Adrian D. C. Chan Ph.D., P.Eng., SMIEEE, 3M Teaching Fellow
Professor
Department of Systems and Computer Engineering
Associate Dean (Programs & Awards)
Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs
Chair, Advisory Board
Research, Education, Accessibility, and Design (READ) Initiative
A successful lawyer, dedicated volunteer, and Paralympic swimmer, Carla Qualtrough’s commitment to addressing inequality and championing diversity makes her a strong advocate for Delta.
Committed to equity and inclusion, Carla has practised human rights law at the federal and provincial levels. She chaired the Minister’s Council on Employment and Accessibility in British Columbia, and was an adjudicator with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal. Carla has been visually impaired since birth.
Passionate about the power of sport and physical activity to change lives, Carla has volunteered locally, nationally, and internationally, including with the International Paralympic Committee and for the Toronto 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games. She has been President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Chair of the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada. Carla was on the Board of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, and was Vice-Chair of the Delta Gymnastics Society. As an athlete, Carla won three Paralympic and four World Championship medals.
Carla has degrees in political science from the University of Ottawa and law from the University of Victoria. Among many awards for her work, she has been named one of Canada’s Most Influential Women in Sport six times, and received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
Yazmine Laroche was appointed Associate Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities on November 25, 2013.
Ms. Laroche has over twenty-five years experience in public policy, program design and delivery, communications, strategic planning and corporate management, having served in a variety of federal government departments including Communications, Canadian Heritage, the Canada Information Office, Privy Council Office, Treasury Board Secretariat and Infrastructure Canada. She began her public service career as a junior communications officer in Transport Canada. She was appointed as an Assistant Deputy Minister in 2000. In 2004, Ms. Laroche joined the Privy Council Office to develop the Government of Canada's New Deal for Cities. In 2009, she was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister, Executive Policies and Talent Management in the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer.
Ms. Laroche is a graduate of Carleton University and the proud daughter of Canadian aviation pioneer, Rocky Laroche.
Nadine has more than 10 years of experience in information technology in the private and public sectors. She has been working with Ciao since 2013 and is now the Assistant Director of the Web accessibility departments and products development.
She participates in the democratization of the Web through her numerous mandates to accompany and implement web accessibility strategies. A proud ambassador of "Agile" values, Nadine is committed to continuous improvement! For her, nothing is impossible, it is sufficient to believe and have the courage to start.
Through her various roles, Nadine has had the opportunity to get involved in all stages of a project: Start-up strategy, choice of work teams, design, functional analysis, quality assurance, training, change management ... These experiences have taught her that the success of any project lies in establishing solid foundations and in the importance of asking questions and making discussion to stimulate a collective intelligence.
Brett Tackaberry is the Random Hacks of Kindness event organizer
David MacDonald is president of CanAdapt and is in his 15th year with the WCAG Working group. He is the only Canadian Invited Expert listed on the WCAG 2.0 standard. He is on the core team working on the next version of WCAG 2.1, which includes new requirements for mobile and small screens. He was on the team that wrote the WCAG2ICT on document accessibility, and on the 3 person panel mapping PDF/UA to WCAG. He was a core contributor to the WCAG Evaluation Methodology , and an editor of Using WAI-ARIA in HTML5 . Most W3C accessibility documents include him as a named contributor.
He was the lead WCAG consultant to the Government of Canada in the Donna Jodhan case and consulted to the Ontario Government during the creation of the AODA. He was the accessibility auditor for the forms and website to report AODA conformance to the Ontario Government. He has provided accessibility audits for dozens of Fortune 500 companies, such as Intel and Bayer. He audited all websites under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Transportation Agency (Air Canada, Westjest, ViaRail, etc.) and CRTC telecommunications networks (Bell, Telus, Sasktel, etc.).
He is one of 14 members of the Certification Committee for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) and was a keynote in Las Vegas for the inaugural IAAP conference. He is a frequent conference speaker.
David personally conducts CanAdapt's audits to ensure a consistent and accurate interpretation of WCAG. He teaches most of our courses. He trained 80 web and mobile developers, managers, and designers at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
He dedicates a portion of his work to hands-on accommodations of employees with disabilities to stay close to the community he serves. He works in English and French and is a husband and father. David wrote the WCAG theme song with over 40,000 combined views.