Registered Participants

The following persons had registered to participate the W3C Workshop on Inclusive Design for Immersive Web Standards:

Akers, John (University of Washington)

A recent graduate from the Master's program at the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington finishing his research work in the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology pertaining to improving the accessibility of the input side of XR technology.

His specific work is creating an abstraction layer to allow arbitrary input devices to manipulate the standard interactions found in most XR applications. Due to its wider reaching demographics and more open source XR frameworks, a prototype of his work has been developed as a plugin for the framework A-Frame on WebXR, which can be integrated into existing applications to allow manipulation by a wider array of inputs.

Beyond his current research work he has developed a variety of VR and AR applications on various platforms with multiple prior projects in WebVR and a sampling of his work can be found on his personal website jakers.tech. he was also a participant of the XR Access Symposium in New York City this last summer within the Standards and Policy breakout group.

Barfield, Glenn (HCL America)

Linkedin profile - Amputee Outdoors

PM at HCL America working with Microsoft and other companies to help them create universally accessible websites and IT products.

Barse, AJ (Western Washington University)

Instructional Technologist at Western Washington University: ATUS

LinkedIn - ResearchGate - WWU Blog

His background is predominantly in instruction of the digital arts. Recently, since 2016, he has been researching technologies and their potential for students to develop 3D and spherical content for VR. He co-presented in 2016 at Washington State Higher Education Building Bridges Technology Conference on lessons learned from delivering 3D maker workshops and supporting related services. That presentation was made in anaglyphic 3d with glasses provided to present the presentation.

Brewer, Judy (W3C/MIT)

WAI Director, W3C

Home page

Has helped drive digital accessibility work at W3C since foundation of WAI including development of accessibility guidelines and standards; currently tracking accessibility issues across all emerging technologies in W3C work; some experience in early immersive web environments; intensely interested in potential for immersive technologies to change user experiences for all, including for people with disabilities.

Cabanier, Henricus, (Magic Leap)

Principal Engineer on Magic Leap's browser. Member of the CSS and WebXR Working groups

Cheshier, Jared (PlutoVR)

Cruse, Dale (Twitch)

Dale Cruse is the Principal Program Manager for Accessibility & Inclusive Design at Twitch. He's the author of HTML5 Multimedia Development Cookbook.

Cuervo, Andrés (Movable Ink)

@cwervo on Twitter - homepage

Web AR engineer at Movable Ink

Background: Worked on augmented reality (native iOS prototyping) in 2018, recently started as the first web AR engineer at Movable Ink. He was an early user/component author of Mozilla's A-Frame WebVR framework (since 0.2.0) & has been involved in WebXR communities, open source, & making demos ever since. Re: inclusive design, he has developed accessible bookmarklets & browser extensions for a blind technologist he worked for & worked on UX research for scalable machine learning techniques for generating accessible websites. He has followed the WebXR WG/CG mailing lists for a couple years & has plans on participating more in the WebXR CG by the end of this year.

Cunningham, Nathan (US DOL ODEP)

Nathan Cunningham helps build policies, resources, and collaborations to make emerging technologies accessible and inclusive. He is a Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.

He serves as the federal point of contact for the government-funded Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT). PEAT is a key force spearheading the new XR Access initiative, which will convene different working groups.

Nathan will coordinate with his colleagues at PEAT to promote outcomes from these groups. PEAT has historically focused on issues of accessible information and communication technology like websites. PEAT serves as a national free resource that provides helpful tools to businesses about the importance of using accessible technologies and how to do so. As PEAT shifts to focus more on emerging technologies like XR, we are committed to exploring policies and strategies that build accessibility into this tech from the start.

Cutrell, Edward (Microsoft)

Sr. Principal Researcher in MSR Ability Group, Microsoft Research

home page

He has been working in the area of accessible XR for a few years now, with particular interest in the use of these technologies for blind and low-vision users. Together with his colleagues, they have worked on a number of projects including SeeingVR and the "Canetroller" projects (both VR), and several explorations with the Microsoft Soundscape team (AR systems using spatial audio). Beyond the XR work, they have done some extensive work exploring ways to make images on the Web more accessible.

Short bio: Ed Cutrell is a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research where he explores computing for disability, accessibility, and inclusive design in the MSR Ability group. Over the years, he has worked on a broad range of HCI topics, including input tech, visual perception and graphics, intelligent notifications and disruptions, and interfaces for search and personal information management. From 2010-2016, he managed the Technology for Emerging Markets (TEM) group at MSR India, focusing on technologies and systems useful for people living in underserved rural and urban communities in developing countries. Ed has worked in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) since 2000; he is trained in cognitive neuropsychology, with a PhD from the University of Oregon.

