Independent Accessibility Consultant: July 2022-present
Usability-focused education and training
Accessibility operations and programming strategy
Accessibility practitioner coaching and mentoring
Instructor, School of Visual Concepts, Seattle, WA: 2013-2020
2015-2020: Accessibility practice workshops for designers, developers, and product managers, and consultation for accessibility learning in certificate programs
2013-2015: 5-week programming class for designers and non-technical learners, introducing coding best practices and front-end development concepts
Shopify: May 2018-November 2021
Technical Program Manager, Accessibility, for UX Operations: November 2020-November 2021
Led accessibility programming for UX design, content, managers, and leadership
Established and co-led Shopify-wide Accessibility Guild to highlight teams' work
Led efforts to standardize and benchmark accessibility-focused usability testing
Established expectations around accessibility knowledge for UX role leveling
Collaborated with Knowledge Management, Research Operations, and Research & Development Learning to create self-serve, onboarding, and ongoing accessibility education
Evangelized accessibility to UX, Product, Engineering, and Executive Leadership
Accessibility Specialist: May 2018-November 2020
Collaborated with operations, learning, research and tooling teams to establish best practices for accessibility training, testing, and workflows
Co-designed Accessibility Handbook
Managed projects and communications with accessibility vendors for system-wide audits
Created best practices for accessibility testing and wrote accessibility documentation for the Polaris design system
Accessibility Consultant, Simply Accessible/Level Access: September 2015-April 2018
Testing, training, and consulting on web and app accessibility with a focus on usable, platform-agnostic, multi-channel experiences
Collaboration with clients in ecommerce, non-profit, banking, and travel sectors to build strategy around sustainable accessibility programs
Built out core accessibility engineering team, testing practices, and training materials within a global travel company
Provided accessibility reviews and analysis against WCAG 2.0 and best practices, resulting in reports for leadership as well as actionable tasks and training for UX, devs, testers, with a focus on clients in ecommerce and digital media
Web Developer, LexBlog, Seattle WA: 2010-2011
Primary technical consultant for product scope, spec, information architecture, and process documentation
Primary contact point for contract developers
Interface Specialist, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI: 2009-2010
Responsible for user-centered design, UX, IA, full-stack development, user analytics management and analysis in an academic publishing environment
Developed new front-end templates and collaborated with platform developers to improve accessibility and SEO of online books and journals
Cross-department consultant in usability research, accessibility, and web standards
Digital Services Assistant, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI: 2008-2009
Provided technical support of online research and course management tools for business school librarians, faculty, and students
Created IA and UX design for library site relaunch
Analyst and UI Specialist, Washtenaw County Office of Community Development, Ann Arbor, MI: 2006-2008
Provided UI design, business logic, user training, analysis, and reporting for data management systems used by countywide homeless, housing, and supportive services
Hired based on graduate research work in human services systems
Research Support Specialist, University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women, Ann Arbor, MI: 2004-2006
Defined custom metadata schema and wrote support documentation for a grant-funded digital repository of primary and secondary research materials
Provided research support and library resource management for sociological research on work/life balance and work/education counseling
Education
MS in Information, University of Michigan, School of Information: 2004-2006
Library & Information Services specialization, with additional focus on human/computer interaction and policy for information management for the public good
Special projects in human services systems to support homeless community members
BA in Creative Writing, Susquehanna University: 2000-2004
2001-2004 University Assistant to the Library, developing a comprehensive undergraduate orientation program in research methods and library literacy
2004 fiction editor of the national student magazine Susquehanna Review
2003 winner of the Juliet Gibson Prize for best student fiction