Accessibility in Industry: MIDA Panel

Angela Lean is Microsoft’s Senior Business Program Lead for Accessible Employee Experience as well as the global co-chair of their Families Employee Resource Group. A graduate of Yale University and NYU’s Stern School of Business, she has been at Microsoft for over 14 years and previously worked at T-Mobile, J. P. Morgan Chase, and American Express. Angela also chairs NYC’s Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion Advisory Council and serves as an advisor to The Huddle for Families, a non-profit dedicated to helping parents and educators advocating for kids with disabilities. She is mom to Luke (21) and Sofia(17), and lives in New York City.

Mark Barlet is a pioneering advocate for disability inclusion and accessibility. He is the founder of AbleGamers, a nonprofit dedicated to using the power of play to combat social isolation for people with disabilities, and the co-founder of AccessForge, a consulting firm that partners with industries to create accessible experiences in gaming, travel, banking, and beyond. A service-disabled Air Force veteran, Mark brings over two decades of leadership at the intersection of technology, accessibility, and social impact.

Corbb O’Connor is Director of Accessibility Advocacy at Level Access. A hands-down nerd, Corbb taught himself HTML, CSS, PHP, and mySQL alongside Adobe Photoshop to build a resource for webmasters in 1998. JustForWebmasters.com died a long time ago, but he’s still building. He started a B2B communications firm by mistake, kicked off U.S. Bank’s accessibility initiative, and mentored salespeople into certified accessibility testers. He was appointed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to a statewide council overseeing the State Services for the Blind and has twice been elected its chairman. A Chicago native, recovering journalist, amateur radio operator, and occasional cowboy, Corbb has a question for any occasion.