TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome ...................................................................................................... 2
Thanks ......................................................................................................... 3
Setting the Stage ......................................................................................... 4
Connect with Us ........................................................................................... 4
Agenda ........................................................................................................ 5
Petting Zoo .................................................................................................. 8
Participants .................................................................................................. 9
Tech@LEAD
1
WELCOME
At the Kennedy Center’s LEAD 2012 convening in Boston two people – Larry
Goldberg and Nancy Proctor – apparently simultaneously and independently felt
the same spark of inspiration, and both approached the Center’s VSA and
Accessibility Staff with the same idea – lets’ spend an entire day of LEAD 2013
focused on technology!
Thus we arrive at this moment where the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts Office of VSA and Accessibility, the Smithsonian Institution, the
National Park Service, and the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for
Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM) welcome the Facilitators, Agitators,
Catalysts, Provocateurs, and Innovators joining this experimental gathering
focused on making our world’s culture and natural history fully inclusive.
This pilot day of lightning talks, focused brainstorming, technology petting zoo
and fast-moving and intensive conversations relies on each one of you in the
room bringing a unique and highly valued perspective. With an eye toward the
rapid incursion of new technologies - especially mobile and smart devices - into
all aspects of our lives, Tech@LEAD convenes diverse experts and practitioners
from a variety of fields: the arts, education (K-12 and post-secondary), design,
exhibition, media, electronic and information technology, online experience and
mobile and portable device development and manufacturing - all to advance the
development and application of innovative technologies that can support the
inclusion of people with disabilities in the cultural lives of our world.
Today’s outcomes will be recorded in a variety of forms and posted via the social
media outlets listed below. We are hoping and expecting that the day will
overflow with research ideas, product solutions and the start of partnerships and
networks that will last for years to come.
Thank you all for making today successful and welcome to the Kennedy Center!
Betty Siegel, Director of VSA and Accessibility,
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Larry Goldberg, Director
Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH
Welcome
2
THANKS
First and foremost, thanks go to the leadership of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
for supporting accessibility in all facets of the Center, and for making the commitment to national
programs that promote the inclusion of people with disabilities as audience, employees, artists, interns,
and volunteers:
David M. Rubinstein, Chairman
Michael M. Kaiser, President
Darrell M. Ayers, Vice President, Education
The Kennedy Center would like to thank our Tech@LEAD partners and planning committee members
whose expertise and hard work made this event possible:
Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH
Larry Goldberg, Director
Diána Hughes, Intern
Smithsonian Institution
Nancy Proctor, PhD, Head of Mobile Strategy & Initiatives
Beth Ziebarth, Director, Accessibility Program
National Park Service
Michele Hartley, Media Accessibility Coordinator, Harpers Ferry Center
Special thanks to:
Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, founder of VSA, for her belief that ALL people living with
disabilities, young and old, have a right to be included in the arts and cultural activities.
Darrell Ayers, Vice President, Education, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, for
enabling and supporting the efforts of his team in the Office of VSA and Accessibility.
Betty Siegel, Director of VSA and Accessibility, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
for recognizing the potential impact and value of Tech@LEAD and finding
the resources to make it happen.
The Accessibility Team in the Office of VSA and Accessibility for their dedication to providing topnotch professional development opportunities that support the inclusion of people with disabilities in the
arts.
Jessica Swanson, Manager, Accessibility
Sarah Schoenfelder, Coordinator, Cultural Access Initiatives
Joy Gardiner, Coordinator, Accessibility
Also thanks to – Discovery Doodle, Greg Shea (videoblogger), and the captioners, interpreters,
describers, presenters, facilitators, zookeepers, and tech crew.
Funding for the Kennedy Center’s Accessibility Initiatives is provided by Mike and Julie Connors and the Margaret
A. Cargill Foundation.
Education and related artistic programs are made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for
the Performing Arts and the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts. This conference was developed under a
grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of
the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.
Thanks
3
SETTING THE STAGE
Guiding Questions for Tech@LEAD
1. More technology in cultural and natural history institutions means more
challenges and more opportunities for accessibility - what should we do about
that?
2. What technologies, tools, models and techniques from the wider world can we
apply to be more fully inclusive?
3. How can we focus the development and proliferation of new and existing
technologies to be inherently accessible and inclusive?
4. New visitor experiences are coming - what should we do to get ready for
them?
CONNECT WITH US
WWW.TECHATLEAD.COM
@TECH_AT_LEAD
#TECHLEAD2013
Setting the Stage and Connect with Us
4
AGENDA
All activities are in the Terrace Gallery, unless otherwise noted.
9:30am Registration and Coffee
10:00am Introductions and Welcomes from Hosts
10:15am Pairing #1: “Visible, audible, touchable”
Lightning Talks and Discussion with Sina Bahram and Will Mayo
Sina Bahram is an accessibility researcher and PhD candidate at North Carolina
State University and is a lifelong user of screen readers and other assistive
technologies. Sina’s research blends human computer interaction, intelligent user
interfaces, and artificial intelligence together with an emphasis on helping user’s with
disabilities.
http://www.sinabahram.com
Will Mayo is the CEO and Founder of SpokenLayer. Will has applied his life
experience with dyslexia (having earned a BS and MS in electrical and computer
engineering using audible versions of his course content) to create a New Yorkbased start-up. SpokenLayer is an application that takes articles from across the
web and transforms written stories into audio within seconds, using speech
synthesis, professional voices, and crowd-sourced readers.
http://www.spokenlayer.com
10:45am Pairing #2: “Music, sound, health”
Lightning Talks and Discussion with Dr. Lisa Wong and Halsey Burgund
Dr. Lisa Wong is a pediatrician who incorporates music into her daily life and into the
daily care of her patients. A graduate of Harvard, NYU Medical School and a
pediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Wong has also served as
president of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for more than 20 years. LSO is a
90-member ensemble composed primarily of faculty, students and staff from the
healthcare professions. Dr. Wong also serves as a mentor to Harvard women who
are pursuing their premedical studies at Harvard while continuing to foster their
talents in musical or visual arts.
http://www.drlisamwong.com
Halsey Burgund is a sound artist and musician who uses the nuances of the human
voice in his installations and musical compositions, often incorporating “uninvolved”
or random voices as inspiration and raw materials. He recently collaborated with
visual artist Kelly Sherman on an installation at TEDMED called “Patient
Translations” which translated medical stories instantly into audio art as a way of
humanizing the experience of being a patient.
http://www.halseyburgund.com 7
11:15am BREAK (with “Technology Petting Zoo”)
North Atrium Foyer
A bio-break and opportunity to get your hands on some very interesting technologies
Agenda
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11:45am Problems and Solutions #1:
“Getting to Touch: tables, kiosks, screens, devices”
This Focused Brainstorming session will put all of us to work on one of the most
vexing problems facing cultural institutions: how to make sure the latest interactive
user interfaces are inclusive of all visitors. Much work has been done in making
touchable devices accessible - what remains? what aren’t we thinking about? what
have we missed? what works and what doesn’t? All in one hour!
Facilitator: John Tobiason, New Media and Technology Specialist at the National
Park Service
12:45pm LUNCH
1:30pm Pairing #3: “Gaming your life/Fun First”
Lightning Talks and Discussion with Dr. Lotfi Merabet and Mark Barlet
Dr. Lotfi Merabet is a clinician-neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Infirmary, with a focus on how the brain adapts to the loss of sight. He completed his
doctorate degree in neuroscience (University of Montreal) and clinical doctorate in
optometry (New England College of Optometry). He then continued his post-doctoral
training at Harvard Medical School, Boston University and the MGH Martinos Center
for Biomedical Imaging and completed his Master’s degree in Public Health
(Harvard). Dr. Merabet’s main research interests include the development of virtual
environments and game-based strategies to assist in orientation and mobility training
in the blind.
http://www.schepens.harvard.edu/faculty/merabet/merabet-profile.html
Mark Barlet is the president and co-founder of AbleGamers, a non-profit organization
that advocates for greater accessibility to video games for people with disabilities.
