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GAMA Summit
Presenter Biographies
Joan Francioni
John Gardner
Ameena Ghoston
Lynda Ginsburg
Eric G. Hansen
Steven Landau
Valerie J. Shute
Edith Aurora Graf
Ted Henter
Stephanie Herlich
Bradley A. Hodges
Helene Holman
Benny G. Johnson, Ph.D.
Arthur I. Karshmer
Nancilu McClellan
Caryn Navy
Mark A. Riccobono
Richard L. Schatzberg
David A. Schleppenbach
Dr. Robert Shelton
David A. Skrivanek
Andrew Smith
Dr. Neil Soiffer
Joe Sullivan
Cary Supalo, Ph.D.
Anne Taylor
Joan Francioni
Joan Francioni is a Full Professor and the Chair of Computer Science at Winona State University. She is also the co-director of the CSCAP program - a joint program with St. Mary's University in Winona that is working on Computer Science Curriculum Accessibility. As part of the CSCAP program, Joan has worked together with computer science students with visual disabilities for the past five years to both identify and develop solutions to curriculum accessibility barriers.
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John Gardner
ViewPlus Technologies, Inc.
John Gardner is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Oregon State University and is founder and president of ViewPlus Technologies, Inc. He is internationally recognized as a leading expert on the physics of defects in materials. He has won a number of scientific awards including the Humboldt Prize awarded by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Defense, NASA, and several private corporations and foundations have supported his physics research.
After losing his sight in 1988 in mid-career, John Gardner formed the Science Access Project to do research and development on new technologies for access to complex information by people with print disabilities. ViewPlus Technologies is a spin-off company formed to commercialize the Tiger tactile graphics embosser technology and other technologies developed in the Science Access Project. It has grown to become a major access technology company in 2005 with worldwide sales of millions of dollars per year.
John Gardner has presented hundreds of seminars, colloquia, workshops, contributed and invited conference talks on physics and on information access by people with disabilities throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. He is considered a leading expert on access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) information.
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Ameena Ghoston
National Federation of the Blind
Ameenah Ghoston joined the International Braille and Technology Center staff in August of 2004, and has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind since 1996.
She has trained a wide range of age groups in the use of access technologies, and has experience with both the Windows environment and Open Source technologies. Her area of focus is the accessibility of Math technologies in K12 and higher education environments.
A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she majored in history and took extensive course work in computer science. From 2000 to 2002, she was a research programmer at the National Center for Super Computing Applications Education Outreach and Technology group, where she gained experience with educational tools for K12 math and science using Linux-based clustering technology. As an intern for the US Department of Education, she evaluated software and made recommendations for Section 508 Compliance.
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Lynda Ginsburg
Senior Research Associate, MetroMath
Rutgers University
Lynda Ginsburg is currently the Senior Research Associate for the NSF funded MetroMath project in the Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education at Rutgers University. She is responsible for overseeing and contributing to the project's multi-university, multi-disciplinary research efforts focused on improving mathematics learning within urban contexts. Her own research projects focus on adult acquisition of mathematics knowledge and parent-child work on mathematics homework. Prior to this position, Lynda was Senior Researcher at the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) at the University of Pennsylvania for twelve years. In that capacity, she directed NCAL's activities on several adult numeracy and technology integration research and professional development projects and provided research and evaluation support for other projects. Lynda holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in mathematics education and has taught mathematics at the high school and community college levels.
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Eric G. Hansen
Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Eric Hansen is a development scientist in the Center for Assessment Innovations and Technology Transfer, in the Research and Development Division of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and received a doctorate in Instructional Psychology from Brigham Young University. He has served as principal investigator on a variety of ETS and U.S. government-funded projects involving accessibility and technology in educational testing and instruction. He has collaborated with Robert J. Mislevy of the University of Maryland in the development of a framework for reasoning about the validity of assessment accommodations for English language learners and individuals with disabilities. Hansen was co-editor of the World Wide Web Consortium's User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (version 1.0) and contributes to the accessibility activities of the IMS Global Learning Consortium.
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Steven Landau
Touch Graphics, Inc.
