Judy Brewer
Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative
World Wide Web Consortium
Judy joined the World Wide Web Consortium <;http://www.w3.org/> (W3C) in September 1997 as Domain Leader for the Web Accessibility Initiative <http://www.w3.org/WAI> (WAI) and Director of the WAI International Program Office. She coordinates five areas of work for W3C with regard to Web accessibility. Prior to joining W3C, Judy was Project Director for the Massachusetts Assistive Technology Partnership (MATP <http://www.matp.org/>), a US Government-funded project promoting access to assistive technology for people with disabilities. Judy has a background in management, technical writing, education, applied linguistics, and disability advocacy. She serves on several advisory committees and boards, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the U.S. National Council on Disability's International Watch Task Force, the Verizon Consumer Advisory Board, and the Board of Directors of the International Coalition of Access Engineers and Specialists. She is the recipient of a RESNA Certificate of Appreciation for efforts related to assistive technology policy development during national health care reform; an Equality of Access and Opportunity Award from the American Foundation for the Blind for advocacy to increase the accessibility of the Windows 95 operating system; and an Access Advancement Award from the Association of Access Engineering Specialists for efforts related to Web accessibility.
Laurie Brown
Webmaster - Office of Policy
Social Security Administration
Ms. Brown has been the Webmaster for the Social Security Administration's Office of Policy since July 2000. Prior to that, she was with the Congressional Budget Office for eight years, serving as CBO's Webmaster from the launch of its Web site in 1997. She has a B.S. in Mathematics and Finance from Towson State University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Information Systems and Technology from Johns Hopkins University. She is an experienced ColdFusion developer and specializes in the integration of print and electronic publishing programs. She was recently honored by the Baltimore Federal Executive Board for her work in implementing Section 508.
Stephen Ferg
Senior Computer Systems Analyst
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Stephen Ferg works at the Bureau of Labor Statistics where he works in LABSTAT, the division that is responsible for the Bureau's electronic publications. He is currently working on a project to make the Bureau's web site 508-compliant.
He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cornell University, and has 20 years experience as a computer programmer and systems analyst. His personal web site is www.ferg.org <http://www.ferg.org>.
John Gardner
Professor
Oregon State University
John A. Gardner, Jr. is a professor of physics at Oregon State University and a pioneer in bringing the world of science to the blind. Gardner is an expert in materials science and the microscopic structure of semiconductors, superconductors and oxide ceramics. But since losing his eyesight in 1988 due to complications from glaucoma, he has gained international recognition for his work to improve the access of blind people to the world of advanced mathematics and science.
At OSU, Gardner created the Science Access Project, which has produced a steady stream of innovations in recent years that are revolutionizing the potential for blind students and scholars to pursue their varied interests. And now these technologies are being applied to materials on the Internet, opening a vast new reservoir of information to the blind.
Gardner holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois, and has received numerous career and professional honors, both for his cutting-edge research in physics and his work on behalf of those with physical disabilities. This month he was recognized with Oregon State University's Distinguished Service Award.
Al Gilman
Chair, Protocols and Formats Working Group
Web Accessibility Initiative, World Wide Web Consortium
Al Gilman has an extensive background in high technology including intermittent brushes with human factors. He had an early hand in the development of the GPS navigation system and a language (VHDL) for computer chip design. He consults with the Trace Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison on a number of projects dealing with access to Information and Telecommunication Technology. Within the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) he coordinated the accessibility reviews of HTML 4.0 and CSS 2.0 as they were being finalized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Currently he serves as Chair of the Protocols and Formats Working Group (in the WAI) which provides access-related input to W3C technologies under development.
Dan J. Grauman
Information Technology Specialist
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Mr. Grauman is an Information Technology Specialist with the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute (NCI). Mr. Grauman joined the NCI in 1975. He has been involved in the design and development of a variety of computerized systems associated with epidemiologic studies. Mr. Grauman recently developed the Cancer Mortality Maps & Graphs Web site (http://www3.cancer.gov/atlasplus/), which is an enhanced version of the hard copy Atlas of Cancer Mortality in the United States, 1950-94. This Web site is the first at the NCI to include graphs that are accessible to visually-impaired users.
Tim Kearley
Computer Specialist
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Tim is responsible for the development and maintenance of databases, websites, & software applications (network and web accessible). Prior to this, he worked for two years as an application developer for a private industry consultant which did most of its work for the U.S. Navy. Throughout this time, he has dealt with the accessibility and usability concerns inherent in successful software development. He received a degree in environmental engineering from the University of Florida and has been trained in ColdFusion programming, Oracle database, XML and web usability.
