I am an anti-ableist accessibility professional and educator, living and thriving with several non-apparent disabilities, and diligently working to ensure the idea of “belonging” includes the disabled community. My journey to anti-ableism work and accessibility has been long and winding. Ultimately, as a person with disabilities surrounded by the disability community, it is no surprise disability, accessibility, and inclusion work are at the core of my profession.
I started my journey as a musical theatre major, but ultimately obtained graduate degrees in Deaf Education, Speech-Language Pathology, Assistive Technology, and Business Administration (focused on Human Resources and Change Management). After holding various roles over the past 18+ years in early intervention, K-12, community transition, sub-acute rehabilitation, and higher education, I joined McDonald’s Corporation as the Director of UX overseeing Global Accessibility, Research, Design, and Design System. Now, at ADP, I have the honor of building a stellar central Accessibility Team to enable our product, design, and development teams (and more) build inclusive, accessible, user-centered products and services.
Although my work is often technical, the majority focuses on unpacking implicit disability bias and anti-ableism through education. I am strongly guided by the idea “when we know better (even if it’s uncomfortable), it’s our opportunity to do better”.
To decompress and regroup, I love hiking, bicycling, and traveling with my husband, pottery, painting, photography, live music, and snuggling her two black cats (Ellum & Silhouette “Silly”) and Australian cattle dog (Ollie).
Read more about Kelsey’s talk here: “Navigating the Accessibility Iceberg: Approaches for Organizational Accessibility Excellence”