Dannels, Wendy (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Position paper: Key areas to make XR truly inclusive of people with disabilities

NTID Center on Access Technology

LinkedIn profile

Wendy is the PI for a NSF grant (award #1811509) with a focus on developing a XR platform that will allow deaf and hard-of-hearing participants to receive real-time signed and captioned instruction while still interacting with spontaneous and live exhibits at science centers and planetariums.

Dolphin, Christopher (Liv)

Lead Frontend Developer at Liv Inc., a company that provides a popular mixed reality streaming solution. The company has an interest in participating in open standards. He personally has a huge interest in how tech can be more inclusive and accessible while removing some of the barriers that exist in everyday life.

personal site

He is a mostly self-taught developer. Since he had to learn from open-source and documentation, he has had a huge interest in how things can be presented better for the learner. That interest lead to a broader interest in accessibility, UX, and developer experience, which pair well with how the web has grown. As VR, AR, and XR have become more prevalent he has become interested in their respective design challenges as well, since they open up a new realm of possibility and access.

Druta, Dan (AT&T)

Background: Active contributor to the WebRTC, chair of the Web&Networks Interest Group

Dubois, Roland

@rolanddubois on Twitter

W3C immersive web member since 2016, the conduit for accessibility in WebVR in W3C-CG workshop Brussels 2017

Mozilla Tech Speaker, Community host for WebXR and A-Frame in NYC

Inaugural member of the XRAccess Summit 2019

Easter, Charlene (The Seattle Times)

UW Human Centered Design Masters alumni
UX designer at The Seattle Times
LinkedIn profile
Background in immersive digital storytelling for MSN and museum interactives

Erickson, Kevin (Level Access)

Erickson, Liv (Mozilla)

@MissLiviRose on social media

She is a senior product manager at Mozilla, working on the social XR platform Hubs. She has a background in computer science and programming, and has been working on creating resources for WebVR/XR since its general availability as a polyfill, including a number of sample open source projects, video tutorials, and blog posts. She has given a number of talks at conferences and meetups such as JSConf, Full Stack Con, and SF HTML5. A full list of talks to date can be found on-line as well as related blog posts. She is also the co-chair for the VR/AR/MR track for the Grace Hopper Conference, which welcomed 25,000 attendees this past month in Orlando.

Full professional bio: Liv is an open source virtual reality developer and advocate for creating inclusive social VR spaces. She is currently working as a senior product manager on the web-based social VR Hubs team at Mozilla. Previously, Liv worked as an engineering lead at the startup High Fidelity and as a technical XR evangelist at Microsoft. In 2016, she co-founded ARVR Academy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving representation in the immersive technology industry. Above all, Liv is focused on building technologies that improve the human experience in an ethical, sustainable way.

Gan, Zohar (Accessible Realities)

@AccessibleXR on Twitter - LinkedIn profile

Professional website

Background: he is the founder and developer of Accessible Realities, an XR accessibility solution for people who are blind or have low vision. Accessible Realities is at its core a social impact project for the benefit of the community. It is a software library for Unreal Engine 4 game engine. Its goal is to enable game and XR developers to more easily add accessibility support for people who are blind or have low vision.

Garg, Ankur (HCL America)

Gibson, Forest (PlutoVR)

Gilbert, Kip (Mozilla)

Gilbert, Regine (New York University)

@reg_inee on Twitter

web site

She has created curriculum for a UX course for VR and AR and has done usability testing for Augmented Reality.

Goncu, Cagatay [Chatai] (Monash University)

He is a Research Fellow in the Inclusive Technologies and Immersive Analytics Labs at Monash University, Faculty of IT, Australia. He is developing software and hardware technologies that allow blind people access information anywhere without any barriers. His interests are in human computer interaction, wearable computing, computer vision and sport analytics. His also the co-founder of RaisedPixels which is developing apps that provide blind people access to textual and graphical content on portable devices.

He has recently started working on accessible XR, with the interest in their use for education and mobility training, and the role of speech/non-speech audio and haptics in XR systems.

@cagatay_goncu on Twitter - LinkedIn profile

Gonzalez-Zuniga, Diego, (Samsung)

Product Manager for Samsung Internet

He has an interest in WebXR, advocating for it's use, have chaired the WebVR content Authoring Workshop, been involved in the Program Committee in the recent Games Workshop, and invovled in European Projects that will utilize the upcoming standard.

Graves, Hina (Target)

Hina has completed BS in Information Technology and MS in Assistive Technology and Human Services. She has worked as Assistive Technology Instructor for over 7 years and Accessibility Consultant for over 6 years. She recently accepted a position with Target as Senior Accessibility Consultant. She is very passionate about Accessibility and making sure people with disabilities are represented in every way as inclusively as possible.