Steven Landau is Director of Research at Touch Graphics, Inc., a company Mr. Landau founded in 1997 for the purpose of commercializing research on audio-tactile interactive computing, to create new products for the blind and low vision markets. The company has been the recipient of numerous US government R&D grants, and has brought to market a Talking Tactile Tablet (TTT), a low-cost computer peripheral device that acts as a "viewer" for images produced in tactile (raised-line and textured) format. The company also works in the area of museum accessibility, and is developing a new technology that empowers blind and low vision visitors to science museums to independently navigate and interact with exhibits using their own familiar cell phone as a controller for a network of environmental audio beacons. Mr. Landau received a BA in Art from Oberlin College and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University. He worked as a professional architect for 12 years before forming Touch Graphics.
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Valerie J. Shute
Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Val Shute is a principal research scientist in the Center for Assessment Innovation and Technology Transfer, the R&D division of ETS. Currently, she is responsible for conducting basic and applied research projects related to assessment, modeling, cognitive diagnosis, and learning. Before coming to ETS, she earned a Ph.D. in cognitive/educational psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, 1984. She subsequently held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh from 1984-1986. There, she worked with Robert Glaser developing intelligent microworld environments. From 1986 to 1998, she worked at the Air Force Research Lab in Texas-focusing on the design, development, and evaluation of intelligent tutoring systems, as well as developing modeling approaches and software tools to support intelligent tutoring systems.
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Edith Aurora Graf
Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Aurora Graf is a research scientist in the Center for Assessment Design and Scoring in the Research & Development Division at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ. She received a Ph.D. in psychology and a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Washington in 2000. She received her B.A. in psychology from Binghamton University in 1992. At the University of Washington, she worked with Earl Hunt and Jim Minstrell to apply cognitive psychology (and facet-based instruction in particular) to develop modules of the DIAGNOSER program for mathematics. More recently, she has been involved in developing cognitive models for mathematics assessments; in particular she is interested in cognitive variables that influence the difficulty of automatically generated quantitative assessment items.
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Ted Henter
Hentermath
Ted Henter co-founded Henter-Joyce in 1987, motivated by the desire to develop JAWS, Job Access With Speech, to provide access to computers for blind or visually impaired people. By the late 90's it was the most widely used screen reader in the world, today being used in 18 different languages. Ted always tried to recruit blind people to fill jobs, thus 40% of the 75 employees were blind or visually impaired.
Henter-Joyce merged with two other assistive technology companies in 2000, to form Freedom Scientific. The new company offers a broad line of products and services for people with disabilities. Their goal is to expand computer and opportunity access on an even wider scale. Ted serves on the Board of Directors and remains involved in an advisory role.
Henter Math was founded in 2002 in order to make mathematics accessible to people who are pencil-impaired, i.e. can't operate a pencil effectively. This includes people that are blind, motor-impaired, or learning disabled. The first product, VP Arithmetic, was released in May of 2003, and VP Algebra was released in the fall of 2004.
Ted was born and raised in the Panama Canal Zone, received a degree in engineering from the University of Florida, and married his high school sweetheart Mel. They now have three daughters and live in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was pursuing a career in world championship motorcycle road racing when he was blinded in a car accident in 1978 at the age of 27. His faith in Christ helped him through a short period of despair, realizing that God would not give him something he could not handle. He enrolled in several computer courses at the University Of South Florida and focused on becoming a computer programmer. By 1981 he was developing some of the first talking computers for blind people in the emerging assistive technology industry.
Ted remains active in sports, regularly participating in snow skiing, water skiing, canoe racing, and martial arts. He was the 1991 World Champion for Blind Water Skiers, and six times the US champion. He has competed in ten Ocean to Ocean Cayuco (dug-out canoe) Races through the Panama Canal, and has a brown belt in martial arts. He serves on the Board of Directors at The Watson Center for the Blind and assists two Panamanian charities and their blind students.
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Stephanie Herlich
Exceptional Teaching, Inc.
