PUBCOM - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Designer
• Contributor
• Technologist and Information Architect for Government

Bevi Chagnon is half designer, half geek, and 100 percent teacher. She's a prolific writer on design, web, desktop publishing, accessibility, technology, digital media, and cross-media publishing. Look for her work in your class handouts and custom workbooks, as well as online in various forums, tech lists, industry websites, and her blog, The Electronic Page. Her 35+ years in the industry has made her accomplished in many design disciplines (magazine art director, graphic designer, web developer, digital media developer, photographer, and architect) while pioneering and mastering many of today's computer technologies. If it involves communication in any format - traditional and digital, MS Office to Adobe Creative Suite - she's a guru. Today, Bevi is a technologist and information architect for government, academic, and enterprise communications…print, digital, electronic, web, PDF, Sec. 508, accessibility, EPUB, and whatever new technologies Apple, Adobe, Microsoft and Samsung will create in the future. Experience: Standards Through her membership with ANSI (American National Standards Institute), Bevi is a U.S. global delegate to the International Standards Organization (ISO) for PDF standards, including PDF/UA (universal access). Through these organizations, she contributes to the development of accessibility standards that are used worldwide for documents. She has also been a contributor to the WCAG guidelines for web accessibility, the original "web standards" that pre-dates WCAG, and the EPUB standards. Bevi is a frequent contributor to several forums on accessibility. She is a long-standing ACP (Adobe Community Professional) on Adobe's forums. Look for her blue striped avatar, which is the hexagram for "breakthrough." In terms of accessibility, Bevi points out in her classes that she was born into a family with disabilities and has been personally and professionally affiliated with the communities for many decades. So Bevi understands how our documents need to be used by people with many disabilities: blindness, low vision, upperbody motor disabilities, cognitive, hearing, neurological…she has worked with people with all of the disabilities covered by accessibility guidelines. Bevi is a very familiar face to government publishers; she has taught for the US GPO's Institute (IFPEP) since the early 1990s, created curriculum ranging from the earliest desktop publishing software to today's latest technologies for publishing.

Karen McCall, M.Ed. has been working in the field of accessible document design since 1999. She began her career in website accessibility and auditing and moved to accessible Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents in 2004. Karen is: A Canadian delegate to the ISO 14289 or PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) committee and has been for a number of years. A Canadian delegate to the ISO 32000 PDF committee. A Microsoft MVP for Word (Most Valued Professional) since 2009. A Microsoft Accessibility MVP since 2017 when this category of MVP was established. Karen has written several books on the topic of accessible document design for Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents as well as smaller publications with specific techniques for working with Office applications if you are using adaptive technology and/or the keyboard. Karen is the president of Karlen Communications.

Job Titles:

• Freelance Writer, Editor
• VP - Communications of the International Association of Business Communicators ( IABC ) St

Ruth E. "I can write about anything!"® Thaler-Carter has been a fulltime freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and desktop publisher for more than 35 years. Thaler-Carter is the author/publisher of "Get Paid to Write! Getting Started as a Freelance Writer"; author of the original "Freelancing 101: Launching Your Editorial Business" booklet for the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and co-author of the current edition; co-author of the current edition of the EFA's "Resumés for Freelancers" booklet; and owner of the An American Editor blog, Communication Central, and the A Flair for Writing publishing business.

Job Titles:

• Technician for Accessible Word

Tomm Sibert is PubCom's go-to technician for accessible Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files. With more than 25 years experience in the accessibility industry, he's solved just about any kind of accessibility problem with a digital file. At PubCom, he creates accessible templates for our clients, tests and validates files for compliance, and coaches our clients to use better techniques in their source files. Clients love working with Tomm! Tomm also is a gifted technical writer and creates how-to guides for our clients. Education BA - The Florida State University MBA coursework - The Florida State University MOS - Microsoft Office Specialist certification