LinkedIn profile

Hakkinen, Markku (Educational Testing Service)

PhD. Director of Accessibility Standards and Inclusive Technology at Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton. Docent (Adjunct Professor) in Information Technology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland

can be found on LinkedIn, mhakkinen on Twitter, mhakkinen on Github; personal web site

He has longstanding interest in accessibility, and in particular, non-visual interfaces to complex tasks. His work in accessibility standards began in the mid 90's and he currently participates in several W3C groups.

XR is of interest in educational assessments, and we have seen a variety of AR/VR applications ranging from STEM simulations to language learning. For ETS a critical challenge with XR is to remain true to the goal of an inclusive learning environment that supports all students, including those with disabilities.

There are other challenges, but he believes the key is to develop an understanding of the technologies and the role that well thought out standards can play to enable accessibility, particularly when specific technical adaptations needed to make XR usable may not be well understood without further research. Innovative technologies should not be designed to preclude accessibility (or at least make it difficult).

He has specific interest in the role of speech/non-speech audio and haptics in XR in the expectation that these modalities can help make the XR environments more realistic, and enable natural interaction. This implies making sure the standards contain sufficient richness to define information about the objects, scenes, and interactions that enables transforming/augmenting interactions in modalities appropriate to the users including sound and touch.

Hall, Charles (MRM // McCANN)

Designing since 1988. Developing since 1993. Entrepreneur since 1996. Agencies since 2000. Accessibility since 2008. MRM//McCann since 2012. W3C since 2013. Mentoring since 2014. Speaking since 2016. UX throughout.

He is an active / contributing member of the Silver Task Force and Community Group and an active / contributing member of the General Motors Quality and Accessibility Governance Board.

He is a member of the McCann Worldgroup Global Diversity Coalition.

He is a Learning Ambassador and teaches web accessibility and inclusive design at MRM//McCann.

Hazael-Massieux, Dominique (W3C)

W3C Staff Contact for the W3C Immersive Web Working Group. Organizer of the Web & Virtual Reality W3C Workshop in 2016, WebVR Authoring W3C workshop in 2017, and of this workshop on Inclusive Design for Immersive Web Standards.

Also in charge of the W3C WebRTC Working Group, Web & Networks Interest Group, Community Management lead (incl oversight of W3C Community Groups and developer relations)

Heyning, Evonne (LightLodges)

@amoration on Twitter

CEO LightLodges and Playable

Mozilla XRStudio, MozTechSpeakers

XR Media Producer

Founder, Toyshoppe Systems (Cinematic FX, R&D Hardware)

Singularity University GSP 2012: AI, Systems Entrepreneurship

Higley, Sarah (Microsoft)

github account, personal site

Horn, Xian (Changeblazer)

on instagram as xianforbeauty83 - LinkedIn profile

President and founder of Changeblazer, a consultancy, and of non-profit Give Beauty Wings that offers self-esteem programs, mentoring, vocational support, and educational outreach for people with disabilities.

Joel, Chris (Google)

Joshi, Swati (HCL America)

Knight, Indira (Royal College of Art)

Indira is currently working at the Royal College of Art undertaking design research for a VR therapy, initially for people in psychosis services, which is currently undergoing clinical trials. She has been running design to design a therapy which is clinically robust, engaging and easy to use. Through running the workshops and undresearch Indira has developed a greater understanding peoples experience in VR applications. She creates prototype web applications and physical interfaces in JavaScript, Python and Arduino, with a particular interest in Web VR and A-Frame. In In 2017, along with a cofounder, she set up the Web XR London meetup group and regularly runs A-Frame workshops and this year she became a Mozilla Tech speaker.

Ko, Lonnie (Facebook)

Merryman, Laurie (Wells Fargo)

LinkedIn profile

24+ years experience in the field of digital accessibility and assistive technologies used by people with disabilities with a strong focus on assistive technologies used by blind and visually impaired persons

Extensive experience both in the public and private sector engaging with developers and designers to embed accessibility practices into digital content development to create inclusive digital experiences. In-depth knowledge of embedding accessibility practices in an e-commerce website (Target.com) by engaging with various product teams for both desktop & mobile. Most recently have been focused on incorporating digital accessibility into social media digital content on all the social platforms working with Wells Fargo’s marketing social teams.

Have used screen reading Technology for 24+ years and have an extensive understanding of how people with disabilities engage with digital content.

Logan, Thomas (Equal Entry)

@techthomas on Twitter

He has a nanodegree in VR from Udacity.

He also presented about VR accessibility in Toronto and in NYC / SF

May, Matthew (Adobe)

@mattmay on Twitter

He is Adobe’s head of inclusive design. He works primarily on introducing aspects of inclusive design into Adobe’s creative products, including Project Aero, which is making tools for building AR experiences using existing authoring tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. He is also the facilitator of Adobe’s inclusive design workshop, which is being delivered to all of Adobe’s designers in 2019. He was a web accessibility specialist at W3C/WAI from 2002 to 2005, and co-edited the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

Möhnle, Melina (IRT)

Morinigo, Laura (Samsung)

@lala_morinigo on Twitter - LinkedIn Profile

Bio: Currently a web developer advocate for Samsung Internet at Samsung Research Institute UK where the team contributes to open source projects, build demos and participate in conferences getting the word out about advanced web features helping web developers to create great and more inclusive web apps.

