-- Promoting Accessibility Rights in a Digital Era --
This year we will have a schedule with noteworthy keynote speakers on universal design of online information and three session tracks concerning accessible web design, accessible instructional design, and organizational best practices in implementing accessible online design. Scheduled speakers include:
Shawn Lawton Henry - World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Shawn Lawton Henry leads worldwide education and outreach promoting web accessibility for people with disabilities at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Before joining the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), she developed and implemented strategies to optimize user interface design for usability and accessibility with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, education providers, and research centers. Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her most recent book, Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design, offers an approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.
Christopher Schmitt - CSS Author
The founder of Heat Vision, a small new media publishing and design firm, Christopher is an award-winning Web designer who has been working with the Web since 1993. As a sought-after speaker and trainer, Christopher regularly demonstrates the use and benefits of practical standards-based designs. He is Co-Lead of the Adobe Task Force for the Web Standards Project (WaSP) in addition to being a contributing member of its Education Task Force.
Author of numerous Web design and digital imaging books, including Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites and CSS Cookbook, Christopher has also written for New Architect Magazine, A List Apart, Digital Web, and Web Reference.
Bill Reif - the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
Bill Reif was, for over 25 years, a blind attorney at the Illinois Office of the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Bureau in Springfield. He is self-taught in the use of screenreaders and other technologies that have made information necessary in his law practice and for other uses, accessible. He now teaches other blind and visually-impaired persons in the use of assistive technology tools. He has also, for the past 25 years, been a Board Member of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois (NFBI), the state affiliate of a national organization that recognizes that blindness need not be a barrier to full participation in society or the ability to compete on terms of equality in the employment arena.
The NFBI, recognizing that although the Iinternet and other information systems held great promise in making information available to blind persons needing to access government services and to blind persons employed in the public service sector, this promise was largely unrealized due to design barriers in software and web design. The organization thus resolved to change this through the introduction and passage of legislation that would require those responsible for procuring software or redesigning web pages to consider the needs of those for whom visual access was not an option. The result was the 2007 passage of the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA), (http://www.dhs.state.il.us/iitaa), an act which mandated a task force develop standards to be applied by state agencies and by those with whom they contract, which standards provide guidance in identifying and removing barriers posed by various disabilities. These standards now serve as guidelines even for entities to which the act does not apply, such as units of local government and universities.
Terrill Thompson - University of Washington's DO-IT Program
Terrill Thompson is technology accessibility specialist with DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, & Technology) at the University of Washington. Since 1992, DO-IT has worked to increase the participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers. Terrill's role in this effort is to promote information technology (IT) accessibility by developing resources, delivering lectures and workshops, providing consultation, and conducting research. Terrill has over 15 years experience in the IT accessibility field, and has presented internationally at numerous conferences and consulted widely with local and state government, private industry, and K-12 and postsecondary education entities on IT accessibility issues.
Sherry Lindquist, Ed.D. - Northland Community and Technical College in East Grand Forks, MN
Sherry Lindquist, Ed.D., is an English faculty member and instructionaln
design consultant at Northland Community and Technical College in East
Grand Forks, MN. She has over 30 years of experience in higher education, with a focus on the infusion of technology into classroom
instruction. She teaches in online and hybrid environments.
Jason Bruder - Apple Inc.
Jason is a Systems Engineer with Apple's Education Team, based in Indianapolis, working with higher education institutions in Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. Prior to becoming a Systems Engineer, Jason was responsible for the administration of over 12,000 Macintosh computers at Chicago Public Schools. Jason holds a BS of Engineering from The University of Michigan and is pursuing his MBA from Indiana University.
