Cynthia Waddell

Cynthia Waddell currently serves as the Executive Director of the International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI) and combines her expertise in disability rights law, public policy and technology to lead ICDRI’s Accessibility Oversight Consulting Services for government, university and private sector clients. ICDRI’s mission is to increase opportunities for people with disabilities by identifying barriers to participation and promoting best practices and universal design of technology for the global community.

Cynthia Waddell is also a Lecturer in Law and holds a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law. She was designated a Public Interest Disability Rights Scholar and a Dan Bradley Fellow for the Employment Law Center in San Francisco, California.

In the world of accessibility, Cynthia Waddell is an internationally recognized expert in the field of electronic and information technology as well as employment and construction. She is the author of the first accessible web design standard in the United States in 1995 that led to recognition as a best practice by the federal government and contributed to the eventual passage of legislation for Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards.

A collection of her papers are posted on her website at http://www.icdri.org.

She is co-author of Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance (Apress 2006) which includes the first global survey of laws and policies in countries addressing accessible web design.

The free CynthiaSays™ web accessibility tool and portal was named after her and endorsed by the American Council of the Blind. The CynthiaSays™ portal at http://www.cynthiasays.com is a joint educational project of ICDRI, The Internet Society Disability and Special Needs Chapter, and HiSoftware. The tool enables web developers to post content on the web that is accessible to assistive computer technology utilized by people with disabilities as well as alternate Internet access devices such as cell phones, palm pilots and personal digital assistants.

Selected Awards

• 2004 State of Florida Davis Productivity Award for Partnership Category with Governor Jeb Bush’s ADA Working Group
• 2003 Government Technology Inaugural Award for Leadership in Accessible Technology and for Pioneering Advocacy and Education
• 1998 “Top 25 Women on the Web” by Webgirls, International
• 1997 Helen Putnam Grand Prize for Excellence by the California League of Cities for the development of the City of San Jose Accessible Web Design Standard

Abstract of her keynote address for the T4P conference.

See her presentation about Technology Crossroad-ICT Barriers or eInclusion?