Student Academy: Careers in Accessibility Panel
Teach Access Student Academy
Join Teach Access for a Free two-day Virtual Workshop on Accessibility on February 20th-21st, 2025. Individual sessions will occur from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM ET (8:00 AM to 2:00 PM PT)!
All students are welcome to attend. Whether you are enrolled in a college or university or are a lifelong learner, this workshop will increase your knowledge about accessibility. Learn practical accessibility skills that can be applied to your projects and gain the confidence to have impactful conversations that inspire others to prioritize inclusion.
Learn more and register here: https://www.teachaccess.org/student-programs/
Careers in Accessibility Panel
In the Teach Access Student Academy Careers in Accessibility Panel, you will hear from accessibility professionals currently working in the field. The panelists will share how they got started in accessibility, what they have learned along the way, the challenges they have faced, and advice they have for those interested in working in accessibility.
Panel Moderator:
- Meena Das, Software Engineer, Microsoft
Panelists:
- Fred Moltz, Chief Accessibility Officer, Verizon
- Laura Allen, Director, Google Accessibility & Disability Inclusion
- Lucia Rios, Workforce Navigators Program Associate, Salesforce
- Rob Haverty, Manager of Product Management, Adobe Accessibility
Panelist Biographies
About Meena Das
Meenakshi ‘Meena’ Das is a software engineer at Microsoft working on building accessible frontend experiences. Through her accessibility expertise she has advised several individuals and organizations on how to make their products accessible to people with disabilities. She is the founder of ‘Working with Disabilities’ support group for working professionals with disabilities which has over 3000+ members on social media. For her tech inclusion work, she was inducted into the National Susan M. Daniels National Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, named a DO-IT Trailblazer for changing the way the world views people with disabilities, and recently awarded the Disability:IN NextGen Leader of the Year. In addition to serving on the Teach Access Board, she is also a member of the Accessibility Leadership Committee and the NextGen Council of a non-profit organization named Disability:IN, and has been featured by the Times of India, ABC News, CNET, Forbes and Tech Times for her views on disability inclusion in tech. You can follow her on Instagram where she shares Accessibility tidbits and experiences from her personal life.
About Fred Moltz
Fred’s experience includes over 22 years at Verizon in multiple strategic roles, including the last 7 years building Verizon’s Accessibility Program from the ground up. Fred’s mission is to provide continued leadership that incorporates Accessibility by Design in all aspects of Verizon that will provide exceptional experiences for all Employees and Customers. Fred and his team work daily to “Engage Everyone and Re-imagine Accessibility.”
About Laura Allen
Laura Allen serves as Director for Accessibility & Disability Inclusion at Google, within Google’s centralized Products for All team. Laura and her team drive internal and external facing programs across the world, and work cross-functionally across teams to improve the accessibility and usability of Google products and processes, also making Google a more accessible and equitable place for people with disabilities. In addition to her core role, Laura is the Global President of the Disability Alliance Employee Resource Group. Due to her personal experience with low vision, she believes that technology has more power now than ever to transform lives, and progressing accessibility and disability inclusion is her true passion and purpose.
Laura also represents Google in the Teach Access organization, where various technology companies, higher education institutions, and disability advocacy organizations come together to drive the inclusion of accessibility in core computer science, design, human centered interaction programs, and other key disciplines to close the accessibility skills gap. Since 2020, she has served as the Chair of the Teach Access Board of Directors. Since 2017, Laura has also served on the board of directors for the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and completed a 4-year term on the board of the Alphapointe Foundation, an organization centered around empowering individuals who are visually impaired to achieve their goals and aspirations. Since 2023, Laura has also served on the board of inABLE Africa, an organization striving to empower people with disabilities across Kenya and beyond.
About Lucia Rios
Lucia’s life in college and over a 20-year working career has included giving a voice to and empowering those with disabilities. During her 15 years as a staff member at the Center for Independent Living in West Michigan, she helped businesses identify ways to become accessible and instructed young adults as they transitioned from school to career. As a journalist, Lucia’s writing focuses on disability issues, including living with her lifelong disability. She mentors the next generation of advocates and serves on several local boards. Lucia removes barriers and creates access through her presence, voice, and activism, which includes her current work in Workforce Navigators in the Office of Accessibility at Salesforce.
About Rob Haverty
Rob Haverty is a Manager of Product Management on the corporate Accessibility team at Adobe with a
focus product accessibility and public policy, standards, and regulations. With more than 25 years of
accessibility experience Rob as has been involved in many facets of accessibility including testing, design,
product development, technical evangelism, and policy and standards development. Rob has presented
at conferences world-wide and has been involved in international accessibility projects such as the
UNESCO Inclusive Classroom Project. Prior to coming to Adobe Rob was engaged in accessibility work at
Microsoft. He is now managing the product managers on the Adobe corporate accessibility team
focused on Adobe’s Digital Media products. Previously his focus at Adobe was on PDF accessibility with
the goal of making it easier to create accessible PDF documents. He frequently provided training on
using Acrobat Pro DC to create accessible PDFs.
