The Toolkit is made possible thanks to voluntary contributions by a faculty of multiple stakeholders.

TOOLKIT EDITORIAL TEAM

• Dónal Rice, Senior Design Advisor, ICT, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, NDA
  (ITU-G3ict Policy Toolkit Editor)

• Francesca Cesa Bianchi, G3ict (ITU-G3ict Policy Toolkit Editorial Coordinator)

In alphabetical order:

• Clara Luz Alvarez, Mexico

• Tamas Babinszki, Even Grounds, USA

• Kevin Carey, humanITy, RNIB/World Blind Union, UK

• John Clarkson, University of Cambridge, Engineering Design Centre, UK

• Anne-Rivers Forcke, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• Ambassador Luis Gallegos, G3ict

• Rune Halvorsen, NOVA, Norway

• Axel Leblois, G3ict

• Asenath Mpatwa, ITU

• Nirmita Narasimhan, The Centre for Internet & Society, India

• Felicity Rawlins, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• Andrea Saks, ITU

• Licia Sbattella, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

• Susan Schorr, ITU

• Andi Snow-Weaver, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• James Thurston, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Group

• Cynthia D. Waddell, International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), USA

CONTRIBUTORS

• J. E. Baker, L. McArthur, J. Silva, Jutta Treviranus, Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto, Canada

• David Banes, AbilityNet, UK

• David Baylor, World Broadcasting Unions (WBU)

• Hardik Bhatt, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Chicago and Karen Tamley, Commissioner, Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, City of Chicago; Danielle DuMerer and Matthew Guilford, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Chicago; Laurie Dittman and Joseph Russo, Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, City of Chicago

• Fernando Botelho, Literacy Bridge & Mais Diferenças, Brazil

• Gerald Craddock, NDA/CEUD, Ireland

• Bob English, TecAccess, USA

• Jonathan Freeman,MD i2 media research ltd;  Department of Psychology Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, UK

• Angela Garabagiu, Council of Europe

• Larry Goldberg, WGBH, USA

• Martin Gould, National Council on Disability, USA

• Gunnar Hellström, Omnitor, Sweden

• James Hubbard, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, NDA, Ireland

• Bill Joley, International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), USA

• Mike Jones, Wireless RERC, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

• Hiroshi Kawamura, DAISY Consortium, Japan

• Alex Li, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/ International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) Special Working Group–Accessibility Convener

• Ben Lippincott, Wireless RERC, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

• Mark Magennis, National Council for the Blind of Ireland - NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technologies (CFIT), Ireland

• Trisha O’Connell, WGBH-Shapiro National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), USA

• Mike Paciello, The Paciello Group, USA

• Helen Petrie, University of York, UK

• Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, European Commission

• Rebecca Schild, The Centre for Internet & Society, India

• Rich Schwerdtfeger, Distinguished Engineer, SWG Accessibility Architect/Strategist, IBM

• David Sloan, University of Dundee, UK

• Mike Starling, World Broadcasting Unions (WBU)

• Gregg Vanderheiden, University of Winsconsin-Madison, USA

• Carlos A. Velasco, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technologies (FIT), Germany

• Cynthia D. Waddell, International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), USA

• Sam Waller, University of Cambridge, Engineering Design Centre, UK

• Chuck Wilsker, Telework Coalition, USA

• Gottfried Zimmermann, Access Technologies, USA   

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Hardik Batth

Appointed in February 2006, Hardik is the Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago and the Commissioner for City’s Department of Innovation & Technology.Hardik strives to implement Mayor Daley's vision of a city government that benefits from an assimilation of best practices from both the public sector and the private industry by raising the level of service provided to citizens, businesses and tourists. Hardik manages City’s technology investment with an annual budget of $150 Million and a team of 250 employees and consultants. Hardik also leads Mayor’s charge for universal and affordable broadband for all Chicagoans through various initiatives. Hardik also spearheads Mayor Daley's vision of career academies in the technology sector, with the first technology academy, supported by more than 80 large and small businesses, opened its doors in fall 2009. Hardik chairs Mayor Daley's council of Technology Advisors comprised of leading CIO's of the region including Boeing, Bexter, CNA, Exelon, and Aon. Prior to joining the public sector, Hardik worked as a consultant with Oracle corporation in the U.S. and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India. Hardik has an MBA from Kellogg and Bachelor degree in Computer Science from India. 