AbleGamers mission is to provide inclusive experiences of situations that may be
difficult or limited in the real world, to provide wider social networking opportunities,
and to generate opportunities for participation in one of the world’s largest pastimes.
http://www.ablegamers.org
2:00pm Pairing #4: “The Future - is it here yet?”
Lightning Talks and Discussion with Marc Check and Greg Hlibok
Marc Check is the Director of Information and Interactive Technology at Boston’s
Museum of Science, as well as the president and CEO of Curious Interactive. Marc
has a long history at the intersection of museums and technology, having held key
positions at the Strong National Museum of Play, the International Center for the
History of Electronic Games, the American Journal of Play, and the Rochester
Museum & Science Center among others. He earned an MS in Information
Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology with concentrations in
database technology, network technology and interactive multimedia.
http://www.mos.org; http://www.curiousnerds.com
Greg Hlibok is a lawyer and chief of the Disability Rights Office (DRO) at the Federal
Communications Commission where he oversees several critical rulemaking
proceedings on the implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act. In 1988, Greg was elected president of the Student Body
Government at Gallaudet University, just as the “Deaf President Now” protests
began. Greg helped successfully negotiate the appointment of Gallaudet’s first Deaf
president. http://www.gallaudet.edu/News/Hlibok_leads_FCC_DRO.html
Agenda
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2:30pm BREAK (with “Technology Petting Zoo”)
3:00pm Problems and Solutions #2: “Bring your own devices”
This Focused Brainstorming session will address an issue that every public
institution is struggling with: how do you support/limit/exploit the pervasiveness of
mobile smart devices, accessibly? Can an institution support every platform, every
flavor, from the ancient to the cutting-edge? Can you limit their usage and would you
want to, especially when most people have a high comfort level with their own
technology, not yours.
Facilitator - Tracy Gray, Managing Director, AIR (American Institutes for Research)
4:00pm Conclusions and Wrap-up
By this point in the day, either confusion, exhaustion and/or epiphanies will reign. We
will use this time to review where we have been, what great ideas have been
introduced and to discuss where we go from here. We will have recorded, by various
means, all that has been put on the table; creating some coherent conclusions will be
our final assignment.
Facilitator - Chris Hass - SVP, Experience Design, Mad*Pow Design
5:00pm Petting Zoo open; Interviews conducted by videoblogger
6:00pm Dinner at Ancora
600 New Hampshire Ave NW, DC (next door to the Kennedy Center)
Agenda
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PETTING ZOO
North Atrium Foyer
Mark Barlet - AbleGamers (www.ablegamers.com)
Halsey Burgund - sound artist - Roundware (www.halseyburgund.com)
Amanda Cachia - UC San Diego - “What Can a Body Do?”
(http://exhibits.haverford.edu/whatcanabodydo/)
Marc Check - Boston Museum of Science - ByteLight (www.bytelight.com)
Sara Hendren - Artist/Designer - Abler (www.ablersite.org/)
Annuska Perkins - Consultant - Good Labs - Arduino and wearable fabric
technology (www.good-labs.com)
Anna Lindgren-Streicher - Boston Museum of Science - accessible touch screen
(openexhibits.org/research/cmme/)
Will Mayo - SpokenLayer (www.spokenlayer.com)
Nancy Proctor, Beth Ziebarth - The Smithsonian - Access American Stories
(www.si.edu/apps/accessamericanstories)
Neal Stimler - The Met - Google Glass (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nealstimler/25/ab2/337) (https://twitter.com/nealstimler)
John Tobiason - National Park Service/Harpers Ferry Center - accessible tour
apps (http://www.nps.gov/hfc/accessibility/)
Petting Zoo
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PARTICIPANTS
Day Al-Mohamed
Senior Policy Advisor, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability
Employment Policy (ODEP)
Ms. Al-Mohamed’s policy portfolio includes management of ODEP’s
Add Us In initiative to identify and develop strategies to increase
employment opportunities within the small business community for
individuals with disabilities. Also, as a part of the agency’s Youth
Team she is helped to design a skills-based video game to better
teach the Department’s “Skills to Pay the Bills” employment training
curriculum.
Prior to that, Ms. Al-Mohamed worked as Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer with the
American Psychological Association (APA). She managed APA’s legislative and regulatory
activities related to public interest policy issues in the arenas of Disability, Racial and Ethnic
Minorities, and International Development.
She has also served as Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs for the American
Council of the Blind. Ms. Al-Mohamed provided technical assistance and support to both
consumers and various advisory committees and governing bodies on legislative and
regulatory issues related to: the Telecommunications Act, Voting System Guidelines,
Broadband Technical Specifications, Pedestrian Rights of Way, Social Security Privatization,
and Emergency Preparedness.
Before her legislative work in Washington DC, Ms. Al-Mohamed’s career has included work in
advocacy and legislative initiatives on behalf of many disenfranchised groups. She has worked
on the planning committee for the Civil Rights Group of the Cambio de Colores conference; the
largest conference that directly addresses the various issues faced by Latino immigrants to the
Midwest. In addition, she served as a representative of the ISC-ICC to the Preparatory
Commission of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the United Nations, reporting on the
activities of the Victim’s Trust Fund Working Group which addressed the needs of victims of
genocide on a global scale.
Ms. Al-Mohamed holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a
Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Ms. Al-Mohamed proudly serves as Public Affairs Staff
Officer (FSO-PA) for Flotilla 24-01 in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary providing
services and instruction in online communications strategy and use of social media. She
enjoys geocaching, fencing, writing fiction, and learning to play the guitar.
Contact Day at [email protected]
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Andrew Anway
Founder and Creative Director at Amaze Design
Andrew Anway is the founder and creative director of Amaze Design,
a firm specializing in the planning and design of museums, museum
exhibits and high-end visitor attractions. He has thirty years
experience in all aspects of project planning, interpretive design,
management and construction. He has led international teams in the
development of national museums for the federal governments of
Malaysia, Australia and Qatar. His firm is a preferred designer for
both the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution. His
recent projects include the Perot Museum of Nature & Science in
Dallas, the Environmental Learning Center for the City of Los Angeles and the National
Children's Museum in Washington, DC. He led the team in the development of new
“Expanding the Legacy” galleries at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, AL
and his firm received a national accessibility award for the African Burial Ground Interpretive
Center in New York City from the National Park Service. Mr. Anway is married and the father
of three sons. He holds a BA in history from Boston College.
Contact Andrew at [email protected]
Darrell M. Ayers
Vice President for Education and Jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts
Darrell Ayers is Vice President for Education and Jazz at the John
F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the
nation’s performing arts center. Since 2004, he has been responsible
for the overall planning, management, and supervision of the
programs and operations of the Center's Education Division which
includes educational programs of the National Symphony Orchestra,
the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and the Washington National Opera as
well as its affiliate VSA (the international arts and disability
organization). The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and Jazz
programming area are also under his responsibility. The budgets
under Ayers' supervision total more than $15 million with 45 full-time
staff. The educational resources under his purview focus on “Teaching, Learning, and
Partnerships,” “Performances and Events for Young Audiences” and “Career Development for
Young Artists.”
Ayers has served as a board member and grant panelist for a number of community-based
arts organizations and arts councils. He has worked on television specials including the
Kennedy Center Honors, the National Literacy Honors at the White House, and the All-Star
Salute to Our Troops.
