Biographies
DAVID BAQUIS - US ACCESS BOARD
DR. DAVID BOLNICK - TAG
FRED DIFIORE - US PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
HARLEY THOMAS - PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA
JANINA SAJKA - AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND
JUNE PERRITT – IBM
LESLEY FIELD - OFFICE OF FEDERAL PROCUREMENT POLICY
MARTI MCCULLER - AGASSA NET TECHNOLOGIES INC.
RANDY MARSDEN - MADENTEC
REX LINT - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
SHON SALIGA - IBM
TIM CREAGAN - SHHH
David Baquis works as an Accessibility Specialist in the Access Board's Office of Technical and Information Services. The Access Board is an independent Federal agency that promotes accessibility for persons with disabilities and was authorized under the Rehabilitation Act to write the Standard for Section 508. Mr. Baquis delivers presentations on electronic and information technology; writes technical assistance guides and responds to public inquiries on Section 508. David comes to the Access Board from SHHH (Self Help for Hard of Hearing People) where he served as Director of the National Center on Assistive Technology. Prior to that, he was Assistant Director of the Tele-Consumer Hotline where he managed their Disability Access Program specializing in telecommunications consumer information. Mr. Baquis holds a bachelor degree in psychology from the University of Maryland and a Certificate in Assistive Technology Applications from California State University. He serves on numerous disability boards and advisory councils. He is a member of the National Association of Rehabilitation Instructors, National Task Force on Disability, and was recently inducted into the National Hall of Fame for Persons with Disabilities.
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Dr. Bolnick is the Executive Director of The Accessibility Group (TAG) and Laboratories (www.taglabs.org/taglabs.htm). TAG, the brainchild of five leaders in the accessibility community, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the proposition that all electronic and information technology (EIT) should be accessible to and useable by all people, including those with disabilities. Making technology available and accessible to those who need it - especially people with disabilities - is Dr. Bolnick's personal mission. During Bolnick's ten-plus years at Microsoft, he reached and surpassed many milestones on the road to universal accessible technology. Among his contributions, he testified before the U.S. Senate and the Federal Communications Commission, and served on federal committees responsible for compliance with new technology legislation including the U.S. Access Board's Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee (www.access-board.gov). He produced the successful "Unlocking the Possibilities" project for government IT personnel and their contractors, at Highway 1. Dr. Bolnick has ghost-written numerous speeches, articles, and selected chapters in "The Windows Interface; An Application Design Guide." Prior to joining the Accessibility & Disabilities Group, Bolnick developed expertise in human-technology interface in two other significant positions at Microsoft: as the Database Administrator managing the entire Windows support database; and as a Program Manager in Microsoft's User Interface Architecture and Advanced Windows teams responsible for the redesign of Windows (for which he holds several patents). Bolnick co-produced the award winning documentary: "ENABLE: People with Disabilities and Computers." Bolnick's contributions to the field have been recognized by numerous achievement awards including Vice President Gore's Hammer Award, Easter Seals' Special EDI Award, United Nations Outstanding Achievement Award, among others. Dr. Bolnick is a visiting scholar at the University of Washington. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1990, Bolnick was a Research Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. in Physiology in 1984 from the University of California - Davis for his research in visual processing.
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Mr. Difiore is the Section 508 Coordinator for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where he has served for the past 11 years. His principle responsibilities there include Information Technology and the acquisition of Information Technology. The USPTO Section 508 Program was considered a best practice by the Department of Commerce. Mr. Difiore is a retired Army officer, the author of a book on implementing office IT environments, and has taught Information Technology courses at four colleges and universities. Mr. Difiore holds an MBA from Boston University and a Masters Certificate in Project Management from G.W.
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Mr. Harley is a veteran of twenty years military service in the United States Navy. During his military career, he spent a tour in Japan and in 1967 served in Vietnam with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One, (VQ1). In 1968, Harley served aboard the USS Piedmont, AD-17 in support of fleet operations in Vietnam. Harley spent his final tour in the service with the Defense Communications Agency in Reston, VA, where he retired Chief Data Processing Technician in February 1976. Following his military career, Harley was employed as a Senior System Analyst and MIS Director in the private sector from 1976 through 1996. He was involved in a motorcycle accident in 1982 which left him a T-5 Para. In 1987 Harley co-founded “Colorado Sports For The Physically Challenged, Inc”, (CSPC) and served as President, from 1987 to 1997. CSPC is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, dedicated to the promotion of wheelchair athletics, both recreational and competitive, for junior and adult physically challenged individuals.
In the early 90’s Harley served as President of the Mountain States Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. He served as the (Denver, CO) President and was a member of the National PVA Board of Directors from 1994 to 1996. In 1996, Colorado’s Governor Roy Romer appointed Harley to serve on the State Wide Independent Living Council (SILC). He was also on the Board of Directors of the “Denver Foundation”. In June of 1996, Harley became the Executive Director of Mountain States Chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America. He currently serves on the PVA Education and Training Foundation (ETF), Board of Directors and is a former member of the President's Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities, SODV sub-committee.
