Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren was elected Broward County Court Judge, (17 th Judicial Circuit, Florida) in 1997; where she pioneered America’s first specialized Mental Health Court; dedicated to the decriminalization and diversion of persons arrested with mental illness, and neurocognitive disorders. The Court is a national and global model; and has diverted over 23,000 women and men out of Broward County’s jail. The Court was the model for The American Law Enforcement and Mental Health Project. This...
Oct 25, 2021•40 min
Jessica McKay, Anthony Vasquez, Erica Braverman – 19th of October 2021, 8 pm GMT Before becoming Knowbility’s Director of Community programs, Jay started her journey in education. First as a music therapist and then as an assistive technology specialist, with the goal of building inclusive learning environments for all. She serves as an advisory member for the National Center for Accessible Educational Materials, the Center on Inclusive Technology & Educational Systems and the State Leaders ...
Oct 18, 2021•41 min
Gavin Neate Founder and CEO of Neatbox 18 years working directly with disabled people in the charity sector combined with his determination to address the challenges his clients were facing on a daily basis led Gavin start his own solution led company. His unique skills and passion for positive change make him a superb evangelist for equality, diversity and inclusion. Support the show Follow axschat on social media. Bluesky: Antonio https://bsky.app/profile/akwyz.com Debra https://bsky.app/profi...
Oct 11, 2021•38 min
Genius Within CIC is a social enterprise established by Dr Nancy Doyle in 2011 to help neurominorities unlock their talents, whilst acknowledging and celebrating that this diversity forms part of the rich tapestry of human experience. Genius Within is aware that many Neurominority children and their families remain unsupported. For this reason, they created Blooming Genius, an independently run subsidiary of Genius Within CIC. The team behind Blooming Genius come from various backgrounds and exp...
Oct 01, 2021•34 min
Kate Nicholson, JD, is a health policy and civil rights attorney and a nationally-recognized expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). She served in the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division for 18 years, where she litigated and managed cases, coordinated federal disability policy, and drafted the current ADA regulations. Kate developed intractable pain after a surgical mishap left her unable to sit or stand and severely limited in walking for many years. During those yea...
Sep 24, 2021•46 min
Felipe Betancur, inventor, social innovator, passionate about technology, innovation, entrepreneurship. Postgraduate in Accessibility and Design for all. Rebel against social inequality, I constantly seek to creatively help people with disabilities, the elderly and those who may need a boost in their ideas and projects to improve their quality of life. Support the show Follow axschat on social media. Bluesky: Antonio https://bsky.app/profile/akwyz.com Debra https://bsky.app/profile/debraruh.bsky...
Sep 20, 2021•40 min
June Lowery is Head of Unit and Deputy to the Director at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CNECT). She has worked for the EU institutions in Luxembourg for the past 25 years in a wide variety of fields including publications, finance, logistics, and digital inclusion. Her current responsibilities include web accessibility, language technology and online safety for children. She is also the CNECT equality coordinator. She is p...
Sep 14, 2021•30 min
Antonio Santos is a Social Media Business Evangelist and Senior Data Intelligence Expert, at Atos, focusing on Digital Inclusion, Social Media Engagement, and Social Business. He is a Sociologist with expertise on Applied Research; he previously worked in the Media, Military, Public Sector and Telecom before joining Siemens IT in 2006 in Cork and Atos in 2011. According to Onalytica who measures online presence and influence, Antonio is the 3rd most influential employee in the world, in Consulti...
Sep 07, 2021•25 min
Gregg Vanderheiden is Professor and Director of Trace R&D Center at the University of Maryland. He has been in the field of technology and disability for 50 years, authored the first computer and the first web accessibility guidelines, was an author and chair of the WCAG guidelines working group, and his accessibility techniques and technologies are built into every copy of Windows, macOS, and iOS. His accessibility work is also found in kiosks, voting machines, airline terminals, ticket mac...
Aug 30, 2021•55 min
Christine is the Founder and Managing Director of Open Inclusion. She’s an economist by trade, a disability inclusive researcher, designer and innovator by practice, and practical problem solver by nature. She helps organizations better understand and improve experiences across all brand touchpoints (digital, physical, customer service and communications) through a deeper understanding of the needs of consumers or employees who sense, move, think or feel differently. This is provided by conducti...
