2025 Speakers

Everette Bacon is the Chief of Blindness Initiatives at Aira, where he leads service delivery and customer care while shaping Aira’s approach through his lived experience as a blind professional. He holds a Master’s degree in Blindness Rehabilitation from Western Michigan University and has over 20 years of experience advancing accessibility and inclusion. Everette has served in leadership roles with the National Federation of the Blind, including as its 2nd Vice President and President of the NFB of Utah, and he has presented to the Utah State Board of Education and other government bodies on disability access. He is nationally recognized for his expertise in assistive technology, legislative advocacy, and leadership in expanding opportunities for blind and low-vision individuals through policy and innovation.

Dr. Sven Beiker has spent three decades focused on the future of mobility and automotive safety during a career spanning BMW Group, McKinsey & Company and Stanford University. Today, Sven is the Managing Director of Silicon Valley Mobility, a consulting and advisory firm he founded in 2017 specializing in technical diligence, product roadmaps, and partnership strategies for mobility ventures. He also holds lecturer appointments at the Stanford Business School as well as the University in Borås, Sweden and serves on the advisory board of several startups and associations.

Brandon Biggs is an entrepreneur, researcher, inclusive designer, developer, and life-long learner. He is the CEO of XR Navigation, an Engineer at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, Co-Founder and board treasurer at Sonja Biggs Educational Services Inc., and a PhD student at the Georgia institute of Technology. In 2016, he received his bachelors in music from California State University East Bay, in 2019 he received his masters in Inclusive Design from the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and in 2021, began his PhD in Human Centered Computing from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is almost completely blind from Lebers Congenital Amaurosis (LCA). His projects and ventures center around building tools to solve some of the most difficult problems in the blindness field. He leverages his lived experience coupled with human centered inclusive design principles to create solutions that create lasting and sustainable impact. To achieve this goal, Brandon is half entrepreneur and half academic. To experience Brandon’s current product Audiom, visit https://audiom.net or https://xrnavigation.io.

Mike is the Chairman and CEO of Be My Eyes, the award winning company that connects people needing sighted support with volunteers and companies through live video, and more recently with state of the art AI tools for visual assistance. He has previously served on the management teams of Facebook, Twilio, and Brunswick Group. Mike is also an active angel investor who has helped his portfolio companies achieve exits to Apple, Google and Chaos Group. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two daughters and can occasionally be found handling guitar and vocals for The Love Handles band.

Kristian Burch is the Director of Accessible Technology at Salesforce, as part of the Office of Accessibility. He works to ensure that Salesforce employees with disabilities can access our internal technology, including Salesforce products, and accessible procurement. Kristian also ensures Salesforce employees have access to a large library of Assistive Technology.

Patrick Burton is the CEO and Cofounder of ViddyScribe, the award-winning platform that adds audio descriptions to videos in a single click. Past experience includes co-creating Benvision Speakaboo, directing business development at the Hull Foundation and Learning Center for the Blind, and leading the creative agency Space Dog Media. Patrick brings empathy and practicality to accessibility innovation, and passionately mentors others who want to create real-world impact.

Dr. Eamon Campolettano is a Senior Safety Researcher at Waymo, where he leverages his expertise in injury biomechanics to educate and inform engineering decisions towards building the Waymo Driver to be the world’s most trusted driver. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics from Virginia Tech, where his research centered on characterizing the biomechanics of concussion in youth football players in order to improve safety in the sport. He is committed to improving road safety toward safe and equitable travel for all.

Kevin Chao is a tech accessibility evangelist and advocate with nearly two-decades of deep-cross-industry experience influencing and advancing digital inclusion and usability. After Kevin went blind, losing his eye-sight at 14 years old due to LHON, Chao built on his tech passion with assistive technology and accessibility by, with, and for the blind as a life long calling and mission–training users, advising organizations, and driving inclusive design.. Chao has worked for assistive technology (Sendero Group), higher Education (San Francisco State University and Georgia Institute of Technology), Finance (JPMorgan Chase and US Bank), and Technology (Google and Apple), where Chao served as a tech accessibility evangelist and advocate. . In 2025, he joined AGIGA as Chief Visionary & Evangelist, bringing deep community insight and technical expertise to help empower blind and low-vision individuals through AI-driven innovation, making AGIGA the best AI smart glasses by the blind.