Harley holds a degree in business from the University of Virginia. He has been employed by Paralyzed Veterans of America, National Office since September 1997, as Associate Legislative Director and most recently with the Health Policy Department as Health Policy Analyst.
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Ms. Janina Sajka is representing the American Foundation for the Blind in key technology standards processes within industry and government world wide; providing consultative support and expertise to government, industry and the NGO sector regarding emerging information systems and access technologies including electronic book, web-based, IVR.
Ms. Sajka is AFB's Primary Representative to:
- Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF), and Chair, OEBF Accessibility SIG; http://www.openebook.org
- DAISY Consortium; http://www.daisy.org
She represented U.S. Government's Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee (EITAAC) of which prepared recommendations to the Government regarding implementation of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended in 1998
Ms. Sajka's career focus shifted to computer technology and disability advocacy in the mid-1980s as a response to her diminishing vision and loss of access to printed information. Trained as a concert pianist and composer of electronic music, she has recorded and performed repertory ranging from classical piano literature to contemporary Gospel. She received her B.A. in Music from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, 1973. She has additional training in music and in computer science from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; University of California, Berkeley; and San Francisco State University.
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Senior Software Engineer in the Accessibility Center, IBM Research Division. June has 25 years in software design, development and test in the areas of kernel and device driver development. She joined the IBM Accessibility Center several years ago. She is apart of a team working to make all IBM products accessible to the disabled and to provide Assistive Technology products by providing guidance to IBM hardware and software designers, developers, and testers regarding how to make our products Accessible. Miss Perritt also supports education of the marketing teams and educational teams regarding accessibility.
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Lesley A. Field is a procurement policy analyst in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget, focusing on implementation of a variety of acquisition programs including the acquisition of accessible technology and the implementation of Section 508. She is the chair of the Section 508 Working Group, which supports the 508 Steering Committee and facilitates a common understanding of the scope and potential of Section 508.
Prior to joining the staff of the Executive Office of the President, Lesley worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation from 1990-2000 as a contracting officer, program analyst, and procurement policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary. She was primarily responsible for implementation of electronic commerce initiatives and acquisition workforce education and training policies. She joined DOT as a management intern specializing in acquisition.
Lesley received her Bachelor of Science in Commerce from the University of Virginia in 1990, and her Master’s in Public Administration from Virginia Tech in 1998. In 2000, she received the Secretary of Transportation’s Gold Medal Award and the Secretary’s Find the Good and Praise it Award.
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Marti McCuller is Chief Executive Officer of Agassa Net Technologies Inc., founded in 1998. Marti and her company first gained national exposure in 1999 when the New York Times featured her in its Technology section, discussing her development of the popular "SETI-search" search engine, and how it enables disabled Internet users around the globe to efficiently search the Web. Marti has been invited to speak at many forums on Internet accessibility issues, and was an invited guest speaker at the National Convention of the American Council for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky the first week of July 2000.
Marti is an active and participating member of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG). She also serves on the Governors Council on Disability Policy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, advising the council on IT/Web technology legislation and statewide assistive technology implementation issues.
Prior to forming her own computer security consulting company, M3 Inc., in the early 1990's, Marti was the Senior Security Engineer for CompuSec Inc, a computer security consulting company providing technical consulting services to the United States Air Force, and an Engineering Scientist with RCA Automated Systems World Wide, developing and testing the first tactical US Army division-level Command, Control and Communications system to be deployed in Europe.
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Randy Marsden attended the University of Alberta, where he started his company after achieving international recognition for a project he did as an Electrical Engineering student. The project allowed his friend, who was paralyzed and couldn’t speak, to communicate better with those around him.
Randy commenced work at Madenta (now called Madentec) immediately upon finishing his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (co-op stream) in 1989, where he continues to serve as President and CEO. He has presented numerous papers on the subject of accessibility in the home, workplace, and learning environments.
Randy has received numerous awards, appeared in the media, and served on many industry boards and steering committees and is a recognized leader in the field of Assistive Technology.
Notable awards and positions:
- Vice President of the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA)
- Key disabilities solutions consultant to Apple, Microsoft, and Muhammad Ali
- Invited by Bill Gates to represent disabilities community at Microsoft’s Innovation Day, 1998
- Chair, ATIA Conference 2001
- Co-Chair, ATIA Conference 1999
- Recipient of CIPS Award (Canadian Information Processing Society 1999
- Board member of the ATIA (Assistive Technology Industry Association) 1998 - Present
- Canada National IWAY Award 1998
- Provincial ASTEC Award (Alberta Science & Technology) 1996
- Provincial Export Award (Alberta Business) 1995
- Industrial Design Magazine Award 1995
- Early Achievement Award – APEGGA (Professional Engineers) 1995
- President – Electronics Industry Association of Alberta 1993
- Walter Dinsdale National Award 1993
- IEEE Life Member Award 1990
- Canadian Engineering Competition: 2nd place (1988), 1st place (1989)
Randy resides in Edmonton, Alberta, with his wife and four children. He actively participates in recreational sports, music, coaching baseball and basketball at the community level, and church activities. Randy also lived in Japan for 2 years and speaks Japanese fluently.