Aug 21, 2021•45 min
Matt Gibson & Ramon Lapenta – 17th of July 2021, 8 pm GMT Matt Gibson is a Director at Cyber-Duck, a user-centric digital transformation agency based out of the UK. He helps oversee all aspects of the production lifecycle, including research, design, and delivery of products and services, for organisations like Sport England, Compare the Market, and the Bank of England. As a BIMA Hot 100 top creative in the UK, he is a champion for inclusive design, and accessibility best practices, levellin...
Aug 16, 2021•31 min
Meghan McLean is the Senior Vice President of Sports for the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games. She is responsible for planning and executing a sport competition in 19 Olympic type sports for 4300 Special Olympics participants across North America. Meghan is leading the charge to increase participation by 50% regard to both the number of participants and the number of sports offered at USA Games. With a specific focus on increasing the athlete experience Meghan has identified and negotiated 10 spo...
Aug 09, 2021•37 min
Richard is Head of Accessibility at CDDO (Central Digital and Data Office). He focuses on building accessibility capability and culture in central government and the wider public sector through Accessibility Empathy Lab sessions, clinics, training, talks and webinars, and manages the cross government accessibility communities. Until April 2021 the accessibility monitoring and capability functions were within GDS (Government Digital Service), and this work now continues through CDDO. Support the ...
Aug 02, 2021•42 min
Debra Ruh is a seasoned entrepreneur that focuses on Global Disability Inclusion, ICT Accessibility, EmployAbility, Marketing and Communications Strategies and Digital Media. She has provided global leadership to governments, corporations, NGOs and DPO’s (Disability Persons Organizations) all over the world supporting research, outreach, marketing strategies, policy and standards initiatives with public- and private-sector. Policy, Legislative and Technical Experience includes the United Nations...
Jul 27, 2021•20 min
Jourdan Saunders, MS, CCC-SLP, has been a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) for over 10 years using her expertise as the CEO & Founder of The Resource Key which focuses on Inclusive Branding to ensure People with Disabilities are included, and making meaningful connections with brands. Jourdan was awarded LinkedIn Top Voices 2020: Equity in the Workplace, established one of the first resource websites for students interested in the field of Speech Language Pathology ( www.futureslps.com ) wh...
Jul 19, 2021•39 min
Mark Wilcock is an Accessibility Specialist at Atos , CPWA Certified , an ex-contributing member of the W3C WCAG Working Group for WCAG 2.1 in the W3C Cognitive Accessibility Taskforce and an Atos Expert for Immersive Experiences. He is the co-chair for the development of the Digital Accessibility Specialist Apprenticeship standard, the first apprenticeship standard globally solely for Accessibility. Support the show Follow axschat on social media. Bluesky: Antonio https://bsky.app/profile/akwyz...
Jul 12, 2021•44 min
Action researcher, social entrepreneur, equality advocate. Anthony’s work focuses on technology policy and practice. He is an internationally recognized expert in universal design of information and communication technology (ICT). He leads several large-scale research and innovation projects based in over 27 countries. Anthony is an Associate Professor of Universal Design of ICT at the Department of Computer Science at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) . He maintains several international a...
Jul 02, 2021•42 min
As CTO, Ryan is responsible for leading and directing Texthelp’s team of engineers to deliver assistive technology and accessibility products that are used by tens of millions of people every day around the world. With a customer base that spans educational institutions and corporates alike, he ensures that Texthelp’s products are safe, secure and easy to use. Texthelp believes in a world where difference, disability or language are no longer barriers. It is focused on helping all people learn, ...
Jun 29, 2021•42 min
Access Israel, established in Israel in 1999, is the first non-profit organization in Israel whose main mission is to promote accessibility and inclusion to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and the elderly Access Israel strives to make Israel a place where people with various disabilities are integrated into society with dignity, respect, equal rights and maximum independence. Since its establishment, Access Israel has revolutionized the quality of life and accessibility f...
Jun 22, 2021•35 min
Neil has been recognised as one of Britain’s most accomplished entrepreneurs. Alongside his business successes he is well known on the international disability stage, himself being blind. GoodMaps revolutionary indoor navigation solution transforms the built environment into an inclusive space for everyone. Making a wide variety of locations; office, transport hub, educational setting, hospital, shopping mall; along with countless other examples, entirely accessible. Delivering upon the Acces...
