Sort by Last Name
Jump to: A | B | C | F | H | J | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | W
A
Brooke Aiken
Section 508 Program Manager
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Brooke Aiken joined the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in August 2019 as the FDIC’s first full-time Section 508 Program Manager. Brooke began her federal government career with U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), where she served for 13 years as a federal employee and two years as a contractor. During her time at CBP, she developed an interest in Section 508 Compliance and was able to research and learn about the law and its mandate. Through her persistence, Brooke educated management about the importance of IT accessibility and spearheaded an agency-wide initiative to implement Section 508 compliance.
Brooke assisted in the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Accessible Systems and Technology, which employs 22 staff members dedicated to Section 508 compliance. During her time with CBP, Brooke served a six-month detail with the Executive Office of the President, where she established a framework for a Chief Accessibility Officer position to ensure Section 508 compliance is mandatory within the Executive Office of the President. Brooke was also selected to detail at the General Services Administration (GSA), Government-wide IT Accessibility Program. She provided guidance and assistance with Section 508 procurement review language and accessibility platforms during her time at GSA. Currently, Brooke serves as the co-education chair for the federal-wide Accessibility Community of Practice. She is involved in the FDIC’s CAN DO Network and was recently selected as a member of the FDIC Chairman’s Diversity Advisory Council.
Brooke holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Environmental Services from the University of Alabama.
Panelist: The Value 508 Office Brings to an Agency
B
Robert Baker
Governance Division Director
DHS Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST)
Robert has over twenty years’ experience leading ICT Accessibility Public Policy and Section 508 Programs in the Federal Government. Robert was a senior advisor to the US Access Board’s Section 508 Regulatory update from 2011- 2017, and then led the transition implementation effort across government. He is the co-chair of the Federal CIO Council Accessibility Community of Practice Subcommittee, promoting Section 508 best practices across the federal government and with industry. Robert is currently the Section 508 Governance Director in the Office of Accessible Systems and Technology, and is the leader of the DHS Section 508 Playbook initiative.
Presenter: Introduction of the DHS Section 508 Playbook
Kent Boucher
Senior Director
Oracle Accessibility Program Office
Kent has been in the high-tech field for over 30 years (Cisco, Apple Computer, and Oracle) and the last 20 focusing on accessibility. His background is in user experience and software development with sprinkle of hardware design. His passions are inclusive design, coaching, and working on his farm in Petaluma. Ask him about his llamas.
Presenter: Integrating Accessibility into the Development Process
C
Cynthia Clinton-Brown
Executive Director
DHS Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST)
Cynthia Clinton-Brown serves as the Executive Director of the Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST) within the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).
As Executive Director, Mrs. Clinton-Brown is responsible for Department-wide compliance with Section 508. Her office provides strategic direction, governance, technical support, and accessibility training to ensure DHS employees and customers with disabilities have equal access to information and data.
Ms. Clinton-Brown is an information technology (IT) professional with more than 25 years of private sector and federal government leadership experience in IT management, systems engineering, project management, independent verification and validation, and Section 508 program management.
Before joining DHS OAST, Ms. Clinton-Brown served as the Section 508 Coordinator for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). While at USCIS, she was instrumental in education, accessibility evaluation of enterprise-wide IT systems, and the integration of Section 508 initiatives across the Component. She joined OAST in March 2015 as the program manager to lead the Interagency Trusted Tester Program established to promote the adoption of unified accessibility testing across the federal government. Ms. Clinton-Brown also served as the director of OAST’s Services Division where she was responsible for the DHS Accessibility Helpdesk, Section 508 compliance assessments, assistive technology technical support, and life cycle management of the Accessibility Compliance Management System, a Department-wide tool used to manage Section 508 Program and reasonable accommodation compliance.
Ms. Clinton-Brown holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from South Carolina State University, a Master of Information Management, and is a certified Project Management Institute Project Management Professional (PMP).