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D. -Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology Accessibility University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
Dr. Gunderson is the Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology Accessibility for the Division of Disability Resources and Education Services at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. He has been involved with information technology and disability since 1979 starting as a undergraduate engineering student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison working on a communication devices for people who cannot speak with their voice. He is currenlty working on a number of tools and resources related to web accessibility, and has developed a number of tools, workshops and courses related to web accessibility. Dr. Gunderson received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Industrial and Systems Engineering with an emphasis in Human Factors. He also has a B.S. and an M.S. degrees from UW-Madison in Electrical and Computer engineering. His current responsibilities at the University of Illinois include information technology accommodation issues for students, faculty and staff at UIUC. Before his present position at UIUC, he was an adjunct assistant professor in an RSA sponsored rehabilitation engineering training program at the university of Illinois. During his graduate studies he worked at the Trace Research and Development Center and was a consult to the State of Wisconsin on information technology access issues and training. His continued professional and research interests focus on how to improve the design of information technologies for people with disabilities to achieve maximum performance and greater independence. He is the past chair of the W3C WAI User Agent Accessibility Working Group and is a current participant in the W3C WAI Protocols and Formats working group.
Karen Tamley - Chicago Commissioner of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) 
Karen Tamley was named Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD)
by Richard M. Daley in March of 2005. MOPD promotes total access, full participation and equal opportunity people with all types of disabilities with the goal of making Chicago the most accessible city in the nation.As a person with a disability herself, Ms. Tamley has dedicated her entire career to furthering the rights and opportunity of her community.
During her time at MOPD, she has overseen a number of disability policy and program initiatives on behalf of people with disabilities that have improved transportation, infrastructure, emergency preparedness, employment readiness and placement, voting access, and delivery of City services through accessible technology. In addition, Commissioner Tamley serves as the City’s key representative regarding disability related policy on a number of boards and committees, including the Pace Suburban Bus Board of Directors (the region’s Paratransit service provider).
Under Mayor Daley and Commissioner Tamley’s leadership, in 2007, Chicago received the Accessible America Award from the National Organization on Disability and MOPD was recognized as the Best Government Department by the Deaf Illinois Awards.
Mike Scott - Illinois Department of Human Services
Mike Scott is an assistive technology and accessibility specialist, currently focusing his efforts on improving the accessibility of information systems for people with disabilities. Mike works with a wide range of public- and private-sector clients to help assess the accessibility of existing systems, design, and develop new accessible systems, and train staff on how to successfully implement accessibility in system design and development. Working as a consultant to the State of Illinois, Mike has spearheaded many accessibility initiatives, including development of the Illinois Web Accessibility Standards and the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act. Prior to working with MSF&W, Mike served as chief Rehabilitation Engineer for the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services, where he specialized in using assistive technologies to enable individuals with disabilities to do their jobs.
Ken Salaets, Director, Global Policy
Ken J. Salaets is the Director of Global Policy at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a non-profit industry organization based in Washington, DC. As director of a portfolio of information technology (IT) policy and advocacy initiatives, Ken has played a critical role in positioning ITI as a leading global industry voice on IT accessibility policy.
Ken has represented the IT industry on a number of technical and policy bodies that have had a distinct impact on improving opportunities for people with disabilities. He was a member of the U.S. Access Board’s Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee, a panel of experts drawn from a wide array of stakeholder communities which provided recommendations on updating the U.S. Section 508 accessibility standards. He also served on a European Union standards working group that provided expert input on possible conformity assessment approaches to ensure alignment between product claims and performance. Currently, Ken serves on INCITS Study Group on Accessibility, which helps develop the U.S. position on matters that come before the ISO/IEC JTC1 Special Working Group on Accessibility.
In addition to the above activities, Ken is managing director of ITI’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template® service unit, which is developing a new, more interactive version of the association’s VPAT® tool, along with complementary applications and training, that will enhance the ability of IT purchasers to identify and procure products with accessibility features.
Prior to joining ITI, Ken spent six years on the professional staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Operations, where he was responsible for congressional oversight of compliance with Federal small and disadvantaged business subcontracting requirements, among other issues.
Ken earned a B.A. in Political Science from Brigham Young University, and is actively engaged in promoting live music opportunities for young artists in the Washington, DC area.
