Related info: Shawn Lawton Henry at W3C WAI and About Shawn
On this page:
Contact Shawn to get permission to use these bios or photos.
Note: The best way to reach me is to call.
Direct telephone: +1.617.395.7664
W3C e-mail: shawn@w3.org
Personal e-mail: shawn@uiAccess.com
First/given: Shawn
Middle: Lawton
Last/family: Henry
For publications, I prefer all three: Shawn Lawton Henry. No hyphens.
For all else—introductions, hotel reservations, etc.—I use just 2: Shawn Henry.
I often use 'shawna-slh' for public accounts to help communicate that I'm a 'cisgender' female. You can call me 'Shawn' or 'Shawna'.
Shawn Henry focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her TAdER Project provides research and outreach to better understand users' needs to customize text for readability — specifically, people with low vision, dyslexia, and related conditions that impact reading, including older people. Her book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design, which is available free online, offers an approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.
At the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Shawn is the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Program Lead and also leads education and outreach activities promoting digital accessibility for people with disabilities. Before joining the W3C, she developed and implemented strategies to optimize user interface design for usability and accessibility with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, education providers, government agencies, international standards bodies, and research centers.
Shawn holds a research appointment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). She has a BSc in English with focus on technical writing and computer science, and an MSc in Digital Inclusion. When not typing on her little laptop, she is often out paddling her long sea kayak.
Shawn is Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Program Lead at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and also leads education and communication activities promoting digital accessibility for people with disabilities. Before joining W3C, she developed and implemented strategies to optimize user interface design for usability and accessibility with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, education providers, and research centers. Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design offers an approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.
Shawn is Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Program Lead at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and also leads education promoting digital accessibility for people with disabilities. She holds a research appointment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a BSc in technical writing and computer science, and an MSc in Digital Inclusion. Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design offers an approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.
Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. She is currently the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Program Lead at W3C, and leads education promoting digital accessibility for people with disabilities. She has worked for Fortune 500, nonprofit, education, and research organizations to optimize user interface design for usability and accessibility. Her book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design offers an approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone. When not typing on her little laptop, Shawn is often paddling her long sea kayak.
Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces, including through Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design. She is Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Program Lead at W3C, and leads education promoting digital accessibility for people with disabilities.
Shawn is Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Program Lead at W3C, and leads education promoting digital accessibility for people with disabilities. She focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces, including through Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design.
Contact Shawn to get permission to use these photos.
artist: Len Peralta. about the caricature
Photo credit: John F Croston III
Up-to-date as of January 2024