Speaker: Introduction, Opening Remarks, Closing Remarks
Katherine Culliton-González
Officer
DHS Office of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties (CRCL)
Katherine Culliton-González was appointed by President Biden to serve as Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on January 20, 2021. Reporting directly to the Secretary, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) supports the mission of the Department to secure the Nation while preserving our values, including liberty, fairness, and equality under the law. To do this, CRCL advises on civil rights implications of DHS policy, receives complaints and provides recommendations to DHS components, and conducts community engagement about civil and human rights matters. CRCL also leads the Department's equal employment opportunity and diversity programs and initiatives.
Ms. Culliton-González brings more than 25 years of cutting-edge civil and human rights expertise, as well as significant strategic leadership experience to this role. She most recently served as Director of the Office of Civil Rights Evaluation of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, where she led a team in investigating and drafting a series of 12 comprehensive reports issued to Congress and the American public on a wide range of civil rights issues, including hate crimes, immigration, sexual harassment, voting rights, Native American rights, and police use of force, as well as a review of the performance of the civil rights offices of 13 federal agencies, including CRCL. Prior to that, she served as Senior Counsel at Dēmos, where she led work on constitutional protections for immigrants and their families at the state and local level, and as Director of the Voter Protection Program at Advancement Project, where she led a team in litigation, communications and advocacy strategies in racial justice efforts.
Katherine previously served at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where she brought a series of cases to enforce the provisions of the Voting Rights Act regarding language access and racial discrimination. Further, while serving as Special Counsel for Immigrants’ Rights and Access to Justice at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), she provided Congressional testimony about the need for DHS to have a dedicated and effective Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. In private practice in the Latin American group at Arnold & Porter, she led pro bono work on behalf of the Central American community in Washington, D.C., and provided human rights law training for the International Association of Women Judges.
Throughout her career, Katherine developed highly impactful, community-based civil rights strategies, and she has also written and spoken widely about civil and human rights, in English and Spanish. She is a nationally-recognized expert on civil rights in the context of changing demographics.
After graduating as valedictorian of the 1993 law class at American University, she was a Fulbright Scholar and taught human rights law in Spanish in Chile from 1993-1994, during the transition to democracy. Her scholarship advanced women’s rights as human rights and was used to support the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Belem do Pará). Katherine has also served in recent years as a volunteer Chair of the Civil Rights Section of the Hispanic National Bar Association. She and her husband are the proud parents of three bilingual children.
Speaker: Keynote Remarks (Day 1)
F
Janice Fenlason
Section 508 Program Manager
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
With 31 years of professional experience in Special Education, Assistive Technology, Information Technology (Section 508, IT/Systems Engineering) and Information Security Management/Government, Janice's professional career has been dedicated to supporting the educational and functional needs of children and adults with disabilities. She is now the FEMA Section 508 Program Manager supporting the access and functional needs of employees, disaster survivors and members of the public with disabilities with FEMA. Her goal is to ensure that the applications, websites, trainings and resources they require are accessible.
She is a DHS Certified v3.3 Section 508 Trusted Tester and utilize the DHS Section 508 Compliance Test Process for Applications test script for performing 508 testing of web/software/e-learning applications. She provide hands-on and online training regarding Section 508 compliance issues and conduct accessibility awareness campaigns to promote Section 508 and Accessibility awareness.
Presenter: Benefits of a Section 508 Compliance Dashboard
Nicshan Floyd
Services Division Director
DHS Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST)
Nicshan Floyd is the Services Division Director for the Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since May 25, 2020.
Mr. Floyd has been with OAST since 2006, starting as an electronic document accessibility specialist. He has worked with OAST/OCIO for many years as a detail from the DHS Civil Rights & Civil Liberties (CRCL). Over the years along with his colleagues, Mr. Floyd led OAST to become a premier Federal Section 508 program. His contributions include establishing the OAST Electronic Documents Accessibility Program; worked with several internal and external agencies to establish accessible electronic document programs; provided Section 508 related trainings to thousands of individuals for more than 13 years; developed the Accessibility Compliance Management System for tracking all Sections 508 and 504 activities.