Roger G. Keeney
American Council of the Blind
Arizona State University, MS State University of NY at Cortland, PhD in process, University of Georgia. Chairman of the Athens / Clarke County Commission on Disability, President Athens Chapter of the American Council of the Blind. CEO Special Circumstances Consulting. Roger has more than 30 years experience advocating and building programs for people with disabilities within the independent living movement and has developed several adaptations to make work and leisure accessible. Innovations include: a scope that makes archery competition accessible to blind archers, and work station design for individuals with various limitations. Roger's current work is revealing that adapted sports competition among children with physical or visual disabilities has raised their average high school graduation rate from 46% to 100%. Roger often finds "low tech" solutions that are more effective than those that cost many times their expense.
Glenn King
Chief, Statistical Compendia Branch
U.S. Census Bureau
Branch chief for the Statistical Compendia Branch, which produces such documents as the Statistical Abstract of the United States, County and City Data Book, and State and Metropolitan Area Data Book. The branch also supports other projects involved with State and County QuickFacts and FedStats. I have been with the Census Bureau for 30 years. I also serve as Chair of the Federal Publishers Committee.
Ken Nakata
Senior Trial Attorney
Department of Justice
Since 1992, he has worked in the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division, working extensively on litigation, investigations, and policy involving the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since 1998, he has also worked extensively on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, for which he received the Attorney General's Award for Excellence in Information Technology. In addition to practicing law, Ken is active in software and web-based technologies, including Java, JavaScript, SQL, and ColdFusion. In July 2001, he was certified by Sun Microsystems as a programmer for the Java 2 platform. Ken holds a Bachelors of Art degree in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University and a J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Doug Wakefield
Information Technology Accessibility Specialist
U.S. Access Board
In 1998, Mr. Wakefield, after 15 years of experience in the technology access field, joined the staff of the U.S. Access Board where he was given the task of leading the Board's effort to develop standards to implement the requirements of section 508 of the rehabilitation act. Those standards were published in the Federal Register on December 21, 2000. From that point on, Mr. Wakefield=s duties switch from development of the standards to conducting workshops and training on the new standards. In the last year and a half Mr. Wakefield has traveled to more than twenty states conducting 508 trainings for companies, Federal and state agencies, and other organizations.
Terry Weaver
Director of the Center for Information Technology Accommodation (CITA)
General Services Administration's (GSA) Office of Governmentwide
Policy.
Terry supports activities that provide technical assistance to Federal agencies in the areas of accessible technologies and accommodations for people with disabilities. Ms. Weaver is leading a GSA effort, as mandated by Congress, to provide technical assistance to agencies in the implementation of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998. Section 508 requires the Federal government to provide equal access to Federal information for people with disabilities. CITA strives to develop and maintain "agency partnerships promoting accessibility". The CITA mission is to educate Federal agencies on the importance of accessible technologies; to build the infrastructure to support Section 508 governmentwide; and to collaborate with industry and representatives from the disability community in developing solutions to create a more accessible technological environment.
Ms. Weaver has over 25 years experience in the acquisition, management and utilization of Federal information technology resources - first at the Internal Revenue Service and now with GSA. She is an active member of several of interagency committees, is a past chair of the Trail Boss Interagency Committee (TBIC) and is a Senior Fellow in the Excellence in Government’s leadership program. Ms. Weaver is a graduate of St. John's University in New York.
Peter Zadarlik
Principal Consultant
CIBER Accessibility Center of Excellence
Mr. Zadarlik is a Principal Consultant with CIBER's Accessibility Center of Excellence (ACE). ACE offers accessibility technology, law and policy education and professional consulting services nationally. ACE expertise includes the Federal Section 508 standards and the guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessiblity Initiative (WAI). Mr. Zadarlik is ACE's senior technical subject matter expert, providing education and consulting services in web and software accessibility to Federal and State agencies and private organizations. Mr. Zadarlik's expertise also includes creating accessible files in WORD, ADOBE, and EXCEL.
In the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's, during his 23 year tenure with Claritas, Inc. (formerly National Planning Data Corporation), Mr. Zadarlik gained expensive experience in the development, use, and dissemination of Federal statistics specifically related to information from the Bureau of the Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Marianne Zawitz
Chief, Dissemination
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Since 1976, Ms. Zawitz has been a member of the staff of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. She has a Masters of Public Administration from the Ohio State University. Currently, she is Chief of the Publications and Electronic Dissemination Unit and the creator and content manager of the BJS website (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/). She participated in the usability testing and redesign of the FedStats website, the gateway to Federal statistical information, and Crime and Justice Data Online, an interactive data access tool on the BJS website.
She has been responsible for a wide variety of publications and presentations including the award winning "Report to the Nation on Crime and Justice;" "Drugs, Crime and the Justice System: A National Report;" and "Displaying Violent Crime Trends." Recently, she has written several reports on firearms and crime and coauthored a section of the BJS website entitled, "Homicide Trends in the United States." She advises the BJS staff on data presentation and has given numerous lectures and training sessions on the subject.