Track Speakers and Panelists

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.

Andi is an internationally-recognized leader in accessibility standards development and was a member of the recent Telecommunications and Electronic Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) developing recommendations to the U.S. Access Board for updating the Section 508 and 255 accessibility standards. She served as co-chair of the TEITAC subcommittee addressing Web, software, and electronic content. In addition to her TEITAC work, Andi drives IBM’s involvement in all international accessibility standards organizations, such as the W3C, ISO, JTC-1, OASIS, JIS, JSA, IMS, and 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. In 2000, she became IBM’s representative to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) working group, and began work on WCAG version 2.0. And in 2001, she led the deployment of Section 508 requirements within IBM, a broad-scale initiative that embraced IBM's holistic approach to accessibility, infiltrating all aspects of the company's business, including its own internally-developed software and Web sites, Internet site, service offerings, and procurement of IT from our suppliers. Today, Andi continues to lead IBM's internal standards transformation while serving as its external representative on global standards bodies.

Gregg Vanderheiden is a Professor in the Industrial Engineering (Human Factors Program) and Biomedical Engineering Departments directs the Trace Research & Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dr. Vanderheiden is the principal investigator of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Information Technology Access, and a co-principal investigator for the RERC on Telecommunications Access funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

Dr. Vanderheiden has been working in the area of access to technology for over 35 years. He pioneered in the field of augmentative communication (a term taken from his writings). He then worked with the computer industry in getting them to build disability access features directly into their standard products. For example, access features developed by Dr Vanderheiden and his team have been built into the Macintosh OS since 1987, OS/2 and the UNIX X Window system since 1993, and almost a dozen are built into Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, Vista and Windows 7.

With the explosion in information and telecommunication technologies, and their increased importance in employment, education, and daily living, Dr. Vanderheiden and the Trace Center have worked to make these systems and devices more accessible and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Recent achievements include co-authoring of the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and development of the EZ™ Access techniques for providing cross-disability access in electronic products of all types (currently available in kiosk systems, including a new voting kiosk, and currently demonstrated in an ATM prototype and cell phone reference design). His work is also found in built in access features in ATMs, Point of Sale terminals, and cross-disability accessible Automated Postal Stations, Amtrak ticket machines, and airline terminals.

Dr. Vanderheiden has served on numerous professional, industry and government advisory and planning committees including those for the FCC, NSF, NIH, VA, DED, GSA, NCD, Access Board and White House. Dr. Vanderheiden served on the FCC's Technological Advisory Council, was a member of the Telecommunications Access Advisory committee and the Electronic Information Technology Access Advisory Committee for the US Access Board, and served on the steering committee for the National Research Council's Planning Group on "Every Citizen Interfaces," co-authoring the NRC's More Than Screen Deep Report.

He has received over 30 awards for his work on technology and disability include the ACM Social Impact Award for the Human-Computer Interaction Community, the Ron Mace Award, the Access award from AFB, the Yuri Rubinski Memorial World Wide Web Award (WWW6), and the Isabelle and Leonard H. Goldenson Award for Outstanding Research in Medicine and Technology (UCPA).

He is a past President of RESNA - Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, and a Founding Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Dr. Vanderheiden holds degrees in electrical engineering and biomedical engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Technology in Communication Rehabilitation and Child Development, an interdisciplinary degree between the departments of Electrical Engineering, Communicative Disorders, and Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Judy Brewer directs the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). She has coordinated five areas of work with regard to Web accessibility since 1997, ensuring that W3C technologies (HTML, CSS, SMIL, XML, etc.) support accessibility; developing accessibility guidelines for Web content and applications, browsers and media players, and authoring tools; improving tools for evaluation and repair of Web sites; developing resources for education and outreach on Web accessibility; and monitoring research and development which may impact future accessibility of the Web. WAI guidelines include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, developed through a collaborative effort with individuals and organizations around the world, and adopted by an increasing number of governments to ensure accessibility of the Web for people with disabilities.

Ms. Brewer coordinates accessibility standardization efforts for W3C, promoting awareness and implementation of Web accessibility internationally, and ensuring effective dialog among industry, the disability community, accessibility researchers and government on development of consensus-based accessibility solutions. She holds an appointment as a research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and as a consultant with the European Research Consortium on Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM).

