Time: 3:00 PM
Room: OEC A
What You Don't Know Hurts Your Users: Filling the Accessibility Knowledge Gap in the OS Community
Open-source is by its very nature, geared to include people. Yet creating accessible open-source products has been an ongoing challenge for the OS community. In this informational discussion, Digital Accessibility by WeCo's Lead and Principal Accessibility Specialists, will give developers and designers a window in the world of users with disabilities, and ways they can make their projects accessible to them. Both presenters live with blindness/low vision and neurodiverse disabilities. They bring a wealth of experience in coaching dev teams toward WCAG conformance.
The discussion will focus on:
- How users living with disabilities use opensource software (Examples: Home Assistant, NVDA, Linux distros)
- How opensource plays well with accessibility
- Where opensource products fall short of meeting accessibility needs
- How developers and designers can improve accessibility in their open-source projects
- Solid next steps to ramp up accessibility in open-source efforts
Tyler Melone
Lead Accessibility Specialist
Digital Accessibility by WeCo
Tyler Melone's educational background in computer science, programming, and philosophy, paved the way for his career in digital accessibility. Combined with his life experience of blindness, low vision and neurodiversity he began working at his university, post-graduation, as their first accessibility and user case professional. He came to WeCo in 2022 and was promoted to Lead Accessibility Specialist in 2024, where he oversees manual auditing and remedy coaching for a large range of clients. IAAP/CWPA certified, Tyler has a passion to make accessibility attainable for everyone.
Dane Dunham
Lead Accessibility Specialists
Digital Accessibility by WeCo
Dane Dunham has been a foundational team member at WeCo since 2014 with lived experience in blindness, low vision and neurodiversity. Prior to coming to WeCo, Dane taught himself code to improve the performance of his screen reader. He has a unique ability to explain complex detail to clients at any level. Dane was promoted to the company's Principal Accessibility Specialist in 2024 where hee currently serves as the primary interface for teams working on large corporate websites. IAAP/CWPA and CPACC certified, Dane enjoys making accessibility "real" and brainstorming on ways to customize solutions for client projects.