Mac is the CEO of Streamline. He is responsible for the growth of the company, recruiting and retaining top talent, and standing for Streamline’s culture and values. Mac also has a passion for making technology easy to use and accessible to all. Mac is interested in the intersection of technology, governance, and policy, and how special districts are affected by state and federal regulations. Most importantly, he is dedicated to helping special districts stay compliant with state-specific, ever-changing website requirements. Like Streamline, Mac is committed to the local community. He has served on the board of EO Sacramento, the largest network of entrepreneurs in the greater Sacramento area. He has also served as a board member of Stanford Sierra Youth and Families, the CSU Monterey Bay Foundation, and the Comstock’s Editorial Board, and has served as Vice-Chair, Public Policy for the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce. In 2019, Mac was selected to chair the 49th Annual Cap-to-Cap program which brought over 350 local elected officials and business and community leaders to Washington D.C. to advocate for the Sacramento region.

Erin Coleman is the Chief Product Officer of Scribely, an image description solutions company. As CPO, she leads the product vision, strategy, and development for Scribely’s technology solutions with a focus on integrating technology and human expertise to solve accessibility challenges at scale, ensuring that organizations can make their digital content inclusive for all users. Her past experiences include Google, Irrational Labs, and The OutCast Agency with clients like Pinterest and Andreesseen Horowitz.

Jeremy Curry brings over two decades of expertise in assistive technology and accessibility. He has extensive knowledge and experience in product development and management for assistive technology hardware and software, including electronic magnifiers, Braille displays and notetakers, digital book players, screen magnification and screen reader software. He has served as Senior Program Manager on the Windows Accessibility team overseeing all of the low vision experiences and accessibility settings in Windows. Currently, Jeremy works on the enterprise Disability Answer Desk (eDAD) and acts as a liaison to Microsoft’s engineering and innovation teams, with a focus on AI and accessibility. Most recently, he led the creation of the Ask Microsoft Accessibility bot, which helps customers find accessibility information about Microsoft products and services.”

Caroline Desrosiers is an accessibility advocate, speaker, writer, and founder of Scribely, a company dedicated to making digital content inclusive and barrier-free. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, and Mashable, and she collaborates with organizations such as Amazon, Sesame Street, Smithsonian, and Walmart to integrate accessibility into their content strategies and workflows. Passionate about “born-accessible” practices, Caroline led the creation of new IPTC accessibility metadata standards that ensure quality accessibility information travels with images wherever they appear online.

Ned Desmond is Sight Tech Global’s founder and former executive producer. Currently Ned is a senior operating partner at SOSV, responsible for communications, marketing, and operations, among other things. Prior to joining SOSV, Ned was the COO at the media company TechCrunch for eight years, where he oversaw its growth to become a major force in tech media. Ned started his career as a journalist, and served as a foreign correspondent for Time magazine in Asia for eight years, and also covered Silicon valley for Fortune magazine. He joined his first Silicon valley startup, Infoseek, in 1996 and has been happily working at the intersection of media and startups ever since.

Joe Devon is a technology entrepreneur and web accessibility advocate, best known for co-founding Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) in 2012. Inspired by his 2011 blog post highlighting the need for mainstream accessibility knowledge among developers, GAAD has grown into an annual event observed on the third Thursday of May, promoting digital access and inclusion for over one billion people with disabilities worldwide.

As Chair of the GAAD Foundation, Joe strives to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development by embedding accessibility as a core requirement. He also co-hosts the Accessibility and Gen.AI Podcast, exploring the intersection of accessibility and artificial intelligence.

Alex Dunn is the Founder and CEO of Cephable, an innovative on-device AI platform that enables users to control, create, and automate across their devices, apps, and tools through voice commands, gestures, text/document generation, AI rewrite assistance and more. Before founding Cephable, Alex held key roles at Voicify, EF Education First, and other companies, focusing on applied machine-learning, software architecture, and product engineering. His dedication to accessibility has earned him and Cephable recognition, including being named a Microsoft MVP 10 years running, Forbes Accessibility 100 Innaugural list, and receiving the Forbes 30 Under 30 Boston award. As an international speaker, author, and builder, Alex shares his expertise and vision for creating a more inclusive digital landscape.