He has worked professionally as a teacher, choral conductor, singer, dancer, and actor and
he has toured nationally and internationally as a performer and stage manager. He attributes
his success to his teachers Dr. Robert Brewster and Dr. Lee Kjelson at the University of Miami
in Florida, Professor Alex Chrestopoulos at Georgia Southern University and his 4 th grade
music teacher Mrs. Hottel at Kenwood Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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Rayna Aylward
Board Member and Vice President at Policy Works
Rayna Aylward is a board member and vice president of
PolicyWorks, focusing on building strategic relationships with
nonprofits, employers, and funders and on promoting
mentorships leading to career connections. Prior to joining
PolicyWorks in January 2013, Rayna served as Special
Assistant to the US Secretary of Education, with a policy focus
on college and career readiness and school to work transition. She initiated the Department of
Education’s first internship program for youth with disabilities, an interagency collaboration and
partnership with the District of Columbia government that has become a federal model. Rayna
has also been a teacher, journalist, and diplomat, serving in Latin America and the Middle
East. Throughout her career, education, inclusion, and cross-cultural communications have
been priority themes.
A Chicago native, Rayna received a BA in English from Beloit College and an MA in Literature
from Boston University.
Contact Rayna at [email protected]
Sina Bahram
PhD Candidate in the Department of Computer Science at
North Carolina State University
Sina Bahram is an accessibility researcher and consultant
pursuing his PhD in the Department of Computer Science at
North Carolina State University. His field of research is
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) with a focus on the use
of advanced techniques and multi-modal approaches to
facilitate eyes-free exploration of highly graphical information. Combining artificial intelligence,
intelligent user interfaces (IUI), and HCI, Sina devises innovative and user-centered solutions
to difficult real-world problems. In 2012, Sina was recognized as one of President Barack
Obama's Champions of Change for his work in enabling users with disabilities to succeed in
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. You can read more about Sina
and his interests on his website (http://www.SinaBahram.com) and his blog
(http://blog.SinaBahram.com). He is @SinaBahram on Twitter.
Contact Sina at [email protected]
Mark Barlet
Cofounder at AbleGamers Foundation
Mark Barlet is the cofounder of the AbleGamers Foundation, the
largest
501(c)(3)charity supporting the disabled individuals and wounded
warriors in the video games space. He also serves as the
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president where his responsibilities include overseeing grants that provide needed equipment
to disabled individuals, maintaining relationships with high-ranking industry members, and
researching cutting-edge assistive technology. Mark, an Air Force veteran, understands the
needs of the disabled community intimately both as someone deeply involved in the day-to-day
affairs of the AbleGamers members and personal experience as a disabled veteran. Mark has
maintained his position for the last eight years, taking the dream of bringing accessibility to the
world from a one-man blog with a few hundred views per month to a large nonprofit with over a
dozen staff members and measureable impact on the quality of the lives of people with
disabilities.
Contact Mark at [email protected]
Betsy Beaumon
Vice President and General Manager of The Global Literacy
Program at Benetech
Betsy Beaumon is the VP and General Manager of the Global
Literacy Program at Benetech, a Silicon Valley nonprofit with a
vision to serve humanity through technology. A social
entrepreneur, Ms. Beaumon is an authority on digital accessible
materials in education and coined the phrase “born accessible,”
imagining a future in which all content, including mathematical
formulas and other STEM graphics, are made accessible within
the publishing process. She holds a BSEE from Northwestern
University and has co-founded two online software companies. She is also a member of the
DAISY Consortium and an Advisory Board Member for the National Center on Accessible
Instructional Materials.
Contact Betsy at [email protected]
Vanessa Braun
Manager of Employee Engagement and Director of Accessibility at
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
Vanessa Braun is the Manager of Employee Engagement and
Director of Accessibility at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. She has
harbored a lifelong interest in and commitment to matters of
accessibility, education, and social justice. Vanessa has experience
working in both higher education and human resources. Since joining
the Trust’s staff in the fall of 2011, she has become immersed in all
aspects of the operation, directing the accessibility initiatives and
more recently working with the Trust’s Executive Vice President to
build both a robust staff development program and a fellowship
program. Vanessa looks forward to facilitating further innovation and
positive change at the Trust and is particularly interested in how this
change can be aided by technology.
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Contact Vanessa at [email protected]
Alan Brightman
Vice President and Research Fellow at Yahoo!
Alan Brightman received a Ph.D. in Education from Harvard
University, an Honorary Ph.D. in Science from The University of
Massachusetts and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Boston
University. His professional accomplishments in areas related to
individuals with disability reflect a career devoted not only to
increasing the quality of life for underserved and too-often
overlooked members of society, but also to developing large-scale
business opportunities to serve the needs of these segments.
Brightman is currently a Vice President and Research Fellow at Yahoo! where he created the
Accessibility Group that he ran for 7 years. This group continues to be responsible for ensuring
that all of Yahoo!’s Internet products are as accessible as possible to individuals with
disabilities. Previously, Brightman was the Founder of Apple Computer's Worldwide Disability
Solutions Group and served as its only Director throughout its 13-year existence. In this
capacity he was responsible for ensuring that all Apple products, programs, and services were
accessible to children and adults with disability.
After Apple, Brightman created the Teenage Division for AT&T Labs, an organization he
managed for close to 5 years. In this capacity he was responsible for introducing AT&T to the
teenage customer segment as well as for designing and developing new telecommunications
products and services for teens and young adults. Brightman’s work was a key factor in AT&T
Wireless’ decision to pursue the teen consumer market.
Brightman has published a number of books—for children as well as adults—aimed at
fostering fuller understanding and inclusion of disabled members of society.
Brightman’s most recent book, DisabilityLand, was the recipient of a Benjamin Franklin Award.
Contact Alan at [email protected]
Halsey Burgund
Artist
After getting a degree in Geophysics, designing and building furniture
and working in the high tech industry, Halsey Burgund is now a sound
artist and musician. He works primarily with spoken voices in
combination with traditional and electronic instruments in both audio installations and musical
performances. Recently, his work has focused on participatory location-based audio
installations for which he developed Roundware, a distributed platform for collecting,
organizing and re-presenting media via smartphones and the web.
Contact Halsey at [email protected]
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Amanda Cachia
PhD Candidate in Art History, Theory, and Criticism at University of
California
Amanda Cachia is an independent curator from Sydney, Australia and is
currently completing her PhD in Art History, Theory & Criticism at the
University of California, San Diego. Her dissertation will focus on the
intersection of disability and contemporary art. Cachia completed her
second Masters degree in Visual & Critical Studies at the California
College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco in 2012. Her MA thesis,
entitled What Can a Body Do? Inscribing and Adjusting Experiences of Disability in
Contemporary Art formed the basis of an exhibition curated by Cachia and hosted by Cantor
Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, PA in 2012. Cachia received her first Masters in
Creative Curating from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2001. She held the
position Director/Curator of the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada from
2007-2010, and has curated approximately 30 exhibitions over the last ten years in London,
New York, Oakland and various cities across Australia and Canada. Her writing has been
published in numerous exhibition catalogues, Canadian Art, and Disability Studies Quarterly
and she has lectured and participated in panels at conferences widely, including National
Gallery of Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery, University of California (Berkeley, Santa Barbara &
San Diego), Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University,
Portland State University, Emory University, de Young Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art
and the Graduate Center at City University of New York. Cachia is a dwarf activist and has
been the Chair of the Dwarf Artists Coalition for the Little People of America since 2007.
To learn more, visit www.amandacachia.com or email [email protected]
Carlos Cardenas
Vice President of THE MEME
Carlos Cardenas’ career has focused on the connections between
technology, design and the human experience. As founding
partner and Vice-president of THE MEME he is responsible for
providing leadership, developing strategic directions for innovation
and creative integration of research, design and technology for the
development of engaging user centered interactive experiences.
Carlos has been successful in integrating human centered design
research and insights with in order to develop successful
innovative solutions for diverse products and services. He has led multiple projects for leading
global organizations in diverse industries including consumer electronics, education, and
entertainment. He has been faculty member and guest lecturer on digital media and interactive
technology at several design and architecture schools in US and Latin America.
Carlos holds a Doctor of Design degree and a Master in Design Studies with distinction in the
Digital Media concentration, both from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He also
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received a Graduate Diploma in Multimedia Design and a Bachelor of Architecture, both from
Universidad de Los Andes – Bogota, Colombia.
