Digital Accessibility

Stacy Scott shares her journey from discovering screen readers at university to leading accessibility strategy in digital publishing. Drawing on lived experience as a blind professional, she explores how accessible content enables independence, why accessibility must be embedded into everyday systems, and where progress still falls short. Stacy also discusses global initiatives like Bookshare and the transformative potential of AI to expand access and inclusion.

Mali Fernando shares how accessibility becomes most effective when embedded into product development from the start. Drawing on a background in design and technology, Mali discusses working across teams to integrate inclusive design practices, shift accessibility from compliance to user experience, and help organizations build accessibility into everyday workflows. The conversation highlights the importance of education, collaboration, and making accessibility practical and scalable.

Kate Gonzalez, Accessibility Director at Elevance Health, shares her “wavy” career path from occupational therapy to enterprise accessibility leadership. Drawing on experiences across architecture consulting, city government, video games, and healthcare, she discusses how accessibility strategy becomes meaningful when organizations move from planning to action. Kate also highlights the importance of stakeholder engagement, accessibility councils, and embedding inclusive practices across teams to create sustainable accessibility programs.

Darren Rowan, who leads digital accessibility at Eli Lilly & Company, shares how lived experience shaped his path into accessibility leadership. He explains his “engage, equip, embed” framework for scaling accessibility across a global organization and reflects on the importance of speaking up about barriers. Darren also explores how AI and emerging technologies can make accessibility easier to implement and more impactful across teams, helping organizations move toward sustainable, embedded accessibility practices.

Souvik Sen Sarma shares his journey from front-end developer to Accessibility Advisor at Wells Fargo International. He discusses building accessibility processes from proposal through testing and sign-off, mentoring teams, and managing defect tracking at scale. Souvik reflects on how inclusivity first drew him into accessibility and why human expertise remains essential—even as AI begins to influence development workflows.

Carey Estes, Accessibility Lead at OneMain Financial, shares how he built a scalable accessibility program grounded in action, automation, and advocacy. From a life-changing experience of temporary blindness to leading DevOps integration and enterprise-wide enablement, Carey explains how accessibility becomes sustainable when embedded into systems and culture. His ultimate aim: accessibility so well integrated it creates “radio silence.”

Jennifer Smith, Visa, Director of Strategic Initiatives and AccessibilityJen Smith has worked with accessibility at J.P Morgan Chase, Microsoft, and now at Visa as Director of Strategic Initiatives and Accessibility. She talks about the importance of working with colleagues at different experience levels and backgrounds. She also describes the need in accessibility for better ways to present data.

Stéphanie Walter, Maltem, UX Research & Design ConsultantStéphanie shares her experience with a motion disability that affects her in her daily life and when interacting with digital games. She talks about upcoming changes to laws in Europe that will require accessibility in public and private web sites.

Tolu Adegbite is Product/UX designer. Her current work includes providing guidance about accessibility to designers and developers, educating others, and creating new experiences. Starting her career as a front-end developer she was introduce to accessibility early on. Tolu talks about how she learned accessibility principles and embraces the importance of communication between designers and developers. She also describes her interest in VR/AR opportunities and the need to consider the intersectionality of our identities. practical work with browser plug-ins, screen readers and keyboard acccess. Accessibility continues to be a central part of her work in helped her make sense of accessibility early on.

Erica Ellis, Uber, Head of Product Equity DesignErica Ellis is Head of Product Equity Design at Uber. She explains how accessibility is integrated into the organization through a mindset about service design. Erica shares her early experience with a deaf family member and being an advocate for gender equity for women in technology. As a designer she became familiar with accessibility and helped to build a team to support the development. She talks about the important of top down support couple with grassroots efforts.

Sharyn Morrow, iCIMS, Principal Accessibility EngineerSharyn Morrow began her career with an early interest in communication and working with early PCs and software. That led to to learning about HTML, graphic design, and working for SiteImprove. She shares her personal challenges with her neurodiversity and how she now advocates for herself, her family, and others. Sharyn now provides accessibility documentation, training, best practices and tools to help internal staff create more accessible products.

Jill Bateman, Ohio University, Digital Accessibility CoordinatorJill Bateman provides comprehensive accessibility support for students and staff at Ohio University. That includes reviewing tools and technology and processes for purchasing. Starting in web design, Jill found similarities between usability and accessibility. She shares the challenge of an elderly family member which helped drive her work and interest.

Léonie Watson, TetraLogical, Director Léonie Watson's early work as a web designer was interupted when she lost her sight. As she began to use assistive technologies for her own needs, she found her way into accessibility testing. This led to many years of solving accessibility problems for a wide range of organizations. Now, Léonie is the Director of TetraLogical - a consultancy for accessibility.