Claim OwnershipDigital Accessibility
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Description
Interviews with accomplished accessibility professionals to learn about their career journeys
78 Episodes
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Marissa Woodbeck, Head of Digital Accessibility at a major financial institution, shares her powerful journey from being labeled a “lazy learner” to leading enterprise accessibility strategy. Drawing from her background in special education, domestic violence advocacy, and banking governance, she explains how accessibility must be embedded into business processes—not treated as an afterthought. Marissa also discusses the role AI can play in strengthening accountability while keeping humans at the center of inclusive design.
Darren Rowan, who leads digital accessibility at Eli Lilly & Company, shares how lived experience shaped his path into accessibility leadership. He explains his “engage, equip, embed” framework for scaling accessibility across a global organization and reflects on the importance of speaking up about barriers. Darren also explores how AI and emerging technologies can make accessibility easier to implement and more impactful across teams, helping organizations move toward sustainable, embedded accessibility practices.
Sam Smith, who leads accessibility at Coinbase, shares his journey from front-end engineer to accessibility leader. He discusses scaling accessibility through design systems, transforming accessibility from an afterthought into a strategic advantage, and how rapid product development changes the way accessibility teams operate. Sam also explores the role of AI in development workflows and why personalization—features like high-contrast mode and adaptable interfaces—may represent the next frontier of inclusive design.
Souvik Sen Sarma shares his journey from front-end developer to Accessibility Advisor at Wells Fargo International. He discusses building accessibility processes from proposal through testing and sign-off, mentoring teams, and managing defect tracking at scale. Souvik reflects on how inclusivity first drew him into accessibility and why human expertise remains essential—even as AI begins to influence development workflows.
Stephen Framil, Corporate Global Head of Accessibility at Merck, shares how he embedded accessibility into enterprise digital governance across more than 125 countries. From authoring a global accessibility policy to integrating controls into procurement, SDLC, and clinical trial protocols, Stephen explains how accessibility must be “baked in” rather than bolted on. Drawing from his background as a conductor, musician, and cancer survivor, he describes accessibility leadership as orchestration—guiding experts toward inclusive outcomes while normalizing accessibility across systems and culture.
Carey Estes, Accessibility Lead at OneMain Financial, shares how he built a scalable accessibility program grounded in action, automation, and advocacy. From a life-changing experience of temporary blindness to leading DevOps integration and enterprise-wide enablement, Carey explains how accessibility becomes sustainable when embedded into systems and culture. His ultimate aim: accessibility so well integrated it creates “radio silence.”
Donna Bungard describes how her lived experience and technical background led her into accessibility leadership. She emphasizes skills-first hiring, the importance of normalizing disability, and centering real human experiences rather than compliance alone. Bungard discusses neurodiversity as a spectrum, the value of customization in both work and digital products, and why accessibility benefits everyone. She highlights the need for authentic voices, continuous learning, and careful but optimistic use of AI as a mainstream assistive technology that can reshape inclusion if guided responsibly.
Jennifer Smith, Visa, Director of Strategic Initiatives and AccessibilityJen Smith has worked with accessibility at J.P Morgan Chase, Microsoft, and now at Visa as Director of Strategic Initiatives and Accessibility. She talks about the importance of working with colleagues at different experience levels and backgrounds. She also describes the need in accessibility for better ways to present data.
Joe Devon, GAAD Foundation, AI FuturistJoe Devon has had a long career in both web development and the application of accessibility to the digital world. Joe talks about his earliest days becoming aware of the need for accessibility and building his knowledge. That lead to being a co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day and the GAAD Foundation. Joe describes his interest and excitement about the application of AI to accessibility and how it might transform how assistive devices work.
Stéphanie Walter, Maltem, UX Research & Design ConsultantStéphanie shares her experience with a motion disability that affects her in her daily life and when interacting with digital games. She talks about upcoming changes to laws in Europe that will require accessibility in public and private web sites.
Lars Holm Sørensen, Monsido, Accessibility ExpertLars Holm Sørensen resides in Copenhagen where is works on imrproving a compliance platform for organizations and municipalities. He also helps to build accessibility awareness. Lars talks about his lived life as a person who is blind using a screen reader. It created challenges in his education and early work as a software developer. Now he looks forward to greater attention to accessibility in the digital world.
Tolu Adegbite is Product/UX designer. Her current work includes providing guidance about accessibility to designers and developers, educating others, and creating new experiences. Starting her career as a front-end developer she was introduce to accessibility early on. Tolu talks about how she learned accessibility principles and embraces the importance of communication between designers and developers. She also describes her interest in VR/AR opportunities and the need to consider the intersectionality of our identities. practical work with browser plug-ins, screen readers and keyboard acccess. Accessibility continues to be a central part of her work in helped her make sense of accessibility early on.
Ryan Shugart, Microsoft, Senior Program ManagerRich works as a an accessibility subject matter expert with the cloud and AI teams at Microsoft. He shares his experience being born visually impaired and how that affected his early use of a home computer and technology. Graduating from college in IT, he began his work as a system administrator. As a blind person, he experienced many challenges. Rich talks about some of what is involved in the process of reviewing products for accessibility - from design through to release. He also talks about artificial intelligence, the interaction of applications and assistive technologies, and the limitations of standards.
Erica Ellis, Uber, Head of Product Equity DesignErica Ellis is Head of Product Equity Design at Uber. She explains how accessibility is integrated into the organization through a mindset about service design. Erica shares her early experience with a deaf family member and being an advocate for gender equity for women in technology. As a designer she became familiar with accessibility and helped to build a team to support the development. She talks about the important of top down support couple with grassroots efforts.
Gareth Ford Williams, Accessibility Consultant, Ab11y.comGareth Ford Williams describes his current work as an accessibility consultant. He shares some childhood experiences that made aware of disabilties at an early age. Gareth provide a great review of the decades of pioneering work that the BBC has done in making their content inclusive.
Sharyn Morrow, iCIMS, Principal Accessibility EngineerSharyn Morrow began her career with an early interest in communication and working with early PCs and software. That led to to learning about HTML, graphic design, and working for SiteImprove. She shares her personal challenges with her neurodiversity and how she now advocates for herself, her family, and others. Sharyn now provides accessibility documentation, training, best practices and tools to help internal staff create more accessible products.
Mark Steadman, Fidelity Investments, Director, Software Engineering - Mobile AccessibilityMark Steadman is Director of Mobile Accessibility at Fidelity Investments. Mark has made a career of being a developer who helps other developers be successful in supporting accessibility. He talks about what makes an efficient and consistent process for the developer side of things. His work began at State Farm supporting the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). That led to learning about assistive technologies, working at Deque, and now his current activities with mobile.
Jill Bateman, Ohio University, Digital Accessibility CoordinatorJill Bateman provides comprehensive accessibility support for students and staff at Ohio University. That includes reviewing tools and technology and processes for purchasing. Starting in web design, Jill found similarities between usability and accessibility. She shares the challenge of an elderly family member which helped drive her work and interest.
Jonathan Hassell, Hassell Inclusion, Founder & Chief ExecutiveJonathan Hassell talks about his many years of experience in accessibility. He describes the evolution and challenges at the BBC to make their content available to all across their many services. Jonathan also explains the importance of standards organizations.
Léonie Watson, TetraLogical, Director Léonie Watson's early work as a web designer was interupted when she lost her sight. As she began to use assistive technologies for her own needs, she found her way into accessibility testing. This led to many years of solving accessibility problems for a wide range of organizations. Now, Léonie is the Director of TetraLogical - a consultancy for accessibility.
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