Jim Fruchterman is a serial tech and social entrepreneur, who has already proven how technology can change entire fields in the social sector. He was the founder and CEO of Benetech for nearly 30 years, delivering large-scale change in partnership with hundreds of organizations as part of social enterprises addressing education, disability, human rights, and the environment. In addition, he has advised hundreds of diverse social enterprises on the use of technology and data. He previously founded two successful for-profit Silicon Valley tech companies in the machine learning/artificial intelligence field, and is an active angel investor in and board member for several companies. Fruchterman has been widely recognized for his social change work, including being selected as a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Schwab Social Entrepreneur Award, and the Caltech Distinguished Alumni award.

Larry is “rewired” – consulting with startups in the accessibility field and involved with numerous public policy initiatives, including service as a public member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Digital Accessibility and Equity Governance Board. Previously, Larry was Head of Accessibility at Yahoo, where he directed a dedicated team of accessibility professionals and coordinated with hundreds of designers and developers to ensure that Yahoo’s many products, services and media offerings were as accessible as possible for people with disabilities. Larry started his career in accessible media and technology at WGBH Boston, where he was director of its Media Access Group and where he founded and directed its National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM). He was directly involved in such ground-breaking legislation as the TV Decoder Circuitry Act, The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.

Mike Hess is the Founder and Executive Director of Blind Institute of Technology (BIT), a nonprofit on a mission to close the employment gap for professionals with disabilities. After two decades managing multimillion-dollar tech projects for Fortune 500 companies, Mike grew frustrated by being seen as the “token blind guy.” He knew the skills he’d developed because of his blindness were an asset – not a limitation – and he set out to challenge stereotypes, break down employment barriers, and promote equity for disabled professionals in corporate America.

Since launching BIT, Mike has built global partnerships and connected talented disabled professionals with career opportunities at leading companies. He also created the BIT Academy, the only Salesforce-approved training provider for professionals with disabilities, offering accessible, complimentary courses in Salesforce Administration, Digital Accessibility, Platform App Builder, and Agentforce – with more to come in 2025.

Under Mike’s leadership, BIT launched two U.S. Department of Labor–registered apprenticeship programs and was awarded a large Disability Innovation Fund grant to scale its workforce development model nationwide. Mike’s work continues to challenge outdated narratives and shape a more equitable workforce where disability is seen as a strength, not a setback.

Shawn Jordison is an accessibility expert and founder of The Accessibility Guy. He helps organizations meet Section 508, WCAG, PDF/UA, and AODA standards through training, audits, and consulting. He teaches document accessibility for Microsoft Office, PDFs, and multimedia to create inclusive digital content.

Matthew Krieger is a technologist and executive with extensive experience in IT and nonprofit sectors. He is President of Cober, Inc. Previously, Matthew held senior IT leadership positions at Time and the Reader’s Digest Association in the roles of division CTO, global data center management, strategy and governance. Matthew is Board Chair of the Reader’s Digest Partners for Sight Foundation, a non-profit grant maker focusing on direct services to increase the independence of blind and visually impaired individuals. He has extensive experience collaborating with blind and visually impaired people, having served nine years as a Board member of the Computer Center for Visually Impaired People at Baruch College.

Matthew founded and built Whysper, a text-to-speech audio content aggregator. He serves on the board of the International Microwave Power Institute and advises Tech 2 Success, Cyber-Seniors, and Creative Coefficient. A frequent presenter on topics of business and technology and the intersection of them, Matthew holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from NYU Poly and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Connecticut.

Aaron Lai is a Senior Product Manager at Waymo, where he focuses on multi-modal sensor fusion within the Perception team. He is passionate about accessibility, and in previous roles, worked on areas like WAI-ARIA to ensure screen reader compatibility for web applications. Aaron is committed to improving road safety and expanding mobility access.

Karae Lisle has more than 20 years of leadership experience in both the private and non-profit sectors, and currently serves as the CEO of Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Early on, Karae worked in the tech sector, beginning with a sales support role at Burroughs Corporation, progressing through client-facing and revenue generating roles, to executive management in a variety of early-stage software firms. Moving to California in 1998 to work for Oracle’s inaugural CRM initiative, she later founded a boutique strategy consulting firm serving tech start-ups. Karae went on to join Shelter Network as CEO in 2011, and spearheaded the merger between nonprofits, InnVision and Shelter Network, (now LifeMoves, $20M budget) which created the largest provider of homeless shelter and services for Silicon Valley, providing 1000 beds (nightly) to individuals, families, veterans.