Ms. Brewer is the recipient of a RESNA Certificate of Appreciation for efforts related to assistive technology policy through national health care reform; an Equality of Access and Opportunity Award from the American Foundation for the Blind for advocacy to increase the accessibility of the Windows 95 operating system; and an Access Advancement Award from the Association of Access Engineering Specialists for efforts related to Web accessibility. She was named in the August, 2000 issue of Internet World as one of the "Net's Rising Stars." She received the Harry J. Murphy Catalyst Award at the CSUN 2002 Conference; the Roland Wagner European Award for Computers Assisting People with Special Needs in 2002; and the Susan G. Hadden Pioneer Award from the Alliance for Public Technology in 2003.

Prior to joining W3C, Ms. Brewer worked on several US-based initiatives to increase access to mainstream technology for people with disabilities and to improve dialog between industry and the disability community. These initiatives included work on Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act, Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act, accessibility of the Windows 95 Operating System, and access to durable medical equipment for people with disabilities. Ms. Brewer has a background in management, technical writing, education, applied linguistics, and disability advocacy; and an interest in biotechnology.

Larry Goldberg is Director of Media Access at WGBH, overseeing its media access services units: The Caption Center and Descriptive Video Service and the R&D division: the National Center for Accessible Media. Larry has worked at WGBH since 1985, developing policies, technologies and processes for making media accessible to people with disabilities. He fostered the growth of captioning on broadcast television and provided expert testimony in support of passage of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990. He led development of the emerging captioning system for digital television in the U.S. and served as the founding chair of the Working Group of the Electronic Industries Association, responsible for the design of the captioning system for the country's Advanced Television system.

In 1993, Larry established the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and was an early supporter of the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (WAI/W3C). His team pioneered captioning and video description on the Web and continues to develop unique solutions and software to enable equal access to new and emerging technologies. Under his leadership, NCAM also plays a pivotal role developing specifications within broadcast, Web, mobile, digital cinema and online learning standards groups, including development of a comprehensive ISO standard, "AccessforAll," which defines the structure and metadata required to enable inclusive user profiles within online networks.

Larry was awarded a patent in 1996 for "Rear Window®," the first closed captioning system for movie theaters and theme parks, currently deployed in more than 300 theaters across the U.S. and Canada. Other products and prototypes developed at NCAM include: dual-language captioning (for CBS's 60 Minutes); an accessible user interface for DVD navigation, resulting in the first-ever fully accessible commercial DVD with captioning, video description and talking menus; and a fully functioning speech-interface for the open source MythTV media center. He is currently leading a project to incorporate captioning, description and speech solutions and accessible navigation approaches into seat-back and hand-held in-flight entertainment systems on airlines.

Larry regularly briefs Congressional and regulatory committees on access barriers and opportunities within new media, most recently testifying in May 2008 as an expert witness at hearings before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on the "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act." He represents the needs of people with disabilities on many national advisory boards and served on the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Technological Advisory Council and on the FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee (where he chaired the Broadband Working Group). Most recently, he chaired the federal Access Board’s Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) Audio/Video subcommittee, drafting recommendations for updates of section 508 accessibility standards.

Larry graduated from the University of Southern California with an honors degree in Broadcast Journalism.

Richard is a Distinguished Engineer, the Software Group Accessibility Strategist and Architect, chair of the IBM Accessibility Architecture Review Board, and a Master Inventor. His responsibilities include overall accessibility architecture and strategy for IBM Software Group. Richard participates in numerous W3C standards efforts including HTML, WAI Protocols and Formats, Ubiquitous Web, and previously the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines. Richard is the creator and working group chair of what is now the W3C WAI-ARIA specification for accessible Web 2.0 applications. Richard co-chairs OASIS ODF and IMS GLC Access for All accessibility standards efforts and is a steering committee member of the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance. Richard joined IBM at the Watson Research Center in 1993 where he helped design and develop IBM Screen Reader/2. He, later, led numerous accessibility efforts at IBM, including: the collaboration with Sun on Java accessibility where he co-architected the Java Accessibility API and the IBM Self Voicing Kit for Java; the IBM Web Accessibility Gateway for seniors; the IAccessible2 strategy; and the Linux accessibility strategy. He authored or co-authored numerous publications including: Secrets of the OS/2 Warp Masters, "Writing Accessible Java application in 100% Pure Java," and "Making the GUI Talk" for Byte magazine.

