2024 Speakers

Darryl Adams is the Director of Accessibility at Intel. Darryl leads a team that works at the intersection of technology and human experience helping discover new ways for people with disabilities to thrive in the workplace. Darryl’s mission is to connect his passion for technology innovation with Intel’s disability inclusion efforts to help make computing and access to digital information more accessible for everyone.

Brandon Biggs is an entrepreneur, researcher, inclusive designer, developer, and life-long learner. He is an engineer at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, PhD Student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, CFO at Sonja Biggs Educational Services, and the CEO of XR Navigation. He is almost completely blind from Lebers Congenital Amaurosis (LCA). His primary work centers around building tools to may geographic information and virtual reality non-visual. 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 his work, visit audiom.net or brandonkeithbiggs.com.

Dr. Sambhavi Chandrashekar is a recognized accessibility champion and an award-winning inclusive design educator/researcher with nearly twenty years of strategic and operational experience in implementing inclusive design projects successfully in the non-profit, academia, and industry sectors in Canada. Sam is currently the Global Accessibility Lead at D2L Corporation, an education technology company head-quartered in Ontario, Canada. Her passion is to promote disability inclusion in education, work and life.

Sam worked with the Inclusive Design Research Centre in Toronto for over a decade and taught in the Master of Design program in Inclusive Design at OCAD University and at the iSchool, University of Toronto. Sam holds adjunct professor or doctoral committee member positions at three Canadian Universities and supervises student research in master’s and PhD programs in Inclusive Design.

Sam actively influences policy and legislation as Vice Chair of Global Leadership Council of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, Vice-Chairperson of Accessibility Standards Canada’s Committees on Accessible & Equitable Artificial Intelligence and Accessible ICT Products & Services, Advisory Council Member of the Canadian Accessibility Network and member of 1EdTech’s GenAI Data Rubric Taskforce and TrustEd Apps Accessibility Taskforce.

Caroline Desrosiers is the Founder & CEO of Scribely, a company on a mission to make images and videos more accessible to blind and visually-impaired people and more discoverable to search engines. Scribely’s team of expert writers specialize in writing alt text for images and audio description for videos, helping digital media providers create born-accessible visual content for a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world. Caroline is a member of the W3C Alt Text Subgroup, working to develop standards and best practices for accessible descriptions, as well as a co-host of Say My Meme, a Be My Eyes podcast that describes the internet’s best memes for those who cannot see them.

Most recently Larry was Head of Accessibility at Yahoo where he directed a dedicated team of accessibility professionals and coordinates with thousands of designers and developers to ensure that Yahoo’s  many products, services and media offerings are as accessible as possible for people with disabilities. Larry previously worked at WGBH Boston, where he founded and directed its National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and where 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.

Joshua Hori is a seasoned Accessible Technology Analyst at UC Davis, working under Academic Technology Services (ATS), which is part of Information Education Technology (IET). His career in accessibility began in 2006 with a focus on alternative media conversions for textbooks and course materials, along with exploring assistive technology solutions for the Student Disability Center (SDC). Since 2021, Joshua has dedicated his efforts to accommodating faculty and staff, ensuring inclusive and accessible digital experiences.

In addition to his accessibility work, Joshua contributes to instructional design, supporting faculty in creating more effective and accessible learning environments. As the Siteimprove admin, he assists web developers across campus in integrating accessibility solutions into Content Management Systems (CMS) and documents, ensuring compliance with accessibility standards.

Joshua also serves as the Chair of the Disability Issues Administrative Awareness Committee (DIAAC), advocating for disability awareness and administrative engagement. He plays a key role in the Electronic Accessibility Committee (EAC) for the University of California system, and as a Pro Member at Large of the Assistive Technology Higher Education Network (ATHEN), he continues to support advocacy, outreach, and education in assistive technologies.

With nearly two decades of experience, Joshua is a dedicated advocate for accessibility, helping to create inclusive, accessible digital spaces at UC Davis and beyond.

Roberto Manduchi is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, where he leads research projects on access technology for people who are blind or have low vision. His research is supported by grants from the NIH and the NSF.

Amos Miller is the founder of Glidance, a startup developing a self-driving mobility aid. Formerly, he was a Product Strategist at Microsoft AI and Research where he drove a program that sought to understand and invent accessibility in the world where artificial intelligent agents and mixed reality are primary forms of interaction. As the co-founder of Microsoft Soundscape, Amos demonstrated how the value of working with design constraints in support of mobility and independence for the blind and low vision community has resulted not only in the paradigm shifting product that is Soundscape, but how those very same innovations in audio now open up new experiences and possibilities for everyone.

Amos has a B.Sc. in Computer Science and an MBA from London Business School and enjoys a rewarding career seeking to harness the power of technology to change the world for the better.

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.

As the Disability & Digital Inclusion Lead for CAST, Luis promotes the creation, delivery and use of high quality accessible educational materials, technologies and experiences to support equitable learning and employment opportunities for everyone. Luis is embedded with the Postsecondary and Workforce Development group at CAST that works to increase access to middle- and high-income careers for populations underrepresented in the workforce, including people with disabilities. Luis’s perspective is informed by his own lived experience as a person with a disability and multilingual learner. He was recognized with an International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Making It Happen! Award in 2020, and other recognitions include Apple Distinguished Educator (2009) and Google Certified Innovator (2014). He has published three books on accessibility, mobile learning, and UDL: Mobile Learning for All(Corwin Press), Dive into UDL (ISTE) and Learning on the Go (CAST Publishing). He currently serves as a Transition and Workplace Accessibility strand advisor for the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA).

James Rath, a YouTuber/Creator, TV show host, and accessibility consultant, was born with blindness. Through entertaining yet educational videos, James showcases accessible experiences, blending his love for travel, technology, and gaming. His consultancy work has enhanced accessibility in franchises like The Last of Us, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and VR titles such as Cosmonious High, benefiting over 285 million people with visual disabilities worldwide. James’s mission is to empower others to “SEE DIFFERENT”.

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. Mike has been head of Accessibility at Apple, Yahoo, Verizon Media, and Meta. As of October 2024, he joined Be My Eyes as Product and Market Strategist, focusing on growing partnerships and developing accessible workplace solutions. Mike was instrumental in founding several pioneering industry-wide accessibility initiatives including Teach Access, the Disability Collection, and XR Access. He 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.

Greg Stilson joined The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) in January of 2020 but has been building technology solutions for those who are blind or low vision for the past 15 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 on-demand visual information. This year he joined APH to further develop access solutions for students in the classroom or virtually learning. When not working, Greg lives in Madison WI with his wife and two children. He is a huge sports fan, and loves wine making and home brewing.

Jennifer Wenzel is a Product Specialist on the Braille Tech Team at the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). She brings a wide range of career experience in blindness rehabilitation, braille proofreading, and HR to this role, as well as a lifelong love of both braille and technology. Jennifer began learning braille at the age of four, and currently uses a combination of braille and speech screen reading technology in her personal and professional life. She holds a BS in Speech Communication from the University of MN and both NCUEB Unified English Braille JAWS certifications. She Co-Chairs the National Federation of the Blind’s Employment Committee and serves on the Board of Audio Braille Literacy enhancement (ABLE).