Contact Carlos at [email protected]
Marc Check
Director of Information and Interactive Technology at Museum of Science
(Boston)
Marc is currently the Director of Information and Interactive Technology at
the Museum of Science in Boston where he directs a team of over 25
technology professionals in both classic infrastructure and interactive
technologies. He is passionate about museums and the use of technology
in informal learning spaces, and Marc has been working on both the
interpretive and curatorial ends of technology for a number of years.
His past roles include Associate Director for the International Center for the History of
Electronic Games (ICHEG), Director of Technology for the National Museum of Play, and
Director of Technology for the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Marc holds a BS in
Mathematics from the State University of Brockport in New York and a MS in Information
Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology, with a focus on Interactive Media.
Contact Marc at [email protected]
Cherie (CD) Collins
Artist, performer, storyteller, activist
Kentucky native CD Collins follows the storytelling traditions of the
South, both as a solo artist and when accompanied by musicians.
Her fourth album, Clean Coal Big Lie, features songs and spokenword pieces that will transport you to the deepest heart of
Appalachia, its troubles, remarkable characters, and its ineffable,
endangered beauty.
Collins recently performed at Berklee College of Music Performance Hall and the Boston
Public Library. She has appeared in a variety of venues including Club Passim, Boston’s
Institute of Contemporary Art, and the New York Public Library.
“CD Collins has the voice of a natural-born storyteller. Original and unforgettable.” Stephen
McCauley, novelist.
Contact CD at [email protected]; www.cdcollins.com
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Donna Danielewski
Director of Strategic Partnerships at The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family
National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH
Donna Danielewski is NCAM’s Director of Strategic Partnerships. She
develops and maintains collaborative relationships with corporate and
public sector partners, identifying challenges and possible accessibility
solutions for a wide range of products and services that utilize new
media. She works closely with industry leaders such as Apple, Blue
Cross Blue Shield MA, BlackBerry, Yahoo! and Verizon, leading
educational publishers, and other companies, as well as federal, state,
and local agencies, creating and maintaining NCAM’s consulting
relationships. These companies and agencies have formed partnerships with NCAM and, with
our help, have accomplished their goals of providing more accessible products and services
for their customers. Donna holds a BA from Boston University, an MA from the University of
Connecticut, and a PhD from Florida State University. She joined NCAM in 2008.
Contact Donna at [email protected]
Charlie Davis
Principle of Exhibit Planning and Design at EDX
Charles Davis AIA is a registered architect, exhibit designer, and
educator. As a founding partner of EDX, an interpretive exhibit
planning and design firm, Charles has helped create engaging and
accessible exhibits at venues large and small across the country.
Through EDX, Charles has worked with the National Park Service
Harpers Ferry Center for the past 15 years developing long-range
interpretive plans and planning and designing visitor center exhibits
at over 35 parks including the Grand Canyon, Arches, Mesa Verde,
and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Charles shares Harpers Ferry’s commitment to accessibility
and with them has explored innovative strategies for making interpretive exhibits physically
and programmatically accessible for diverse user groups.
Contact Charlie at [email protected]
Allison Druin
Co-Director of the Future of Information Alliance, Professor at University
of Maryland’s College of Information Studies and HCIL, and Advance
Professor at Senior STEM Women’s Council
Allison Druin is Co-Director of the Future of Information Alliance;
Professor in the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies
and HCIL; and ADVANCE Professor, Senior STEM Women’s Council.
Previously she was Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab
(HCIL) where for 5 years she led an interdisciplinary lab of 50 faculty,
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staff, and students from 8 colleges and 2 institutes. Her own research over the last two
decades has focused on developing new technologies for children with children as design
partners. With this team, she has helped to developed new digital library and storytelling tools
with such partners as the U.S. National Park Service, Sesame Workshop, Nickelodeon, Nokia,
UNICEF, and many others.
Contact Allison at [email protected]
John Foliot
Senior Web Accessibility Specialist at JP Morgan Chase
John Foliot is an internationally recognized Web Accessibility
Specialist and champion for the cause of web standards and
universal accessibility. He has provided consultation services to
government agencies, educational institutions and private sector
companies since 1998. His wealth of experience and insight enables
him to provide stakeholders with immediately applicable, simple and
accessible approaches to everyday challenges in website design.
John is currently at JP Morgan chase, where he is a Senior Web
Accessibility Specialist. He is an active and contributing participant in
W3C Working Groups for HTML5, WAI and related topics; W3C Community Groups for WAIEngage, Media/Timed-Text and related topics, and the W3C Television on the Web Interest
Group. Working within the W3C HTML5 Accessibility Task Force, John is Co-chair of the
Media Sub Group, and has contributed directly to the emergent HTML5 Standard at the W3C.
Contact John at [email protected]
Patrick Gallagher
President and Founder at Gallagher & Associates
Patrick Gallagher is President and Founder of Gallagher &
Associates, an internationally recognized museum planning
and design firm with offices in Washington, D.C., San
Francisco and Asia. His extensive experience spans over 30
years and includes projects ranging from cultural history and
natural science, to music and the arts.
Based upon his strong reputation in the design field, Mr. Gallagher has served on numerous
design service organizations and been a part of creating various professional services journals
and publications. Mr. Gallagher served as the President of the Society for Environmental
Graphic Design (SEGD); he was instrumental in the organization’s continuous growth and the
broadening of the Society’s design focus. Mr. Gallagher recently received the prestigious
SEGD Fellow Award for his significant contribution to the field of environmental graphic design.
His work has received numerous industry awards and his articles have appeared in a variety of
design periodicals and international publications. Mr. Gallagher has served as an adjunct
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professor and participates frequently in workshops and lecture series, both nationally and
internationally.
Notable projects include Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Mob Museum: Las
Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, Vault of the Secret Formula at
World of Coca-Cola, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the Sant Ocean Hall at
the National Museum of Natural History, the International Spy Museum, the Grammy Museum,
the Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center and the China National Wetland Museum.
Currently the firm is designing the Shanghai Museum of Natural History, the National World
War II Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum, the American
Revolution Museum at Yorktown and numerous Presidential Libraries and Museums.
Contact Patrick at [email protected]
David Geanacopoulos
Member of the Advisory Board of VSA Arts; Executive Vice President of
Corporate Affairs and General Counsel, Volkswagen Group of America
David Geanacopoulos is Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and
General Counsel of Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. Mr.
Geanacopoulos joined Volkswagen in 2003. Prior to being named to his
current position, he served as Director of Industry – Government Relations,
and later, Vice President for Public Policy.
As the Company's chief legal officer, Mr. Geanacopoulos is responsible for the Company's
legal affairs in the United States, for government relations, and public affairs. Prior to joining
Volkswagen of America, Mr. Geanacopoulos was a Partner in the firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss,
Hauer, & Feld in Washington, DC. He served as a Legislative Assistant to the U.S.
representative Edward P. Boland (D-MA) from 1977 to 1983. Mr. Geanacopoulos serves on
the Board of Directors of the Center for National Policy and of the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers. He is a member of the Advisory Board of VSA Arts, Inc., an affiliate of the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Mr. Geanacopoulos received a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) from Harvard University in 1977. He
received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Georgetown University Law Center in 1983.
Clay Gish
Director of Writing & Research at ESI Design
Clay Gish oversees the team that articulates the vision for new
projects and develops the content, educational goals and scripting
for all related exhibits, media and interactives. Under Clay’s
guidance, the team has tackled diverse assignments ranging from
hands-on educational programs for children to training programs
for medical specialists. Clay joined ESI in 1989.
Before coming to ESI, Clay worked as a journalist, editor and
teacher. During a 7-year tenure at the American Foundation for the
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Blind, she edited numerous books and a journal for professionals in the field. She also wrote
articles on the issues confronting people with visual impairments, including a groundbreaking
series on environmental barriers.
An historian and educator, Clay has written several articles on child labor during the Industrial
Revolution and has taught American history and government at the City University of New
York. Clay holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from New York University.
