AXSChat Podcast

What does it mean to be diagnosed with ADHD at age 50? For Moonlake Lee, it wasn't just a personal revelation – it became the catalyst for creating Singapore's first charity dedicated to supporting people with ADHD. When Moonlake's daughter received an ADHD diagnosis at 15, it sparked questions about her own lifelong patterns of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and overwhelm. Despite her...

Julia Undeutsch's path to becoming an accessibility specialist defies conventional career trajectories. From studying musicology and Japanese while working as a poker dealer to becoming a passionate advocate for digital inclusion, her story reveals how diverse experiences shape innovative approaches to accessibility. When Julia first encountered coding, she noticed something peculiar on Stack...

Crystal Preston-Watson takes us on her fascinating journey from self-taught coder and journalism dropout to becoming a Senior Digital Accessibility Analyst at Salesforce's Office of Accessibility. With refreshing honesty, she shares how her own visual impairment and an unexpected quality assurance ticket requiring screen reader testing sparked her passion for digital accessibility. What makes...

What does it take to lead effectively in today's diverse business landscape? Gisele Marcus, Vice Dean at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, brings a refreshing perspective shaped by her extensive Fortune 500 experience at companies like Accenture and Johnson Controls. The leadership skills needed today extend far beyond traditional business acumen. As Marcus explains,...

Communication is everything, but what if you couldn't make a private phone call? Tomer Aharoni, CEO and co-founder of Nagish, joins AXSChat to reveal how his team is revolutionizing accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. For millions with hearing loss, the simple act of making a phone call has historically required dependence on others—interpreters, captioners, or family memb...

When was the last time your history book mentioned Julius Caesar's seizures or Hannibal's missing eye? The erasure of disability from our historical narratives isn't accidental—it reveals our modern discomfort with integrating disability into stories of power and achievement. Caroline Bristow, Director of the Cambridge School Classics Project, takes us on a fascinating journey throu...

What if fitness was designed to meet you exactly where you are, instead of demanding that you change to fit into someone else's idea of exercise? That's the revolutionary concept behind Second Skin Society, and founder Lee-Anne Reuber is making it a reality. Drawing from her 22 years of experience in disability support and her background as a yoga teacher, Leanne recognized a critical ga...

Dimple Khagram, founder and CEO of Purple Beard Training, talks about creating the UK's first Accessibility Specialist Apprenticeship in an interview with Antonio Santos and Neil Milliken. What began as a passion project has expanded into a major educational programme, with seven graduates earning five distinctions and 40 additional apprentices still completing the course. The journey wasn&ap...

What happens when a curious quality assurance tester encounters an odd request about color contrast? For Iulia Brehuescu, it sparked a journey that would transform not only her career but also impact accessibility practices across a global pharmaceutical giant. Iulia's story is both inspiring and cautionary. From her early days testing web platforms at a digital agency to her current role sha...

What does digital accessibility look like in a mobile-first continent with 1.4 billion people speaking hundreds of languages across 50+ countries? Irene Mbari-Kirika, Executive Director and Founder of inABLE , takes us on an illuminating journey through Africa's rapidly evolving accessibility landscape. The conversation begins with inABLE foundational work teaching digital skills to blind stu...

Accessibility in mobile technology has evolved from seemingly impossible challenges to remarkable innovations. Join us as we welcome back Sabine Lobnig from the Mobile and Wireless Forum to discuss this fascinating journey. Sabine shares her unique path into accessibility, beginning with linguistics and a fascination with sign language that connected her to the deaf community. This led to her work...

The countdown to the European Accessibility Act has begun, and organizations across the EU and beyond are racing to understand what this landmark legislation means for their products and services. In this timely conversation, accessibility expert Susanna Laurin returns to AXSChat to separate fact from fiction about the EAA ahead of its June 2025 implementation. Susanna reveals a concerning readine...

