Championing Accessibility: Technical and Non-Technical Tips

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

Important note
Google Maps currently incorrectly pins the location around the corner on Crosby Street. The entrance is not on Crosby. The entrance is on Spring Street, inside the Marc Jacobs International building. It is roughly halfway between Crosby and Lafayette, almost directly across Spring Street from the Chipotle restaurant.

Description
Whether you are a product manager, engineer, or QA, change happens when people make it happen.

In this session, Asha Sachdeva and Kai Wong from Teladoc Health's Accessibility team will motivate you to champion digital accessibility through personal commitment, strategic action, and tools — no fancy job title needed. Discover practical strategies, including engineering-specific tips, to make a meaningful impact on accessibility within your team or organization.

Attendees will:

• Learn ways to build a network and gain credibility as an influential accessibility champion in tech.
• Gain technical and non-technical tips on driving accessibility change in your work and teams.
• Get motivated to integrate accessibility in software development.

Presenter bio
Kai Wong (she/they), believes in the transformative power of accessible technology for a better world. At Teladoc Health, the global leader in health and whole person care, Kai is a Principal of Digital Accessibility, founder of Accessibility Champions for Change, and serves on the leadership board for their disability-focused Business Resource Group (BRG).

They are an inventor of a U.S. patent pending, a recipient of the 2021 DC FemTech Award, and hold certifications in accessibility, health education, and quality assurance. Dubbed a presenter who “could make stale bread interesting,” Kai's strategy for advancing accessibility is simple: make it fun and inspire action.

Asha Sachdeva is a seasoned senior manager of engineering with a specialization in accessibility, bringing over two decades of experience in leading cross-functional engineering teams to deliver high-quality, accessible, and user-centric digital products. With a strong passion for creating technology that empowers individuals of all abilities, Asha operates at the intersection of technical innovation and social responsibility.

Sasha leads a team of engineers and accessibility experts in developing solutions that adhere to accessibility standards such as WCAG, Section 508, and ADA. Sacha collaborates closely with product, design, and QA teams to integrate accessibility across every phase of the product development lifecycle, from ideation through to implementation and testing. Sacha has a Master’s degree in Computer Science.

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 or Google Play. 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

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 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, Deque, Evinced, Equal Entry, and Fable for sponsoring. Want to be a sponsor? Contact meryl@equalentry.com