2025 Talks
This page has information on the ten talks at this year's camp which will give you a feel of what to expect during the day. The schedule is now live.
Accessible Cyber Security
As cybersecurity practices evolve and become more integral to healthcare, finance, and education, an accessibility lens is essential to ensure access and autonomy. In this talk, we’ll discuss how accessibility, usability, privacy, and security interplay as we build with new technologies and strive to protect our systems from malicious actors.
Hosted by: Pam Mayer and Joe Rogers
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Four Common Misconceptions About Digital Accessibility
Join Sruti Vijaykumar, Anthro-Tech's Digital Accessibility Specialist who will debunk common accessibility myths. Using her experience and practical examples with government agencies, Sruti will clarify key issues to prepare your team for success.
Hosted by: Sruti Vijaykumar
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Unlocking Neurodiverse-Friendly Digital Experiences
My partner, Natashia Tjandra, and I have partnered with George Mason University’s Department of Computer Science to pioneer a groundbreaking solution that leverages generative AI (GenAI) to improve digital accessibility. Together, we have developed ten key neurodiversity heuristics designed to guide designers, developers, and organizations in creating more inclusive experiences for neurodivergent users. In this talk, we will walk through the development process behind these heuristics, highlighting the rigorous research, testing, and collaboration that informed our work. We will also demonstrate our innovative GenAI-powered tool that empowers teams of all sizes—from solo designers to large organizations—to evaluate and improve their digital properties using these heuristics. This tool enables users to assess their designs, receive targeted recommendations, and iterate faster and more effectively.
Hosted by: Faith McGee and Natashia Tjandra
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Lessons learned working on drag and drop at GitHub
With WCAG 2.2, the need to create accessible dragging movements is greater than ever. Join accessibility designer Alexis Lucio and accessibility engineer Kendall Gassner as they talk about creating a single and later-multi dimensional accessible drag and drop pattern. Topics include inclusive user research, examples of when to break “best practices”, library functionality, and incremental work.
Hosted by: Kendall Gassner and Alexis Lucio
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See 'n Say, the A11y Way!
Join us for a fun-filled session where Voice Input with AI and a text-customizing Chrome extension team up to make the web easier to talk to, read, and enjoy. Say it out loud, space it out, and see accessibility in action!
Hosted by: Pratik Contractor and Michael Elgo
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Mini Interactive Workshop on Accessibility Advocacy
Join us for a hands-on, interactive mini-workshop packed with creativity and fun! We’ll explore exciting and innovative ways to champion accessibility advocacy in any role, at any level. Get ready to collaborate, learn, and make a real impact in an engaging, inclusive environment!
Hosted by: Nandita Gupta and Rachel Grossman-Kahn
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Designing Inclusion at Scale: The People Side of Accessibility
Behind every accessible experience is a team making it happen. In this session, we’ll dive into the strategy and structure behind building large-scale accessibility design and testing teams. Hear how we approached hiring for values and skill, supported career growth, and created team structures that let inclusive design and engineering thrive — all while keeping pace with organizational growth.
Hosted by: Kevin Kidd
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Developing accessible mobile experiences
Learn about mobile accessibility, common issues, and how to adopt an accessibility-first approach. Discover the power of static code analysis, accessibility tools, automated testing, and AI to efficiently evaluate and track the accessibility of your application.
Hosted by: Cassandra Zuria
Ally Keys
Ally Keys is a mobile keyboard testing solution. It allows people to send keystrokes to mobile devices from their workstation, rather than requiring an additional keyboard. By extension, it allows for simplification of keyboard use and provides interactive cheatsheets for other assistive technologies, such as screen readers and switch controls.
Hosted by: Quintin Balsdon
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Raising the Bar: AIMAC and the Future of Accessible AI Development
As Generative AI rapidly transforms the digital landscape, ensuring accessibility keeps pace has never been more critical. In this talk, GAAD Co-founder Joe Devon will unveil AIMAC (AI Model Accessibility Checker), an innovative open-source framework co-developed with Eamon McErlean of ServiceNow. AIMAC provides rigorous evaluation of coding-focused AI models, measuring their ability to produce accessible code, thereby establishing a shared benchmark for accessibility in GenAI outputs and driving industry-wide accountability. This talk will illuminate the vision and mechanics behind AIMAC, underscoring the urgency of integrating accessibility at the core of AI development.
Hosted by: Joe Devon
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