Contact Clay at [email protected]
Larry Goldberg
Founder and Director of the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National
Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM)
Larry Goldberg is the founder and director of the Carl and Ruth Shapiro
Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at Boston's public
media leader, WGBH. For more than a decade he directed WGBH's
Media Access Group and its Caption Center and Descriptive Video
Service and now focuses on research and development, public policy
initiatives and strategic partnerships for global impact. He is a leader in
the international effort to assure that the design and implementation of
new technologies meet the needs of people with disabilities and other populations who lack
access.
Larry led development of the specifications for digital television closed captioning in the U.S.
and was awarded a patent in 1996 for "Rear Window™," the first closed-captioning system for
movie theaters and theme parks. He has developed dozens of innovative R&D projects for full
inclusion in such fields as online education and digital publishing, mobile devices and mobile
media, health information technology, in-flight entertainment, home media networks, Webbased media, theatrical motion pictures, museums and theme parks, and many others. Larry
served on the FCC's Technological Advisory Council, its Consumer Advisory Committee and
recently co-chaired its Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee. He worked
closely with industry and consumer representatives and Congressional staffers on the "21st
Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act," which was signed into law by Pres.
Obama in October of 2010.
Larry works with technology companies such as Apple, Disney, Microsoft, Verizon, AT&T,
Yahoo!, LG Electronics, and others on solutions to meet the needs of consumers with
disabilities. He has a BA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California.
Contact Larry at [email protected]
Tracy Gray
Managing Director for American Institute for Research
Tracy Gray, Ph.D., is a Managing Director at the American Institutes
for Research, where she has led three U.S. Department of Education,
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OSEP-funded technology centers (National Center for Technology Innovation, Center for
Implementing Technology in Education, and the Center for Technology Implementation) that
focus on ways that technology can enhance teaching and learning to meet the needs of
students with disabilities. She current directs the Center for Technology Implementation that
developed PowerUp WHAT WORKS (www.Power Up What Works.org), an innovative website
that provides pathways to professional development to guide educators in the integration of
technology to personalize instruction.
Dr. Gray is a nationally recognized expert in education and technology who has led numerous
initiatives in the United States and abroad that examine the impact of technology on
educational achievement. She has published and lectured widely on issues related to the
effective implementation of technology, particularly for students with disabilities. Prior to joining
AIR, she led the philanthropic initiatives to integrate technology in after school programs as the
VP for Youth Services at the Morino Institute. In the Clinton Administration, she served as the
first deputy executive director and chief operating officer for the Corporation for National
Service that launched AmeriCorps throughout the United States. Earlier, Dr. Gray served as
the deputy director for the first American Red Cross AIDS Public Education program.
In 2008, she served as a judge for the International Imagine Cup, sponsored by Microsoft that
brings together more than 1000 students from around the world to compete on technologyrelated projects. In 2009 and 2010, she was selected as one of the international judges for the
Tech Museum Awards to Benefit Humanity. She co-authored, Breakthrough Learning:
Advancing Educational Innovation with Assistive Technology which focuses on
innovations in teacher and learning published by Springer Publications in April 2011. Her
forthcoming article, "What’s Driving Innovative and Assistive Technology Solutions in Autism
Services?" will be published in the Handbook of Learning Technologies for People with Autism
Spectrum and Related Disorders in October 2013.
Contact Tracy at [email protected]
Nuit Hansgen
Director of ARTSEDGE at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
As director of ARTSEDGE, the Kennedy Center’s award-winning educational media project,
Nuit Hansgen produces innovative online programming and services for the pre-eminent site
for arts education on the Internet, ensuring that the site fulfills its mission to provide free
resources delivered across multiple platforms—video, audio, interactive, and print—that work
together to create an immersive arts experience. She presents frequently on educational
multimedia design and development, interactive media, social learning, and instructional
design. In addition to her media work, Ms. Hansgen maintains an active role in ‘offline’ arts and
art-making, building on over 25 years of experience in working with children and communities
in the arts to design and implement arts-based learning programs for private schools, nonprofit
groups, government, and other community organizations in the DC Metro and Los Angeles
areas.
Michele Hartley
Media Accessibility Coordinator at Harpers Ferry Center
Michele began working for the Harpers Ferry Center,
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National Park Service in 2000. During the first 10 years, she focused on multimedia and video
production and became the Acting Deputy Associate Manager of HFC’s Audiovisual Group in
January, 2009. In the fall of 2010, she accepted the newly created Media Accessibility
Coordinator position at HFC and now provides technical assistance, outreach, training, and
resources to staff and parks.
Her accessibility projects include written service-wide recommendations for open captions,
revisions to sections of the Programmatic Accessibility Guidelines for National Park Service
Interpretive Media, consultation and supervision during the service-wide captioning, audio
description and assistive listening initiative, and coordination and development of audio
description training. She has served on HFC’s Accessibility Committee since 2003 and the
NPS Service-Wide Accessibility Coordinating Committee since 2010. She holds a BA in
English Literature from the University of Wisconsin and an MA in Folk Studies with a focus on
working in the public sector from Western Kentucky University.
Contact Michele at [email protected]
Chris Hass
Senior Vice President of Experience Design at Mad*Pow
Chris Hass is a Senior Vice President of Experience Design at
Mad*Pow (madpow.com). Chris handles business development
and directs the UX research team in conducting user interface
design and accessibility activities for the development of
innovative user experience products. Chris has unique expertise
conducting human factors research with persons who have
physical and cognitive disabilities, and designing information
architecture and interaction designs for consumer, medical,
professional and human service products. Chris is the former President of the User Experience
Professionals’ Association (UXPA) Boston Chapter, and the Director of Chapters for UXPA
International. Prior to joining Mad*Pow, Chris was a usability consultant and Interim Director of
the Bentley Design and Usability Center, a senior research scientist at the American Institutes
for Research, and a WWW Specialist at Harvard Medical School.
Chris has published numerous papers on usability including Usability Testing Medical Devices:
A Practical Guide to Minimizing Risk and Maximizing Success, presented at HCI 2013,
Optimizing Research Design for Diverse Target Populations, presented to the MIT Humans
and Technology Symposium, and PHIN for all: Implementing Research Based Accessibility
Practices into Web-based Applications, presented at the CDC Public Health Information
Network Annual Conference.
Contact Chris at [email protected]
Sara Hendren
Artists, Researcher, and Writer
Sara Hendren is an artist, researcher, and writer in Cambridge,
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Massachusetts. She makes material and digital art works and writes about adaptive
technologies and prosthetics, critical design, the medicalized and biopolitical body, and cultural
representations of disability and health. In 2012-13, she completed research in the program on
Art, Design, and the Public Domain at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was
also a research fellow at the MetaLAB at Harvard. Projects at various stages include: an
investigation of the inclined plane, one of Galileo's "simple machines," cardboard carpentry,
personal genomics, and prosthetics for invisible conditions. She runs the Abler web site:
http://www.ablersite.org
Contact Sarah at [email protected]
Lyn Henley
President of Henley Company Design and Production
Lyn Henley has planned and designed award-winning museums,
interactive multimedia programs, and visitor centers for more than
30 years. In addition to serving as the President of Henley
Company Design & Production, Lyn is also a certified Interpretive
Planner (National Association for Interpretation (NAI)) and a
certified Audio Describer (National Council for the Blind). Her Trail of Tears exhibit for the
National Park Service, was noted as a benchmark Universal Design project and awarded 1st
place in Interior Exhibit Design by the NAI. She is currently providing audio descriptions for
Channel Islands National Park and Cabrillo National Monument.
