This page tells you about the associates from around the world who are part of Accessible Arabia
David Banes
Director of David Banes Access and Inclusion Services and was formerly CEO, at Mada the Qatar Assistive Technology and Accessibility Center based in Doha where he has been based worked in Doha for the past six years. He was responsible for developing services to ensure that people with a disability in Qatar are digitally included, and is currently focused on the broad policy framework required to ensure and sustain this.
Prior to taking up his post in Qatar, he worked as a teacher of children with special needs and principal of a major special school before working in the realm of digital Inclusion in the UK and Europe as Director of Operations and Development for a UK NGO.
Mada offers a single point of co-ordination for all activities related to digital and eInclusion in Qatar. Increasingly the centre is also seeking to influence the emerging Access ecosystem in the region promoting cooperation between states and supports the development of assistive technology solutions and digital content that meet the needs of Arabic speaking people with a disability.
His recent work has focused on the development of a framework for the contextualization of assistive technologies, guidance for the transference of knowledge and skills across communities and developing a policy framework to protect the rights of people with a disability in Qatar.
Mike Marotta, ATP
is the owner of Inclusive Technology Solutions, LLC. Mike has been the field of Assistive Technology for over 25 years and his experience revolves around a vast array of accommodations for persons with disabilities and their family/support members. Mike believes that networking and information sharing are essential for successful evaluation, consideration, implementation and application of assistive technology.
Mike has served as a statewide resource on assistive technology in New Jersey and has coordinated information repositories, online resources, wikisites, blogs, podcast pages, and other internet based resources to enable easy access to correct and updated information on a timely basis to customers and stakeholders of assistive technology, in order to foster the development of an AT community and facilitate knowledge transfer.
The other area of expertise that Mike provides within the field of Assistive Technology is in training and program development. Mike was a key component in the development, delivery and success of the Assistive Technology Applications Certificate Program (ATACP) through California State University, Northridge. This 100 hour blended learning certificate course has over 3000 graduates that are now providing Assistive Technology services in a variety of settings both nationally and internationally. Mike was also part of the team that modified and delivered this training program internationally in Ireland and in 2015 delivered a two-day Assistive Technology Assessment live program to AT service providers in Qatar.
Mike is instrumental in training the next generation of service providers through his work as a college instructor both at the pre-service and graduate level. Mike has been the instructor for SPED410 – Universal Design for Learning and Assistive Technology at Felician College since the Fall of 2008 and also for ATHS-694 – Current and Emerging Topics in AT which was part of the Masters in AT program at California State University, Northridge (CSUN).
Mike is a nationally recognized speaker who has provided training at the local level as well as at the major national Assistive Technology conferences (ATIA, Closing the Gap, RESNA) in all areas of Assistive Technology. For all of these presentations, Mike develops accessible, interactive, Universally Designed, participant driven web experiences to extend the learning well beyond the training session. Not only does Mike deliver trainings at a host of national conferences, he also consults with Assistive Technology manufacturers and delivers accessible, specialized trainings to their customers.
Mike affects change on the field of Assistive Technology and collaborates with technology manufacturers through his work as a Strand Advisor for the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) annual conference. Within the Everyday Technology strand, Mike works to review conference proposals and shape the educational program of this international conference in Assistive Technology. As a content expert, Mike has also provided webinars in the area of Assistive Technology both at a state level and national level (for ATIA, ISTE, AbleNet, Center on Technology and Disability).
Mike is very active in social media (especially Twitter @mmatp) where he uses the platforms to provide just in time professional development training to other professionals. Through his high profile on social media, Mike was selected by Google to be a beta tester for the next generation of Chromebook with added accessibility features for individuals with disabilities. This collaboration with a non-disability entity such as Google will promote the general public’s understanding of disabilities and supports to increase independence for all.
Clayton Keller, Ph.D.
Clay’s 40-year career in special education has included: work as a paraprofessional and teacher for students with emotional and behavioral disorders in the United States; doctoral studies at the University of Virginia; teacher preparation and research at the University of Minnesota Duluth; a 1997 Fulbright Scholar Award in Norway; work for the Minnesota Department of Education supporting state initiatives in the preparation and retention of special education personnel; a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Turkey in 2003 to provide workshops on how to teach inclusion in university courses; and, since Fall 2010, his position as the Coordinator of the Master of Education in Special Education at Qatar University.
Clay served as a member of the Board of Directors of The Council for Exceptional Children from 2009-2011 and in the presidential cycle of CEC’s Division of International Special Education and Services from 2003-2009. In 2008-2009, he chaired the Work Group on CEC’s International Role which was charged with making recommendations on how the organization and its members could engage in collaborative, reciprocal relationships with organizations and special education professionals around the world.
