The Toolkit is made possible thanks to voluntary contributions by a faculty of multiple stakeholders.

EDITORS

• Axel Leblois, Executive Director, G3ict

• Susan Schorr, Head, Special Initiatives Division, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)

• Dónal Rice, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, NDA. Centre for Disability Law and Policy, NUI-Galway, Ireland (Toolkit Editor)

• Francesca Cesa Bianchi, G3ict (ITU-G3ict Policy Toolkit Editorial Coordinator)

EDITORIALCOMMITTEE

• Clara Luz Alvarez, Mexico

• Tamas Babinszki, Even Grounds, U.S.A.

• Kevin Carey, humanITy, RNIB/World Blind Union, U.K.

• John Clarkson, University of Cambridge, Engineering Design Centre, U.K.

• Anne-Rivers Forcke, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• Luis Gallegos, Ambassador of Ecuador to the United States, G3ict Chairperson, Former Chair Ad Hoc Preparatory Committe of the CRPD

• Rune Halvorsen, NOVA, Norway

• Asenath Mpatwa, ITU

• Gerard Quinn, Centre for Disability Law and Policy, NUI-Galway, Ireland

• Felicity Rawlins, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• Andrea Saks, ITU

• Licia Sbattella, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

• Andi Snow-Weaver, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• James Thurston, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Group

• Cynthia D. Waddell, International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), U.S.A.

CONTRIBUTORS

• J. E. Baker, L. McArthur, J. Silva, Jutta Treviranus, Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto, Canada

• David Banes, Mada, Qatar Assistive Technology Center

• David Baylor, World Broadcasting Unions (WBU)

• Hardik Bhatt, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Chicago and Karen Tamley, Commissioner, Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, City of Chicago; Danielle DuMerer and Matthew Guilford, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Chicago; Laurie Dittman and Joseph Russo, Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, City of Chicago

• Fernando Botelho, Literacy Bridge & Mais Diferenças, Brazil

• Kevin Carey, humanITy, RNIB/World Blind Union, U.K.

• Gerald Craddock, NDA/CEUD, Ireland

• Anne-Rivers Forcke, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• Jonathan Freeman,MD i2 media research ltd;  Department of Psychology Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, U.K.

• Angela Garabagiu, Council of Europe

• Claudio Giugliemma, Dominic Foundation, Switzerland

• Larry Goldberg, WGBH, U.S.A.

• Martin Gould, National Council on Disability, U.S.A.

• Gunnar Hellström, Omnitor, Sweden

• James Hubbard, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, NDA, Ireland

• Bill Joley, International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), U.S.A.

• Mike Jones, Wireless RERC, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A.

• Axel Leblois, G3ict
  

• Alex Li, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/ International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) Special Working Group–Accessibility Convener

• Ben Lippincott, Wireless RERC, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A.

• Mark Magennis, National Council for the Blind of Ireland - NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technologies (CFIT), Ireland

• Nirmita Narasimhan, Centre for Internet and Society, India

• Trisha O’Connell, WGBH-Shapiro National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), U.S.A.

• Mike Paciello, The Paciello Group, U.S.A.

• Helen Petrie, University of York, U.K.

• Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, European Commission Directorate General of Employment, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities

• Dónal Rice, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, NDA. Centre for Disability Law and Policy, NUI-Galway, Ireland

• Rebecca Schild, Centre for Internet and Society, India

• Susan Schorr, Special Initiatives Division, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)

• Rich Schwerdtfeger, Distinguished Engineer, SWG Accessibility Architect/Strategist, IBM

• David Sloan, University of Dundee, U.K.

• Andi Snow-Weaver, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center

• Mike Starling, World Broadcasting Unions (WBU)

• James Thurston, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Group

• Gregg Vanderheiden, University of Winsconsin-Madison, U.S.A.

• Carlos A. Velasco, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technologies (FIT), Germany

• Cynthia D. Waddell, International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), U.S.A.

