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My name is Brian DeConinck, and I am a digital accessibility specialist.

I work for Ad Hoc, where I support the accessibility efforts on VA.gov for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

Learn more about me and my work experience.

Latest blog post

Testimonials

I’m very grateful to a few colleagues who have said some really nice things.

Public Comments

Excerpts of LinkedIn Recommendations from people who like me enough to say so in a public place:

If someone were to ask me who I have enjoyed working with the most in my entire 10+ year career, Brian would be one of the first people to come to mind. He is excellent– as an accessibility specialist, as a leader, and as a downright humble and genuine human being…

… Brian cares. It is so easy to tell how much he cares about the people around him and how much he cares about who his work is for. Despite having one of the most (if not the most) difficult job at VA.gov … I have NEVER seen him lose that core quality.

Josh Kim

… Brian is a quiet giant, an expert’s expert. I learned so much from working with Brian. I doubt he’d admit it, but he’s the focus around which an entire community of accessibility specialists orbit within VA…

He is also incredibly kind — he approaches complicated technical and governance challenges with grace and humor that always help folks to feel welcome at the table. He doesn’t seek to be the loudest voice in a room. He’s always there to provide insights when asked, though.

Eli Mellen

Private Comments

Excerpts from colleagues in private or internal messages about my work (you’ll have to take my word for it):

Thank you so much for this incredible detailed feedback. It’s a pleasure learning from you.

UX researcher

I have been using this bookmarklet and it’s really changed my whole life.

Accessibility specialist, about a testing tool I built

Shout out to Brian DeConinck because he’s so thorough in his accessibility feedback in such a way that it really helps designers understand the reasoning behind accessibility best practices so we can learn and need less guidance in the future.

UX designer

In other media

I have given up on most social media, but you can still find content generated by me:

  • Notes. Short, informal posts on topics I’m thinking about—like tweets, but self-hosted and fewer ways for you to interact with them!
  • Writing. I don’t keep this as a long-term running public blog. Instead, I add and remove posts based on how useful or relevant I find them to be (or how much shame I feel when re-reading them). Think of it as a curated experience that’s theoretically more interesting for you.
  • LinkedIn. I’m not really a LinkedIn person, but I keep my profile up-to-date, occasionally check my messages there, and try to remember to post when my company is hiring for accessibility roles.
  • GitHub. I sometimes share code I’ve written and find useful, until it’s old enough that it’s embarrassing and I take it all down. I think that’s how open source is supposed to work, right?