Contact Lyn at [email protected]
Cheryl Heppner
Executive Director at Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of
Hearing Persons
Cheryl Heppner has served as Executive Director of the Northern Virginia
Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons since January 1991,
after previous careers as a librarian, writer/editor, public relations consultant,
state outreach specialist and teacher. Deafened by spinal meningitis shortly
before her seventh birthday, she likes to have as many tools in her
communication tool box as she can. She signs, speechreads, once studied cued speech, and
is an avid user of assistive technology. Cheryl has received numerous awards from national
organizations including the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, National Association of the
Deaf and Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc., state awards from the Virginia Association of
the Deaf, and local awards from Self Help for Hard of Hearing People and Northern Virginia
Association of the Deaf. She is actively involved in advocacy and education activities on the
national, state, regional and local level. Recent leadership positions include chairing the
national coalition Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network, chairing the
National Coalition for Movie Captioning, and serving as president of the international
Association of Late-Deafened Adults.
Contact Cheryl at [email protected]
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Greg Hlibok, Esq.
Chief of Disability Rights Office (DRO) in Consumer and
Governmental Affairs Bureau at the Federal Communications
Commission
Greg serves as the Chief of Disability Rights Office (DRO) in
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at the Federal
Communications Commission. He oversees several critical
rulemaking proceedings on the implementation of the 21st Century
Communications and Video Accessibility Act and the development
of Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) and various issues on
accessibility of communication technologies. Since 2001 with
DRO, his work contributes to progress in TRS, from one type of
service, TTY to several types of services, Video Relay Service, IP
Relay, and Captioned Telephone as well as increasing captioned
programs on television. In his early career, Greg served in two
capacities, as a private practicing attorney and a financial consultant. Admitted to NY Bar,
Greg holds a BA in Government from Gallaudet University and a JD from Hofstra University
School of Law. He is Vice President of the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Lexington
School for the Deaf Board of Trustees. He is an active member of several organizations,
including Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc., National Association of the Deaf and
Maryland Association of the Deaf. He is known for his leadership role during the Deaf
President Now movement at Gallaudet University in 1988.
Contact Greg at [email protected]
Dan Hoffer
Chief Information Officer at The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
As Chief Information Officer at The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Dan
oversees all of the day to day information technology needs. Dan
is also responsible for the management of a fully-integrated
customer relationship management system through the utilization
of the Tessitura software. The information technology department
supports one of the largest Tessitura implementations with 9
unique arts organizations in Pittsburgh comprised of more than
400 users. Dan brings over 17 years of experience in information
technology, ticketing and box office operations, not only working
for The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, but also with Tickets.com, and a number of other arts
institutions, throughout his career.
Contact Dan at [email protected]
Dr. Margaret Honey
President and CEO New York Hall of Science
Dr. Margaret Honey is the New York Hall of Science President and
CEO. She is widely recognized for her work using digital technologies
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to support children’s learning across the disciplines of science, mathematics, engineering and
technology. Prior to joining the Hall, she served as a Vice President of the Education
Development Center (EDC) and Director of EDC’s Center for Children and Technology.
Honey received a doctorate in developmental psychology from Columbia University and a
bachelor’s from Hampshire College. In addition to her work at EDC, she has also held
positions at Bank Street College of Education and Sesame Workshop.
Contact Margaret at [email protected]
Diana Hughes
Intern at WGBH
Diana is a student at Boston University studying Political Science
and International Relations with a focus in world systems and order
in Africa and the Middle East. Prior to joining WGBH, she worked
for numerous government officials and nonprofit organizations.
Contact Diana at [email protected]
Jeff Kennedy
Principal, Jeff Kennedy Associates
Jeff Kennedy is principal of Jeff Kennedy Associates, a
Massachusetts-based museum exhibition planning and design firm. He
has been a recognized leader in universal design for museums since
authoring “User Friendly: Hands-On Exhibits That Work,” a book
funded through a grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services
and first published by the Association of Science-Technology Centers
(ASTC) in 1990. Kennedy has led workshops and panels on this
subject at ASTC conferences and has appeared as a guest lecturer on universal design and
accessible exhibition design for the staff of the Smithsonian Institution. He was also a principal
advisor to ASTC’s multi-year Accessible Practices workshop program for science centers
across the country.
Contact Jeff at [email protected]
Jonathan Lazar
Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, Director of
Information Systems Undergraduate Program, and Founder and
Director of the Universal Usability Laboratory at Towson
University
Dr. Jonathan Lazar is a professor of computer and information
sciences, director of the undergraduate program in information
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systems, and founder and director of the Universal Usability Laboratory, all at Towson
University. His research focuses on understanding how people with disabilities interact with
technologies, how improved interface design can change the quality of life, and how humancomputer interaction and public policy influence each other. During the 2012-2013 academic
year, Dr. Lazar was the Shutzer Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard
University, researching the relationship between web-based interfaces that are inaccessible to
people with disabilities, and how those inaccessible interfaces lead to forms of discrimination
that are illegal under US law.
Lazar has published more than 120 refereed articles in journals, books, and conference
proceedings. He has also authored three books and edited three, including Research Methods
in Human-Computer Interaction (Wiley, 2010), Universal Usability: Designing Computer
Interfaces for Diverse User Populations (Wiley, 2007), and Web Usability: A User-Centered
Design Approach (Addison Wesley, 2006). He was awarded a 2011 University System of
Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Public Service, a 2010 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award
from the National Federation of the Blind for working towards achieving the full integration of
the blind into society on a basis of equality, and a 2009 Innovator of the Year Award from the
Maryland Daily Record for his work on improving the accessibility of web-based security
features. He currently serves as chair of public policy for ACM SIGCHI (the Association for
Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction).
Contact Jonathan at [email protected]
Aaron Leventhal
Access Garage
Inventor of polite and assertive content. User interface designer
specializing in boomers, seniors and people with disabilities.
Architect of Braille publishing software, Firefox accessibility and
advanced accessibility standards such as WAI-ARIA.
Contact Aaron at [email protected]
Alan Levine
Chief Information Office at The John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts
Alan C. Levine specializes in the application of technology to arts
management, marketing and fund-raising. Throughout his career,
he has worked with non-profit organizations of all sizes to develop
innovative, strategic uses of information technology. Alan serves
as a leader, mentor, and educator. At the Kennedy Center, Alan
oversees all information technology, web and telecommunications
operations. Through the Kennedy Center DeVos Institute of Arts
Management, Alan has taught arts managers around the world.
Alan is a founder and past Chairman of the Board of the Tessitura
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Network, Inc., which provides state-of-the-art software for customer relationship management,
ticketing, and fundraising to performing arts and cultural organizations in six countries. Alan is
President of CIO/Arts, and a founding member of the worldwide CIO Executive Council. Alan
also serves on the Small Agency CIO Council of the US Federal Government.
Valerie Lewis
Administrator of Outreach Services for the Suffolk Cooperative Library System in Suffolk
County, NY
Valerie Lewis is the Administrator of Outreach Services for the Suffolk Cooperative Library
System in Suffolk County, NY. Ms. Lewis works with public libraries, county agencies,
disability-related service providers and organizations throughout New York State to ensure
access to information for all. Ms. Lewis occasionally offers a course at Stony Brook
University/Health Science Center titled "Disability and Health Promotions". The course is
designed to teach health care professionals how to provide access to health care for people
with disabilities. Ms. Lewis is an appointed member of the Suffolk County Department of Social
Services Commissioner's Advisory Council and the Suffolk County Disability Advisory Board,
currently serving as the Chairperson for the Transportation Sub-Committee of the Advisory
Board, and a member of the Transportation Committee for the Suffolk Independent Living
Organization. Ms. Lewis works with the Coordinator of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services
for Suffolk County, providing contracted transcription services to county agencies, consulting
on such issues as the creation of Emergency and Evacuation Resources that will be available
in alternative formats to people with disabilities.
Contact Valerie at [email protected]
Anna Lindgren-Streicher
Project Manager, Research & Evaluation at Boston Museum of
Science
Anna Lindgren-Streicher manages the efforts of her department’s
full and part-time staff and coordinates and conducts evaluations
focused on exhibitions, public programs, visitor services, and the
universal design of museum educational experiences. She leads
the Museum’s Universal Design for Exhibits Committee, has
served as a universal design mentor on two NSF-funded national
networks, the NISE Network and Math Core for Museums, and
has conducted numerous presentations and workshops on the inclusion of people with
disabilities in museum experiences.
