Accessibility Explored

Mr. Brendan Spillane (Managing Director)

ilikecake.net

Brendan Spillane is the MD and co-founder of ilikecake limited.

Brendan gave up a place in DIT to study and successfully complete a course in Computer Game Design and Interactive Entertainment in Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE). At the time this was one of just 7 courses of this type worldwide and the only one of its type in Ireland.

Following this course he went on to complete a diploma in Multimedia in BCFE, before transferring to Napier University Edinburgh where he completed his degree in Multimedia Technologies with Distinction. He also obtained the Class Medal.

When Brendan returned to Ireland he co-founded his own company ilikecake limited. His original role in the company was a designer and developer for 4-7 contracts under his control at any time, but due to the phenomenal growth the company has experienced in the past two years his role has now changed to project management of more than 15 + websites at any one time.

Brendan also plays a role in the consultancy work the business does in the areas of accessibility awareness, best-case solutions and problem workaround.

Brendan is a member of IRL-DeAN the Irish Design for all eAccessibility Network, he is also a member of E - DeAN the European Design for all eAccessibility Network.

Mr. Michael Clyne (Interactive Web Specialist)

ReachServices.ie

Michael, has been working as a Web Usability Expert Consultant in Designing, Redesigning and Reengineering Online Services over the past 10 years.  Over the past 2 years, Clyne has been working closely with the Irish eGovernment Public Services Broker (www.reachservices.ie) with a remit to make this online service more usable and accessible for all. Previously, Michael was responsible for the successful delivery of the online products database service for people for aging and disability - www.assistireland.ie, which won the Irish eGovernment Award for Best Accessible Service in 2005.

Prior to this, Michael has worked in industries as diverse as Telecommunications, FMCG, Broadcast Television and eLearning delivering highend Interactive Digital Multimedia, Internet Information Architecture and User Interface Design solutions for Lucent Technologies Worldwide, Eircom, Citizens Information Board, Unilever, Oniva, RTE and Reebok.

Michael has presented at several seminars, conferences and published articles on Best Practice in Embracing the Digital Evolution and Designing Web Online Services. He holds a BA in Information, Communications and Technology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Ma, USA and a post grad diploma in Business and Enterprise from Dublin Institute of Technology (D.I.T.).

Mr. Joshue O'Connor (Senior Accessibility Consultant)

NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology (CFIT)

Joshue O Connor is Senior Accessibility Consultant with CFIT (Centre For Inclusive Technology).

CFIT is an integrated unit of the NCBI (National Council For The Blind of Ireland) and is a not-for-profit organisation that provides expert advice and services to public and private sector organisations. These services include user testing, accessibility auditing and training.

Josh is skilled in the design and development of accessible websites/applications and he has a deep understanding of the diversity of user requirements. When not running user tests, doing accessibility audits or advocating for accessibility and Web Standards he puts his spare cycles to writing and research. Josh has written several research papers on topics relating to accessibility and web development and his first book on creating accessible content with the open source CMS Joomla is now available.

Joshue is also an active member of the W3C HTML 5 Working Group and the Protocols and Formats Working Group.

Mr. Nigel Cunningham (Business Development Manager)

Browsealoud

Nigel has worked in various sales and marketing positions for 8 years, 6 of which have been B2B roles in the ICT sector.

Responsible for Business Development of the Browsealoud product in Scotland and Ireland, he has a BA Hons in European Business Studies and a Postgraduate Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Ms. Aisling McMahon (Senior Project Manager)

Strata3

Aisling is a senior project manager with over seven years experience in delivering enterprise level content managed sites. Since joining Strata3, Aisling has worked on a range of large site deployments such as Bord Gais, Irish League of Credit Unions and Halifax.

Before joining Strata3, Aisling worked as a project manager for Dialogue Communications where she was responsible for managing the Microsoft Ireland subsidary website.

Aisling has a BA Int. from UCD in History of Art and French and a Graduate Diploma in Information Technology from Dublin City University.  She also is a certified PRINCE 2 Practitioner.