Digital Accessibility is the Next Trend in Tech

 

 

Session Summary

Digital Accessibility is the Next Trend in Tech

Tech is entering a new era. Gen Z, with an average attention span of 8 seconds, is entering the workforce. DEI is critical to company culture. ESG is key for investors. A post-pandemic society is consuming more digital content than ever.

Future-minded tech will embrace what’s at the intersection of these trends: digital accessibility.

Most people think of digital access as a legal requirement. In actuality, it’s the lens through which we improve products, experiences, and brand affinity. Like physical access, such as curb cuts, many digital access tools, like captions, began as accommodations. But they are now universal. This session will look at the shift from compliance to leveraging digital access at every tech company.

Bringing together general council and accessibility leaders, this session will look at the shift from compliance to leveraging digital access at every tech company.

Frances West
Founder of FrancesWest&Co

Pronouns: she/her

Frances West is the founder of FrancesWest&Co, a global strategy advisory company focusing on operationalizing diversity inclusion through digital transformation. Frances and her expert partners help public, private, non-profit, and start-ups thrive and grow through digital inclusion and purpose-driven innovation strategy.

Frances has 30+ years of global business management, technology sales, emerging market development and organizational leadership experience. She held numerous executive positions, including being IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer where she managed a global team from IBM Research to establish IT accessibility standards, shape government policies, and develop human first enterprise technology and solutions enabling all people to reach their highest potential, regardless of their age or ability. Because of her expertise, Frances was invited as the sole IT industry representative to testify before the US Senate on the need to pass the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Frances West

Ted Drake
Global Accessibility and Inclusive Design Leader at Intuit

Pronouns: he/him

Ted Drake is the Accessibility and Inclusive Design Leader at Intuit, a financial software company that creates TurboTax and QuickBooks. Ted leads a distributed team of Accessibility Champions; working together to power prosperity. Prior to Intuit, Ted co-founded Yahoo’s Accessibility Lab and was a developer evangelist. Ted speaks regularly at technology and design conferences and is a board member of Magical Bridge Foundation,  steering committee for  Web4All,  and program chair for CSUN Assistive Technology Conference.
Ted Drake

Derek Featherstone
VP of Accessibility and Inclusive Design at Salesforce

Pronouns: he/him

Derek Featherstone is the VP of Accessibility & Inclusive Design at Salesforce, and is an internationally known author, speaker, practitioner, and authority on accessibility and inclusive design. Derek has spent the last decade creatively guiding enterprise organizations towards sustainable and proactive accessibility programs through inclusive design methods,  creating processes that shift left, and facilitating culture change.

Derek Featherstone

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