Deborah Buck has almost 30 years of experience in the disability field. She is currently the Executive Director of the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs (ATAP), the national member association of the State Assistive Technology Act Programs. Prior to joining ATAP, Ms. Buck was the director of State IT Accessibility for the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center (ITTATC) where she provided technical assistance regarding accessible IT policies, standards and initiatives to state governments, AT Programs, businesses and advocates. In 2001, Deborah conducted the first comprehensive study to identify and record the policies and laws regarding IT accessibility adopted by state governments.

Before working on the national level, Deborah was the Director of the New York State Assistive Technology Program for 10 years where she was involved in public and private sector activities related to assistive technology, information technology and telecommunications accessibility. Later, she became the Accessibility Program Manager at the NYS Office for Technology (OFT) where she was responsible for information technology accessibility-related policy and program development.

Ms. Buck holds a MS, Rehabilitation Counseling from the University at Albany, NY and a BA, Sociology from Bishops University, PQ, Canada.

John D. Kemp is executive director and general counsel of the U.S. Business Leadership Network. He is also a principal in the law firm of Powers, Pyles, Sutter & Verville with a federal law and legislative practice in the areas of disability, rehabilitation, health care, and nonprofit organizations. Mr. Kemp graduated from Georgetown University in 1971 and from Washburn University School of Law in 1974. Mr. Kemp was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Washburn University School of Law in May 2003.

In 2006, Mr. Kemp received the Henry B. Betts Award, the most prestigious award within the national disability community which honors an individual whose work and scope of influence have significantly improved the quality of life for people with disabilities. In 2003, Mr. Kemp received a special New Freedom Initiative award from the US Department of Health and Human Services in recognition of his "ongoing commitment and strong leadership in improving the quality of life for persons with disabilities."

Mr. Kemp has served as Chief Executive Officer of United Cerebral Palsy Associations, VSA Arts and Half the Planet Foundation, and serves in that capacity for Disability Service Providers of America, a lobbying trade association. He has served as General Counsel and Vice President - Development for the National Easter Seal Society and managed a law firm that advised companies on state and federal civil rights, employment and education laws and policies regarding persons with disabilities. Kemp & Young, Inc. developed management training programs, offered consulting services, and edited and published Disability & Employment Reporter, a monthly legal and legislative newsletter for employers.

Mr. Kemp currently serves as a member of the nonprofit Boards of Directors for several organizations, including: the United States International Council on Disabilities; the National Rehabilitation Hospital of Washington, DC; and CAST of Wakefield, MA. Mr. Kemp served as a presidential appointee to the National Council on Disability for six years ending in early 2002. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), serving as its Chairman for three years; Independent Sector, serving nine years and as its Vice Chairman; the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA); the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), of which he is a co-founder.

Mr. Kemp has personal experience with disability. Having been born without arms below the elbows and legs below the knees, Kemp uses four prostheses in living an independent, productive life. In 1997, he was recognized as Washburn University Law School's Distinguished Alumni Fellow, and in 1991 was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, an honor extended to singularly accomplished individuals in recognition of their achievements in the face of extraordinary challenges. A frequently requested Keynote Speaker and humorist, Kemp delivers 20-30 major addresses annually before conferences, conventions and annual meetings. He is admitted to practice in Kansas and the District of Columbia.

Dr. Joseph M. Jasinski is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and the Program Director for Healthcare and Life Sciences Research at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne NY. In this role he is responsible for developing strategies and coordinating research efforts across IBM's Research Division in areas ranging from the use of information technology in payer/provider healthcare to computational studies in molecular biology.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Jasinski was world wide operations manager for IBM Life Sciences, responsible for day to day operations and strategy for one of IBM's fastest growing new businesses. He has also served as the Senior Manager of the Computational Biology Center at IBM Research and managed and carried out research in nanotechnology, materials chemistry and chemical kinetics in his career with IBM.

Dr. Jasinski graduated from Dartmouth College in 1976 with an A.B. in mathematics and chemistry. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University in 1980. Following post-doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center as a Research Staff Member in 1982.

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific papers and holds two patents.

Dr. Nitzkin is a public health physician, board certified in Preventive Medicine, with a Doctorate in Public Administration.

He began his public health career in the late 1960’s as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer (USPHS), assigned by the Centers for Disease Control to the Kentucky Department of Health. After securing a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, at Berkeley, he worked for six years as County Epidemiologist in the Dade County Health Department, Miami, FL. He was in charge of communicable and chronic disease programming, environmental health and nursing home inspection. This experience left him with a clear impression that there must be a better way to run a multi-million dollar agency, than the way this health department was then managed. With that in mind – going to school part time, while working full time, he secured both a master’s degree and a doctorate in public administration from Nova University, Fort Lauderdale FL.