Stephanie Leigh-Herlich is a certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired and an Orientation and Mobility Specialist. Over the past 12 years, her comprehensive teaching experience has spanned both the Massachusetts and California school systems. Stephanie has taught beginning and advanced Braille courses at San Francisco State University, where she also worked as a University Supervisor for student teachers. Additionally, she has published papers on the successful usage of Braille and is currently co-writing a book on how to teach social skills to visually impaired children and their sighted peers.
Stephanie is a researcher on the international Alphabetic and Contracted Braille Study (ABC Study) being funded by the American Printing House for the Blind. She has lectured both nationally and internationally on the use of Speech Assisted Learning (SAL) and Braille literacy skills.
Stephanie received her bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from California Polytechnic in San Louis Obispo, and earned her master's degree in Special Education from San Francisco State University.
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Bradley A. Hodges
National Federation of the Blind
Brad Hodges joined the National Federation of the Blind in the summer of 1974 and immediately became an active member in the organization. After graduation from high school in 1976 he enrolled at St. John's University in Minnesota.
While an undergraduate student, Brad was elected president of his local NFB chapter and became an active participant in the student division of the NFB of Minnesota.
In 1980, with his recently earned Bachelors Degree in hand, Brad moved to Chicago, a city he had come to love from visits with college friends from St. John's who had moved there earlier.
Initially he found work as a food service manager, a position that was not his career choice but did provide employment so that he could enjoy the vibrant life of his beloved city on the lake.
The 1980's were a time of change, and technology was one of the most significant of the societal changes taking place in the nation. Technology for the blind and the opportunities that presented was of interest to Brad.
In 1987 he moved back to his childhood home of Rochester, Minnesota, and accepted a position with Minnesota Public Radio. He was the operations director and producer for the Rochester regional station. For the next four years Hodges and his colleagues produced nationally recognized programs, including several which received some of broadcastings most prestigious awards.
In 1990 Brad moved to western Wisconsin in order to study for a graduate degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. Once again, things worked out differently. The emerging field of Assistive Technology captured Brad's interest and attention.
While enrolled in graduate studies he accepted a staff position at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in the Assistive Technology Center.
As a Technology Specialist Brad examines a wide range of technology intended to benefit blind people. His job duties also include responsibility for the NFB's national effort to increase the accessibility of the Internet and computer applications through its Web Certification Program.
Mr. Hodges continues to play an active part in his local NFB chapter.
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Helene Holman
Exceptional Teaching, Inc.
Helene Holman worked with Dr. Sally Mangold developing the Speech Assisted Learning (SAL) System through the Phase I and Phase II National Science Foundation SBIR grant award. She traveled both nationally and internationally with Dr. Mangold conducting SAL workshops for educators and presenting the SAL System at conferences.
Helene is president of Exceptional Teaching Inc., a company providing products to individuals with special needs. One of the key components of Exceptional Teaching is the SAL program. The company is continually developing new SAL courseware and researching new applications for the SAL System.
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Benny G. Johnson, Ph.D.
Quantum Simulations, Inc.
Benny G. Johnson, Ph.D., President and CEO, Quantum Simulations, Inc., holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Kentucky, and received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993, working with Professor John A. Pople, a 1998 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. As an undergraduate, he captured first place in BFGoodrich's prestigious Waldo Semon Undergraduate Research Competition for his work on computer elucidation of reaction mechanisms. During his graduate work, Dr. Johnson focused heavily on the research and development of quantum mechanical methods for the study of large molecules. He is world-recognized as a leading expert in the field of theoretical chemistry, and has contributed substantially to several significant academic, commercial and government chemistry research software projects, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's NWChem project, part of the Department of Energy's effort to solve environmental problems related to the Hanford Nuclear Site in the state of Washington.
Dr. Johnson is the author of over forty scholarly publications in academic journals and books, and has delivered invited lectures at many national and international conferences. He is an accomplished software developer with more than fifteen years of experience writing scientific and educational software. As principal investigator on various research and development projects, Dr. Johnson has received over $7 million in awards through various agencies including the U. S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U. S. Department of Energy, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Western Pennsylvania (now Innovation Works). Prior to his current venture at Quantum, Dr. Johnson developed the results of his theoretical chemistry research and successfully released a full-featured quantum chemistry software product to a worldwide commercial market of industrial, academic and government researchers.
