Digital Accessibility Keynote and Panel Discussion

Organised in cooperation with the AccessibleEU Center

Keynote Speaker: Kevin White

Kevin is the Accessibility Technical Lead for the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In this role Kevin supports WAI to deliver internationally recognized standards that support accessibility. He manages W3C accessibility operations, including projects, such as WAI-CooP, co-funded by the European Commission. Kevin has been involved with W3C WAI since 2016 in different capacities. He contributes to resources that support understanding and implementing web accessibility. Kevin was the lead editor of Planning and Managing for Web Accessibility, Tips for Getting Started with Web Accessibility, and Developing Organizational Policies on Web Accessibility.

Kevin was the Head of Digital Accessibility and User Research in the Scottish Government. He also worked as a digital design consultant supporting a wide range of public and private sector organizations to implement high quality, accessible and usable products and services. Kevin holds degrees in Psychology and in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Title: The Success Story of Digital Accessibility (tbc)

Outline: “Accessibility has failed: Try Generative UI = Individualized UX” has been the deflating summary on accessibility by Jacob Nielsen. But the accessibility community disagrees. The keynote and the following panel discussion will outline achievements, progress, challenges and opportunities of digital accessibility.

Much has been achieved to support more accessible digital products in terms of guidelines, standards, legislation, techniques and tools. All major browsers support assistive technologies. It is an indispensable aspect for reaching all customers and clients and to leave nobody behind. A broad and growing set of assistive technologies (AT) exist to support people with disabilities. Many AT functionalities have entered mainstream use creating accessible user experiences and supporting usability for many beyond disabled and older people.

Much has been achieved, often not visible or recognized as an outcome of accessibility R&D!

But, yes, the sector takes the critical remarks seriously. We need more and faster uptake. The keynote and the panel will discuss and try to outline:

Examples of technical accessibility progress and challenges
How to continue to improve accessible user experiences
The potential offered by AI and the risk of overpromising
Demands for academia, R&D and other all other stakeholder groups aiming at digital accessibility to facilitate a more open, democratic and inclusive society

Keynote Panel (invited):

Klaus Hoeckner, Access Austria/HGBS (moderator)
S. Abou-Zahra, Amazon
S. Herrlinger, Apple (tbc)
P. Kumar, Deque Systems
N. Milliken, ATOS (tbc)
H. Minto, Microsoft (tbc)
C. Patnoe, Google