Including her role on the Vista Center Board of Directors, Karae’s community engagement includes serving on the boards of the Harvard Business School No. Calif. Alumni Association, and as the Chair of Mercado Global, a nonprofit serving indigenous Guatemalan women. She served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco, and San Jose State in the MBA, MS, and undergraduate programs from 2000 to 2010. Karae attended Stanford Business School Nonprofit Executive program and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, after receiving a BS in Management Information Systems from Florida State University.

Dr Louis-Philippe Massé has a Doctorate in Physics. He worked for more than 20 years in the industries of fiber optics, 2D and 3D sensor design as we as in product development in the field of metrology and product inspection. He occupied positions in sales and corporate management. He started at HumanWare as the Director of Product Management. He is currently Vice-president of Product Innovation and Technologies where he is responsible for product management, development as well as emerging technology assessment.

Eamon McErlean leads digital accessibility and globalization at ServiceNow, bringing over 28 years of experience from Apple, Nike, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. He is passionate about creating inclusive digital experiences that remove barriers and empower users of all abilities. Eamon champions ensuring ServiceNow’s platform is not only compliant with global accessibility standards but genuinely usable for all end-users.

Agustya Mehta leads a cross-discipline engineering team responsible for early development platforms for AI-enabled wearable devices and augmented reality. Prior to Meta, Agustya led the hardware team at Nauto (driver safety / autonomous vehicle startup), led electrical engineering teams at Microsoft (HoloLens), and held electrical engineering design roles at Apple (iPhone 4S, 5, 5S, 6) and Microsoft (Xbox 360 S, Kinect). He holds a number of patents related to his work on consumer electronics. Agustya received his SB in Physics, SB in Electrical Engineering, and M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. Agustya lives in San Carlos, California with his wife and three sons. His family history of vision loss and lived experience with eye disease led to a passion for leveraging technology to empower people with disabilities.

Dr. Miele is a prominent blind scientist, designer, and thought leader in accessible technology and disability. He is a recipient of the 2021 MacArthur “genius” fellowship, an Amazon Design Scholar, and Distinguished Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute.  He is known for creating inclusive technologies  that address critical needs and challenge societal assumptions, and for speaking with frank humor and directness about the lived disability experience. 

Dr. Miele helps guide the non-visual customer experience for Amazon devices, and advises widely on accessible design, research methods, and disability inclusion. He is the father of two adult children and lives with his wife in Berkeley, California. His memoir, “Connecting Dots – A Blind Life,” is available wherever books are sold or borrowed.

Dr. Alistair Muldal is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind in London. He co-leads the Astra Visual Interpreter project, which aims to build a real-time AI assistant that can help people who are blind or low-vision to explore and interpret their surroundings. Alistair began his career in neuroscience, earning a DPhil from the University of Oxford researching the early development of the visual system. Since joining DeepMind in 2016, his work has primarily focused on developing multimodal AI agents that can naturally interact with humans and provide real-time assistance in areas such as computer control. A relative newcomer to the vision impairment space, he’s deeply committed to realizing AI’s potential in providing greater independence for individuals with visual impairments.

With a passion for making technology accessible and easy to use, Elliott has spent over 15 years in IT, education, and accessibility, helping people build confidence with technology in both their personal and professional lives. He firmly believes that technology is the great equalizer—when used effectively, it can break down barriers, create opportunities, and empower people to reach their full potential. He has designed and led training programs focused on real-world skills, creating an equitable learning environment where everyone has the tools they need to succeed. As Academy Director, he is focused on expanding educational opportunities, driving innovation, and supporting students as they work toward their goals. Outside of work, Elliott loves spending time with his family, especially swimming and going to the beach. A self-proclaimed nerd, he enjoys attending Comic-Con and geeking out over all things sci-fi and tech. He also shares his love of space exploration with his family, making trips to NASA launches whenever possible.