Dr. Johnson has been involved in education at various levels for many years and has a comprehensive understanding of the teaching techniques, curriculum and content required to educate students in science and mathematics. He experienced outstanding success as a private tutor of chemistry and mathematics while at the University of Kentucky and, as a graduate student, he received an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Chemistry. Based on his work on advancing the state of the art in artificial intelligence technology systems for science and mathematics education, he was invited to speak at the Education Secretary's No Child Left Behind Technology Leadership Summit in 2004. His latest research directions include development of artificial intelligence tutors that are fully accessible to blind and visually impaired students of science and mathematics.
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Arthur I. Karshmer
University of South Florida, Lakeland
Arthur I. Karshmer received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1978. Upon completion of his Ph.D., he accepted a position in the Computer Science Department at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where he was a Professor of Computer Science and Academic Department Head. In 2000, he moved to the University of South Florida where he is Professor and Chairman of the Information Technology Department. Since receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Karshmer has spent a post-doctoral year at the Einstein Institute of Mathematics, Computer Science Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as visiting positions at the University of York, England, The University of Pisa in Italy, Boston University and the University of Kaiserslautern in the Federal Republic of Germany. He has received research grants from the National Science Foundation, The United States Air Force, the U.S. Army, Digital Equipment Corporation, AT&T, the US Department of Education, The German Government and the European Community to name a few. Dr. Karshmer has also worked at the National Science Foundation as a program director.
Professor Karshmer's research interest is in the fields of the operating system-architecture interface, metropolitan area networking and computer interfaces for the handicapped. He has published numerous papers in these domains and regularly gives papers and invited lectures in the U.S., Asia and Europe.
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Nancilu McClellan
Metroplex Voice Computing, Inc.
Metroplex Voice Computing, Inc. has been involved with speech recognition since the mid 1990's.
Principals are Nancilu McClellan, president and Mike McClellan, vice-president. Since the inception of MVC has been actively involved in researching, developing, and programming in the same industry, and providing speech recognition training/customized programming for various clients such as DARS (formerly Texas Rehabilitation Commission), local government agencies, and individuals. LIVE MathTalk web demos, as well as training are available with Internet accessibility.
Both principals have authored/co-authored programs including VoiceEZcad - , MathTalk/ScientificNotebook - for DragonDictate - and NaturallySpeaking - , and MathPad - By Voice - , MathTalk for ScientificWorkplace, MathBrailleTalk for voicing math within the Duxbury Braille Translator, Products in the past have included voiced versions of MSWord, Word Perfect, Quicken, Internet Explorer.
Ms McClellan has presented seminars/training on speech recognition nationwide, and both have program experience in the military CHCS system.
MVC is a member of "Microsoft Assistive Technology Vendor Program Members of Microsoft's special program for manufacturers of assistive technology - Microsoft Assistive Technology Vendor Program (MATvp)-must have a proven track record in designing, building and supporting assistive technology products to meet the needs of customers with disabilities/ functional limitations and schools and businesses that are responsible for making accommodations."
Currently, MathTalk/ScientificNotebook allows the user to voice math, which may be translated into Braille in the Duxbury Braille translator, and, at this point in time, we are on track for MathTalk/VI, which will allow a blind user to do math.
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Caryn Navy
Duxbury Systems, Inc.
Ms. Caryn Navy has been blind and reading Braille since the sixth grade. She has loved the Nemeth Code ever since being introduced to it in the New York City public schools. Graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 with a major in math. And continued studies in math at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, receiving a Master's degree in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1981. Her major area of study was set theoretic topology. Was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Math Department at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania from 1981 to 1984.
