Name: Benchmarking Usability and the Cognitive A11y Frontier
Start: 2025-03-04T19:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-03-04T21:00:00-05:00
Location: 72 Spring St

This event will be online and in-person. **The speaker and live stream starts at 7:30 pm ET**. In-person attendees may arrive as early as 7 pm ET.

**Description**
Join Fable co-founders Abid Virani and Alwar Pillai as they explore the future of usability benchmarking through an accessibility lens. This talk will delve into the Accessible Usability Scale (AUS) — its adoption, industry data on assistive technologies, and the key UX challenges faced by diverse user groups. Abid and Alwar will also discuss how Fable is advancing accessibility usability research to address the cognitive inclusive digital future.

Attendees will:

* Learn from accessibility thought leaders driving innovation in usability benchmarking.
* Gain unique insights into industry trends and real-world data on assistive technology usage.
* Understand the challenges and solutions for addressing cognitive accessibility in UX design.

There will be time for your questions.

**Presenter bios**
[Alwar Pillai](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alwarpillai/) is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fable, a leading accessibility platform powered by people with disabilities. Before founding Fable, Alwar led large-scale accessibility initiatives in both the public and private sector. From her UX and design experience, Alwar learned that the experiences of people with disabilities need to be central to improving digital accessibility.

Alwar has been celebrated as one of Forbes’ Top 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs, and one of The Globe and Mail’s Top 50 Changemakers. Alwar has an M.Des. in Inclusive Design where she focused on designing social applications for seniors with mild cognitive impairments and is currently leading Fable’s Cognitive Accessibility Working Group.

[Abid Virani](https://www.linkedin.com/in/abid-virani-31ba381b/) is the Co-Founder and COO at Fable. Informed by experiences spanning the non-profit sector, international development initiatives, and digital product development, Abid is a strong advocate of accessibility and inclusive design. Abid has been celebrated as one of Forbes’ Top 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs and an Emerging Innovator in North America by Ashoka Changemakers

**Accessibility**
The presentation will have human captions [CC], not automatic captions. There will be an ASL interpreter.

For Aira Visual Interpreter access for the Blind and Low Vision community, download the Aira Explorer app on the [Apple App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aira-explorer/id1590186766) or [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.aira.explorer&hl=en-US). For access in the physical space, the A11yNYC geofence should apply automatically.

To access the online webinar for audio description, use the A11yNYC Access Offer to call, or simply inform your Visual Interpreter that you'd like that offer applied when you connect.

Please let us know about any other accessibility requirements two weeks before the event.

**Livestream**
[YouTube link](https://youtu.be/EA5aNGvBHtY).

Provided by Internet Society Accessibility SIG.

**Location details**
The event is on the 4th floor. Everyone must be accompanied to the event on the 4th floor. Because everyone needs to be escorted, please arrive early or on time. When you enter the ground floor, a representative from A11yNYC will be there to provide elevator access.

Attendees can enter on the third floor and go up the staircase, or request accommodation to go directly to the 4th floor. Thanks to Ben Ogilvie for making this possible! [Let us know](https://www.meetup.com/A11yNYC) if you're coming!

The building is near several transit stops:

6 train

* Spring Street (non-accessible stop): 100 feet
* Canal Street (accessible stop): 0.4 miles

NQRW trains

* Prince Street (non-accessible stop): 0.2 miles
* Canal Street (accessible stop): 0.3 miles

M1 / M55 Bus lines

* Broadway/Spring Street stop: 500 feet

Cabs and rideshares can let passengers out right near the building entrance

**Accreditation**
All A11yNYC meetups are pre-approved for IAAP Continuing Accessibility Education Credits (CAEC).

**Sponsors**
Thanks to [AKQA](https://www.akqa.com/), [Deque](https://www.deque.com/), [Evinced](https://www.evinced.com/), [Equal Entry](https://equalentry.com/), and [Fable](https://makeitfable.com/) for sponsoring. Want to be a sponsor? Contact meryl@equalentry.com

Thomas Logan

Cameron Cundiff

Ben Ogilvie

Meryl K. Evans

A11yNYC - Accessibility New York City

Technology

Accessibility

Mobile Technology

JavaScript

iOS Development

Web Technology

Mobile Development

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - WCAG

HTML5

Web Accessibility

Benchmarking Usability and the Cognitive A11y Frontier

72 Spring St

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A11yNYC - Accessibility New York City

Benchmarking Usability and the Cognitive A11y Frontier

A11yNYC - Accessibility New York City

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