Since that time, he has dedicated his career to the translation of public health and preventive science into effective and cost-efficient clinical and community-based preventive services. He has served as a local health director (Rochester, New York 1976-1989), State Public Health Director (Louisiana 1989-1992), President of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), President of the American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) and policy consultant in the private practice of public health. During the mid 1990’s, Dr. Nitzkin played a major leadership role in developing a telemedicine network for the LSU school of medicine and statewide Charity Hospital system. He has served on the Boards of Directors and Executive Committees of several large hospital and health insurance enterprises. He has served on multiple federal advisory committees related to Healthy People, Objectives for the Nation, HIV/AIDS policy, and others.

Today, Dr. Nitzkin is here as a representative of the Medical Technology Policy Committee of IEEE. He has served on this committee sine the mid-1990’s as a physician knowledgeable of the structure of healthcare delivery systems and the interfaces between physicians, patients, other healthcare stakeholders and health-related record and data systems.

Jim Pyles, a co-founder of the law firm of Powers, Pyles, Sutter & Verville and has more than thirty-five years of experience in litigation, counseling, and lobbying in the field of health law. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Pyles served for six years in the Office of the General Counsel for the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, where he received the department's Distinguished Service Award for successfully handling complex Medicare litigation.

Mr. Pyles has experience in nearly all areas of the firm's practice, but he is nationally known for his expertise with respect to the legal issues related to health information technology and health information privacy, chronic care coordination, home health, hospice, and ambulatory care services. He is also a registered lobbyist for several health care associations and participates intensively in health reform at the federal and state levels. He has crafted major pieces of health care legislation in many areas covered by the Medicare Act.

Mr. Pyles' expertise encompasses the legislative and regulatory aspects of government and private health insurance coverage and reimbursement; the legal aspects of acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, and networks; and the law pertaining to fraud and abuse. He writes and lectures frequently on health reform issues and appears periodically on national television as a health care commentator.

Mr. Pyles serves as counsel to several national home health, ambulatory care, and psychiatric care associations and is a member of the Board of Directors of a state home care association.

Dr. Sloane is president and founder of the Center for Healthcare Information Research and Policy, a non-profit agency that specializes in Electronic and Patient Health Records (EHR/PHRs), health data security and privacy, and related patient safety issues. Prior to this role, he spent 9 years as a Villanova University faculty member in information systems, a 10 years as vice president with MEDIQ/PRN, a nationwide life-support device manufacturer that also provided rentals, repairs, medical supplies, and pharmaceuticals, and his career started with 15 years as vice president of the ECRI Institute, a WHO collaborating center for healthcare technology assessment and patient safety. Sloane has served as an adviser to the World Health Organization since 1985, and teaches worldwide on their behalf to improve the management and safety of medical technologies such as drugs, devices, and information systems. He has been an active participant in the US Nationwide Health Information Network design, was elected to the ANSI Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel board of directors in 2007, and has been the co-chair of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise International board since 2007. Sloane was president of the American College of Clinical Engineering in 2001/2002, was Certified in Clinical Engineering in 2006, he just completed a year as chair of the HIMSS Privacy and Security Steering Committee, and he was recently elected as a HIMSS Fellow. Sloane is a 35-year, Senior IEEE member, has been on the IEEE EMBS board of directors since 2002, chaired the IEEE Healthcare Industry Segment Initiative from 2004-2006, and has been the Sponsor of the IEEE 11073.x medical device semantics standards since 2005.

Mike Strack is the manager of Advanced Technology, IBM Research Human Ability and Accessibility Center, in Austin Texas. In this role, Mr. Strack leads a cross IBM team of researchers and technical consultants responsible for driving IBM’s corporate technical accessibility strategy, performing technology research, and driving IBM product compliance to support leadership in the accessibility of Information Technology for people with disabilities.

Mr. Strack has over 30 years of experience in research and development. This includes the development enterprise data networking and telecommunications products, retail and banking applications, middleware, operating systems such as IBM AIX and IBM 4680, and software tools. Mr. Strack has extensive international customer experience with assignments in both Europe and Asia. In Asia, he led the development and introduction of IBM’s industry leading Interactive Financial Services on-line banking solution.