Morris, Meredith (Microsoft)

Position paper: Key areas to make XR truly inclusive of people with disabilities

Sr. Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, and manager of the Ability research team, which focuses on the design of accessible technologies.

She is also an affiliate Professor at the University of Washington in the School of Computer Science and Engineering. She earned her Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford University in 2006. Her full list of publications and CV are available online.

For the past several years, she has lead Microsoft Research's effort around making Mixed Reality more accessible to people with disabilities, including the Canetroller and SeeingVR projects. She recently co-authored a position paper summarizing her work and views on this topic.

Mott, Martez (Microsoft Research)

Martez Mott is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Ability group at Microsoft Research where he conducts research in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and accessibility. Martez's research investigates how to create intelligent interaction techniques that improve the accessibility of computing systems for people with diverse sensory and motor abilities. Martez's current research is investigating how to improve the accessibility of virtual and augmented reality systems for people with limited mobility.

Web site

Moulton, Gary (Verizon Media)

Gary Moulton works on the accessibility of Verizon Media's websites and mobile web platforms (e.g. Yahoo.com; HuffPost.com). As a program manager on Verizon Media's Accessibility Team he is familiar with Verizon's participation at a July 2019 XR conference held in NYC.

Myers, Karen (W3C)

O'Connor, Joshue (W3C/ERCIM)

Position paper: Understanding XR Accessibility User Needs & Requirements (Oct 2019)

Emerging Web Technology Specialist Accessibility (W3C/WAI)

Oslin, Suzan (UXXR.design)

Experience Architect at UXXR.design, and representing Open AR Cloud (OARC)

As a computer graphics pioneer, Suzan Oslin began her career as a digital effects artist writing particle system animations for visual effects giants such as Metrolight Studios, Warner Brothers, and Disney Feature Animation. She’s had the honor and privilege to work as an animator on the endearing animated feature “Iron Giant”, under the direction of the legendary Brad Bird.

Suzan’s innovative data-driven dashboard design work for Technicolor earned her co-inventor designation on the patent for Fulfillment Tracking In Asset-Driven Workflow Modeling. She brings the same pioneering spirit and enterprise-level expertise to her product strategy and design consulting work for progressive VR and AR companies that understand and appreciate the user experience driven marketplace.

Ms. Oslin has been an active leader in the Los Angeles UX design community since 2008 and co-leads the local chapter of the world’s leading Augmented World Expo, AWE Nite LA. Internationally she’s making an impact as the co-founder of the Independent XR Research Study [IXRRS], a vanguard of 12 international researchers dedicated to promoting user-friendly immersive interface design worldwide; and is working to ensure an equitable future by contributing to the development of spatial computing standards as the UX Working Group Vice-chair for the Open AR Cloud.

@uxxrdesign on Twitter - Linkedin profile

State of the Open AR Cloud Report, editor of Working Group 8’s Chapter on UX, Accessibilty and Safety

Pankaj, Gupta (HCL Technologies)

Persing, Devon (Shopify)

Pinzon, Nathaniel (WonderTek Labs)

Qattan, Zack (Ukaton)

zakaton on Github - Missions: the Sole of Mission St.

Rampur, Swetha (Bank of America)

IAAP CPACC certified

Works in the accessibility field as an Accessibility Analyst. At BOFA works with a team where they are the SME's for Accessibility .

Sharma, Ajay (HCL Technologies)

Linkedin profile

Background - a late blind low - vision person and currently working as Accessibility SME with HCL Technologies. He is also a participant in Wai ARIA Authoring Practice Task Force.

He is in accessibility domain for over 7 years and is very much interested in exploring the possibilities that VR could have to make life of low - vision individuals easier specially in navigation.

Smith, Trevor F. (W3C Invited Experts)

Chair of the Immersive Web Community Group
Invited expert in the Immersive Web Working Group

@trevorfsmith on Twitter - @trevorfsmith@xoxo.zone on Mastodon

Solomon Mate, Nir (Facebook)

Oculus VR

LinkedIn profile

Has a background in accessibility working with autistic clients via behavioral therapy. Works directly on accessibility in VR and is on multiple task forces to tackle inclusive design and accessibility in VR.

Taylor, Suzanne (Things Entertainment)

Founder of Things Entertainment, LLC - LinkedIn profile

Related Share Out:

Augmented Reality (AR) Accessibility Techniques - Part I - November 20, 2017

Related Open Educational Resource:

Accessibility and Augmented Reality for the IGDA Game Accessibility SIG