In the early 1980s her husband, David Holladay, formed a company called Raised Dot Computing, did groundbreaking work on the Apple II computer. Mr. Holladay developed a speech-friendly, affordable program called BRAILLE-EDIT that did word processing, Braille translation in both directions, and Braille production. In general, BRAILLE-EDIT was an excellent foundation for integrating the use of many newly developed devices, including the Versa Braille. Along with developing back translation software for ordinary text, David also developed back translation software for Nemeth Code. Ms. Navy used this heavily, writing text and mathematical notation in Nemeth Code on a Versa Braille and getting ink print printouts for her students and colleagues. Raised Dot Computing continued work in the area of speech-friendly Braille translation and production software, making the move from the Apple II platform to IBM-PC compatible systems.
Ms. Navy started official work for Raised Dot Computing in 1984 and have continued with this work ever since. In 1999 Raised Dot Computing merged with Duxbury Systems, Inc., where she works today. Has been on the BANA Refreshable Braille Technical Committee for several years, and became the committee chair in the fall of 2004.
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Mark A. Riccobono
Director of Education
National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mark Riccobono was diagnosed with glaucoma and aniridia at age five. Yet, his progressive vision loss did not stop him from doing the things he wanted to do. Mark attended public schools and graduated with honors from Solomon Juneau Business High School in Milwaukee. In high school he was active in Debate, DECA (a national association of marketing students) at the local, state, and national levels, and the school track team.
Mark went on to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to pursue a degree in business administration. Mark was extremely active in many clubs and organizations on the University campus. In 1996, he founded the Wisconsin Association of Blind Students, a division of the National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin, and became its first president. Due to his leadership at the University, he was nominated and selected to be a member of the Iron Cross Society, a distinguished honor society of top student leaders who have attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He graduated from the university with a Bachelor's Degree in 1999. During his senior year, Mark was elected, at age 22, to the presidency of the National Federation of the Blind of Wisconsin and was re-elected twice for successive two year terms until resigning in 2003.
Upon leaving college, Mark joined the Sears, Roebuck, and Company's National Executive Trainee Program, considered to be one of the top programs for training managers in the retail field. While working for Sears, Mark spent considerable amounts of his free time advocating for the blind. As a result, he was appointed to the Wisconsin State Superintendent's Blind and Impairment Education Council. With a growing interest in the field of education of blind children, Mark was hired to serve as the first Director of the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (WCBVI), a $6.1 million state agency responsible for statewide services to children who are blind. During his three and one half year stint as Director of the WCBVI, Mark took the organization from the brink of closing to a more distinguished position of leadership. After his success with the WCBVI, he resigned in October 2003 to take a position with the National Federation of the Blind, the leading organization in the field of blindness. He serves the NFB as Manager of Education Programs for the newly established NFB Jernigan Institute, a one-of-a-kind, national, research and training facility. His duties include directing educational efforts such as the National Center for Blind Youth in Science, the NFB Online Education Program, the NFB Early Childhood Education Initiative, and national mentoring and outreach projects. He also researches and writes white papers and articles regarding the current status and future direction of the education of blind children and is responsible for building partnerships and collaborations meaningful to the blind.
In order to compliment his broad experience in the field of education for blind children, Mark is currently pursuing a Masters of science in educational Studies from the Johns Hopkins school of Professional Studies in Business and Education.
Mark is married to Melissa, a school counselor and leader in her own right. Together, the Riccobono's look forward to long careers making meaningful changes in society and positively impacting future generations.
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Richard L. Schatzberg
Aequus Technologies Corp.
Aequus Technologies Corp., Founder, Chief Executive Officer Richard L. Schatzberg became involved working with and on behalf of people with disabilities soon after his oldest son was diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder at the age of 18 months. Since that time, Richard has been an active participant in a variety of foundation efforts and training programs to help people with disabilities achieve equal access to education and fulfilling work opportunities. In 2001, Richard founded Aequus Technologies with the mission of creating solutions for people with a wide range of special needs, including people with sensory, cognitive, and physical disabilities, English language learners, and the elderly. Today, Richard and his team at Aequus are strongly focused on science and mathematics, as improving access to these disciplines will enable people with disabilities to compete in today's technology- and information-based workforce. Richard currently serves on the Board of the Montville Parents of Exceptional Children, where he leads fundraising efforts to build a fully accessible, regional special education pre-school and recreational
facility.