Anat Nulman is a seasoned leader in assistive technology, specializing for over 11 years in solutions for the visually impaired. She founded assistive.consulting in 2023, where she brings expertise in business development, go-to-market strategy, sales, and product management to assistive tech companies. Previously with OrCam and RealThing Ai, Anat drove market strategies and was instrumental in the launch of pioneering products. Her current clients, including Envision, Orbit Research, WeWALK, BlindShell, and Lighthouse Tech, span diverse areas like mobility, smart glasses, Braille, and accessible telecommunications. Anat is dedicated to advancing technology as an equalizer and serves as both an advocate and ally for individuals with disabilities.

Troy Otillio is a Chief Executive Officer at Aira. Mr. Otillio is a noted technology leader and entrepreneur whose lengthy experience in the industry has included managing successful startups and spearheading the first enterprise-scale adoption of AWS infrastructure at Intuit, Inc., At Aira, Troy focuses on scaling Aira’s business functions, including marketing, sales, engineering and agent services. He is also actively seeking talent and collaborators in the areas of AI, NLP, IoT, Marketing, QA, and Security. Troy is an initial investor and Advisor with Aira with a tenure stretching back to the inception of the company. With over 25 years of experience, Otillio is a software product and technology entrepreneur having particular expertise in early-stage successful startups (including Ariba and Documentum), and large high-tech enterprises such as Intuit, where he served as Director of Public Cloud in the company´s Central Technology organization. Otillio, who earned his degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and holds four patents in technology, also served as Executive in Residence at Plug and Play Tech Center, a Silicon Valley-based accelerator specializing in emerging tech startups.

Christopher Patnoe is the Lead for EMEA Accessibility and Disability Innovation at Google. He leads Google’s efforts around the accessibility of product, policy and partnerships across EMEA – with a particular focus on Emerging Markets. He has almost 30 years experience in Tech working at companies like Apple, Sony Ericsson and Disney where he’s built hardware, software, games, and services. He is the founder of Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centres, the founder and chair for the W3C Immersive Captions Community Group and is Trustee of the board for SCOPE. Christopher has a degree in Music from UC Berkeley.

Geoffrey Peddle is the Chief Technology Officer at Aira, the world’s premier provider of Visual Interpreter Services (VIS) and assistive technology for people who are blind or have low vision. In this role, he is responsible for leading the company’s entire technology roadmap, overseeing engineering teams, and driving the strategic integration of advanced AI to enhance the core Aira experience.

A seasoned technology veteran with over 30 years of software engineering experience, Mr. Peddle is a recognized expert in the field of Artificial Intelligence. His deep learning expertise is rooted in his Masters in Machine Learning from the University of Toronto, where he had the opportunity to study under the renowned computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, placing him at the forefront of the deep learning revolution. Prior to Aira, he held senior leadership roles, including CTO at Tealbook, where he scaled the engineering organization and successfully implemented machine learning solutions to serve mission-driven business goals. At Aira, his mandate is to harness the power of AI to build impactful products that increase accessibility and make a tangible positive difference in the lives of the 300 million people globally who are blind or have low vision.

As Director of Accessibility Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft, Jessica leads with one goal in mind: to accelerate accessible technology so everyone can fully participate in the digital world. Her work sits at the intersection of partnership, technology, and business value, turning lived experience into accessible solutions that democratize technology for all. Jessica is an attorney, who prior to joining the Microsoft team, promoted the principles of equal opportunity and non-discrimination within multi-national corporations. Jessica began her legal career in government, including her work as an Administrative Judge for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Jessica has muscular dystrophy and uses a power wheelchair.

Travis Rea is a seasoned marketing and culinary professional with over 20 years of experience, currently serving as Vice President at Brava Home, Inc. His expertise spans product development, e-commerce and fine dining, having launched innovative culinary products and led successful marketing strategies. With a BS in Business Administration from Trinity University and a culinary arts degree, Travis has been instrumental in Brava’s success and has been recognized with multiple industry awards for the Smart Oven. His passion lies in creating groundbreaking products that delight customers and make home cooking easy and accessible for all.

