equality International.

Mike Gifford

Mike Gifford is the Open Standards and Practices Lead at CivicActions. Based in Canada, he brings deep expertise in open government, digital accessibility, and sustainability. He is a Drupal Core Accessibility Maintainer, and W3C Invited Expert. He is known for his leadership in authoring tool accessibility and his international speaking engagements. Mike has been advancing accessibility in Drupal since 2008 and champions digital sustainability through his work with W3C.

Haben Girma

The first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change, and the World Health Organization appointed her Commissioner of Social Connection. Her bestselling book Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law was featured in the New York Times.  She lives in California.

Josefina Ocampo Guchea

Josefina Ocampo Guchea is an Architect with a degree from the National University of Tucumán, Argentina and a University Professor. She has a Master’s degree in Accessibility from the University of Jaén, Spain and a Master’s degree in Politics and Government from San Pablo University of Tucumán. Josefina is a PhD candidate in Humanities, National University of Tucumán. She has a diploma in Social Photography from the National University of Buenos Aires and a Diploma in Care Policies, UN Women Argentina. Josefina is also a member of the International Union of Architects (UIA), Third Region, member of the G3ict, an international organization for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (United Nations Global Alliance for ICT) and a member of Legal & Economic Empowerment Global Network (LEEG-net), providing consulting services to government institutions for the review of laws and reforms aimed at achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. She also serves as a jury member of the Costa Rica Architecture Biennial, during the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024 Biennials.

Margaux Joffe

Margaux Joffe (she/her) is an American disability advocate and Founder of Minds of All Kinds, an organization dedicated to empowering neurodivergent people to learn, connect and lead. She launched the tech industry’s first Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group and Kaleidoscope Society for women with ADHD. As a speaker and consultant, she has presented at organizations including the United Nations and Fortune 500 companies. She serves on the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities and lives in Seattle.

Heidi Joshi, PsyD

Dr. Joshi is a licensed psychologist who is blind. She currently works as an Assistant Professor and Assistant Residency Director in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan in the US. She has spent her career teaching medical residents, and psychology trainees about mental health issues and primary care behavioral health. She enjoys helping people make important changes in their lives. She is also very interested in helping doctors develop long-term working relationships with their patients.

Dr. Samuel Kabue

Dr. Samuel Kabue is a seasoned disability rights advocate with over 40 years of service in government, civil society, and the church. He served on the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2017–2024) and was part of Kenya’s delegation that negotiated the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). He chairs the Caucus on Disability Rights Advocacy and has led multiple national and international committees. Dr. Kabue currently chairs the Board of the Refugee Consortium of Kenya and continues to influence disability inclusion policy in Kenya and beyond.

Shilpi Kapoor

Shilpi Kapoor is a serial entrepreneur who founded BarrierBreak and 247 Accessible Documents with a passion for technology, accessibility, and disability. She is an Ashoka Fellow and has been recognized as one of the Top 15 Women Transforming India by Government of India – Niti Aayog 2019. She has worked on advocacy and policy to promote digital accessibility in India & Globally since 2005.

Josh Kim

Josh Kim is a qualitative UX researcher turned accessibility designer with over a decade of experience co-creating civic technologies and services. Through his personal lived experiences with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and work with disabled Veterans at VA.gov, he strives to frame his approach towards accessibility from a trauma-informed perspective to better serve intentionally exploited communities.

Daniella Levy-Pinto

Daniella Levy-Pinto is a Mexican-Canadian accessibility expert and advocate who is totally blind and has over 25 years of experience using assistive technologies in academic and professional settings. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto, where her research focused on the role of the media in processes of political transition. As Manager of the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) in Canada, Daniella leads initiatives to advance digital accessibility and promote inclusive access to information for people with print disabilities.

Jenny C. Lu

Dr. Jenny C. Lu is an interdisciplinary researcher in cognitive science, disability studies, and public policy. Her academic work has documented a unique site of socialization and interaction in the DeafBlind community, where a new tactile language – Protactile – is emerging. She currently works in public policy at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), where she advocates for accessible transportation and equitable labor conditions. Dr. Lu received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago, and did her postdoc at UC Berkeley. Starting in 2026, she will be an Assistant Professor, jointly appointed in Disability Studies and Institute of Society & Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Matt May

Matt May retired in 2024 after 30 years working in technology in the United States and now acts as a mentor and advisor to those working in accessibility and inclusive design fields. Matt also publishes a newsletter called Practical Tips, discussing trends in tech and the labor market, and offers free, weekly office hours for people working in DEI-related fields in tech who need someone to lend an ear. https://calendly.com/practeq/officehours

Irene Mbari-Kirika

Irene Mbari‑Kirika is the Founder and Executive Director of inABLE, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering African youth with disabilities through technology. A leading advocate for digital accessibility, she spearheaded the development of Kenya’s ICT Accessibility Standard and convenes the annual Inclusive Africa Conference, bringing together global stakeholders to advance inclusive innovation in Africa. Irene is also the Founder of Technoprise Global, a people‑first digital agency employing persons with disabilities in digital accessibility services. She serves on the advisory of the W3C Web Accessibility Council.