Clay’s work builds capacity at many levels—through the preparation of special education teachers and leaders in the United States and the Middle East, programmatically for preservice preparation and in-service development within and outside of universities, and in policy and advocacy to support teachers who have disabilities. He develops collaborations, particularly between university programs and governmental and non-governmental organizations to support the goals of all partners. And he succeeds internationally, taking the ideas of special education from the world and contextualizing them to develop solutions for particular countries.
Nabil Eid
has a successful record of accomplishment and experience in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility and Assistive Technology solutions for persons with disabilities in the Middle East and North Africa. For over 22 years of research experience in various programs involving user centered experiments and focusing especially on ICT Accessibility and ICT for training and programs for disabilities, building and managing of telecentres for students with disabilities, regional plan and networking for different types of disabilities.He has served as a consultant on Assistive Technology and ICT accessibility in fields of eLearning, inclusion, capacity building and combating poverty, social regulation of ICT and expert on promoting employment for persons with disabilities.
He has served through UN-ESCWA and Telecentre Foundation at the national, regional and global ICT and AT strategic to connect people with disabilities to ICT accessibility to make life easier, smarter and better.
As a consultant in the Middle East Nabil is passionate to:
– Providing, developing, organizing, sharing and disseminating knowledge pertinent to targeted communities for all persons with disabilities in the key areas of Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs-Agenda 2030 by (Telework for employment), (Telecentre for e-Education, Gender, awareness, diversity and e-Health).
– Knowledge sharing – sharing experiences, skills and expertise in ICT accessibility and Assistive Technology.
– Enable the global community of ICT accessibility networks and build capacity to ensure scale and impact of effective solutions and practices, Knowledge Hub for stakeholders, policy-makers and accessibility professionals by providing information, analysis, expertise, and other resources.
– Empower girls and women with disabilities through global digital literacy campaign.
Nabil also contributed in many international initiatives such as ICT accessibility expert in preparing report by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, IDA, ITU, Microsoft, the Telecentre Foundation and UNESCO (The ICT Opportunity for a Disability-Inclusive Development Framework) to a set of indicators to help measure progress towards the achievement of a disability-inclusive post-2015 development agenda and framework. Also worked as expert at the International Telecommunication Union – ITU to carry out the duties regarding the preparation of a manual to guide regional organizations in making their meetings, workshops, trainings, and conferences accessible for persons with disabilities.
Steve Lee
Steve works to develop Open Access Technology as the effective application of open development techniques to Assistive Technology and accessibility. He seeks to apply the benefits open source development techniques to enable everyone with an interest to collaborate on creating new and useful inclusive technologies.
Having many contacts in the accessibility space, Steve is actively involved in the AAATE, ICCHP, Project:Possibility, W3C WAI cognitive accessibility task force, GPII and others. He has organised an ATSummit and several barcamp and hackathon events as well as Project:Possibility SS12 and C4C student coding competitions.
Steve has a broad technical background, from working on mission critical embedded mobile data systems to educational MIS intranet systems, via tax return software and MSN. His more recent development focus is on enabling people with cognitive accessibility or low digital literacy to converse through easily accessed online technologies.
Jennifer Stirling
Jennifer is a consultant Member of National Register of Access Consultants with over 12 years experience specifying and recommending reasonable and practical disability access solutions. She has extensive experience providing access advice on new build projects across the UK, Ireland and further afield in the Middle East, carrying numerous access audits of existing buildings including retail/shopping centres, commercial premises, sports venues, listed/ historically significant buildings, hotels and education facilities. Further to this she provides disability awareness training to staff and service providers.
Within projects her major responsibilities and skills include
- Facilitation of stakeholder consultations/meetings
- Disability awareness training/staff training
- Multidisciplinary design team meetings
- Liaise with local access groups
- External consultation, as required, with professional services (e.g Occupational Therapists)
- Set up and supporting consultation with prospective disabled users
- Provide management advice on practices, policies and procedures to ensure the safety, convenience and dignity of disabled people
- Assessment of proposed facilities, and existing buildings, via both desk top study or site visits
Most recently Jennifer has been working on a project with CH2M HILL to provide access audits of key sites around Doha, this information has been used for research purposes and for the Definitely Able conference earlier in 2015. The continuation of this project will be conducting 50 access audits to be included within the Accessible Qatar App that is currently being developed. The audits will cover key tourist attractions, parks, venues and hotels.
Howard Chambers
Having worked in the disability employment sector for nearly 30 years, Howard has an in-depth knowledge of the Assistive Technology market. As a consultant he is passionate about providing the right tools for those in work who struggle with their condition. Howard assesses and delivers solutions for Visual & Hearing Impairment, Dyslexia and Mobility.