- Email: thomas@equalentry.com
- Address: NY, USA
- Phone: +1-206-801-0083
Summary
Thomas Logan has spent the past sixteen years assisting organizations to create technology solutions that work for people with disabilities. He is the owner of Equal Entry, whose mission is to: “contribute to a more accessible world.” His consulting work has spanned project deliverables for numerous federal, state, and local government agencies as well as private organizations from startups to Fortune 500s. He is co-organizer of Accessibility New York City, a monthly Meetup for the local community interested in topics related to accessibility and people with disabilities.
He has presented at numerous international and national conferences on a wide range of topics relating to accessible technology. Each month he delivers custom trainings to clients seeking to improve their processes around designing, developing, and ensuring the technology products they produce are accessible. His monthly accessible live streams from the A11yNYC YouTube Channel serve as a demonstration of how to conduct an inclusive live presentation. He has produced evidence for numerous legal cases and served as expert witness for cases requiring an understanding of the American’s with Disabilities Act. He focuses his expertise on ensuring companies technically adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Education
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill – B.S. in Computer Science (2002)
Experience
Equal Entry LLC (2012 – Current)
Chief Executive Officer
- Manage, develop and deliver results on a variety of accessibility projects for consulting clients
- Produce technical training materials for a variety of technologies
- Founder and Co-organizer of New York Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup A11YNYC
- Co-organizer of New York City Accessibility Camp
- Co-creator of Open Accessible Pedestrian Signals and finalist in NYC Department of Transporation Call for Innovation
Accessibility Consultant
- Lead interactive trainings for Section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Build code examples to illustrate coding best practices for HTML, iOS, JavaScript, and Adobe Flash
- Analyze multimedia and recommend proper accessible alternatives
HiSoftware Inc (2009 – 2012)
Chief Technology Officer
- Delivered various international presentations to educate around compliance and HiSoftware solutions
- Develop technical integration plans with synergistic companies
- Oversee technology transition to cloud offering
- Manage team of developers in US and Australia
VP of Product Management
- Managed development team to deliver web-based compliance validation product and various SharePoint offerings
- Developed Accessibility Foundation Module to add Section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guideline compliance to SharePoint 2007 and 2010
- Created feature specifications to articulate solutions to customer needs
Mozilla Foundation (2008-2009)
Independent Consultant
- Built working web application Queue Music to demonstrate development techniques for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA)
BayFirst Solutions LLC (2007 – 2008)
Associate
- Consultant with Veterans Health Administration to ensure products meet Section 508 regulations
- Created and presented web accessibility training including JavaScript, CSS, and HTML samples
- Gained end-user awareness of assistive technologies through observation and use
- Authored and produced educational podcast videos for various clients
- Managed $150,000 contract to design and implement new process to be used across 80,000-person organization
- Participant in W3C Working Group that developed ARIA, and in the Accessibility Interop Alliance AIA
Microsoft Corporation (2002 – 2006)
Technical Evangelist
- Domain expert for Microsoft UI Automation, new technology for test automation and accessibility
- Created multimedia presentations for the web illustrating how to implement key technologies
- Skilled at presenting to technical audiences comprised of software architects, developers and testers
- Enrolled business decision makers in the need to support accessible technology
- Monitored and responded to customer questions and requests on external forums
- Prepared strategic thinking papers for senior management and assisted in critical decision-making
- Built assistive technology samples to teach others how programmatic access impacts real users
Program Manager
- Owned specification for Windows Vista’s new programmatic access architecture Microsoft UI Automation
- Presented at conferences including Tech Ed, PDC, ICCHP, and Designing for the 21st Century
- Worked with third party vendors to convert their products to new architecture
- Owned cross team negotiation with Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Windows Presentation Foundation
- Led weekly discussions to track development progress and prioritize issues
Professional Certifications
- IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)
- IAAP Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS)
- Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA)
- Virtual Reality Developer Udacity Nanodegree Program
Publications and Papers
- “Building a WCAG2 Compliant Site with ARIA”, IEEE Accessing the Future. Boston, MA 2009.
Expert Witness Engagements
Testimony at Bench Trial
Panels and Presentations
- “Why wait? Let’s make virtual reality accessible today!”, #a11yTOConf, October 2018, Toronto, ON, Canada.