Mr. Floyd also serves as the Chair of the Accessible Electronic Document Community of Practice (AEDCOP) under the CIO Council; AEDCOP establish guidance for authoring and testing documents for compliance with WCAG 2.0 and the revised Section 508 standards.
Prior to joining DHS, Mr. Floyd served as a Section 504 Specialist for the Department of Transportation, worked as a Section 508 specialist for AOL, and in the early 2000s, he worked with the IRS to make the first 1040 tax forms and supporting documents Section 508 conformant.
Presenter: Services Update
H
Director, Security, Compliance, Identity & Accessibility
Microsoft
Dean Halstead is a Director, Security, Compliance, Identity & Accessibility for US Microsoft Federal. He works with customers across U.S. federal, public sector, commercial and retail for accessibility. Dean is recognized internally and externally as one of Microsoft’s premier subject matter expert on, innovative solutions in government/commercial, accessibility, open government, and government transparency. Dean founded the Federal Accessibility Working Group to facilitate direct federal, state and local government and Microsoft engineering collaboration. Dean leads the Microsoft Accessibility Program for the United States for internal training.
Dean has nearly 21 years of experience at Microsoft. He had spent over seven years on the SharePoint Product Engineering Team. He conceptualized the SharePoint Alternate Access Mappings (AAM) Feature for which he holds a patent to support secure collaboration via perimeter networks (DMZs).
Dean teamed with Federal agencies to create a YouTube video series on Accessible Electronic Document Community of Practice (AEDCOP) to help all world-wide users understand how to create accessible documents. Lastly, Dean was the lead proponent for Enterprise Disability Answer Desk (eDAD) to allow government workers and coordinators to directly get answers and raise issues around accessibility to Microsoft with a particular focus on increasing usability to all users.
Dean is a two-time nominee for Microsoft Ability Award for Leadership for People with Disabilities and Inclusion. Dean has been awarded Microsoft’s highest honor, Microsoft Founder’s Award, for work with people with disabilities and inclusive culture.
Dean is a Board member of the Ivymount School for Autism and Advisor to Deaf in Government. As a military veteran, Dean has over 17 years of experience in the US Army Reserves with one deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where he worked at the Port of Shuaiba as the Port Operations Officer.
Presenter: Work-Life in COVID-19, Lessons Learned and New Accessibility Capabilities
Amanda Haney
Section 508 Document SME
U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP)
Mrs. Amanda C. Haney began working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in March, 2007 as a contractor in the role of Security and Technology Policy Analyst. In 2010 Amanda became a government employee and began working more closely with the CBP Section 508 Program Manager. Her first experience with Section 508 was to evaluate new software for consideration for insertion into the CBP Technical Reference Model, and quickly began picking up additional duties to include outreach and training events, processing reasonable accommodation requests, and serving as backup for the Program Manager. Mrs. Haney has been serving as the CBP Section 508 Document Compliance Specialist since May 2017. Amanda has been married to her amazing husband for 20 years, and has two young boys, Garlon, 9 and Charles, 7.
Presenter: How to Implement 508 into the ATO and Security Process
Matthew Harmon
Director of Web Communications
DHS Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
Matthew T. Harmon is the Director of Web Communications in the Office of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he coordinates public web outreach and strategy for the Department and its components and oversees day-to-day operations of the department’s official website DHS.gov.
Prior to joining DHS headquarters, Matt served as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Web Manager, where he directed the federal web response during Hurricane Sandy as well as supported more than 150 disaster declarations. Matt also led the redesign of FEMA.gov using an open source content management system, which is now the baseline for all DHS component websites.
Before FEMA, Matt was the Webmaster for the Corporation for National and Community Service where he was responsible for all agency websites and ran Volunteer.gov (later Serve.gov) for the White House. He managed the Federal Government's "Donate and Volunteer" web portal during Hurricane Katrina and spearheaded the U.S. government's web response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami.
