Judy Brewer

Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Contact Information email: jbrewer AT w3.org phone: +1.617.258.9741 fax: +1.617.258.5999 post: Web Accessibility Initiative, W3C MIT/CSAIL Building 32-G526 32 Vassar Street Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

Bio

Judy Brewer directs the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Since September 1997 she has coordinated five areas of work for W3C with regard to Web accessibility: ensuring that W3C technologies (HTML, CSS, SMIL, XML, etc.) support accessibility; developing accessibility guidelines for Web content, browsers and multimedia players, authoring tools, and XML applications; improving tools for evaluation and repair of Web sites; conducting education and outreach on Web accessibility; and monitoring research and development which may impact future accessibility of the Web.  WAI guidelines developed through this work include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, adopted by an increasing number of governments around the world, and Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines.

Judy is W3C’s chief liaison on accessibility policy and standardization internationally, promoting awareness and implementation of Web accessibility, and ensuring effective dialog among industry, the disability community, accessibility researchers, and government on the development of consensus-based accessibility solutions. She holds a research appointment at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Judy is the recipient of a RESNA Certificate of Appreciation for efforts related to assistive technology policy development during national health care reform; an Equality of Access and Opportunity Award from the American Foundation for the Blind for advocacy to increase the accessibility of the Windows 95 operating system; an Access Advancement Award from the Association of Access Engineering Specialists for efforts related to Web accessibility. She was named in the August, 2000 issue of Internet World as one of the "Net's Rising Stars." She received the Harry J. Murphy Catalyst Award at the CSUN 2002 Conference; the Roland Wagner European Award for Computers Assisting People with Special Needs in 2002; and the Susan G. Hadden Pioneer Award from the Alliance for Public Technology in 2003.

Prior to joining W3C, Judy worked on several US-based initiatives to increase access to mainstream technology for people with disabilities, and to improve dialog between industry and the disability community. These initiatives included work on Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act, Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act, accessibility of the Windows 95 Operating System, and access to durable medical equipment for people with disabilities. Judy has a background in management, technical writing, education, applied linguistics, and disability advocacy.

Last updated 24 October 2008 by Judy Brewer <jbrewer AT w3.org>
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