KNOWBILITY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of W3C
- Standards Lead, JPMC
Adrian has been a member of W3C working groups, written articles for trade journals & web sites, participated as an author and editor on five web-related books, and back in 1998 he co-founded a software development consulting firm before leaving at the start of 2016 to start all over. Some may recognize Adrian from his days helping to run evolt.org, one of the first communities for web developers. Adrian has been developing for the Web since 1993.
Job Titles:
- Artist
- Assistive Technology Specialist, San Francisco Public Schools
- Teacher of the Visually Impaired
Ahmet Ustunel is a teacher of the Visually Impaired. He worked with blind students of all ages
in Turkey, Poland and the US in both nonprofit and public school settings. He currently teaches
in San Francisco public schools. Ustunel is also a ceramic artist and enjoys teaching art. He is an
Job Titles:
- Manager Digital Accessibility, TD
Aidan Tierney leads the digital accessibility program at TD Bank where he provides guidance to over 90 cross-disciplinary teams building iOS & Android apps, and responsive web products for customers in Canada & the US. He leads a team of accessibility specialists who support over 1,000 practitioners.
Aidan has a background in front-end development and user experience. Prior to TD he was a front-end developer and then an accessibility consultant at IBM Interactive Experience, specialized in accessibility program strategy for large organizations.
Aidan speaks frequently at industry events such as CSUN and Accessibility Camps. Aidan presented at AccessU in 2017 and is a Knowbility OpenAIR Mentor (the last time our team came in 2nd!).
Job Titles:
- Head of Accessibility at Desert Wing Design LLC
Job Titles:
- Accessibility Specialist, Accessibility NextGen
Albert Kim is an Accessibility Specialist and founder of Accessibility NextGen. Albert identifies as he/him and he was born with and developed disabilities like ADHD, Dyslexia, and OCD. Albert Kim is a Disability:IN NextGen Leader and a W3C Invited Expert in Cognitive and Learning Disabilities (COGA) Task Force & Mental Health Sub-Group. Most recently, he worked as a UX Accessibility Specialist (SME) for ServiceNow.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board
- Co - Founder and CTO of Betterleave
- Treasurer, Betterleave
Albert Swantner is the co-founder and CTO of Betterleave, a company working with employers, insurers, and health care providers to support people experiencing the death of a loved one. Betterleave does that through estate planning, grief counseling, and care coordination. Albert is also a Partner at The Fund Austin investing in early stage startups. Albert has a Bachelors and a Masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin in Mechanical Engineering where he has been inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni. He is active in the Austin community and is a Culturati and Notley Fellow. He is on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas, The Adventure Project, Naturally Austin, Knowbility, the Austin Monitor, and on the City of Austin Zero Waste Advisory Commission. He advises and invests in multiple startups, and works with the University of Texas Humanitarian Engineering Program, SKU, Techstars, SXSW, and DivInc. He currently lives with his wife, Sarah, and two sons, Elliott and Everett in Austin, Texas.
Job Titles:
- Founder and CEO, Enabled Play
Alex Dunn leads the founder of Enabled Play. He's also a member of The Game Awards Future Class, Microsoft MVP, PubConf Champion, Bixby Premier Developer, and AWS Alexa SME. His background in accessibility, application development, and conversational AI has leaned into enabling applications to do more for businesses and consumers using scalable architectures and design, distributed services, cloud infrastructure, and innovative edge technologies. Alex does his best to remain platform agnostic in his practices and development with specialties in C#, Kotlin, and TypeScript while building for cross-platform compatibility. You might find him co-organizing the Boston Mobile C# Meetup with Microsoft, speaking at all sorts of conferences and events around the world, streaming on Twitch, and on Pluralsight. You can read his regular tips and thoughts in the development community at https://alexdunn.org/ or watch him live at https://twitch.tv/suave_pirate
Job Titles:
- Accessibility Specialist, Bixal
Alex is an experienced PDF Accessibility specialist who has successfully integrated web and web app testing into her day-to-day projects. With a background in recreational therapy, Alex's experience working with people with disabilities in a higher education setting has helped inform how she approaches document and web testing. Her current focus is auditing design system components and documenting accessibility issues for stakeholders and clients.