Luis Salazar is an upcoming Workforce Development Technical Associate at Salesforce, a three-time Workforce Navigator, and a Salesforce Administrator Apprentice. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and has over a decade of experience in strategy and technology implementation. With 8 Salesforce certifications, Luis is passionate about accessibility, inclusion, and empowering professionals with disabilities to build meaningful careers in the tech ecosystem.

Sam Seavey, founder of The Blind Life YouTube channel, is a renowned expert in assistive technology. With over 70,000 subscribers and 1000+ videos, Sam provides valuable tips, reviews of assistive devices, and interviews with visually impaired community members. Diagnosed with Stargardt’s at the age of 11, Sam has dedicated 30 years to researching and understanding assistive devices. He’s been featured in prestigious publications like USA TODAY and WIRED Magazine, and collaborates with tech giants like Apple and Google. Sam currently manages an assistive technology program, offering training and aiming to help everyone live their BEST BLIND LIFE!

A creative writing major turned product manager, Zac has spent the last 20 years working at the intersection of digital content communities and emerging technology. As the Head of Product for Brava, he brings that experience to the kitchen, with a smart oven that makes cooking at home faster, easier, and more delicious than ever. He enjoys spicy foods, tricking his kids into believing that he has magical powers, and using AI to perform uncomfortable tasks like writing about himself.

At Microsoft, Saqib Shaikh leads teams of engineers to blend emerging technologies with natural user experiences to empower people with disabilities to achieve more – and thus to create a more inclusive world for all.

His latest project, Seeing AI, enables someone who is visually impaired to hold up their phone, and hear more about the text, people, and objects in their surroundings. It has won multiple awards, and been called “life changing” by users. Shaikh has demonstrated his work to the UK Prime Minister, and to the House of Lords. The video of the original prototype has been viewed over three million times.

Shaikh holds a BSc in Computer Science (graduating top of his class), and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence. He has been recognized by the British Computer Society as the Young IT Practitioner of the Year.

Mike Shebanek has held product leadership roles at tech giants Apple, Yahoo, Facebook (Meta), and Be My Eyes in a technology career spanning more than 30 years. He was the product manager for the original iMac and iPad and led the creation of the VoiceOver screenreader and other accessibility features now found in every Mac, iPad and iPhone. He was also instrumental in founding several pioneering industry-wide accessibility initiatives including TeachAccess.org, the Getty Images Disability Collection, and XR Access. Mike holds several technology patents, is an author, guest speaker, and has served as Vice-Chair on the Board of Directors at the LightHouse for the Blind in San Francisco. He is now retired  after heading Accessibility at Apple, Yahoo, Verizon Media, and Meta.

Mario Soave is the founder and CEO of CleverFi, a service that lets travelers teleport their home Wi-Fi wherever they go. The network travels with them and stays under their control, so screen readers, wearables, Alexa, and other devices connect just like at home with no app, no captive portals, and strong privacy by design. Built for people who use assistive technology, CleverFi works with both new and older devices and keeps access private and secure. Today it is used in hotels and Airbnbs, and it is expanding to clinics, robotaxis, and more to make auto-connect Wi-Fi simple for everyone. Mario’s commitment is personal: his uncle is blind and has mentored him in technology since he was 13, shaping his focus on inclusive design. A repeat founder with a prior exit, he is leading pilots across the US and Europe to make connectivity effortless for all.

Taylor Sone is an I/O Psychology professional born and raised in Texas. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at 15, she didn’t become truly involved in the blind and visually impaired (BVI) community until pursuing her Master’s in I/O Psychology. She joined the BIT team in August 2023 as an intern and quickly stepped into the role of Apprenticeship Program Manager in November 2024. In this role, she works closely with apprentices and project leads to foster the supportive, growth-centered environment where individuals develop their technical and professional skills. With a background in organizational development, Taylor leads thoughtful, data-informed approaches to support apprentices through individualized feedback, program refinement, and professional development strategies. When she’s not collaborating with BIT teams, you’ll find her knitting cozy projects or hanging out with her two very mischievous cats. She also enjoys catching up on her favorite TV shows with quality audio description and tackling the New York Times games of the day.