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David A. Schleppenbach
gh, LLC
Dave is responsible for gh's strategic direction and business development. He began his career by founding and directing the VISIONS Lab at Purdue University in 1995, where he developed hardware and software solutions for visually impaired students. In 2000 he co-founded gh, LLC and served as Chief Executive Officer. Dave brings to gh 8 years of experience in assistive technology, including his strong reputation in both academic research, and administering federally funded programs.
Dave has worked with hundreds of blind students to develop gh's Laserline graphic standards and also specialized curricula for science and math. He has taught Purdue University courses in the areas of Chemistry and Special Education. Dave's academic degrees include physical chemistry, mathematics, and special education.
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Dr. Robert Shelton
NASA Learning Technologies Regional Center Project Manager
Education Office (AE)
NASA Johnson Space Center
Over 30 years experience as a totally blind mathematician, college professor, computer scientist, and project manager. Led project to develop MathTrax and the Math Description Engine (MDE) algorithm. MDE uses rule-based and computational machine intelligence to analyze, describe and sonify equations and data to provide alternative accessibility for students with vision or perception disabilities. MDE debuted in the summer of 2004 as a mission planning and data analysis tool for a summer science camp in which 12 blind high school students carried out a sounding rocket mission from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility.
Education:
BA Mathematics, Rice University, 1971
PhD Mathematics, Rice University 1975
Post doc, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, 1975-76
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David A. Skrivanek
Repro-Tronics, Inc.
Mr. David Skrivanek originally studied Electronic Engineering at RCA institutes and Monmouth University. After graduating he worked both in the computer industry and then spent 35 years in various positions in the copy and printing industry including running a factory manufacturing copy equipment.
Dave Skrivanek founded Repro-Tronics 25 years ago. The company at that time specialized in the copying, typesetting and printing industries. This background provided a very substantial basis for graphics design and creation plus the knowledge needed to design and manufacture equipment.
About twelve years ago it came to Mr. Skrivanek's attention that there was a great need for a low cost easy to operate method to create tactile graphics for blind and visually impaired people. Using knowledge gained from prior employment he designed the Tactile Image Enhancer and Flexi-Paper as a way to provide for these needs. The machine and paper were introduced to the industry approximately eleven years ago.
Seeing further need for other devices to assist Tactile Graphic development, Mr. Skrivanek designed two forms of Thermo-Pens to work with Flexi-Paper.
The next project was to further provide access to Tactile Graphics in a very affordable format and the Tactile Image Enhancer Junior was developed. This is a machine that is low cost enough that many individuals are able to purchase one for personal use.
To further enhance the ability to create tactile Graphics Repro-Tronics has become the major distributor of Tactile Graphics Designer (TGD) software. TGD is specially designed to create graphics that can be either printed and raised on Flexi-Paper or converted to Braille graphics and sent to the embosser. Mr. Skrivanek was one of the driving forces behind the method of combining three software programs together to produce a combination of Nemeth code and the plot of an equation together on one sheet of Braille paper. The three software programs are TGD, Duxbury and Scientific Notebook.
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Andrew Smith
Maplesoft
Mr. Andrew Smith has been a software developer for more than fifteen years. Andrew is currently a Technical Lead in Maplesoft's user interface group. Prior to joining Maplesoft, he developed simulation, training, and e-Learning applications for the commercial aviation, marine navigation, and automotive service markets.
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Dr. Neil Soiffer
Design Sciences, Inc
Dr. Neil Soiffer received his PhD in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley. He was a member of Tektronix's Computer Research Lab, where he created experimental math computation systems, math editors, and tools for embedded systems. Dr. Soiffer moved onto Wolfram Research, where he was responsible for a number of user elements that are part of Mathematica, including the WYSIWYG math editor and programmability of Mathematica's notebook interface.
He joined Design Science in 2003 and has worked on math accessibility in their MathPlayer plug-in for Internet Explorer. Dr. Soiffer was a principal architect of MathML, and continues to have an active role in the W3C math effort.
