About the Team

Active Members

John Rochford

portrait of John Rochford. John Rochford is the Director of the INDEX Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at the The University of Massachusetts Medical School. Through its DisabilityInfo.org Website, INDEX provides thousands of resources (doctors, dentists, programs, etc.) serving people with disabilities living in Massachusetts. Among other activities, John teaches in the medical school’s graduate program, “Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental & Related Disabilities (LEND)” and teaches medical school students how to interview patients with disabilities. See John’s faculty profile.

John has worked with children and adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism since the 1980s. John has provided behavior-modification services, and specializes in skills acquisition. John has a Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis from Northeastern University and is a Licensed Applied Behavior Analyst.

John has led teams of information-technology professionals to build accessible Websites and online courses since the mid-1990s for state and nonprofit agencies serving people with disabilities throughout the United States.

John’s passion is Web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities. With partners IBM, UMass Boston, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, John conducts related research, such as artificial-intelligence based automatic text simplification.

John is an Invited Expert of the World Wide Web Consortium‘s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working GroupCognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task ForceLow Vision Task Force, and Silver Community Group.

Connect with John on LinkedIn and follow John on Twitter @ClearHelper.

 

Peter Fay

portrait of Peter Fay Peter Fay most recently worked at IBM Accessibility, Aging, and Design group in Cambridge, MA. He is a collaborative problem solver with diverse experience in the field of accessibility and digital inclusion and possesses a comprehensive understanding of assistive technology including: web, mobile, and AI. He strongly believes in a balanced approach to working with partners, universities, and other stakeholders to deliver optimal value for clients. Expertise includes:
Business Development | Operations | Project Management | Partner & Account Management

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn.

Follow Peter on Twitter @PeterFay79.

 

Sarah Bourne

Sarah Bourne Sarah E. Bourne is the Director of IT Accessibility for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where she works on accessibility policy, standards, and guidance for development and procurement for internal and public systems.  These efforts started with creating accessibility guidelines in 1998 as the Commonwealth’s first webmaster.  You can find Sarah on Twitter as @sarahebourne

Margy Bergel, Fidelity

portrait of Margy Bergel Marguerite “Margy” Bergel is Director of Digital Accessibility at Fidelity Investments where she is part of Fidelity’s User Experience Design team. Fidelity’s Digital Accessibility program involves training and empowering teams to design and develop with Accessibility in mind, creating and maintaining Accessibility testing tools, auditing products, working with vendors, informing policy, handling customer complaints, and conducting user research with people of all disabilities. Margy presents on usability, accessibility and design topics at conferences like CSUN, CHI, HCII, UXPA, and World Usability Day. She taught for many years at the John Slatin AccessU Conference organized by Knowbility, has taught at Bentley University, and is thrilled to be hosting the Boston Accessibility Conference this year.

Former Members

Char James-Tanny

Char James-Tanny

Char James-Tanny is the primary coordinator for the annual Boston accessibility event. Currently working in Technical Publications at Schneider Electric, Char has more than 35 years of experience as a writer and editor. She has spoken around the world on topics including accessibility, Help authoring concepts and tools, social media, web standards, collaboration, and technology.

 

Kathy Wahlbin

Kathy Wahlbin Kathy Wahlbin, CEO and Founder of Interactive Accessibility, is an accessibility expert in ADA, Section 508, and W3C WCAG 2.0 compliance. Kathy is an experienced digital media professional with extensive knowledge of accessibility and usability issues and solutions. She is passionate about creating a world where online communications and technology are simple and universally accessible to all people regardless of ability. Kathy is the co-chair for the W3C Mobile Accessibility Taskforce, is the chair of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) Individual Professional Development Committee, and is an invited expert on the W3C WCAG 2.0 Working Group and WCAG 2.0 Evaluation Methodology Task Force.

 

Mark Sadecki

Mark Sadecki Mark has been working in digital accessibility since 1998 when he was a sub-contractor on the MIT Open Courseware project before he began working at the Carroll Center for the Blind as a consultant where he designed and developed a Learning Management System for visually impaired users and those involved in their training and rehabilitation. Mark also worked at the W3C as the Staff Contact for the HTML Accessibility Task Force, a joint task force of the Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) and the HTML Working Group (HTML WG) which manages the progress of accessibility solutions in HTML5. He was also heavily involved in Canvas 2D and Media Accessibility. Mark is an invited expert at the W3C and is still active in ensuring that the Open Web Platform remains accessible to everyone.