Matt graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Political Science and studied International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University.
Presenter: Accessibility and the Public Web at DHS
Allen Hoffman
Accessibility Consultant
Deque
Allen Hoffman is a person with a disability, a relatively new member of the Deque family and a long-time practitioner in the software development and accessibility fields. He is a certified Trusted Tester and a lifelong assistive technology user. Allen has spent a decade as an application developer and internet hosting service provider and twenty years as an Accessibility Program leader.
Allen recently retired from the federal government after serving as the Deputy Executive Director of the Department of Homeland Security Office of Accessible Systems and Technology from 2005 thru 2018. While at DHS, Mr. Hoffman led development of the Trusted Tester Program and was a major founding contributor to the Federal Accessibility Community of Practice. Allen also was a contributor to the Revised Section 508 standards through the entire standards development effort.
Prior to his stint at DHS, Allen supported the Internal Revenue Service Information Resources Accessibility Program as they implemented the original Section 508 regulations. Mr. Hoffman is currently working with Deque Systems integrating support for the Trusted Tester process in to Deque products and services and supporting the Accessibility Program Office to assist organizations as they embark on and accelerate their digital accessibility transformation initiatives.
Presenter: Automate Trusted Tester and Verify with Deque's Accessibility Tools
Dean Hudson
Accessibility Evangelist
Apple
Dean is the Accessibility Evangelist at Apple. In this role, Dean works with engineering and design teams to raise awareness of Apple’s accessibility work and influence product direction. Since joining Apple in 2006, Dean has been directly involved in the development of some of the most innovative accessibility features in the industry. This includes Apple’s groundbreaking VoiceOver screenreader technology for people who are blind or low vision; the first accessible smart wearable, Apple Watch; and other initiatives across the entire Apple ecosystem that support a culture of inclusion.
Prior to joining Apple, Dean received his Computer Science degree at San Jose State University, worked at IBM, and co-founded a startup called Flying Blind Technologies. Dean also loves sports, including baseball, basketball, and football, as well as photography and playing music.
Presenter: Accessibility at Work
Eric Hysen
DHS Chief Information Officer (CIO)
DHS Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO)
Eric Hysen was appointed by President Biden and sworn in as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on February 1, 2021.
As CIO, Mr. Hysen is responsible for strategically aligning the Department’s Information Technology (IT) personnel resources and assets, including security, infrastructure, and delivery, to support core DHS missions and activities.
Mr. Hysen most recently served on the Biden-Harris transition’s Technology Strategy & Delivery team, working to develop the administration’s plans to leverage technology and delivery in support of policy priorities. He previously was a Senior Fellow at the National Conference on Citizenship, where he led projects to use technology, data, and design to address pressing public policy challenges. He also worked in state government, helping to launch the California Office of Digital Innovation, and in philanthropy, supporting nonprofits working to advance immigration and criminal justice reform.
Mr. Hysen previously served as the Executive Director of the Department of Homeland Security Digital Service. In that leadership role, his teams worked to transform DHS’ most critical services by bringing top software engineering, product management, and design talent from the private sector to partner with innovators inside government. DHS Digital Service projects included immigration benefits processing, refugee admissions, and international trade.
Prior to joining DHS, Mr. Hysen was a founding member of the U.S. Digital Service in the White House. Before government, he worked as a software engineer and program manager at Google.
Mr. Hysen graduated with honors in Computer Science from Harvard University and has published research in crowdsourcing and workflow design.
Speaker: Keynote Remarks (Day 1)
J
Project Manager
TPGi
Ryan Jones is a project manager and accessibility consultant at TPGi (a Vispero company) and has worked in the accessibility field for over fifteen years. He works with a variety of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to help make sure their digital assets are accessible to all.
He has a Bachelor’s of Information Management from Auburn University and a Master’s of Vision Rehabilitation Therapy from Florida State University.
Ryan lives in Lexington Kentucky and has been visually impaired since birth.