Greg Stilson has been building technology solutions for those who are blind or low vision for the past 20 years.  While at HumanWare, a leading assistive technology manufacturer, Greg lead the development of such products as the BrailleNote Touch braille tablet, Trekker Breeze talking GPS device, Brailliant braille displays, and VictorReader accessible audio book devices, among others.  He spent two years with a startup company Aira, developing the Aira app and smart glasses platform, to create access to on-demand visual information. In 2020 he joined APH to further develop access solutions for those who are blind at all stages of life, from education to leisure, culminating in the launch of the Monarch in 2024 as a first of its kind all-in-one tactile display. When not working Greg lives in Madison WI with his wife and two children. He is an avid sports fan and is also a blind gamer.

Ki was fascinated by startups and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and always enjoyed building software programs for his friends to do something easier than ever.  He was inspired to apply his tech entrepreneurship to make the world more accessible by providing innovative hardware and software tools for the visually impaired. So he established Dot Inc. and built a revolutionary tactile display that brings graphics and images in tactile so that blind people can access the world better. With the tactile display, he won the Titanium award at Cannes Innovations in 2022.

Ioana was 32 (ish) when she found out she is dyslexic. At that time, she didn’t understand dyslexia, but a lot of things were suddenly making sense – including why her typos are a bit of Schrodinger’s cat (she can’t spot them, but everyone else can). Ioana works at the intersection of AI and accessibility, making sure AI models are inclusive for all.

Carter is an IAAP-certified web accessibility specialist focused on using technology to advance autonomy and independence for people with disabilities. His work has helped hundreds of organizations build scalable accessibility programs that adapt to evolving digital standards. A contributor to the NVDA screen reader, Carter created the popular AI Content Describer add-on and maintains a portfolio of open-source projects that extend the capabilities of assistive technology.

Xiaoran is the CEO and Co-Founder of AGIGA AI, a company dedicated to providing accessible AI solutions that empower every life. Previously, she was a key innovator at Amazon Lab126, where she was an early member of the Alexa team and worked on foundational AI projects. She later led the AI team for autonomous delivery at Meituan, scaling the technology to millions of orders. With over a decade of experience shipping AI products across domains like smart homes, security, and logistics, she now channels her expertise into social impact at AGIGA AI, starting with EchoVision smart glasses for the visually impaired. Xiaoran holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from USC and is an inventor on multiple U.S. patents.

Lucas Watson is a Senior Software Engineer developing the Waymo Driver’s behavior around pedestrians. He is passionate about making the Driver safe, compliant, and polite around pedestrians at scale. Lucas is particularly enthusiastic about improving the everyday safety and comfort of vulnerable road users (VRUs) in the communities where Waymo operates. He holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in robotics and motion planning from Boston University.

Gregory Wayne is a Distinguished Scientist in Research at Google DeepMind, where he is a pioneering figure in the development of next-generation artificial intelligence, most recently leading efforts on Project Astra, a research prototype exploring the capabilities of a universal, multimodal AI assistant. His work is focused on creating smarter, more human-like machines by drawing inspiration from computational neuroscience. He is known for his influential research on artificial neural network memory systems and has been instrumental in advancing models that exhibit sophisticated reasoning and complex data structure manipulation. Dr. Wayne’s academic background bridges deep learning and biology. He holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Columbia University, an M.S. in Applied Mathematics, and a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. His contributions to the field of AI have been recognized with honors such as being named an Innovator Under 35. His current focus at Google DeepMind is on developing AI agents that can see, hear, and interact with the world in real-time with continuous memory and context—the core goals of Project Astra.

Dave Williams has championed accessibility for blind people for 25 years, bringing expertise in accessible technology, inclusive design, and digital products, informed by his lived experience as a blind parent and international marathon runner. He currently serves as Chair of the Braillists Foundation and Customer Experience Manager at Dot Inc. As RNIB’s former Inclusive Design Ambassador, Dave led the UK’s Braille 200 celebrations, hosted 150 episodes of Tech Talk on RNIB Connect Radio (including an interview with Stevie Wonder), and partnered with Netflix, Canon, and Sony Europe on accessibility initiatives. He has served on the DAISY Consortium Board and the European Blind Union Braille Working Group. Dave was named UCL’s Community Tutor of the Year for his inclusive communication workshops and received a Point of Light award from the UK Prime Minister in 2023 for his work promoting braille literacy. In 2025, he was inducted into the Abbott World Marathon Majors Seven Star Finishers Hall of Fame.