Rolando J. Méndez Fernández

Rolando Méndez Fernández is Director of Education at Teach Access, where he works with educators to embed accessibility into teaching, learning, and course content. With over 20 years of experience as a learning designer and educator, he’s focused on building inclusive, real-world learning experiences across education and workforce settings. Rolando is passionate about equity, technology, and helping make accessibility second nature. He proudly leads this work from his home base in Puerto Rico.

Justin Merhoff

Justin Merhoff is a cybersecurity executive and advocate with over 27 years of experience in the field. He builds and leads security programs across startups, enterprises, and regulated environments, focusing on clarity, inclusion, and impact. Justin first recognized the link between cybersecurity and accessibility while leading security at a digital inclusion company. He continues this work through writing, advocacy, and collaboration to make cybersecurity usable by everyone.

Joshua A. Miele

Joshua Miele is a blind scientist, MacArthur Fellow, and Amazon Design Scholar. His contributions to accessible technology range from audio description to tactile maps and graphics to screen readers and sonification. He advises, collaborates, and mentors widely, bringing creative problem solving, humor, and decades of experience to a wide array of disability-related education, research, and development projects. His personal and professional journey is documented in his 2025 memoir, Connecting Dots – A Blind Life.

Jess Moore-Mathews

Jess Moore Matthews is the founder and Chief Good Troublemaker at Backbone Digital Leaders, an accessible digital marketing agency led by Black women. Founded in 2020, Backbone is spearheading a revolution at the ballot box and beyond. As an Adjunct Professor at New York University and Just Tech Fellow, Jess is identifying and expanding the digital organizing technologies that make our democracy more accessible to disabled organizers and voters. Jess’s expertise stems from her leadership on several presidential and down-ballot campaigns, as well as in industries from tech and journalism to state and local government. Her activism has always empowered underestimated leaders to claim their seats at the table. She lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina, United States with her husband and two children.

Victoria Ottah Nnenna

Victoria Ottah Nnenna (Toria) is a Lagos-based User experience designer specializing in accessibility in Nigeria. She has been working in digital accessibility for 3 years. She identifies as an accessibility evangelist and carries out her accessibility advocacy through writing, mentorships, creating digital designs, Accessibility Audits, and public speaking. She is the co-founder of Accessibility Nigeria, a nonprofit community that aims to create an accessible digital and physical environment for people with disabilities in Nigeria. She is a Women Tech Maker Ambassador who advocates for Women, diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and People with Disability (PWD). She is an open source advocate, leading a movement for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the open source ecosystem in Africa. She is a leader and maintainer at CHAOSS where she leads the movement for the inclusion of accessibility in the open source community.

Oluwaferanmi O. Okanlami

Dr. Oluwaferanmi “Dr. O” Okanlami is a Nigerian born, United States based Director of Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services at the University of Michigan (U-M), Ann Arbor, USA, and an Assistant Professor across multiple departments at Michigan Medicine and University of California, Los Angeles. A former Stanford Track & Field captain and Academic All-American, he earned his MD from U-M before a spinal cord injury during Orthopaedic Surgery residency at Yale redirected his path. Now a proud wheelchair user, he champions inclusion through medical education, disability advocacy, and adaptive sports. Nationally recognized across the US, he advances access and equity with his motto: “Disabusing DisabilityⓇ.”

Nefertiti Matos Olivares

Nefertiti Matos Olivares is a blind and chronically ill Afro-Latina based in New York City, deeply committed to ensuring culture is a shared space for all. As an advocate, advisor, and voice talent in Audio Description (AD) narration, she champions human-centered access and artistry. Nefertiti made history as the first blind person to perform live AD for the Oscars in 2023 and the Emmys in 2024. She received the American Council of the Blind’s “Achievement in Audio Description – Media” Award in 2025. As Workflow Manager for Descriptive Video Works, she elevates marginalized voices, actively speaking and driving meaningful inclusion and cultural competency in the industry.

Crystal Preston-Watson

Crystal Preston-Watson is the Senior Digital Accessibility Analyst at Salesforce. With a background in front-end and quality engineering, she has dedicated her career to ensuring that digital platforms and products are accessible to disabled users. Crystal has worked with a variety of organizations to implement accessibility best practices and has been a vocal proponent of accessibility standards and legislation. Her contributions to the tech community also include speaking engagements, workshops, and advocacy for better representation and inclusivity within the industry.

