- Very good point and, you know, Debra
I guess after this introduction,
you'd need no further introduction, thank you, again.
But I am going to take the time to introduce
the rest of the panel and then start asking questions.
So, Bruce Bailey is from the Access Board,
which is an independent agency
tasked with defining the requirements
for Section 508 and the ADA.
Bruce is responsible for giving advice
and advising on technical requirements,
both for the websites internally, as well as to the public
when it comes to implementing Section 508.
Dominic Sale is from the GSA.
And Dominic, your title is very long,
do you mind saying it? (laughs)
- I do mind. (laughs)
It's gonna take up half the panel.
The Deputy Associate Administrator for the
Office of Information, Integrity and Access
in the Office of Governmentwide Policy
and the General Services Administration.
(laughs)
I don't know why you would have any trouble with that.
(laughs)
- Thank you, Dominic.
And Dominic is responsible for,
well, Governmentwide Policy.
I think, both from the GSA perspective
and giving advice to other federal agencies on,
really managing the portfolio of security, integrity
and access is a...
Very lofty goal and very...
You have a lot to do, so I'm looking forward
to getting your perspective.
John Sullivan, also from the GSA, is again,
would you mind, John, the entire acronym
is something that I haven't been able to get down.
- I mean, ditto from Dom, I work for Dominic.
Ditto for what he said.
I run the Government-wide IT Accessibility Program,
providing support to agencies and then,
and I'm on one of his other programs around Dot Gov.
- Thank you, John.
Megan Lawrence from Microsoft,
that is a title I can actually remember.
Megan is the Accessibility Evangelist at Microsoft.
And brings a very unique perspective.
Megan has a PhD in Geography (laughs),
but really started to look at access awhile ago,
working from a researcher's perspective of
inclusive design, for the last year and a half.
She has then moved into evangelizing internally
at Microsoft, as well as to the world
as one of the programs that has...
That is a world-renowned program in accessibility
and does it at a scale that very few
other IT organizations do it.
So, Megan, very good to have you on the panel.
Really looking forward to the exchange
and having the audience ask some questions.
Robert Baker is from
Department of Homeland Security
and has been a disability inclusion advocate
for a couple of decades, at least, as far as I can remember.
He is on the CIO council
for Section 508 and now,
the Section 508 refresh.
And has been putting together something that is
one of the most practical resources that I've seen.
It's the Information Technology Playbook for Accessibility,
and I'm sure you've got the right title for that,
that you'll talk about, Robert.
But it is a resource that is going to,
not just look at the technical implementation,
but really the programmatic implementation
of accessibility across an organization.
So really looking forward to the exchange with you, Robert.
Katie Haritos-Shea from Deque Systems.
Katie has been involved in accessibility
for a couple of decades.
She was part of the original Section 508
and part of the refresh, as well.
She is an invited expert to the World Wide Web Consortium's
Web Accessibility Initiative, as are
other people on this panel, as well.
And Katie has a great passion for making sure that
inclusive design is taken care of.
And she's also one of the best firefighters I know,
as witnessed by the carrying of the tables
down from the podium, so thank you for that.
Looking forward to getting your perspective.