About Brian DeConinck
I am a digital accessibility specialist with experience in front-end engineering and team leadership. I have worked for a major U.S. government agency (as a contractor), a Fortune 500 company, an R1 research university, and an EdTech startup.
I have experience performing accessibility audits of coded products, completing accessibility design reviews, and testing with a wide variety of assistive technologies. I also have experience writing front-end code, managing teams, coaching junior developers, leading training sessions, and building mature accessibility programs.
For more details about my work experience, see the Experience page.
I am a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) and a Trusted Tester. In addition to following WCAG standards, I apply inclusive design principles and push for accessibility beyond compliance.
In my work, I aim to trust and empower my colleagues. I approach each interaction with designers and developers as an opportunity for us both to learn and grow. I try to give people the ability to accomplish tasks, the training needed to understand their options, and the in-context feedback to make good accessibility choices. That means:
- Designing and building digital tools and experiences that are centered on accessibility.
- Helping product teams understand how their choices can lead to an inclusive experience.
- Providing honest assessments of risk and impact, so teams can make informed decisions about how to prioritize work.
- Building tools and processes that provide useful feedback as they complete their work.
- Making good accessibility practices something easy to build into existing processes—embracing the shift left ethos and not playing “compliance cop” after the fact.
I am based in beautiful Chicago, Illinois, where I share my life with Dr. Emily Barnard, our son, and two cats. You may spot me biking around the city or playing trombone in a local community band. I dream of one day writing my novel.
About digital accessibility
Accessibility is the practice of ensuring that products, tools, and services work for people with disabilities.
Disabled people frequently face barriers that prevent them from entering spaces, participating in communities, and earning or spending money. These barriers are a failure of policy, design, and engineering, rather than any limitation intrinsic to disability. Especially when building digital tools, there’s no reason why we can’t provide an accessible and inclusive experience.
Contact
Please feel free to email me at [email protected], or message me via LinkedIn.