 

Kevin Carey

Kevin Carey is Chair of RNIB www.rnib.org.uk, the UK's leading blindness charity with an annual turnover of more than £100m per year, Chair of humanITy www.humanity.org.uk a specialist eInclusion Charity and Chair of the DCMS/Ofcom Community Radio Fund Panel www.ofcom.org.uk.  He is Head of eInclusion Consultancy for ATcare www.atcare.co.uk, a Board Member of the Social Investment Business www.socialinvestmentbusiness.org and a member of the ACEVO Regulatory Task Force www.acevo.org.uk.  He is a regular contributor to Managing Information www.managinginformation.com and Ability Magazine www.abilitymagazine.com.  He is a former Member of the Ofcom Content Board and a NESTA Fellow in accessible broadcasting www.nesta.org.uk, with a Royal Television Society Award for engineering. An eclectic writer, broadcaster and speaker, Kevin has authored more than 150 major papers and presentations. He is a lay Minister of the Church of England and a Member of its General Synod. He is a published poet, chorister, former AmDram actor/director and classical music critic. In his new position at RNIB, he has turned his powerful and unorthodox intellect towards the subject of governance and the way people work together to generate creativity and success.

 

Alex Li

Alex Li is the Senior Accessibility Strategist at Microsoft. His primary responsibility is to represent Microsoft in addressing global accessibility public policies and accessibility technical standards development. He is also responsible for governance policy within Microsoft to uphold Microsoft’s accessibility conformance process. Alex is the convener of JTC1 Special Working Group on Accessibility (SWG‐A), and served as its Task Group 2 chair and TEITAC liaison. Alex also represents Microsoft as a member of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Steering Council and served as a member of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG). Prior to joining Microsoft, Alex was responsible for accessibility policies and standards at SAP.

 

Nirmita Narasimhan

Nirmita Narasimhan is a Programme Manager with the Centre for Internet and Society and works extensively in the area of technology access for disabled persons. The nature of her work ranges from research and policy drafting and review to advocacy through campaigns, workshops etc. Nirmita's current work focuses on certain specific areas, namely, working towards policy  formulation for internet and electronic accessibility for disabled persons in India,   reviewing the Indian Copyright Act and working towards amendments to the Act to include exceptions and limitations for the print challenged, working at a national level towards support of the World Blind Union treaty at the WIPO, organising workshops on web accessibility for web developers in different cities around the country, supporting a wiki on accessibility, working towards making accessible materials available for the visually challenged etc. Nirmita's work can be viewed at www.cis-india.org. Nirmita has presented papers in international fora like the IGF and the Asia Pacific conference on mainstreaming ICT technologies which was held in Bangkok last year. Her focus was primarily policy formulation for ICT and electronic accessibility. She has also contributed to the G3ICT and ITU toolkit. Nirmita graduated from Law College in 2002 and since then has worked in different areas ranging from research to practice. She received the MS Lyn scholarship for young lawyers in 2005. Over the years Nirmita has been very interested in working on issues of copyright and access to knowledge for disabled persons and has developed a keen understanding of the issue in India. She is engaged with the Ministry of Human Resource and Development and the Department of Information and Technology in the present Copyright amendment formulation process and is on the drafting committee for the National Electronic Accessibility Policy. Nirmita is also heading the national Right to Read campaign around the country and working with disability organisations, policy makers and publishers to raise awareness on the issue and device collaborative working models for access to knowledge. Nirmita is advising the National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) on a variety of aspects, namely, accessibility of web site and content, transitioning to an open access model for some selected subjects, an open book project for collaborative knowledge production and alternative licensing models. Nirmita is also a proficient vocal classical singer and has completed her MPhil in Karnatic music from the Delhi University with honours.

 

Trish O'Connell

Trisha O'Connell is the Director of Research and Development for the WGBH-Shapiro National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), shaping and managing projects that address current and emerging accessibility challenges in the convergence of technology, media, disability, and education. She has worked in Media Access at WGBH since 1988, serving as director of The Caption Center prior to joining NCAM. She holds an M.B.A. from the Simmons Graduate School of Management. 

