AXSChat Podcast

Tim Sutton is a 31 year veteran Law Enforcement Officer.  After spending 4 years as a patrolman for the Chesterfield County Police Department VA, he was hired by a Sheriff’s Office in the Richmond Metro area of Virginia.  Tim then worked as a patrol deputy for two years and then spent four years as a Street Crimes Investigator.  He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 1999 and has been a patrol...

 Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken.  Darren works at Lilly UK (Pharmaceuticals) as a Global Program Manager and Accessibility Lead He leads a program called Access Lilly, focused on improving accessibility across the globe, in both physical and digital environments He also leads the Enable Employee Resource Group for the International region, which covers almost every country o...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken.  In 2005 Gareth founded the BBC’s Digital Accessibility Team. Over the course of the first 3 years, the Accessibility Team worked as an integral part of iPlayer’s core Product Team ensuring BBC iPlayer V1.0 launched as an accessible product. The team was joined the UX when the UX Design was founded in 2008. Gareth Ford Williams David helps dri...

  Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken.  Susan Mazrui began work in Communications in 1994 at Pacific Bell in Disability Marketing. In 1998, she moved to the wireless field, where she developed corporate strategies for state and federal legal and regulatory compliance. Under her leadership, Cingular Wireless became the first national carrier to offer “talking” cellphones and estab...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Sophie is an award-winning disability advocate & social entrepreneur who was paralysed in a car crash when she was 18 years old. Determined to channel her adversity into opportunity, she sees her challenges as a unique chance for creativity. She embodies her values; finding creative opportunity in diversity and adversity, and daring to be...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. 6 years ago, at age 35, Wendy became the Queen of Social Distancing when she became a disabled chronic Lyme disease fighter. Feeling exhaustion, pain and like daily flu with autoimmunity issues that makes Wendy catch what sicknesses others have when in groups — meant she couldn’t travel on a plane, go to work meetings or even go with her boys...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Lorena Julio is a human rights advocate with a Master in Compared Public Policies and a degree in Social Communication. She worked for more than 14 years in the promotion and protection of human rights in Latin America and the United States. She participated in multiple high-level events as a speaker on human rights, youth and disabilities in...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Disabled/Wild/Hot AF Exploratory Storyteller and Adventurer. Creating relationships, stories, and magic. A Continual WIP. Sulaiman is an independent consultant, speaker, and writer on Divergent Leadership, Creativity, and Equitability (characterised by equity or fairness; just and right; fair; reasonable: equitable treatment of all citizens)....

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. This Week’s chat is about authoring tools. When we produce content for the web we use authoring tools to publish. How these tools can help produce accessible content can have a profound impact on the overall inclusiveness of the internet. Mike Gifford is the founder of OpenConcept Consulting Inc, which he started in 1999. Since then, he has be...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Thea Kurdi has nineteen years of experience consulting and teaching accessible architecture with a specialization in universal design. In her role as an accessibility consultant at one of Canada’s oldest and leading specialty firms, Thea has assisted design teams to realize the benefits of universal design and achieve higher levels of accessib...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Vernon Sankey is a Leadership Coach and Author. He has been in business for many years during which time he has been the CEO, Chairman and Board member of major international corporations including Reckitt & Colman plc (now Reckitt Benckiser), Pearson plc, Zurich AG, Taylor Woodrow (now Taylor Wimpey), Cofra AG, Firmenich SA, Gala Group pl...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. David is a Costa Rican Political Scientist with his MBA and masters in diplomacy.  He is also a leader, advocate, social media specialist, and communication strategist.  David has experience in public policy implementation, development, and evaluation as well as consultancy services for NGOs like UNESCO and others linked to the European Union....

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. E.A. Draffan trained as a Speech and Language Therapist working with those who have complex communication needs and disabilities, before specialising in the use of assistive technologies and issues of digital accessibility. Recent research at the University of Southampton includes ‘AI and Inclusion’ as part of the Alan Turing Institute’s work....

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Marcie Roth is Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer for the World Institute on Disability (WID), WID is a highly regarded global public policy centre WID works to advance the rights and opportunities of over 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide by disrupting exclusion and accelerating radical social justice. Marcie has served...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Rajen Nair about himself: I am semi deaf freelance photojournalist cum writer from Mumbai. I had contributed to Guardian UK and many Indian newspapers. Past 11 years teaching Photography to deaf, disabled and from 7 yrs to cancer kids. Imparted photography skills to more than several thousand students. Also conducted photo workshop over many p...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. James Partridge is the Director of Face Equality International, a Guernsey charity which he launched in November 2018. Face Equality International is an alliance of NGOs and charities around the world — already 35-strong — which work together to campaign for ‘face equality’ and challenge disfigurement prejudice and discrimination. The alliance...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Zara is proud to be Accessibility Director at HeX Productions and Influencer of Accessibility Nottingham. Living the dream and trying to make the world a better place. Nurturing businesses in best practice use of the internet through strong foundations of accessible web development. I aspire to be a top business change leader and change the pe...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken Sarah Simcoe is an experienced business leader who held several positions within the private sector before embarking on her own business, DMS (Wirral) Ltd, early in 2018; and Sarah may be familiar to you for having previously worked at Fujitsu where she led the conversation around disability networks and accessibility.  Passionate about respons...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken Chris Grant is AbilityNet’s Area Coordinator in Scotland, or “King of Scotland” as he is affectionately known by the central team. Since starting in May 2018, he has completely transformed their free services in Scotland, generating huge growth in the number of volunteers and the hours of free tech support provided to older people and people wi...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken Cordelia McGee-Tubb ( @cordeliadillon ) is a web accessibility specialist and cartoonist. She is a Principal Accessibility Engineer at Salesforce and previously led Dropbox’s accessibility program. She’s passionate about making technology accessible and enjoyable to all, regardless of age, ability, or circumstances. Cordelia currently co-hosts...

#AXSChat – 21st of April – Kate M. Sonka & Larry Goldberg Hosted by Antonio Vieira Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken. Kate M. Sonka is the Executive Director of Teach Access and the Assistant Director of Academic Technology at the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University. She holds a M.Ed. in Bilingual/Bicultural Education and a TESOL certificate from DePaul University. She...

Nabil has held several positions and worked with numerous INGOs, civil society networks, UN agencies, governments, private sector, and grassroots organizations to successfully create positive change at global, regional, and national levels. 20+ years of experience in disability inclusion strategies. Providing counselling, coaching, researches, evaluation & monitoring and ICT accessibility solu...

Hosted by Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken Mark Bullock – Inclusive Sports Development Advisor Delivering workshops, seminars and guidance to a wide range of stakeholders in inclusive sport & physical activity utilising more than 25 years of experience in Paralympic/disability sport, sports development & the broader social impact of sport. Former Wheelchair Tennis Manager for th...

Hosted by Antonio Vieira Santos , Debra Ruh and Neil Milliken Judith Ellen Heumann "Judy" (born December 18, 1947) is an American disability rights activist. She is recognized internationally as a leader in the disability community. Heumann is a lifelong civil rights advocate for people with disabilities. Her work with governments and non-governmental organizations , non-profits, and var...

Before starting the Runway of Dreams Foundation (RoDF) in 2014, Mindy Scheier spent 20 years working in fashion on the design team for the INC collection and as a stylist for Saks Fifth Avenue.    Mindy was inspired to start RoDF after her son Oliver, who has Muscular Dystrophy, dreamed of wearing jeans like everyone else. After using her design skills to adapt a pair that met his needs and increa...