Job Titles:
- Accessibility Specialist, at Fresh Solutions
- Specialist
Alex Tait is an accessibility specialist whose passion lies in the intersection of accessibility and modern JavaScript within interface architecture and design systems. As a developer, she believes that inclusion driven development practices with accessibility at the forefront lead to better products for everyone. As a consultant and strategist, she believes that less is more, and that new feature scope creep cannot be prioritized over core feature parity for disabled users. As an educator, she believes in removing barriers to information so that tech can become a more diverse, equitable and inclusive industry.
Job Titles:
- Designer for IBM Accessibility
- UX Designer, IBM Accessibility, IBM
Alexandra Dean Grossi is a User Experience designer for IBM Accessibility. Her work incorporates a multi-dimensional approach to inclusivity and accessibility, utilizes storytelling, emphasizes user empowerment, and seeks real-world solutions through Inclusive Design. She believes that successful Inclusive Design solutions come from user participation early in the design process. When done well, these solutions can empower users with specific needs, change perceptions, and work to remove stigmas around disabilities.
Alexandra also serves as the Director of Inclusive Design for AIGA Raleigh, the local chapter of AIGA's national graphic design association. She served on the leadership team of IDATA, a project funded by a $2.5 million NSF grant to make astronomy software accessible to blind and low-vision users. Grossi often gives lectures and serves on panels around disability and Inclusive Design.
Job Titles:
- Accessibility Engineer, TPGi
Alicia Evans is an Accessibility Engineer who has worked with Knowbility and TPGi, among others. Prior to working in tech, Alicia spent several years supporting people with disabilities directly through nonprofits in New York City and southern California.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder, Iaccessible
Aman Singal is a Co-founder of Iaccessible, a social enterprise that connects product creators with people with disabilities to create truly inclusive products. Aman is a certified "Trusted accessibility tester" and has deep experience reviewing designs and products for accessibility at companies like Microsoft and Adobe. As a legally blind individual, Aman brings a unique perspective and expertise to the field of accessibility.
Aman has a certificate course in learning design and technology from Harvard and a PhD in training and development.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of Iaccessible
- Co - Founder, IAccessible Inc
Aman Singal is a Co-founder of Iaccessible, a social enterprise that connects product creators with people with disabilities to create truly inclusive products. Aman is a certified "Trusted accessibility tester" and has deep experience reviewing designs and products for accessibility at companies like Microsoft and Adobe. As a legally blind individual, Aman brings a unique perspective and expertise to the field of accessibility.
Aman has a certificate course in learning design and technology from Harvard and a PhD in training and development.
Amanda Koch is the VP of Product at GIPHY where she oversees the strategy and execution of GIPHY's products for its owned and operated platform and distributed network. Prior to joining GIPHY in 2017, Amanda led product development for Analytics at Tapad, a cross-platform ad tech company. In addition to Analytics, Amanda has intimate experience with Search and API products and a passion for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in product development.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Board Member, JPMorgan Chase & Co
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Associate Dean of Research in the College
- Board Member, Texas State University
Dr. Aimee Kendall Roundtree serves as the Associate Dean of Research in the College of Liberal Arts and Faculty Fellow for the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Texas State University. She also serves as editor of the Research Management Review, the scholarly journal for the National Council of University Research Administrators. Roundtree earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was mentored by Dr. John Slatin, who helped start Knowbility and the AIR program. She joined the board in 2021 to support Knowbility's important work, fundraising, and outreach.
Job Titles:
- Chief Officer for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, University of Michigan
Dr. Amber Benton (she/her/hers) is an experienced higher education professional, intergroup dialogue facilitator, and proud first-generation college student. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Pacific University, a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) from Michigan State University. Her dissertation research focused on the experiences of Black women undergraduates at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Benton recently co-authored the article, Comfort over Change: a Case Study of Diversity and Inclusivity Efforts in U.S. Higher Education published in Innovative Higher Education.