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Rex Lint chairs the Section 508 Working Group of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). He's a member of the Board of Directors for the Software Division of ITAA. In this capacity, he was the principal author industry’s comment to the Access Board on the NPRM for the 508 Accessibility Standards.
Mr. Lint left the IT industry to pursue independent consulting in the area of Information Technology Accessibility for People with Disabilities. His work in this area has included assisting the USPS in integrating 508 into their infrastructure, assessing product accessibility provisions for firms selling IT to the government, and surveying industry for training needs in product accessibility topics.
Originally from California, Mr. Lint graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Industrial Engineering, was employed by NASA when it was fun, managed the word processing software engineering organization at Digital Equipment Corporation, was technical director of the Digital's Entertainment Business Unit, and served Compaq Computer Corporation as a senior member of their Industry Standards and Consortia group. His areas of concentration in the past few years have been Y2K, accessibility to IT for people with disabilities, and Information Technology in minority-serving educational institutions.
His literary efforts have included co-authoring an article in the Bureau of National Affairs Federal Contracts Report "Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act," published in May, 2000. Other articles have included "Technology Standards to Address Those With Disabilities," in the Open Systems Standards Tracking Report, and "Access to Computing for People with Disabilities," ISAC News.
Mr. Lint is an extra class ham radio operator licensed since he was 11 years old (before you were born), an instrument-rated pilot, husband to a lawyer and father to a keystone ski patroller and 2 teenage girls from Ethiopia he adopted 4 years ago.
He makes his home in New Hampshire and on Cape Cod, and he's left-handed.
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Shon joined the IBM Personal Computer Software development team in Boca Raton, Florida in 1981 when IBM introduced the Personal Computer (PC). He participated as a programmer, architect and project manager in the development and delivery of over 30 different PC based software products including EasyWriter, The IBM Assistant Series, BPI/Peachtree Accounting Series and the IBM Doctor's Office Manager. In 1988, Shon joined the IBM Disk Operating System organization as a lead architect. In mid-1988, he co-authored and published the first of five technical books on the development of applications on the PC through a New York based publisher, John Wiley and Sons. In 1989, he was appointed to the position of the IBM DOS Product Manager and led a team of developers with the mission to deliver new versions of IBM DOS. In 1990, Shon was assigned to a position as the Development Manager for IBM MultiMedia Software Products. Later that year, he was asked to manage the development and delivery of IBM's Operating System/2 products. During the next few years, Shon led the efforts of more than 500 developers in the design and implementation of OS/2 2.0 and 2.1. These products won more than 75 industry awards and found their way into numerous mission critical environments where they still function today.
In 1994, Shon moved with IBM to Austin, Texas where he managed the integration of more than 70 different IBM Middleware products into seven Software Server packages on three different platforms and 11 different languages around the world. In 1996, Shon was appointed to an executive position as the Director of Integrated Software and was responsible for the execution and delivery of the IBM Software Servers and related e-business products series. In 1998, Shon moved to IBM's headquarters in Somers, New York as the Director of Operations for the Pervasive Computing (PvC) Group and participated in establishing IBM's PvC mission, organization, and development plans. In 1999, he returned to Austin, Texas as the Director of Strategy for the pSeries product line, including the pSeries Portfolio Management and Competitive Analysis functions. In October 2001, Shon was appointed to head the IBM's worldwide
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Mr. Tim Creagan has been a litigator for fifteen years in the courts of the District of Columbia and Maryland at the trial through appellate levels. He is also a member of the bar of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Creagan has a lifetime of living with hearing loss. As part of his advocacy efforts, Mr. Creagan has written for publication on advocacy issues for people with hearing loss, spoken extensively and given trainings on issues of importance at the federal and state level to people with hearing loss, legislators and staff and members of the community. He has also testified before state legislatures and federal agencies on the importance of hearing aids and assistive technology to people with hearing loss.
As Director of Public Policy, Mr. Creagan participates on many boards on behalf of SHHH. He serves on the following boards and coalitions:
- Co-chair of Council for Organizational Representatives (COR)
- Vice Chair of Coalition for Movie Captioning (CMC)
- Appointed Member of the Maryland Board of Examiners for Audiologists, Hearing Aid Dispensers and Speech-Language Pathologists.
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