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Joe Sullivan
Duxbury Systems, Inc.
Joe Sullivan is a mathematician by training, holding bachelors and master's degrees in that subject from Boston College and Northeastern University respectively. Most of his working life has been as a designer of computer software, starting with some of the earliest Defense Department computers in the 1960s. In 1975, he helped to found Duxbury Systems, Inc., the earliest company specializing in software for Braille production, and is now Duxbury's president. Joe is the chief architect of the original Duxbury Braille Translator and has designed modules for automatic transcription of numerous natural languages and variations, including English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Vietnamese, Danish and German, and several Braille codes for mathematics and other technical notation. He has been and remains active on several committees of the Braille Authority of North America and the International Council on English Braille. He is the recipient of the Golden Keys Award in 1994 from the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille, the Winston Gordon Award in 1995 from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the Migel Award in 1996 from the American Foundation for the Blind.
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Cary Supalo, Ph.D.
Pennsylvania State University
Mr. Cary Supalo has been an active member of the National Federation of the Blind since graduating from high school in 1993. This discovery of a nationwide network of blind persons inspired he to want to be all he could be. Through support from friends and faculty members at Purdue University, he was encouraged to study Chemistry. The passion that developed for Chemistry was further facilitated by his involvement in the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity in 1997. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry from Purdue in the spring of 1999, and started graduate studies at Penn State that fall. Mr. Supalo obtained his Masters of Science degree in Chemistry from Penn State in December 2004.
Through his involvement in the National Federation of the Blind, he had opportunity to hold a number of leadership positions in several states, some of which involved working and mentoring other blind and visually impaired students. Through his love for helping blind students expand their comfort zones, assisting them to stretch their minds to go beyond societal limitations placed on them since birth, and encouraging them to strive to follow their dreams. Putting the Federation philosophy, which states that through proper training and opportunity, a blind person can reduce blindness to being nothing more than a mere nuisance, into practice is a driving force behind my career.
Mr. Supalo's Ph.D. thesis project is a National Science Foundation funded project from the Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) where he is developing accessible tools and techniques to assist blind students in performing high school level chemistry laboratory experiments. Taking widely available lab probes and their software interface and making them accessible via speech output will allow blind students to have a more direct interaction with their ability to acquire their own data. This would eliminate the traditional passive roll of previous generations, i.e. a sighted assistant simply describing and reading data values as they are obtained. It is our hope that this will encourage blind students to want to study science and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Using a software interface called Logger Pro available from Vernier located in Beaverton, Oregon is doing this. The Logger Pro software allows a student to use a hub device to which they can plug in multiple lab probes such as thermometers, pH meters, and conductivity detectors, among numerous other tools. By having these tools coupled with the JAWS screen reader software will allow for blind students to more actively interface with their data collection experience. This I feel is my current passion of opening new doors of opportunity for blind students in the chemical sciences.
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Anne Taylor
National Federation of the Blind
Anne Taylor serves as Access Technology Director for the National Federation of the Blind. Her main responsibilities include: managing the International Braille and Technology Center for the blind, which is the most comprehensive consumer evaluation center for nonvisual access technology in the world; leading a team of access technology experts who provide feedback to access technology product manufacturers; maintaining a relationship with reputable mainstream IT companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Diebold to ensure the accessibility of their technologies; participating in the product development of the Kurzweil NFB Reader; as well as leading the planning and implementation of the IBTC's technology training seminars, which are conducted several times a year. Anne is an expert on all the Braille and speech access technologies in the IBTC and its top specialist in Braille embossers.
Born in Thailand, Anne has spent the past seventeen years in the United States. She graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1997 with a degree in Computer Information Systems. She worked for two years with a non-profit organization specializing in job placements for the disabled where her task was to teach students how to use access technology. In addition to her degree in Computer Information Systems and her experience training adults to use computers, she brings a most enjoyable verve to her teaching and writing assignments. "Choosing Your Braille Embosser," a thorough and comprehensive review of the Braille embossers on the market today, was published in the October 2001 issue of the Braille Monitor.
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