For the past seven years Mr. Strack’s focus has been exclusively on the research and development of accessibility technologies. This has included leading teams responsible for IBM’s Home Page Reader self voicing Web browser; IBM Self Voicing Kit for Java; Eclipse based open source tools to support the development of accessible applications and content; voice recognition based applications supporting accessible workplace collaboration; and the enablement of Virtual World accessibility.

Mr. Strack holds a B.S. in Mathematics, an M.S. in Computer Science, and an M.S. in Science and Technology Commercialization.

Dr. Asakawa has been instrumental in accessibility research and development over the past two decades. Her early digital Braille work in the 1980s is still bringing benefits to the blind community in Japan when they access Braille books. In 1997, her work on the pathbreaking voice browser called IBM Home Page Reader, which was distributed in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, opened up the Web as a new information resource for the blind. Its interface breakthroughs have been widely adopted by other voice browsers.

In recent years, the trend of visual user interfaces and multimedia content on the Internet has created new challenges, and Dr. Asakawa has been finding new ways for visually impaired people to benefit from these advances. Dr. Asakawa and her team have developed a number of pioneering technologies, including a disability simulator called aDesigner that helps Web designers identify potential design problems so they can make their websites more friendly to everyone and a tool called aiBrowser that helps visually impaired users access streaming video, animations, and other visual content online. Also, Dr. Asakawa and teams in IBM developed the Accessibility Tools Framework which offers standardized design and application programming interfaces, allowing developers to easily and cost effectively create accessibility tools and applications. The contribution of these technologies and the framework to an open source community within the Eclipse Foundation is intended to help stimulate assistive software innovation and advance the accessibility of Web 2.0 content.

The latest research project Dr. Asakawa has been leading since the summer of 2008 is called the Social Accessibility project. Based on collaboration software developed by her team, it provides an open, collaborative environment where blind users, developers, and sighted supporters can work together to solve real life Web accessibility problems encountered by blind users.

Dr. Asakawa joined IBM in 1985, and received a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2004. She is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers of Japan (IEICE), the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), and the IBM Academy of Technology. She has been supporting accessibility-related open standards efforts, and she is currently serving as a co-general-chair for the international conference for Web accessibility (W4A) 2010. She was inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame in 2003, and both within and outside of IBM, she has been actively working to help women engineers pursue technical careers. Dr. Asakawa was appointed an IBM Fellow in 2009, IBM's most prestigious technical honor.

Sheila L. Fesko Ph.D. is the program manager at National Center on Workforce and Disability (NCWD) based at the University of Massachusetts—Boston and has 25 years of experience working on the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in the workplace. As the director of NCWD, Dr. Fesko worked with the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the US Department of Labor on policy recommendations to increase employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

Areas of her research include disclosure of HIV status in the workplace, the aging workforce and universal strategies to support inclusion of all employees in the workplace. Dr Fesko has developed the concept of Universal Design Solutions for Employment and has worked with companies on creating policies and practices that include all individuals, and support them achieve their maximum potential. Dr. Fesko has a Ph.D. from Boston College in Rehabilitation Administration. She has also worked at the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (the state vocational rehabilitation commission) and as a program manager for a community-based employment program, and is a certified rehabilitation counselor.

Eelke is an assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nevada in Reno. Eelke's research in human-computer-interaction primarily focuses on exploring how video games and virtual worlds can be made accessible to users with sensory or motor impairments using non-visual or decreased/switch input. Some of his research projects include a version of guitar hero that can be played using haptic feedback, a first person shooter that can be played with single switch input and an interface for the popular world of Second Life that allows it's users to navigate their avatar and interact with objects and avatars using a command based interface whose output can be read with a screen reader. Eelke holds an MS in Computer Science and a Ph.D in Software Engineering from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Walter Greenleaf, Ph.D. is a research scientist, trained in Neuro and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and Hampshire College. His current research, writing, and presentations focus on the use of Virtual Reality technology to improve physical medicine as well as neurological and cognitive rehabilitation.

Dr. Greenleaf is known internationally as a pioneer in medical applications for virtual environments in medicine, and he has designed and developed innovative clinical products over the course of the last twenty years. He is currently President of Virtually Better, a company that provides virtual reality systems for behavioral medicine, and Greenleaf Medical, a company developing systems for stroke and brain injury rehabilitation.

Greenleaf has expertise in medical applications of virtual reality, telemedicine technology, clinical informatics, point-of-care data collection via handheld devices, and ergonomic evaluation technology, as well as rehabilitation technologies.

