Lucy Greco, Web Accessibility Evangelist
Lucy Greco has been blind since birth. She first started using computers in 1985. Lucy has always felt that computers gave her an advantage while in college that many blind people did not have before that. Having a computer throughout college meant that she never had to get an extension on a paper or have somebody else re-write the paper so her professor could read it.
Using various forms of assistive technology (such as a scanner using optical character recognition), Lucy realized the potential for technology to include people with disabilities in everyday activities. Upon graduating from college, instead of continuing her interest in literature and physical therapy, Lucy became an accessible technology specialist.
Since then, people have come to Lucy asking questions, such as:
- How can I experience email as a blind person?
- How can I experience using a word processor as a person who can't use his/her hands?
Lucy’s passion drove her to find the answers to these questions and more. In 2005, Lucy joined the UC Berkeley Disabled Students Program as the Assistive Technology Specialist. For eight years she consulted with hundreds of UC Berkeley students on what the best technology for a person with a disability was and how a person with a disability can use required technology. In 2012, Lucy joined Berkeley IT as the campus Web Accessibility Evangelist, and she leads systemwide efforts for digital accessibility via the Electronic Accessibility Committee (EAC).
Caroline Boyden, Technical Analyst and Accessibility Sleuth
Caroline Boyden has been doing web development, in one form or another, since 1996. She started working at Berkeley in the College of Letters & Science in 2004, and moved to Berkeley IT in 2012. She was a member of the volunteer Web Access working group from its founding in 2005.
Her role during Web Access clinics is to investigate the HTML, Javascript, and CSS code that combines to create the end-user's experience of the page. She also researches and demonstrates accessible development techniques. Other code-related interests include automated testing, Drupal, and mapping.
Caroline coined the term "non-consensual sound" to describe web pages that automatically begin playing sound or video without the user requesting it. In addition to being annoying for many people, this creates a barrier to accessibility because it interferes with screen readers speaking the text of the page.
Anna Gazdowicz, Technical Writer and Tester
Anna has worked for UC Berkeley since 2005, after graduating from UC Santa Cruz. She joined Berkeley IT and the Web Platform Services team in 2013.
She first learned about web accessibility when she attended a Web Access clinic in 2008; having barely learned HTML at that point, it was mind-blowing to listen and observe as a screen reader user navigated a website.
Anna learns more and more about web accessibility on a daily basis as she works with the Web Access team in their efforts to make websites more accessible for everyone.