Accessibility and sustainability collide in this eye-opening conversation with Heather Neff, CEO of Equivalent. She returns to AXSChat to share groundbreaking developments in their mission to transform static graphics into responsive, accessible code. What if every image online could instantly adapt to your device settings, work seamlessly with screen readers, and consume a fraction of the energy?...

The most valuable accessibility conversations are happening in unexpected places. In this reflection on recent events, the AccessJet team shares how conferences focused on broader topics yielded surprising insights about disability inclusion, corporate transparency, and AI's potential. At Fair Cultures Barcelona, discussions about corporate transparency revealed why accessibility progress rem...

When we're constantly fighting for baseline accessibility compliance, it's easy to miss the quiet victories happening around us. In this candid conversation, returning guest Steve Tyler shares refreshingly positive experiences that demonstrate what's possible when companies truly commit to inclusive design. Steve recounts his surprisingly delightful experience switching to EE broadb...

What happens when a global company with 70,000 employees embraces neurodiversity as a driver of innovation? Tristan Lavender, founder and chair of Philips Neurodiversity Network, takes us behind the scenes of building one of the company's largest employee resource groups from the ground up. Diagnosed with autism in his early twenties, Lavender's journey from struggling young professional...

Dr. Kelly Tzoumis, professor emeritus at DePaul University and lecturer at Johns Hopkins, discusses virtual exchange programs that make global learning accessible to students with disabilities. These innovative approaches embed intercultural experiences directly into curriculum, overcoming barriers of cost and physical accessibility while building crucial competencies. • Virtual exchange goes beyo...

What happens when accessibility transcends from a legal obligation to a strategic business advantage? That's exactly what Gina Bhawalkar, Principal Analyst for Digital Accessibility at Forrester Research, illuminates in our fascinating conversation about the evolving digital accessibility landscape. Gina brings two decades of experience to the table, having started her journey testing product...

Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren brings a rare and powerful perspective to the criminal justice system. With nearly three decades on the bench in Florida and a background in disability rights advocacy, she offers insights you simply won't find elsewhere. Her journey from working directly in a psychiatric hospital to founding America's first Mental Health Court has equipped her with a truly uniqu...

Lia Raquel Neves,, founder of EITIC Consulting, offers a thought-provoking exploration into the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence and its profound implications for accessibility and inclusion. Drawing from her background in philosophy and bioethics, Lia challenges the common assumption that technology is neutral, instead arguing that our creations inherently reflect our values, biases,...

Discover the transformative power of accessibility in the gaming world with Verónica Morales Beltrán, an accessibility specialist at Adesso Mobile. Having transitioned from leading localization at Electronic Arts Germany to championing digital inclusion, Veronica reveals how gaming has evolved beyond mere entertainment to become a vital space for connection, creativity, and belonging. Why do we pl...

What does independence truly mean for someone who can't see? This question lies at the heart of Envision's revolutionary approach to assistive technology for blind and low-vision individuals. Karthik Kannan's journey began with a simple career counseling visit to a blind school in India. While his sighted nephew dreamed of building cities on Mars, the blind students shared much more...

Gareth Ford-Williams shares how his son Zak inability to access age-appropriate BBC games sparked a career revolutionizing digital accessibility, culminating in the development of BBC iPlayer with comprehensive accessibility features. • Gareth's journey began when six-year-old Zak couldn't access BBC games designed for older children • Personal connections and family experiences often dr...

Jane Hatton, CEO of Evenbreak, shares how her organization is transforming disability employment globally through inclusive recruitment practices and partnerships with local disability organizations. • Evenbreak started as a UK job board for disabled job seekers but has expanded into a global enterprise • Every team member at Evenbreak has lived experience of disability, representing diverse condi...

Daniel Mont, CEO and co-founder of the Center for Inclusive Policy, shares insights on bridging the gap between disability advocacy and effective policy implementation. The conversation explores how to move beyond awareness-raising to create evidence-based policies that meaningfully improve the lives of people with disabilities. • Center for Inclusive Policy was created to address the need for evi...