WCATea

Change is coming to every workplace, and it's scary. Stela Lupushor, NYU professor and founder of Reframe.Work, joins Tanner Gers and Ellie Alvarado to talk about why great talent gets stuck, how fear of rejection holds people with disabilities back, and how to lead through the biggest workplace shift of our lifetime: AI.

We also get into the IBM tool that got an HR policy reversed in 16 hours, why "AI in my loop" beats "human in the loop," and diving the Great Barrier Reef. Subscribe for weekly conversations spilling the tea on digital accessibility.

Connect with Stela:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slupushor/ Worchestration podcast: https://worchestration.ai Email: [email protected]

Listen to WCATea: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wcatea/id1896601148

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/WCATeaPod

Want to build a more accessible, inclusive workplace?

Talk to AccessAbility Officer: https://accessabilityofficer.com

#FutureOfWork #DisabilityInclusion #WCATea

Blind people can use maps with Audiom, a digital map you can hear, touch, or read. In this episode, Brandon Biggs, CEO of XR Navigation, explains how it works. He also shares his live, accessible 2026 election results map.

Follow election night your way: https://xrnavigation.io/election2026/

WCATea Podcast: spilling the tea on digital accessibility.

Do your maps and website meet ADA Title II? Get a WCAG 2.1 AA audit from certified testers with disabilities: https://accessabilityofficer.com/digital-accessibility-audits/

Seven continents. Every Disney Park in a single month. A National Geographic icebreaker that crashed through six feet of ice while the whole ship shook. Ken Bigler, Head of Accessibility Engineering at Intuit, has been almost everywhere, and he still came home to fix the software millions of people use to do their taxes.

Ken joins Tanner Gers and Ellie Alvarado to talk about penguins he wasn't allowed to go near, the Disney park that beat all the rest, and the Buenos Aires pizza place he ate at three times.

Connect with Ken LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethbigler/

Intuit accessibility feedback: [email protected]

Subscribe to the WCAT Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Spilling the tea on digital accessibility.

#DigitalAccessibility #A11y #WCAG #Intuit #Antarctica #Travel #AI #WCATPodcast

Should blind people use a cane or a guide dog?

Braille or audio?

Should they talk about their blindness or keep it in the background? Everyone seems to have an opinion about the "right way" to be blind. Scott Thornhill, Executive Director of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), says there isn't one.

Scott joins Tanner Gers and Ellie Alvarado to talk about what that means for blind and low-vision people building careers and what ACB is doing behind the scenes.

Who's told you how to be blind? Tell us about it, then follow WCATea Pod and share this episode with someone who gets it.

Publishing video, apps, or online courses? Captions, audio description, and screen reader support aren't extras; they're requirements. If you manage digital content for government, healthcare, or higher education, make sure it meets ADA Title II: https://accessabilityofficer.com/digital-accessibility-audits/

Blind accessibility designer Marco Salsiccia (Lyft, Intuit, Deque, OpenAI) shows how AI-assisted coding lets blind creators build what mainstream tech won't: free, blind-first apps like Whack-a-Braille, BlindSVG.com, and Tremado, an accessible video editor for Mac.

Marco lost his sight in 2014. A year later, one angry tweet about a broken Lyft app turned into six years as Lyft's only accessibility specialist. On the WCATea Podcast, he breaks down how he designs and ships apps as a screen reader user, and why you should never take AI at its word.

RESOURCES Marco's site: https://marconius.com BlindSVG: https://blindsvg.com

Spilling the tea on digital accessibility. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

#DigitalAccessibility #WCAG #BlindTech

Alt text matters: for Ellie, a blind mom of four, it's how she experiences family moments she can't see.

If you manage a public-facing website for government, healthcare, or higher education, ensure you're compliant ahead of the ADA Title II deadline: https://accessabilityofficer.com/digital-accessibility-audits/

Episode Chapters (Alt Text Secrets)

Secret #1: AI Isn't Enough

Secret #2: Misleading Is Worse Than Missing

Secret #3: Context Is King

Secret #4: Decorative Images Don't Need Alt Text

Secret #5: Compliance ≠ Inclusion

Subscribe to the WCATea Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and now Mind's Eye Radio.

The same misunderstandings we see in film and television show up online every day... in inaccessible websites built without disabled voices.

In this episode of the WCATea Podcast, we discuss a recurring issue in the entertainment industry: broad pushes for "inclusion" that frequently overlook disabled perspectives..

Bee and Ellie connect screen stereotypes directly to digital design barriers. Using fake contacts isn't representation, just as building tools without disabled input isn't accessible. Authentic voices matter everywhere.

Listen and share your inputs. What are your thoughts on authentic representation in media and tech? Share your perspective in the comments below!

Two blind professionals went from no Windows or screen reader experience to working accessibility testers in under a year.

Michaela Griffin studied music therapy, then taught herself to code. Tiffany Zhao has a cognitive science degree and a very analytical mind, Bee calling her the most analytical tester he's come across.

Both graduated from the CAT program in spring 2026 and are now AccessAbility Officer apprentices, testing websites and logging WCAG violations as real careers.

Watch out for our Weekly WCAG Watch with Matthew Dyer. He covers SC 3.2.4, Consistent Identification.

Interested in working in digital accessibility? If you have an open VR case, reach out to us here: https://accessabilityofficer.com/vocational-rehabilitation/

Government agency needing an accessibility audit? Get compliant before the deadline. Talk to us: https://accessabilityofficer.com/digital-accessibility-audits/

Warning: At 37 minutes we thought we were done. Then it got even better.

What does a professional accessibility audit actually catch that a good-faith review misses?

In this special episode of WCATea, hosted by our CEO Tanner Gers, Caroline Karbowski hands her own nonprofit's website to a room full of testers during the NFB Convention and finds out.

Caroline is the founder and CEO of See3D.org, a global volunteer network that 3D prints tactile models and ships them free to blind and low-vision people around the world. She's a certified O&M specialist, a certified braille transcriber, and she taught herself braille in sixth grade.

Together with Liam Colburn, Test Manager at AccessAbility Officer, we walk through the real reports using our very own testing software: DARTAudit.

Watch out for the Weekly WCAG Watch too!

Follow Caroline Karbowski and See3D: Website: https://see3d.org Email: [email protected] Request a model, volunteer as a designer or printer, or ask about accessible 3D printing consulting. Models ship free, worldwide.

Subscribe to WCATea on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

Scope your audit, 30 minutes, and you'll leave with a recommended audit type and a timeline against your deadline: https://calendly.com/accessabilityofficer/aac

#DigitalAccessibility #WCAG #A11y #ScreenReader #AltText #Blind #NFB

Meet Matthew "Matt" Dyer, test manager at AccessAbility Officer and author of the Weekly WCAG Watch. He entered digital accessibility from a computer science degree with no prior knowledge beyond alt text, and now leads testing on a predominantly blind team.

Learn direct from Matt how to dive into digital accessibility testing and how fun it is to be working with a diverse team.

Read Matt's blogs at matthew-dyer.com

AccessAbility Officer is a managed digital accessibility firm serving state and local government agencies covering more than 30 million residents. The majority of our team are people with disabilities who use assistive technology every day.

Sitting on a pile of PDFs you're not sure about? We'd be glad to take a look. Book a free audit at accessabilityofficer.com/audit

accessabilityofficer.com