Jun 11, 2021•32 min
With more than a decade of experience developing and demonstrating accessible technology in mobile, web and artificial intelligence, Heather Dowdy is passionate about connecting the dots across disability, race, and tech. She currently manages Accessibility Skilling at Microsoft, with a focus on making the future of work more inclusive. Heather is responsible for the global partnership strategy to scale skilling opportunities that lead to employment for people with disabilities. Before relocatin...
Jun 08, 2021•40 min
Dr. LaMondre Pough LaMondre is a passionate speaker, mentor, and a recognized leader for the community of People with Disabilities. As CEO of Billion Strong, he brings to the position his natural ability to empower audiences to embrace diversity and create environments where people genuinely belong. Diagnosed before his second birthday with spinal muscular atrophy, Pough challenges people to find purpose and ways to improve themselves in every circumstance. In addition to his role as CEO of Bill...
May 31, 2021•42 min
Orla has been involved with live captioning delivery for nearly 30 years. 15 years with the BBC as part of the team managing 5%-100% subtitled content across the BBC. Orla was responsible for managing captioners and researchers, delivery and project management looking at the varied broadcast content on the channel: drama, game shows, political chat shows, 24-hour news, music festivals, sports coverage, children’s programmes and writing protocols, that are still in use today, for successful live ...
May 25, 2021•35 min
When Cigdem Knebel struggled to find decodable “big-kid” chapter books a young dyslexic could painlessly read, she began to write one herself for her son. Cigdem is the founder of Simple Words Books. Her mission is to help young dyslexics and early readers with fluency, comprehension, but most importantly, reading-confidence. She accomplishes this by using many carefully chosen words in her books with the skills of young dyslexics in mind. The attention is put into using many: -short and one syl...
May 14, 2021•36 min
Rosemary Musachio’s life has been based on miracles and dreams. Like any other birth, Rosemary’s was a miracle but with a twist. Since she developed cerebral palsy at birth due to brain damage, Rosemary was presumed a vegetable by the doctor who delivered her. Yet, another miracle happened when Rosemary proved that doctor dead wrong. For every limitation she has, she has been able to overcome it in one way or another. Although she cannot walk, she dances in her wheelchair to music. Although she ...
May 07, 2021•25 min
Elaine Katz oversees Kessler Foundation’s comprehensive grant making program and its communications department. During her tenure, the Foundation has awarded $49 million for national and community-based employment programs. Katz works with non-profit organizations in board development, fundraising, marketing, and business development. She serves on the boards of JESPY House , New Jersey Association of People Supporting Employment First , Essex/Newark Disabilities Issues Committee , and program c...
May 03, 2021•34 min
Dr. Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup is a health scientist and Health Policy Counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum. Dr. Hendricks-Sturrup’s work involves exploring and addressing ethical, legal, and social issues and implementation barriers at the forefront of health policy and innovation. Her research centers on generating best practices for the use and processing of health and genetics data across the patient-consumer spectrum. Support the show Follow axschat on social media. Bluesky: Antonio https:...
Apr 23, 2021•33 min
After graduating from the Vienna University of Economics, Michael Fembek (born 1961) joined GEWINN, an Austrian business magazine, serving between 2000 and 2007 as editor-in-chief. In 2009 he initiated “Sinnstifter”, a project by Austrian philanthropists, and launched the annual Austrian CSR-Guide on corporate responsibility. In 2010 he joined the Essl Foundation as Programme Manager and – until 2014 – the bauMax group as its Head of Social Affairs. Since 2011 he is the Director of the Zero Proj...
Apr 16, 2021•33 min
Kate Nicholson, JD, is a health policy and civil rights attorney and a nationally-recognized expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act . She served in the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division for 18 years, where she litigated and managed cases, coordinated federal disability policy, and drafted the current ADA regulations. Kate developed intractable pain after a surgical mishap left her unable to sit or stand and severely limited in walking for many years. During those years, s...
Apr 09, 2021•30 min
Antony has been part of the AT industry since 1999, working with manufacturers, publishers, standards organisations and service providers to deliver first class products and customer experience. In addition to being the co-founder and CEO of Aventido Limited, he has also provided volunteer support for the British Standards Institute, co-created ATEC (the Assistive Technology Exhibition and Conference), been Chair of BATA, and is the first co-Chair of the newly formed DATEurope. In 2015 Antony wa...
Mar 29, 2021•39 min