Contact Anna at [email protected]
Danielle Linzer
Manager of Access and Community Programs at The Whitney
Museum of American Art
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Danielle Linzer is the Manager of Access and Community Programs at the Whitney Museum of
American Art. She oversees community-based partnerships and outreach strategies for
audiences that have traditionally been underserved by cultural organizations, as well as
services and programs for people with disabilities at the Whitney. She is currently the Co-Chair
of the Museum Access Consortium, a membership organization based in New York City that
strives to enable people with disabilities to access cultural facilities of all types.
Contact Daniele at [email protected]
Eleanor Lisney
Founding Member of Sister of Frida and Connect Culture
Eleanor Lisney is the founding member of Sisters of Frida, a cooperative
of disabled and allied women, and Connect Culture, disabled user led
community based group based in Coventry, UK.
Eleanor has lived in France and studied Information Studies at UTAustin. She is a campaigner and presents on disability issues as well as
being on several disability groups such as the British Council Disability
Advisory Panel. She advises on accessibility and disability equality. She
was also a torchbearer at the Olympics 2012 for Coventry. She is busy
coordinating a symposium on accessible transport at Coventry Transport Museum at the
moment.
Contact Eleanor at mailto:[email protected]
Will Mayo
Creator of SpokenLayer
Will Mayo loves creating, manipulating, and listening to audio.
While in school, Will studied Electrical and Computer
Engineering with a parallel focus on design and ergonomics—
while singing in the Choir, Glee Club and a capella groups.
Mayo’s obsession with audio drove him to design SoundPipe
while in grad school, smartphone software to record, stream and
share audio wherever you are and easily store it in the cloud.
Most recently, in his plight to unmute the web, Will created
SpokenLayer, which lets anyone listen to the web instead of
reading it. Will was recently part of the first class of Matter.vc, a new media accelerator in San
Francisco, you also may recognize Will — possibly by his Kilt — from TechCrunch Disrupt
NYC in 2012.
Contact Will at [email protected]
Dr. Lotfi Merabet, OD PhD MPH
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Director
of The Laboratory for Visual Neuroplasticity at Massachusetts Eye and Ear
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Infirmary
Lotfi Merabet is a clinician-neuroscientist interested in how the brain adapts to the loss of sight.
He completed his doctorate degree in neuroscience (University of Montréal) and clinical
doctorate in optometry (New England College of Optometry). He then continued his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Boston University and the MGH Martinos Center
for Biomedical Imaging and completed his Master’s degree in Public Health (Harvard). In 2010,
he joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary as a clinical researcher. His
work is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Contact Lotfi at [email protected]
Elizabeth Merritt
Founding Director at Center for the Future of Museums
Elizabeth Merritt, Founding Director, Center for the Future of
Museums. (M.A. Duke University, B.S. Yale University, Museum
Management Institute). Elizabeth is the founding director of the
Center for the Future of Museums – a think-tank and research &
development lab for the museum field. The American Alliance of
Museums created the Center to help museums explore cultural,
political and economic trends shaping the future and ensure that
museums play a profound role in society.
Contact Merritt at [email protected]
Jeff Miller
Director of Technology and Chief Technology Strategist at Unified Field, Inc.
Jeff is responsible for the planning, development, implementation and
direction of technology. He is a conceptual designer, who functions as an
experience designer. Jeff brings the perspectives of technology, science
education and fun to visitor experience. At Unified Field he oversees the
programming staff; contributes substantially to the creative concept and
technical implementations of projects and their implementation through all
phases from initial design concepts through installation.
Contact Jeff at [email protected]
Cheryl Mitchell
Member of the board, AbleGamers Foundation
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James Neal
MLS Program in iSchool in Information and Diverse Populations
Concentrations at the University of Maryland College of Information
Science
James P. Neal, III is a recent graduate of the MLS program at the
University of Maryland College of Information Science, Maryland's
iSchool in the Information and Diverse Populations concentration. His
focus of study at Maryland's iSchool was on digital humanities
scholarship, scholarly communications, digital and media literacy,
Internet freedom and access, and ICT for development in
sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Neal’s career goals include becoming an academic librarian at a
research university and a policy expert on Internet governance,
Internet architecture, and ICT4D.
Contact James at [email protected]
Annuska Perkins
User Experience (independent consultant) for Good Labs LLC
Mrs. Annuska Perkins is a User Experience independent consultant with Good
Labs LLC. She recently worked at Microsoft as a Program Manager and
Product Planner in MSN, Windows, and the Accessibility Business Unit. From
2000-2013, she collaborated with Microsoft product and research groups to
better understand, and design for, the accessibility market. Her passion is
experimenting with ways to spark innovation, with such devices as Do-It-Yourself Arduinos and
wearable, smart technology.
Contact Annuska at [email protected]
Chris Power
Human Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer
Science for University of York
Christopher Power is a Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction in
the Department of Computer Science at the University of York. His
research is focused on understanding how people with disabilities
and older adults use the web in order to inform the design of
accessible and usable websites. He has been involved in several
European projects on web accessible in areas such as e-learning,
ecommerce and e-participation and has previously worked as a professional web developer.
Recently, he has participated in workshops on accessibility in museums at the Museum of
Science in Boston, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C and the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York.
Contact Chris at [email protected]
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Nancy Proctor
Head of Mobile Strategy and Initiatives in the Office of the
Assistant Secretary from Education and Access at The
Smithsonian
Nancy Proctor heads up mobile strategy and initiatives for the
Smithsonian. With a PhD in American art history and a background
in filmmaking, curation and art criticism, Nancy Proctor published
her first online exhibition in 1995. She co-founded
TheGalleryChannel.com in 1998 with Titus Bicknell to present
virtual tours of innovative exhibitions alongside comprehensive
global museum and gallery listings. TheGalleryChannel was later
acquired by Antenna Audio, where Nancy led New Product Development from 2000-2008,
introducing the company’s multimedia, sign language, downloadable, podcast and cellphone
tours. She also directed Antenna’s sales in France from 2006-2007, and worked with the
Travel Channel’s product development team. From 2008-2010 she was Head of New Media at
the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Nancy served as program chair for the Museums
Computer Network (MCN) conference 2010-2011, and has co-organized the Tate Handheld
conference among other gatherings for cultural professionals. She also manages
MuseumMobile.info, its wiki and podcast series, edited the 2010 Mobile Apps for Museums:
The AAM Guide to Planning and Strategy and is Digital Editor of Curator: The Museum
Journal.
Contact Nancy at [email protected]
Abigail Rekas
Legal Scholar, National University of Ireland, Galway; Bookshare
Cynthia Rowland
Associate Director in the Center for Persons Disabilities at Utah State
University
Dr. Cyndi Rowland is the Associate Director at the Center for Persons
Disabilities (CPD) housed at Utah State University. The CPD is part of a
national network of University Centers of Excellence in Disability Research,
Service, and Education. The focus of Cyndi’s work and expertise is
accessible information communication technology (ICT). She founded
WebAIM in 1998 and is its Executive Director. WebAIM provides web development
professionals with knowledge, skills, organizational strategies, and vision to assist in making
web content accessible. WebAIM also developed and maintains the WAVE web accessibility
evaluation tool used by many in the field.
For the past 11 years she has also served as the Technology Director for the National Center
on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE). This Center works to advance the
accessibility of online educational content. The NCDAE does this through their work on policy
and standards, resources, tools, and an emphasis on organizational strategies. The work of
both WebAIM and NCDAE are viewed as important resources in digital accessibility. Dr.