Presenter: Unpacking An Optimal User Journey For Screenreader Users
L
Director of UX Design, Office of Information Technology (OIT)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
Michael is a design leader dedicated to leading and building exemplary user interactions across a range of digital channels, mostly in the civic technology space. His experience ranges from establishing design operations (DesignOps) to leading multidisciplinary teams to using human-centered design thinking to create beautiful, usable, accessible, standards-compliant web sites to guiding user experience research.
He is currently serves as the Director of UX Design for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) where he is working to unify and amplify design across the agency by building a design operations program and is employed as a Senior UX Designer for the U.S. Digital Service at the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker: Keynote Remarks (Day 2)
M
Noah Mashni
Senior Solutions Architect
Deque
A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Noah has spent his eight year professional career focusing on building solutions with customers in a number of different industries. When Noah isn’t helping clients to understand and bridge accessibility challenges, he enjoys working in his garden, playing disc golf when the weather permits and relaxing on his back porch with his two orange cats and his absolutely lovely wife Erin.
Presenter: Automate Trusted Tester and Verify with Deque's Accessibility Tools
Timothy Monaghan
Section 508 Program Manager
U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP)
Mr. Timothy Monaghan started with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2012 under the Pathways Program working on the Section 508 Team. Tim was trained as a Document Compliance Specialist and an Outreach Specialist. Mr. Monaghan also assisted with Reasonable Accommodations. Upon the completion of his Master’s degree in Cyber Security in 2013, Tim accepted several different security positions at CBP over the next seven years including as a Web Developer, Security Tester, Security Control Assessor, and an Information System Security Officer. Mr. Monaghan never forgot the time he spent with the Section 508 Team. In August 2020, Tim was given the opportunity to return to the Section 508 community when he was offered a position as the CBP Section 508 Program Manager. Tim hopes that his years of experience and knowledge of security and Section 508 can be utilized to bridge the gap between the security community and the Section 508 community.
Presenter: How to Implement 508 into the ATO and Security Process
Ken Moser
Section 508 Program Manager
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS)
Ken Moser led the transition from waterfall to Agile and DevOps practices within USCIS Delivery Assurance. He built the Delivery Assurance Branch from a few employees working traditional systems assurance and Section 508 compliance to an innovative organization encompassing agile-friendly Configuration, Change, and Release Management, Operational Test, and acquisition reviews in the federal space.
Presenter: 508 Audit Performed at USCIS
Michael Murtha
Technical Consultant
Adobe
Presenter: Greater Accessibility with Adobe Connect 11.2
Panelist: Day 1 Panel Discussion: Building a Culture of Accessibility
N
Andrew Nielson
MODERATOR; ICT Accessibility Subject Matter Expert
General Services Administration (GSA)
Andrew is an expert in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility. He is a co-organizer of the annual ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium and continues to serve as a member of its event committee. The Symposium brings together experts from around the world in the field of ICT accessibility testing to exchange academic analysis of current ICT accessibility testing issues and explore approaches to improve accessibility testing practices. He is a principal co-author of the current version of the Harmonized Processes for Revised Section 508: Baseline Tests for Web Accessibility (as known as the “ICT Baseline”). Andrew was also the coordinator and facilitator of the inter-agency team of experts that developed both the Baseline and the current version of the “Trusted Tester” accessibility testing process, which is recognized across the federal government as the gold standard for accessibility testing.
Moderator: Day 1 Panel Discussion: Building a Culture of Accessibility
Moderator: Day 2 Panel Discussion: Building Effective Partnerships to Promote Accessibility (Federal/Industry Partnerships)
Soraj Nabangchang
Test Automation Developer
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Mr. Soraj Nabangchang have worked for AFS as a 508/Test Automation Team Lead for 5 years on DHS contracts. He received his DHS Trusted Tester certification in 2016 and mentoring and guiding others with the 508 testing and certification since. Mr. Nabangchang have worked on a TSA contract for the last 3 years working developing 508 test plans and standard operating practices (SOPs).
