Accessibility expertise grounded in real-world experience.

My path into accessibility wasn’t exactly planned.

I spent years working in functional software testing when my manager sent me to Section 508 training. After completing the training and earning my first DHS Trusted Tester certification, I was thrown into the work on the job.

Fortunately, I wasn’t doing it alone. The Section 508 practitioners around me shared an enormous amount of practical knowledge and real-world experience—knowledge that isn’t always available to testers when they’re learning the work on their own. Their support helped me navigate those early years and gave me the foundation I needed to grow into the accessibility professional I am today.

Those early experiences also taught me something about the kind of professional I wanted to be.

Working as a 508 tester on development teams often meant being the only accessibility tester supporting multiple development efforts. We had to make decisions, ask questions, and navigate challenges while learning a relatively specialized discipline in real time. When the people we were supposed to turn to for support approached that relationship as adversarial rather than collaborative, asking for help became something to fear rather than something to value.

That experience stayed with me.

Today, I approach accessibility work differently. I believe expertise should make it easier—not harder—for people to ask questions, understand what they’re doing, and improve their work. Whether I’m supporting a team member or advising a client, my goal is to provide rigorous accessibility guidance without making people feel talked down to or afraid of getting something wrong.