A scientific adviser and grant reviewer for the U.S. Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Greenleaf was a founding board member of the California State University Center for Disabilities. When virtual reality was first emerging in the early 90’s, Greenleaf was an early proponent, and founded the first of a series of conferences titled Virtual Reality Technology for Disability Solutions.

Dr. Greenleaf has been an invited keynote speaker at the American Psychological Association (APA), the IEEE International Biomedical Conference, the annual RESNA conference, and the Annual Occupational Therapy Research Symposium. Greenleaf has presented his research as an invited speaker to more than 45 academic meetings, and serves as a founding and current organizer for the yearly Medicine and Virtual Reality Conference.

Greenleaf volunteers as a board member to several nonprofit organizations, as a judge for the Annual Medical Device Design Excellence Awards, and as a contributing editor of the Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior. Greenleaf also volunteers as a board member for the Interactive Media Institute, and for the annual CyberTherapy Conference. He is a founder of the International Society for Virtual Rehabilitation (ISVR).

Dr. Greenleaf has received commendations from the IEEE Society and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and appeared on NextStep, the Phil Donahue Show, Beyond 2000, and CNN as an expert on next generation technologies in rehabilitation and disabilities solutions.

Dr. Dimitri Kanevsky is a research staff member in the Speech and Language algorithms department at IBM T.J.Watson Research Center. Prior to joining IBM, he worked at a number of prestigious centers for higher mathematics, including Max Planck Institute in Germany and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. In 1979, he invented a multi-channel vibration based hearing aid, and founded a company to produce and market this device. He also developed the first uses for speech recognition as a communication aid for deaf users over the telephone, for which he received an award from the National Search for Computing Applications from John Hopkins to Assist Persons with Disabilities. In 1998 Dr. Kanevsky introduced the first remote transcription stenographic services over the Internet, and created the ViaScribe product speech recognition concept and system that allows automatic transcription of lectures in real time and the creation of multimedia notes.

At IBM he has been responsible for developing the first Russian automatic speech recognition system, as well as key projects for embedding speech recognition in automobiles and broadcast transcription systems.

He currently holds 112 US patents and twice was granted the title of Master Inventor IBM ( in 2002 and 2005). His conversational biometrics based security patent was recognized by MIT, Technology Review, as one of five most influential patents for 2003. His work on Extended Baum-Welch algorithm in speech work and another work for embedding speech recognition in automobiles were recognized as science accomplishment in 2002 and 2004 by the Director of Research at IBM .

In 2005 Dimitri Kanevsky received Honorary degree (Doctor of Laws, honoris causa) from the University College of Cape Breton . He was elected a member of Word Technology Network in 2004 and was a Chairperson of IT Software Technology session at Word Technology Network Summit, 2005, San-Francisco.

Dr. Hunter-Zaworski is both a Rehabilitation and Transportation Engineer. She is the 2008 OSU Alumni Association Distinguished Professor. Dr. Hunter-Zaworski’s research experience integrates biomechanics and ergonomics with rehabilitation and transportation engineering. For the past 25 years she has been focused on the development of safe, seamless and dignified accessible public transportation systems for people with disabilities. She is passionate about making public transportation accessible since transportation is fundamental for independence. She has led a team of engineers and scientists at Oregon State University and other collaborating institutions to become internationally recognized for the development of innovative mobility aid securement systems and is currently actively involved in research and development of new rear facing securement systems for Bus Rapid Transit applications. Currently, she is the Director of the National Center for Accessible Transportation. The main research and development projects are related to improving access to inter-city public transportation, including air travel by people with mobility, sensory and cognitive disabilities. Dr. Hunter-Zaworski is the past co-chair of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility (ABE60). She is the author of numerous publications, book chapters and holds a patent on auto engaging securement systems. She is a registered Professional Engineer and an Associate Professor of Transportation Engineering.

Dr. Aaron Steinfeld is a Systems Scientist in the Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his BSE, MSE, and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and completed a Post Doc at U.C. Berkeley. He is the Co-Director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation (RERC-APT) and the area lead for transportation related projects in the Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center (QoLT ERC). His research focuses on operator assistance under constraints, i.e., how to enable timely and appropriate interaction when technology use is restricted through design, tasks, the environment, time pressures, and/or user abilities. His work includes human-robot interaction, interfaces for intelligent transportation systems, rehabilitation, and universal design.