Presenter: Implementing 508 in an Agile Environment
O
Design & Development Program Manager
HP Office of Aging & Accessibility
Mr. Sam Ogami has been with HP for over 10 years, where he currently leads the HP-wide Office of Aging & Accessibility programs to enable business units and supporting functions to implement accessibility into products and services.
At HP, he also led the accessible print initiative, which resulted in HP enterprise printers surpassing competitors in accessible print and receiving the Buyers Lab PaceSetter Award in MFP Accessibility. Mr. Ogami establishes business imperatives to have a sustained investment in accessibility with stakeholders ranging from vice presidents to product teams. In his role, he works closely with industry peers to influence international accessibility laws, regulations, and standards. He also provides technical assistance to developers and designers. Mr. Ogami's previous post at HP was a technical instructor on web content and digital management.
Mr. Ogami is the vice chair of Information Technology Industry Council Accessibility Committee. He previously was the accessible technology expert for the California State University, Office of the Chancellor, for almost three years. Mr. Ogami graduated from Stanford University with bachelor's in computer science and a master's in education: learning, design & technology.
Presenter: Creative Initiative: How Designing for People With Disabilities Drives Product Innovation
P
Brandon Pace
Section 508 Program Manager
DHS Headquarters (DHS HQ)
Brandon Pace is the Section 508 Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Headquarters (DHS HQ) in Washington, DC. His position is within the Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST) which is highly recognized across the federal government. Mr. Pace provides effective strategic direction and leadership in multiple roles, including 508 program management, technical support, and reasonable accommodations, to ensure the Department's employees and customers with disabilities have equal access to information and data.
Mr. Pace has been with DHS since 2012 and works closely with his DHS counterparts, DHS Office of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties (CRCL), DHS Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO), DHS Office of Public Affairs (OPA), DHS Components' EEO Offices, and other federal agencies. He pioneered establishing best practices for streamlining assistive technology onto DHS' networks while meeting security requirements and reducing delays and costs; many federal agencies followed suit. Mr. Pace's innovations led DHS to utilize easy-to-use tools, such as DHS Accessibility Requirements Tool and DHS Section 508 Playbook. With these new tools in place, DHS took on an unprecedented role as a model for the entire federal accessibility community. At DHS, Mr. Pace is involved in various technical groups, such as DHS.gov Web Liaisons Working Group, Windows 10 Pilot Group, Microsoft Office 365 Pilot Group, and Network Service Change Working Group.
Hailing from the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky, Mr. Pace obtained his higher education from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York and is a graduate from the DHS Next Generation Leadership Program Cohort 5. He is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). Mr. Pace completed his detail assignments at the White House's Executive Office of the President (EOP) in 2015 and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2017. He was the President of Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing DHS employee resource group for four years, successfully led the efforts to obtain the group's official recognition by DHS.
Presenter: Accessible Virtual Platforms
Christopher Patnoe
Head of Accessibility Programs and Disability Inclusion
Google
Christopher Patnoe is the Head of Accessibility Programs and Disability Inclusion for Google. He leads Google's efforts around the accessibility of product, people (both Googler and end users) and partnerships. He has more than 20 years experience in Tech working at companies like Apple, Sony Ericsson and Disney where he's built hardware, software, and services. His current passion is Accessibility at the intersection of immersive technologies (AR/VR) and consumer hardware. He is the chair for the Immersive Captions Community Group with the W3C, is a co-Chair of the XR Association Accessibility Working Group, and sits on the Board of Trustees for the American Foundation for the Blind. Christopher has a degree in Music from UC Berkeley.
Presenter: Accessibility with Google
Vince Prentice
Senior Accessibility Technician
DHS Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST)
Vince Prentice is one of several Senior Accessibility Technicians at DHS Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST). He has over 15 years of effective supervisory and IT project management experience; steady growth in managerial responsibilities; is experienced in working with executive-level government and commercial personnel; experienced in conflict management. In addition, he has over 12 years of Section 508 compliance experience, IT/systems engineering and telecommunications engineering provisioning.