She currently serves as the Chief Officer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. In this role, she is responsible for strategy and leadership related to DEI initiatives while promoting a healthy climate within the School. In addition, she has previously held positions as Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Natural Science and the Director of Diversity Programming and Student Engagement for James Madison College at Michigan State University.
Using dialogue skills and restorative practices, Dr. Benton helps groups and organizations transform their way of thinking to accomplish their goals of becoming more inclusive and equitable. She frequently shares content related to inclusive and equitable work practices on her website (www.amberbenton.com) and authors a weekly newsletter, The Basic Newsletter.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Director of User Experience at Visa
- Immedidate past Chair
- Immedidate past Chair, Visa
James Green is Sr. Director of User Experience at Visa, Inc. where he leads Visa's Global Accessibility and UX Research teams and manages Visa's Accessibility Portal, where Visa's Global Accessibility Requirements, test cases, online training, and tools are made available to Visa staff globally. His team also provides live training, accessibility testing, tools, and consulting services to design, development, QA, and product teams across Visa. His UX research team runs Visa's in-house Usability Testing Lab in Austin, TX.
James has worked in the technology industry for two decades, with more than half of that time focused on Accessibility. In 2007, he helped Visa produce the world's first large commercial WCAG 2.0 AA conforming website while vetting the draft 2.0 requirements with a real-world development team. James serves on the W3C's Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) and leads the WAI Website Redesign Task Force. He holds the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC), Certified Usability Analyst (CUA), Certified User Experience Analyst (CXA), and Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certifications and earned a B.S. Degree in Marketing and a B.S. in Finance, both from the University of Maryland.
Job Titles:
- Developer
- Director of Accessibility Services
Julie Romanowski has over 25 years of developer experience and over 15 years of digital accessibility experience. Julie worked for 21 years at State Farm, acting as Senior Digital Accessibility Specialist for the last 10 years of her career there, before joining Knowbility in April 2022 as the Director of Accessibility Services. Julie received her B.S. in Computer Science from Illinois State University and holds several professional accessibility certifications:
University of Illinois Information Accessibility Design and Policy (IADP)
IAAP Accessible Document Specialist (ADS)
IAAP Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA)
IAAP Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS)
IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Board Member, Chive Charities
Michael Kitner brings extensive experience in nonprofit development to his role as Director of Development at Chive Charities, a nonprofit affiliated with Atmosphere TV and Chive Media Group. In this capacity, he spearheads revenue-generating campaigns and strategies for fundraising cause marketing initiatives. Michael extends his impact beyond his primary role by offering freelance assistance to local Austin nonprofits. Currently, he helps Marathon Kids, guiding the development of their strategic plan to attract new monthly donors and forge lasting corporate partnerships with Austin-based companies.
With eight years in the nonprofit sector, Michael has facilitated raising over $100 million through diverse channels such as peer-to-peer campaigns, corporate collaborations, major gifts, and grant writing. Notable among his affiliations are The Livestrong Foundation and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Michael holds a B.A. in Education and Communications and is pursuing an M.B.A. at Baylor University alongside his certification as a CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive). Central Texas has been Michael's home for the past decade, where he feels privileged to leverage his fundraising expertise to contribute to creating an inclusive digital realm for individuals with disabilities with Knowbility.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Executive Director
- Executive Director, Knowbility Founding Member
- Executive Director, Knowbility Founding Member, Knowbility
Sharron Rush is the award winning co-founder and Executive Director of Knowbility, a nonprofit advocacy, consulting, and training company based in Austin, Texas. Since 1998, Sharron has been a leader in raising awareness and skills around the issue of access to technology for people with disabilities. Her work at Knowbility includes policy review, performance analysis, technical consultation, and training development for private and public companies, government agencies, and schools. Her technical expertise, understanding of the barriers faced by people with disabilities, and strong communication and training skills have contributed to her leadership position in the field. Since 2007, she has served as an Invited Expert at the W3C, developing and applying global accessibility standards for their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). In 2014, she became co-chair of the Education and Outreach Working Group at WAI.
Job Titles:
- Community Programs and Document Specialist