• Sam Waller, University of Cambridge, Engineering Design Centre, U.K.

• Gottfried Zimmermann, Access Technologies, U.S.A.   

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Hardik Bhatt

Appointed in February 2006, Hardik is the Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago and the Commissioner for City’s Department of Innovation & Technology. Hardik strives to implement Mayor Daley's vision of a city government that benefits from an assimilation of best practices from both the public sector and the private industry by raising the level of service provided to citizens, businesses and tourists. Hardik manages City’s technology investment with an annual budget of USD150 Million and a team of 250 employees and consultants. Hardik also leads Mayor’s charge for universal and affordable broadband for the people of Chicago through various initiatives. He also spearheads Mayor Daley's vision of career academies in the technology sector, with the first technology academy, supported by more than 80 large and small businesses, which opened its doors in Fall 2009. Hardik chairs Mayor Daley's council of Technology Advisors, which comprises leading CIOs of the region, including Boeing, Bexter, CNA, Exelon, and Aon. Prior to joining the public sector, Hardik worked as a consultant with Oracle Corporation in the US and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India. Hardik has an MBA from Kellogg and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science from India. 

Kevin Carey

Kevin Carey is Chair of RNIB (www.rnib.org.uk), the UK's leading blindness charity with an annual turnover of more than GBP100 million as well as being Chair of humanITy (www.humanity.org.uk) a specialist e-Inclusion Charity, and Chair of the DCMS/Ofcom Community Radio Fund Panel (www.ofcom.org.uk). He is head of e-Inclusion Consultancy for ATcare (www.atcare.co.uk), a Board Member of the Social Investment Business www.socialinvestmentbusiness.org and a member of the ACEVO Regulatory Task Force (www.acevo.org.uk). He is a regular contributor to Managing Information (www.managinginformation.com) and Ability Magazine (www.abilitymagazine.com).  He is a former Member of the Ofcom Content Board and a NESTA Fellow in accessible broadcasting (www.nesta.org.uk), with a Royal Television Society Award for engineering. An eclectic writer, broadcaster and speaker, Kevin has authored more than 150 major papers and presentations. He is a lay Minister of the Church of England and a Member of its General Synod. He is a published poet, chorister, former AmDram actor/director, and classical music critic. In his new position at RNIB, he has turned his powerful and unorthodox intellect towards the subject of governance and the way people work together to generate creativity and success.

Jonathan Freeman

Jonathan Freeman is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London where he leads his academic team's input to a range of projects focused on user needs from digital media products and services, with a key focus on usability and accessibility.  Jonathan is also Managing Director of i2 media research limited, a spin off from Psychology at Goldsmiths.  He set up i2 media research with Goldsmiths in 2002, and leads its continued growth.

Alex Li

Alex Li is the Senior Accessibility Strategist at Microsoft. His primary responsibility is to represent Microsoft in addressing global accessibility public policies and accessibility technical standards development. He is also responsible for governance policy within Microsoft to uphold Microsoft’s accessibility conformance process. Alex is the convener of JTC1 Special Working Group on Accessibility (SWG‐A), and served as its Task Group 2 chair and TEITAC liaison. He also represents Microsoft as a member of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Steering Council and served as a member of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG). Prior to joining Microsoft, Alex was responsible for accessibility policies and standards at SAP.

Nirmita Narasimhan

Nirmita Narasimhan is a Programme Manager with the Centre for Internet and Society, in Bangalore, India, and works extensively in the area of technology access for disabled persons. The nature of her work ranges from research and policy drafting and review to advocacy through campaigns, workshops, etc. Nirmita's current work focuses on certain specific areas, namely, working towards policy formulation for Internet and electronic accessibility for disabled persons in India; reviewing the Indian Copyright Act and working towards amendments to the Act to include exceptions and limitations for the print challenged; working at a national level towards support of the World Blind Union treaty at the WIPO; organising workshops on web accessibility for web developers in cities around the country; supporting a wiki on accessibility; working towards making accessible materials available for the visually challenged. Nirmita's work can be viewed at http://www.cis-india.org 

Trisha O'Connell

Trisha O'Connell is the Director of Research and Development for the WGBH-Shapiro National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), shaping and managing projects that address current and emerging accessibility challenges in the convergence of technology, media, disability, and education. She has worked in Media Access at WGBH since 1988, serving as director of The Caption Center prior to joining NCAM. She holds an MBA from the Simmons Graduate School of Management. 

