2026 Speakers

Jennison has been working in the digital accessibility space since 2006, beginning on RBC’s IT Accessibility Team in Toronto. He moved to the Silicon Valley in 2013 to join LinkedIn, where he is Currently their Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism. Jennison co-founded Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) in 2012. Taking place on the 3rd Thursday of May, GAAD features events driving conversation around digital access and inclusion targeted mainly at the everyday tech professional. On the occasion of GAAD’s 10th anniversary in 2021, Jennison co-founded the GAAD Foundation, whose mission is to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement. In 2020, Business Insider named Jennison “1 of 30 power players helping new CEO Ryan Roslansky run LinkedIn.”

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.

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.

Kyle Buzzard brings a wealth of experience in design, engineering, manufacturing and startups to the Glidance team. With a background in Industrial Design and a passion for bringing new ideas to market, Kyle has played pivotal roles in several successful start-ups as both an operator and investor. His expertise lies in creating user-centric designs that combine functionality with aesthetic appeal. Previously, Kyle served as a Co-Founder responsible for design and hardware at Bird Buddy and Stix Golf, where he led the development and production of ground-breaking products that redefined user engagement and satisfaction, shipping hundreds of thousands of products world-wide.

Ellie Carlson is dually accredited as a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) and Guide Dog Mobility Instructor (GDMI). She has empowered adults, seniors, and teens who are blind and low vision to travel safely and independently for the past 24 years. Fluent in American Sign Language, Ellie has been recognized as a specialist with individuals who are deafblind. After working for non-profits, guide dog schools, and the State of Colorado, started her own business, Canines and Canes, LLC in 2014 to make O&M services more accessible to those seeking training. In 2025, Ellie joined the team at Glidance as the Head of Orientation and Mobility.

Dr. James Coughlan is a senior scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, where he is Director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Blindness and Low Vision. Dr. Coughlan received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University.

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.”

Jamie Dean is Senior Corporate Counsel in Microsoft’s Infrastructure Legal Affairs organization, supporting the company’s global data center and cloud infrastructure operations. Jamie previously led Microsoft’s global accessibility legal strategy and brings extensive experience in accessibility law and complex litigation. Jamie serves as Board Chair of the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation & Education Professionals (ACVREP), a Trustee of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), and a Board Member of Disability Rights North Carolina. Jamie is also a Paralympic silver medalist, having competed in rowing at the 2008 Paralympic Games.

Lainey Feingold is a disability rights lawyer, an author, and a public speaker and trainer. She has worked in the digital accessibility legal space since the mid-1990s and was on the team that negotiated the first web accessibility agreement in the United States, in 2000. Lainey’s book about her work in digital accessibility is Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits. It tells stories of how blind people and their lawyers use civil rights laws and collaboration to advance accessibility through relationship building and problem-solving instead of with conflict and expense.

Lainey does talks and training across the United States and around the world on collaboration, digital accessibility, and the civil rights of disabled people. She also serves as the accessibility subject matter expert for Disability:IN, the business disability global inclusion non-profit. Lainey has been named an American Bar Association (ABA) Legal Rebel, an ABA Problem Solver of the Year, and twice a California Lawyer of the Year. More on her website at http://LFLegal.com, and on Twitter at @LFLegal.

Ania Filochowska designs the GuideDot maps. Every icon, label, and layout GuideDot has installed began as her drawing, refined with blind readers until it read cleanly by touch. She runs the site visits and works with each building from the first call to the day the map goes up. She’s also a concert violinist and co-founder of the GG Orchestra in the Bay Area, and holds an MBA from Stanford.

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.

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.

Amos Miller is the Founder and CEO of Glidance, a groundbreaking technology firm advancing the fields of assistive technology and robotics. He is the inventor of Glide, the world’s first intelligent primary mobility aid for the blind and low vision community. Designed as a lightweight, affordable, and intuitive purpose-built consumer device, Glide physically guides users through complex pedestrian environments both indoors and outdoors, avoiding obstacles and hazards and helping them arrive at their destination safely.  

Amos brings more than two decades of experience building human-centered technology. After losing his sight in his 20s due to a genetic eye condition, he finished his Computer Science degree and went on to complete an MBA at London Business School. He then founded Microsoft’s groundbreaking Soundscape project, which pioneered audio-based navigation experiences for blind and low vision users and helped establish spatialized audio as a powerful interface for accessibility. That work shaped his belief that advanced technology is most meaningful when it is designed alongside the people it serves. His work on Glide represents a breakthrough in accessible technology that will fundamentally change how millions of people move through the world with independence and confidence.

Previously, as the director for Microsoft’s Digital Advisory Service in the UK and later in Asia Pacific and Japan, he led a program that helped Microsoft enterprise customers accelerate towards their business goals by helping them innovate and drive business value from advancements in technology. Amos has served as president of Guide Dogs Singapore and chairman of the board for Guide Dogs for the Blind in the UK where he aligned Guide Dogs to become a multi-service, user centric charity.

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.

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.

Bhavya Shah graduated from Stanford in mathematics and computer science, and has worked at Meta, the World Bank, Crunchbase, and Benetech. He is blind, reads braille, and invented the technology that turns any restroom into a tactile map. He is also an award-winning stand-up comedian and a world champion debater.

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 most notable 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. Seeing AI has also received the Helen Keller Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind.

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.

Dr. Joel Snyder is known internationally as one of the world’s first “audio describers,” a pioneer in the field of Audio Description, a translation of visual images to vivid language for the benefit, primarily, of people who are blind or have a vision impairment. 

Since 1981, Dr. Snyder has introduced audio description techniques in over 40 states and 65 countries and has made thousands of live events, media projects and museums accessible.  Most recently, Dr. Snyder was named a Fulbright Scholar to train audio describers in Greece over a four-week period. 

In 2014, the American Council of the Blind published Dr. Snyder’s book, The Visual Made Verbal – A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description, available as an audio book, in Braille, in screen reader accessible formats, and in print in seven languages: English, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish (in conjunction with the World Blind Union), Italian, and Chinese (in conjunction with the Hong Kong Society for the Blind).

Jutta Treviranus is the Director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) and professor in the faculty of Design at OCAD University in Toronto. Jutta established the IDRC in 1993 as the nexus of a growing global community that proactively works to ensure that our digitally transformed and globally connected society is designed inclusively. She also heads the Inclusive Design Institute, a multi-university regional centre of expertise. Jutta founded an innovative graduate program in inclusive design at OCAD University. She leads international multi-partner research networks that have created broadly implemented innovations that support digital equity. She has played a leading role in developing accessibility legislation, standards and specifications internationally (including W3C WAI ATAG, IMS AccessForAll, ISO 24751, and AODA Information and Communication). She serves on many advisory bodies globally to provide expertise in data science, smart cities and inclusive infrastructure (e.g., Waterfront Toronto, London Olympics, NYC Libraries, World Economic Forum etc.). Jutta’s work has been attributed as the impetus for corporate adoption of more inclusive practices in large enterprise companies such as Microsoft and Adobe.

Jeff Wissel is the VP of Accessibility at Aira and a widely respected leader in the business and accessibility communities. He previously made history as the first-ever Chief Accessibility Officer at Disability:IN, where he spearheaded the groundbreaking Procure Access Initiative to make accessibility non-negotiable across enterprises. A legally blind technology leader himself, Jeff brings decades of lived experience and strategic expertise to advancing digital and physical accessibility worldwide.