Why GAAD Foundation?
In 2012, Joe Devon and Jennison Asuncion teamed up and launched Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Read the blog post that started it all. With 2021 marking GAAD’s tenth anniversary, it only made sense that a foundation, to harness the energy of GAAD, take shape.
Mission
The foundation’s mission is simple: to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement.
Vision
Accessibility is built into the product development lifecycle for technology and digital products.
Meet the GAAD Foundation Leadership
Joe Devon Chair
Joe is a serial entrepreneur who has been fostering the growth of the Los Angeles tech ecosystem since 2008. His experience includes co-founder at Diamond, an inclusive digital agency and co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). In 2019 Joe and the Diamond team launched their first State of Accessibility Report. When Joe is not solving technology challenges for major organizations, you can find him on stage influencing every developer and corporation to build their digital products with inclusive design in mind.
Jennison AsuncionVice Chair
Jennison has worked in the digital accessibility industry since 2006, starting on RBC’s IT Accessibility Team in Toronto. Currently, he is LinkedIn’s Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism. In addition to co-founding Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Jennison founded the Bay Area Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup group and the free annual Accessibility Camp Bay Area. Since 1999, he has been co-directing the Adaptech Research Network in Canada. He sits on the Boards of Directors for the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired San Francisco, Knowbility, and Accessible Media Inc.
Mindy MorganSecretary
Mindy has over a decade of web development experience, which includes working on the AmericanIdol.com and Fox.com teams; seven years at Diamond where she worked on Simpsons World, TaylorMade, FX Networks; voting apps for The Voice, NBA, and America’s Got Talent, among other properties. Mindy designed the Global Accessibility Awareness Day logo that has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and news shows all around the globe. She now serves as the Sr. Coordinator for the GAAD Foundation.
Chris GaulinTreasurer
Chris Gaulin is a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in the digital accessibility space. He regularly brings his experience in digital accessibility, communication technologies, education, and e-learning to government agencies and organizations of all sizes. Having organized over 40 conferences, Chris volunteers his skills in planning and logistics to accessibility events and is one of the lead organizers of the largest group of digital accessibility practitioners in the world. He has extensive experience with managing not-for-profit organizations, stemming from numerous roles with Canadian charitable organizations.
Christopher Patnoe
Christopher Patnoe is the Head of Accessibility and Disability Inclusion for EMEA for Google. He has more than 20 years experience in tech working at companies like Apple, Sony Ericsson and Disney where he’s built hardware, software, and services. His current passion is Accessibility at the intersection of immersive technologies (AR/VR) and consumer hardware. He is the chair for the Immersive Captions Community Group with the W3C, is a co-Chair of the XR Association Accessibility Working Group, and sits on the Board of Trustees for the American Foundation for the Blind and the GAAD Foundation.
Nadya Ichinomiya
Nadya serves as an Executive Director at Sony Pictures in the role of Head, Agile Center of Excellence, working with teams, executives, and the C-suite to improve their speed of execution in an industry tackling vast amounts of disruption. After starting her career at IBM in sales and management, at age 27, she became Vice President of Electronic Data Systems in Frankfurt as the highest-ranking woman in the region and youngest VP in an enterprise of 117,000 employees. Nadya co-founded the Women In Technology: Hollywood organization (WiTH) and serves as chairwoman.
Lori H. Schwartz
As a leading advisor and speaker in marketing and tech innovation, Lori collaborates with top creative and strategic executives to ensure their understanding of emerging business models while designing unique experiences to create engagement. She is a CNN Technology Contributor and sits on the Board of Governors for the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group. Lori’s StoryTech initiative curates trends briefings, show floor tours and unique exhibitor discussions at major events such as CES, NAB, NATPE and IBC to name a few. She launched Digital Hollywood’s “Women’s Entertainment & Technology Mentor Program” and is a recipient of the Lucy Hood Digerati Award.