Dónal Rice, ITU-G3ict Policy Toolkit Editor

 Dónal Rice is the Senior ICT Advisor for the National Disability Authority of Ireland (NDA) - Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD), which was launched in October 2007. The CEUD is dedicated to the principle of universal  access, enabling people in Ireland to participate in a society that takes account of human difference and to interact with their environment to the best of their ability. Dónal has responsibility for the NDA IT Accessibility Guidelines and  formerly worked extensively with many public sector departments and agencies on the NDA's Excellence through Accessibility Awards. Dónal holds a BA in Maths and English from University College, Dublin, an MSc in Computing from  Griffith College, Dublin, and is currently undertaking a doctorate in eAccessibility and Legislation with the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Andi Snow-Weaver

Andi Snow-Weaver is the worldwide accessibility standards program manager for IBM. With more than 20 years of user interface and accessibility experience, she is responsible for bringing industry-specific expertise to the development of worldwide accessibility standards for information technology, and driving internal IBM standards that are consistent with the company's long-standing commitment to IT leadership for people with disabilities. She was IBM’s representative to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) working group, which published the WCAG 2.0 standard in December 2008. She was a member of the Telecommunications and Electronic Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) to the US government for updating Section 508 and 255 accessibility standards. She served as co-chair of the TEITAC subcommittee addressing Web, software, and electronic content. Andi drives country-specific accessibility policies around the world in support of a harmonized global approach to IT accessibility. In 1998 Andi began work in the area of accessibility, a natural extension of her previous development experience in speech recognition, telephony applications, and user interface standards. Andi is editor of a W3C standard describing browser implementations of the Accessibility Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) standard and part of a developing ISO standard on AT-IT Interoperability (ISO/IEC 13066). 

Karen Tamley

Karen Tamley was named Commissioner of the Chicago Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) by Richard M. Daley in March 2005. MOPD promotes total access, full participation and equal opportunities for people with all types of disabilities with the goal of making Chicago the most accessible city in the US. During her time at MOPD, she has overseen a number of disability policy and program initiatives on behalf of people with disabilities that have improved transportation, infrastructure, emergency preparedness, employment readiness and placement, voting access, and delivery of city services through accessible technology. In addition, Commissioner Tamley serves as the city’s key representative regarding disability-related policy on a number of boards and committees, including the Pace Suburban Bus Board of Directors (the region’s paratransit service provider). Under Mayor Daley and Commissioner Tamley’s leadership, in 2007, Chicago received the Accessible America Award from the National Organization on Disability and MOPD was recognized as the Best Government Department by the Deaf Illinois Awards. 

Jutta Treviranus

Jutta Treviranus established and directs the Adaptive Technology Research Centre (ATRC), an internationally recognized centre of expertise on inclusive design of emerging information and communication systems and practices. Jutta heads the Inclusive Design Institute, a multi-institutional research initiative. She has led a large number of national and international multi-partner research networks (including Fluid, TILE, CNICE, CulturAll, Stretch, and the Barrierfree project) that have led to a range of broadly implemented technical innovations that support inclusion. She is chair of the WAI, W3C, Authoring Tool Working Group, chair of the IMS AccessForAll Specification Working Groups, Project Editor within ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36, as well as a member of a number of key advisory panels and task forces relevant to IT policy, strategy and design. Jutta holds faculty appointments at both the Ontario College of Art and Design and the University of Toronto.