Mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD) with 3 Talks

Join A11yBay and partner Meetups to celebrate the 11th anniversary of Global Accessibility Awareness Day with 3 talks about access and inclusion! 🌎 ♿ 🤟

This year, we're diving into Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD)
with 3 awesome guest speakers:

• First, we'll learn from Ben Congleton with "Mistakes small business leaders make about accessibility and one CEO’s journey to fix his own."
• Next, Meryl Evans will join us for: "Communicating in multiple ways."
• Finally, to close out the evening, hear from Chris McMeeking as he discusses how current "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines don't always map perfectly to native iOS and Android development."

Speaker Bios

1. Ben Congleton [Ben's linkedin profile] is not an expert in accessibility. He is, however, the co-founder and CEO of Olark, a bootstrapped chat software company. He’s passionate about finding work-life harmony, bringing creativity to problem solving, and creating environments that make it easier for us all to communicate. He’s also a dad who enjoys biking with his daughters, scavenging through junk yards, and getting dopamine from the big picture.
2. Meryl Evans, CPACC (she / her / deaf) [Meryl's linkedin profile] is an author and an accessibility marketing consultant who happens to be born hearing-free. She's the co-host of A11yNYC and A11yVR. A highly regarded speaker on accessibility and disabilities, she has spoken at TEDx, AccessU, ID24, Content Marketing World, axe-con, PCMA Convening Leaders, and others.
3. In high school, Chris McMeeking's mother worked with a girl with Cerebral Palsy. [Chris' linkedin profile] She had a clench and a mild speech impediment. She wanted nothing more than to be able to text her friends. Lucky enough, in college he ran across a team in a class that would partner with Mott Children's Hospital to do just that. A few years, a couple of fundraising rounds, an Open Source project, and some YouTube videos later and this software is built into essentially every phone in the world. Since then Chris has dedicated his time to all facets of Mobile Accessibility. Including building other assistive technologies, working with the W3C to improve standards, architecting iOS and Android Accessibility Analysis libraries, and managing and mentoring teams of engineers to do the same.

Event agenda:
(All times are in US Pacific Time)

• 5:00 pm — Event begins, welcome new members
• 5:10 to 5:55 pm — Talk 1 with Ben Congleton
• 6:00 pm to 6:15 pm — Talk 2 with Meryl Evans
• 6:20 pm to 7:00 pm — Talk 3 with Chris McMeeking
• 7:00 pm to close — [Optional] Celebrate and socialize in zoom breakout rooms, for anyone who'd enjoy hanging out online after the talk to chat with old friends & new meetup members.

Zoom details:

• How to participate via zoom: The Zoom URL will be shared via email with people who RSVP via Meetup app or site. It will and also published on this event page. Check to make sure your email settings are enabled to receive "event updates from organizers" (https://www.meetup.com/account/comm/a11ybay/) in your account settings or you may not receive the message.
• How socializing in break out rooms will work: We’ll use the zoom breakout rooms feature to give folks an opportunity to network and chat with others in smaller conversations with randomized participants. If you do not feel comfortable making conversation with other people during this meetup, we'll pause briefly after the main talks so you can log off. Those who want to chat just stay on the zoom!