Techshare

Techshare 2007 - Key speakers

Summary: In full conference sessions delegates are invited to gather together to hear from our specially invited speakers.

• Day one
• Day two

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Day one

Key speaker: Axel Leblois, Director, Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ICT)

Axel Leblois is the Director of the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ICT ), a flagship partnership initiative of GAID, the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development. He is also Co-Founder of the Wireless Internet Institute (W2i) and President of World Times, Inc. Most recently, Mr. Leblois was Executive Director of CIFAL Atlanta, a joint initiative between UNITAR and the City of Atlanta, facilitated by Hemisphere, Inc. and W2i.

Axel has served as CEO of ExecuTrain, President and CEO of Bull HN Information Systems, CEO of IDC, and President of Computerworld Communications. He also served as a Director of Wang Laboratories, International Data Group, Peritus Software, Executrain, and PSI Data Systems. Mr. Leblois holds an MBA from INSEAD and is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris.

Key speaker: Rob Sinclair, Director of Accessibility, Microsoft

As Director of Accessibility leading the Microsoft Accessibility Business Unit (ABU), Robert Sinclair is responsible for the company's worldwide accessibility strategy to develop software and devices that make it easier for people to see, hear and use their computers. Sinclair and his team are responsible for all product planning, engineering, documentation, industry collaboration, government affairs and marketing related to accessible technology at Microsoft. The group provides the expertise Microsoft needs to create technology that is more accessible, and makes Windows an outstanding platform that other companies can use to develop accessible products.

Sinclair joined Microsoft in 1997 as a developer support engineer in the Premier Support Group, where he provided technical and business support for some of the company's largest customers. In 1998, he transitioned to the Accessibility Business Unit (ABU) (formerly the Accessible Technology Group) as a program manager. Over the next five years, he held a variety of roles in ABU, eventually becoming group manager in charge of development, testing, and program management. A talented nature and wildlife photographer, Sinclair left ABU in 2004 to join Microsoft's digital photography group, a job that allowed him to combine his personal love of photography with his professional passion for technology. A year later, an opportunity arose to return to ABU as director.

Day two

DAISY Key speaker: Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech and Founder of Bookshare.org

Jim Fruchterman has been a rocket scientist, founded two successful Silicon Valley high tech companies in the 1980s and is now a leading social entrepreneur through his deliberately non-profit technology company, Benetech. Benetech concentrates on applying technology to challenging problems facing our society, including literacy for people with disabilities and human rights monitoring and analysis. Fruchterman has received the 2006 MacArthur Fellowship, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and was named a Schwab Social Entrepreneur of 2003, which has included attending and speaking five times at the World Economic Forums in Davos, Switzerland. Fruchterman believes that technology is the ultimate leveller, allowing disadvantaged people achieve more equality in society.

DAISY Key speaker: George Kerscher, Secretary General, DAISY Consortium

George Kerscher is dedicated to developing technology to make information not only accessible, but fully functional in the hands of persons who are blind and disabled. He himself is blind, and started to develop computer-based information technology in 1987. He has proven to be a tireless advocate of structured markup,

such as XML, in information systems that simultaneously serve both the mainstream population and persons with disabilities.

George Kerscher coined the term "print disabled" to describe people who cannot effectively read print because of a visual, physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive, or learning disability. He believes and advocates that in the Information Age, access to information is a fundamental human right. He also believes that properly designed information systems can make all information accessible to all people, and is working to push the evolving technologies in that direction.

Currently, George Kerscher is Secretary General for the DAISY Consortium, serves on the Board of Directors for the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), Co-chair of the Steering Council of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), and Senior Officer of Accessible Information at Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D in the USA).

Content author: techshare@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 06/03/2008 15:41