 

Dónal Rice, ITU-G3ict Policy Toolkit Editor

Dónal Rice is the Senior ICT Advisor for the National Disability Authority of Ireland (NDA) - Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) which was launched in October 2007.  The CEUD is dedicated to the principle of universal access, enabling people in Ireland to participate in a society that takes account of human difference and to interact with their environment to the best of their ability.  Dónal has responsibility for the NDA IT Accessibility Guidelines and formerly worked extensively with many public sector departments and agencies on the NDA's Excellence through Accessibility Awards. Dónal holds a BA in Maths and English from University College Dublin, an MSc in Computing from Griffith College Dublin and is currently undertaking a doctorate in eAccessibility and Legislation with the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

 

Andi Snow-Weaver

Andi Snow-Weaver is the worldwide accessibility standards program manager for IBM. With more than 20 years of user interface and accessibility experience, she is responsible for bringing industry-specific expertise to the development of worldwide accessibility standards for information technology, and driving internal IBM standards that are consistent with the company's long-standing commitment to IT leadership for people with disabilities. Andi is an internationally-recognized leader in accessibility standards development. She was IBM’s representative to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) working group which published the WCAG 2.0 standard in December 2008. And she was a member of the recent Telecommunications and Electronic Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) to the U.S. government for updating the Section 508 and 255 accessibility standards. She served as co-chair of the TEITAC subcommittee addressing Web, software, and electronic content.  In addition to her TEITAC and WCAG work, Andi drives IBM’s involvement in all international accessibility standards organizations, such as the W3C, ISO, JTC-1, OASIS, JIS, JSA, IMS, and country-specific accessibility policies around the world in support of a harmonized global approach to IT accessibility. In 1998 Andi began work in the area of accessibility, a natural extension of her previous development experience in speech recognition, telephony applications, and user interface standards. In 2001, she led the deployment of Section 508 requirements within IBM, a broad-scale initiative that embraced IBM's holistic approach to accessibility, infiltrating all aspects of the company's business, including its own internally-developed software and Web sites, Internet site, service offerings, and procurement of IT from our suppliers. Today, Andi continues to lead IBM's accessibility standards work and serves as its external representative on many global standards bodies. In particular, she is editor of a W3C standard describing browser implementations of the Accessibility Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) standard and part of a developing ISO standard on AT-IT Interoperability (ISO/IEC 13066). 

 

Karen Tamley

KarenTamley was named Commissioner of the Chicago Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) by Richard M. Daley in March of 2005.  MOPD promotes total access, full participation and equal opportunity people with all types of disabilities with the goal of making Chicago the most accessible city in the nation. As a person with a disability herself, Ms. Tamley has dedicated her entire career to furthering the rights and opportunity of her community. During her time at MOPD, she has overseen a number of disability policy and program initiatives on behalf of people with disabilities that have improved transportation, infrastructure, emergency preparedness, employment readiness and placement, voting access, and delivery of City services through accessible technology. In addition, Commissioner Tamley serves as the City’s key representative regarding disability related policy on a number of boards and committees, including the Pace Suburban Bus Board of Directors (the region’s Paratransit service provider). Under Mayor Daley and Commissioner Tamley’s leadership, in 2007, Chicago received the Accessible America Award from the National Organization on Disability and MOPD was recognized as the Best Government Department by the Deaf Illinois Awards. 

 

Jutta Treviranus

Jutta Treviranus established and directs the Adaptive Technology Research Centre (ATRC), an internationally recognized centre of expertise on inclusive design of emerging information and communication systems and practices. Jutta heads the Inclusive Design Institute a multi-institutional research initiative. She has led a large number of national and international multi-partner research networks (including Fluid, TILE, CNICE, CulturAll, Stretch and the Barrierfree project), that have led to a range of broadly implemented technical innovations that support inclusion. She is chair of the WAI, W3C, Authoring Tool Working Group, chair of the IMS AccessForAll Specification Working Groups, Project Editor within ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36, as well as a member of a number of key advisory panels and task forces relevant to IT policy, strategy and design. Jutta holds faculty appointments at both the Ontario College of Art and Design and the University of Toronto.