He is a Certified Trusted Tester v5.0 and Accessibility Trainer for OAST.
Presenter: Trusted Tester Working Session: ANDI Training
R
Global Outreach & Public Policy Program Manager
HP Office of Aging & Accessibility
Ms. Jordan Ragan is the Global Outreach & Public Policy Program Manager since August 2019. But she is not a stranger to HP. In 2016, Ms. Ragan joined HP in the area around Boise, Idaho, first serving in dual roles as the future product marketing manager and public sector strategist. In April 2018, , she became the Global Outreach & Public Policy Program Manager for about a year before moving to Washington, D.C. for a short stint at the State Department as a special assistant during summer 2019. After that, Ms. Ragan returned to her post at HP.
Ms. Ragan graduated with honors from Hillsdale College with quadruple bachelor's degrees in history, politics, religion, and Spanish.
Presenter: Creative Initiative: How Designing for People With Disabilities Drives Product Innovation
Erik Rodriguez
Senior Account Executive
Adobe
Presenter: Greater Accessibility with Adobe Connect 11.2
Product Manager
Adobe
As the Adobe Connect product evangelist, Peter is focused on customer satisfaction, product management, and marketing for critical applications such as web conferencing, learning, and mobile engagement. Since joining Adobe in 2000 he has held product management positions for a number of products including the Flash Media Server, Authorware, and Director.
Panelist: Day 1 Panel Discussion: Building a Culture of Accessibility
S
John Sullivan
Director of GSA’s Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP) Information Resources Management Division
General Services Administration (GSA)
John Sullivan is the Director of the Government-wide Digital Strategies team within GSA’s Office of Government-wide Policy, which includes serving as the Director of the Government-wide IT Accessibility Program. In this capacity, John leads the effort to provide technical assistance to federal agencies for implementing Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. In addition to accessibility, John oversees the DotGov Domain Registration Program for all levels of government and recently oversaw the federal Data Center and Cloud Strategy Optimization Initiative. John has 32 years of public service spanning the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Services Administration, spending many years building enterprise architecture programs, information integration, data standards, and geospatial information initiatives at the agency, inter-agency, and inter-governmental levels.
Panelist: The Value 508 Office Brings to an Agency
T
Eleanor Thompson, Ph.D.
Division Chief of Directives & Publications
Section 508 Program Manager
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
Dr. Eleanor Thompson is a strategist and organizational change agent and has dedicated her career to the missions of Coast Guard and DHS. As an expert in policy and operations Dr. Thompson served as an accredited Delegate to the International Maritime Organization (Assembly, Council, and Technical Cooperation) with the State Department during a critical time of post 9/11 global security change. Working closely with DHS and TSA, Dr. Thompson contributed to the creation of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and implementation of national critical infrastructure protection in several sectors including the Transportation Systems Sector. Dr. Thompson was an advocate and contributor to the standup of the Coast Guard Cyber Command. In 2016 she received the Commandant’s Superior Achievement Award for change in cybersecurity. Presently, she serves the Coast Guard CIO and manages several programs including the Accessible Systems and Technology Systems/Section 508 program. With a lifelong interest sociological constructs and the phenomenon of insider threat, she has a book published on the topic.
Presenter: Progressive Governance and Section 508; Interdisciplinary Initiative Towards Cultural Action
W
Senior Accessibility Technician
DHS Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST)
Dominique Wheeler is a Senior Accessibility Technician & Instructional Designer for New Editions Consulting, Inc. She is also a Trusted Tester v.5 and recently earned the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). Her experience ranges from managing training-related & eLearning projects, technical assistance, document remediations, quality assurance, accessibility testing, strengthening execution of agile products & services, instructional design, and bridging performance gaps based on training needs & delivery methods. She graduated from George Mason University (GMU) with a B.S. in Conflict Resolution – Global Terrorism and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) with a M.A. in Instructional Systems Development – Training Systems.
Presenter: Would You Rather? Accessibility Edition