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Rowland has engaged in research, tool development, education, as well as policy and
standards work throughout her projects at national and international levels. One current
project is the Gaining Online Accessible Learning through Self-Study (GOALS). Funded by the
U.S, Department of Education (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education), it has
a focus to assist postsecondary institutions as they make a decision to commit to web
accessibility enterprise-wide. Moreover the project is working with the regional accreditation
community as they consider how they might include web accessibility in their advice and
support to member institutions.
Contact Cyndi at [email protected]
Sharron Rush
Co-founder and Executive Director, Knowbility
Knowbility is an Austin Texas based non-profit organization with the
mission of ensuring equal access to communications technology for
people with disabilities. She is the co-Chair of the Education and
Outreach Working Group of the Web Accessibility Initiative of the W3C.
She is a Computer World Laureate and the author of Maximum
Accessibility, a leading text on web accessibility.
Sharron can be contacted at [email protected]
Mike Shebanek
Senior Director of Accessibility at Yahoo
Mike has a passion for gadgets and accessibility. Having grown up in
Southern California it wasn't long before he found his way to Silicon
Valley, establishing a career deeply intertwined with the story of Apple.
Upon graduating with a degree in Computer Science he accepted a
position at the University of California, Riverside in the Computing and
Communications Department building and managing the campus computer networks, and
providing training and support for Mac computers. During this time Mike also published a book
on NEXSTEP, the software that powered workstation computers designed by Steve Jobs after
his exodus from Apple.
Eventually Mike moved to Silicon Valley to join Apple as a product Manager in its Worldwide
Hardware Product Marketing team. His first product was the iconic Bondi blue "gum-drop"
iMac, followed over the next five years by additional iMac models including the "lampshade"
iMac G3. Mike's next challenge was a move to software product marketing to manage the
transition of Apple's computers from PowerPC to Intel processors. Along the way, he also
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managed notable projects such as Apple's Dashboard (widgets)
and Boot Camp (enabling Windows to run natively on Mac
computers).
It was during this time Mike was introduced to the needs of blind
and visually impaired computer users which led him to propose,
and eventually help create VoiceOver—a screen reader built into
OS X, and the world's first gesture-based screen reader for general
purpose touch screen devices included on every new iPhone, iPad,
and iPod Touch. For five years Mike served as the product
manager for accessibility at Apple, developing and marketing
advanced accessibility features in OS X and iOS to address the
needs of users with a variety of disabilities.
In 2010, he returned for a brief time to hardware product marketing to help Apple launch the
original iPad, and follow-on models, that have helped revolutionize mobile computing. After 19
years at Apple, Mike sought new challenges and opportunities, including a return to his work in
accessibility, and has recently taken the role as Senior Director of Accessibility at Yahoo!
where he continues to push the frontiers of accessible design in products and services used by
millions of customers every day.
Contact Mike at [email protected]
Betty Siegel
Director of VSA and Accessibility at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Betty Siegel has specialized in arts and disability issues for over twenty five years starting at
Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and now as Director of VSA and Accessibility at the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She oversees national and international disability,
arts and education programs including VSA, the VSA Network of cultural organizations
engaging in arts education and disability and the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability
(LEAD) network of cultural arts administrators. She is a respected expert and speaker on
topics related to accessibility to cultural venues for individuals with disabilities. Ms. Siegel
obtained her JD in 2009 from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University and is
licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Contact Betty at [email protected]
Neal Stimler
Associate Digital Asset Specialist in the Digital Media Department
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Neal is an Associate Digital Asset Specialist in the Digital Media
Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art where he
forecasts digital trends, leads digitization efforts and manages
special initiatives such as the Google Art Project. Stimler is a
Google Glass Explorer and participates in experimental programs
with The Met Media Lab. Neal advocates for digital humanities
methods of collaboration and inquiry as the core of museum
practice. He is committed to strengthening digital preservation in museums as they become
vital stewards of digital culture. Stimler encourages museums’ to open access and use of the
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shared cultural heritage resources in their repositories for the humanistic benefit of the public.
Neal is also the Social Media Curator for The Museums and the Web conference.
Contact Neal at [email protected]
John Tobiason
Digital and Social Media Specialist at the National Park Service
John Tobiason is the Digital and Social Media Specialist for the
National Park Service at the Harpers Ferry Center for Media
Services. He provides field support and strategies for digital and
social media, mobile app development and standards support,
networks with the industry, provides digital media training,
consults on various projects, and is the clearinghouse for digital
media in the NPS. He is also the co-chair of the NPS Web
Council and manages the national online junior ranger program
WebRangers.
Prior to working with NPS, John was a technical marketing specialist at the Government
Printing Office (GPO) in Washington, D.C. working with federal agencies to produce videos,
DVDs, websites, animations, and many rich media products. He also consulted with agencies
on the use of new media, multimedia, and 508 accessibility technologies.
John holds a bachelor of fine arts, concentrating on multimedia, from Frostburg State
University. He lives in downtown Frederick, MD with his wife Julie and their two young sons.
Contact John at [email protected]
Kate Watson
Production Assistant at RAA Media (Ralph Appelbaum Assoc.)
Kate Watson is a curator, designer and writer who serves as
Production Assistant at RAA Media. She previously worked for several
New York museums and galleries, including MOMA PS1, the New
Museum, and 319 Scholes Gallery. Kate holds an MPS from NYU’s
Interactive Telecommunications Program and a BA in art and art
history from Sarah Lawrence College.
Contact Kate at [email protected], or on twitter
@misskatewatson.
Oren Williams
Advanced Audio Technology to Issues of Accessibility at Dolby Laboratories
Inc.
Oren Williams works with leading TV, IPTV, video streaming systems and
consumer electronics manufacturers to incorporate Dolby audio technology.
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In addition, he works to apply Dolby technology to developing systems and to develop new
technology. He is leading Dolby’s effort to apply advanced audio technology to issues of
accessibility.
Mr. Williams joined Dolby Laboratories as a Digital Broadcast Licensing Engineer in 1999. He
led the first major revision of the DTV consumer product test kit as well as developed test
methods for DVB-C, MMDS, and a proprietary video over DSL format.
Previously, Mr. Williams worked on the TV Test engineering team in the Tektronix
Measurement Division.
Mr. Williams graduated from the Edward F. Cross School of Engineering at Walla Walla
University with a B.S.E. Electrical Engineering.
Contact Oren at [email protected]
Tom Wlodowski
Vice President, Accessibility, Comcast Corp.
Dr. Lisa Wong
Pediatrician and Musician at Harvard Medical School
Dr. Lisa Wong is a musician and pediatrician dedicated to combining
music, health, and education for social change. She is an Assistant
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and has been a
pediatrician at Milton Pediatric Associates for nearly 30 years.
Dr. Wong, a violinist, served for 20 years as President of the Longwood
Symphony Orchestra, a Boston-based orchestra of medical professionals
that performs each of its concerts in support of medically-related
nonprofits, including several organizations that care for children with special healthcare needs.
As a board member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and member of the BPS Arts
Expansion Initiative, Society for Arts in Healthcare, and Institute for Arts and Health at Lesley
University, Dr. Wong has been a strong advocate for the arts for all.
Contact Lisa at [email protected]
Beth Ziebarth
Director of Accessibility Programing at The Smithsonian
Beth Ziebarth has a personal interest and professional responsibility
in advocacy for people with disabilities. She currently serves as the
director of the Smithsonian’s Accessibility Program.
In her position, Ms. Ziebarth develops and implements accessibility
policy and guidelines for the Institution’s 19 museums, the National
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Zoo, and nine research centers, ensuring that the Smithsonian’s 30 million annual visitors
experience a welcoming environment that accommodates individuals of all ages and abilities.
Ms. Ziebarth develops partnerships between the Smithsonian and disability, educational, and
cultural organizations in order to increase the Institution’s audience of people with disabilities.
She provides technical assistance to Smithsonian units on facility, exhibition and program
accessibility issues and coordinates with Smithsonian administration to resolve formal and
informal accessibility complaints.
Ms. Ziebarth has been a Smithsonian staff member for over twenty years.
Contact Beth at [email protected]
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