Phill Jenkins is an accessibility business development executive and senior software engineer in the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center. For more than a decade, Phill has led accessibility efforts in IBM and represents the corporation on a number of U.S. and international accessibility standards committees and boards. Phill is based in IBM Research, but works across all divisions of IBM as a business development leader providing accessibility innovation in technology, products, services, and solutions that deliver value to IBM’s clients. He has performed engagements worldwide including Australia, Canada, China, Brazil, E.U. and the U.S. with banking and insurance clients; retail, travel, and the media industry; universities, service centers, and government agencies.

Mr. Jenkins brings deep technical and broad business skills to IBM, its clients, and the community. Phill participated in the development of IBM's corporate policy on accessibility in 1996. Phill was responsible for IBM's sponsorship of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the international World Wide Web (W3C) Consortium in 1997 and provides leadership today as an original member of its Steering Council. In 1998 he consulted on the development of IBM’s Home Page Reader, a talking Web browser for people who are blind and visually impaired; the JAVAtm Self Voicing Kit and API; and many IBM innovative assistive technologies. Phill was the alternate vice-chair for the committee that recommended the original U.S. Section 508 accessibility technical standards and was the alternate IBM representative on the recent Section 508 Update committee (TEITAC). In December 2008, President George W. Bush named Mr. Jenkins to a four-year term on the U.S. Access Board, a leading Federal agency on accessibility for persons with disabilities and accessible design. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other laws, the Access Board develops and maintains design criteria for the built environment, transportation, telecommunication products, and information technology.

Stephen Sprigle is a biomedical engineer and physical therapist and a Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, holding appointments in the School of Applied Physiology, Bioengineering Program and Program in Industrial Design. His research interests include the biomechanics of wheelchair seating and posture, pressure ulcer prevention, standardized wheelchair cushion and support surface testing and assistive technology design. Dr. Sprigle directs the Rehabilitation Engineering and Applied Research Lab and is the principal investigator of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheeled Mobility.

Paul Schroeder serves as Vice President of Programs and Policy for the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB).

Schroeder joined the staff of AFB in 1994 as National Program Associate in Telecommunications and Technology. Prior to joining AFB, Schroeder served for three years as Director of Governmental Affairs for the American Council of the Blind in Washington, D.C.

He is responsible for AFB's activities related to legislative and public policy, research and demographic trends, training for service-providers, and efforts to improve access and information concerning education, employment, independent living and technology. In this capacity, he regularly provides input on a variety of issues to governmental agencies, private industry, and nonprofit organizations.

While with the American Council of the Blind, Schroeder helped to negotiate an agreement with the Regional Bell Operating Companies resulting in the inclusion of ground-breaking disability access language in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. More recently, he was a leading advocate in the effort to enact amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that improves access to textbooks for students who are blind or visually impaired. In addition, Schroeder continues to lead AFB's work to foster greater access to cell phones and other mainstream technology. He also oversees AFB’s new dynamic and innovative Web site for seniors with vision loss "AFB Senior Site."

Schroeder has served as Vice Chair of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities. In addition, he was President of the Alliance for Public Technology and was the vice chair of the Telecommunications Access Advisory Committee, a federal committee comprised of representatives from the disability community and the information technology industry, which compiled a report and set of guidelines for accessible telecommunications equipment. Schroeder is the Founding Editor for AccessWorld: Technology and People with Visual Impairments which is published by AFB Press.

From 1985 to 1991, Schroeder was the Special Projects Coordinator for the Governor's Office of Advocacy for People with Disabilities in Columbus, Ohio. While in Columbus, he served on the Board of Directors for the Central Ohio Radio Reading Service, which provides information to individuals unable to read newspapers and other print periodicals.

Schroeder holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from American University. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Lori and daughters, Hannah and Leah.

As the R&D Coordinator Daver is responsible technology road mapping for Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He advises the airport in specific research and technology areas and provides leadership in assessment of technology application in airport environment. Daver is currently working with Georgia Alliance for Accessible Technologies (GAAT) on identifying key areas within Travel and Tourism where technology can be used for enhancing accessibility in Georgia region. His areas of interest are application of IT in various airport passenger processing systems, security systems, baggage systems, parking systems and utilization of aviation information processing standards which can be used for designing cost effective accessible interfaces. Previously, Daver has worked in the Wireless, Radio Frequency (RF) and Public Safety domains.

Daver is a Certified Member (CM) of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). Daver holds a M.S in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at Arlington and B.S in Electronics Engineering from India.