Thomas Reid

Thomas Reid is an Audio Producer, Audio Description (AD) Narrator, Consultant, and Advocate based in the United States. He’s the host and producer of the podcast Reid My Mind Radio. Through his annual season, “Flipping the Script on Audio Description” Reid explores the art and examines its implications on the community. A member of the Social Audio Description Collective and a freelance AD Narrator, Thomas has appeared on projects for Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, PBS and more. He provides consultations for independent filmmakers, film festivals, and co-facilitates AD workshops.

Adrian A. Roselli

Adrian A. Roselli has been developing for the Web since 1993. He has contributed to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), written articles for trade journals and web sites, participated as an author and editor on five web-related books, and was a founder of evolt.org, one of the first and largest communities for web developers in the 1990s. Adrian is an internationally recognized and respected digital accessibility expert who is regularly asked to review books, open source projects, and standards efforts. He has spoken around the world — from Singapore to Hong Kong, London to France, Lithuania to Serbia, Australia to Canada, and across the USA.

Kate Sonka

Kate Sonka is a co-founder and Executive Director of Teach Access, a US-based NGO that supports educators to teach and students to learn about digital accessibility. She holds a Master’s degree in Bilingual/Bicultural Education and her work spans industry, higher education, and nonprofits, fostering inclusive learning experiences and accessibility advocacy. Kate has presented globally at conferences and trained faculty around the world. She is based in Lansing, Michigan, US where she lives with her husband, cats, and houseplants.

Aderyn Thompson

Aderyn has worked in game accessibility for 10 years and is Accessibility Design Lead at Ubisoft. A pioneer of the practice “Accessibility by Design” he brings accessibility to game design. Working across many influential games and companies he’s pushed the industry to a more inclusive future. His approach centres collaboration, compassion, and teaching. His work dismantles the stigma that an accessible player experience should be siloed as “special” or different. He’s won awards, but that isn’t why he does the work.

James Thurston

James Thurston is an international technology and inclusion leader. He helps organizations embed accessibility and inclusion into digital transformation efforts and is recognized globally for creating and leading innovative inclusive Smart City initiatives. James has long applied technology and public policy to big social and economic challenges—from advancing disability inclusion and human rights worldwide to using digital innovation to strengthen U.S. industrial regions. He brings experience across the private and public sectors, with impact at federal, state, and international levels of government. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his husband, continuing to champion efforts that make communities and workplaces more accessible, inclusive, and equitable for all.

Jutta Treviranus

Jutta Treviranus is the Director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) and professor in the faculty of Design at OCAD University in Toronto (http://idrc.ocadu.ca). Jutta established the IDRC in 1993 as the nexus of a growing global community that proactively works to ensure that our digitally transformed and globally connected society is designed inclusively. Dr. Treviranus also founded an innovative graduate program in inclusive design at OCAD University.  Jutta is credited with developing an inclusive co-design methodology that has been adopted by large enterprise companies, as well as public sector organizations internationally. She has coordinated many research networks with and by people with disabilities. More information on Dr. Treviranus’ Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jutta_Treviranus

Léonie Watson

Léonie Watson is co-Founder and Director of TetraLogical, an accessibility consultancy based in the UK; Chair of the W3C Board of Directors, and co-Chair of the W3C Web Applications Working Group. She’s also co-organiser of the Inclusive Design 24 (#id24) conference; and co-author of the Inclusive Design Principles and the Do No Harm Guide: Centering accessibility in data visualization. Léonie began using the internet in the early 90s, turned it into a web design career in 1997, and (despite losing her eyesight along the way) has been enjoying herself thoroughly ever since.

Sheila Xu

Sheila Xu is a trailblazing deaf advocate, aerospace innovator, and the first deaf Asian-American woman to earn an FAA pilot license. As Director of Development at AstroAccess, she leads initiatives advancing disability inclusion in the space sector and was among the first deaf participants to complete commercial astronaut training and zero-gravity experiments. Sheila holds degrees from MIT, Harvard, and Wharton, and is dedicated to making space exploration accessible for all, championing accessibility, design, and equity in STEM, aerospace, and beyond. She divides her time between the US and Italy.

Aliyu G. Yisa

Aliyu Yisa is a Nigerian cybersecurity professional and accessibility advocate based in the UK who brings a unique perspective to making cybersecurity inclusive for all. He is co-founder of Fezzant, a company dedicated to making cybersecurity accessible, and CyBlack, a nonprofit organization growing the next generation of Black cybersecurity talent. With a background in software engineering and a Master’s in Cybersecurity from the University of Salford, Aliyu currently works as a cybersecurity practitioner. He advocates for accessible-first design in cybersecurity tools, training, and practices, recognizing that true security can only be achieved when it’s accessible to everyone.