- “Let’s Make Maps Widely Accessible”, Inclusive Design 24, October 2018, New York, NY, USA.
- “Accessibility HackNight – Creating Technology for All”, August 2018, New York, NY, USA.
- “Opening the Virtual Door to All: Online Accessibility Standards”, New York Intellectual Property Law Association, July 2018, New York, NY, USA.
- “Build Your Accessibility Evaluation Toolkit”, New York City CTO’s Office, May 2018, New York, NY, USA.
- “Common Issues on the Web for People who are Blind”, New York City Bar Association, April 2018, New York, NY, USA.
- “How to Prepare, Deliver, and Publish an Accessible Live Event”, Financial Times, September 2017, New York, NY, USA.
- “Digital Representation and Accessibility in Virtual Reality”, Tech Inclusion NY 2017, August 2017, New York, NY, USA.
- “Accessibility and Virtual Reality”, Accessibility New York City, July 2017, New York City, NY, USA.
- “Virtual and Augmented Reality Accessibility”, Bay Area Accessibility and Inclusive Design, June 2017, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- “Technology UDx Talks”, Moderator Universal Design 2017 Conference. New York City, NY 2017.
- “Software Development Kits and Accessibility”, A11yChi, December 2016, Chicago, IL, USA.
- “Multimedia and Accessibility”, Accessibility New York City, July, New York, NY, USA.
- “Virtual Reality and Accessibility”, New York Code and Design Academy,June 2016, New York, NY, USA.
- “Multimedia Accessibility Techniques Applied to Real Examples”, CSUN, March 2016, San Diego, CA, USA.
- “NYU Web Accessibility Training”, New York University, November 2015, New York, NY, USA.
- “Creating Accessible Content in Microsoft Office 2010”, CSUN, March 2014, San Diego, CA, USA.
- “Creating Accessible PDFs from Adobe InDesign”, CSUN, March 2014, San Diego, CA, USA.
- “PDF Accessibility Seminar”, January 2014, Charlotte, NC, USA.
- “SSA National Data Privacy Day Event”, Social Security Administration,January 2012, Washington DC, USA.
- “How automatic assessment tools improve quality and reduce development cycles”, 5th European eAccessibility Forum, March 2011, Paris, France.
- “Benefits and costs of e-accessibility”, March 2011, Paris, France.
- “Making User-Generated Content Accessible in Content Management Systems”, Techshare India 2010, New Delhi, India.
- “UK Accessibility Roundtable for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010”, November 2009, London, UK.
- “Background on SharePoint Accessibility”, Microsoft SharePoint Conference, October 2009, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
- “A Sensible Approach to WCAG2”, Royal National Institute for the Blind TechShare, September 2009, London, UK.
- “Making Web Widgets Accessible: Tools and Techniques”, panelist SXSW Interactive, March 2009, Austin, TX, USA.
- “Implementing ARIA for Real World Accessibility”, CSUN, March 2009, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- “Microsoft UI Automation Powered Reader for New York Times”, CSUN, March 2008, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- “Developing for Test Automation and Accessibility Using Programmatic Access to the UI”, Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, September 2005, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- “New Accessibility Model for Microsoft Windows”, 11th international conference on Human-Computer Interaction, July 2005, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
- “Developing for Test Automation and Accessibility Using Programmatic Access to the UI”, Microsoft Tech Ed Conference, July 2005, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- “Introduction to Microsoft User Interface Automation”, International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs, July 2005, Paris, France.
- “UI Automation Control Patterns”, Designing for the 21st Century, December 2004, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Skills
Computer Languages
JavaScript, Python, C#, Java, Swift, C++, AppleScript, Powershell
Specialties
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) Compliance
- Section 508 Compliance
- Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) Compliance
- Remote Management and Development
- Unity Development
- .NET Development
- Apple iOS Development
- Google Android Development
- WordPress Development
- Microsoft SharePoint Development
- Regular Expressions
- Technical Evangelism
- Multimedia Production
Assistive Technologies
- Freedom Scientific JAWS
- NV Access NonVisual Desktop Access
- Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking
- Apple VoiceOver
- Google TalkBack
- macOS VoiceOver
- Microsoft Narrator
- Microsoft On Screen Keyboard