Associates
Alan Cantor, President
I am an assistive technologist, researcher, writer and educator with expertise in making workplaces, schools and services fully accessible to people with disabilities. My main activities: accommodation and return to work planning; assistive technology assessments; macro scripting; and speech recognition training and customization.
I was an invited expert with the W3C User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG). For nine years, I was Chair of the RESNA Special Interest Group (SIG) Committee. In the past, I have served both as Chair and Co-Chair of the RESNA Consumer Access, Priorities, and Benefits Over the Lifespan (formerly known as SIG 20: Consumer Perspectives of Assistive Technology), as a member the W3C Education Outreach Working Group, and as a member of the East York Committee on Inclusion and Access.
My educational background: I have a B.A. (Psychology), a B.Ed. (Science, Visual Arts, Guidance), and an M.A. (Measurement, Evaluation, and Computer Applications).
I have worked full-time in the assistive technology field since 1995. Over the years, I have helped more than 95 organizations in Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia.
Although I mostly work solo, on certain projects, I collaborate with talented individuals, including:
Sandy Feldman
Sandy is a web geek who is into accessibility, usability, and technical testing. She designs and code sites from scratch, builds custom WordPress themes, and publishes guidelines on enhancing WordPress accessibility. Her clients include Brandeis University Digital Accessibility Program, CNIB Frontier Digital Accessibility, and the Blind Institute of Technology.
In addition to her freelance activities, she is Team Lead at Inclusive Media and Design, where her primary role is educating clients about WCAG conformance and AODA compliance.
Sandy and I have collaborated on web remediation projects since 2004. Sites we have redesigned include Balance for Blind Adults, Toronto Trailblazers, and my own site, Cantor Access Inc.
In addition, Sandy and I have conducted usability studies of web sites with blind and low-vision users.
Barbara Roberts
Barbara Roberts, Ph.D. is an Occupational Therapist. Barbara has expertise in vocational rehabilitation, adult mental health, and pediatrics as well as accommodation issues in education. For many years she was the Disability Services Advisor at Queen's University, and ran a mediation service for students and institutions with accommodation questions. She was the Human Rights Officer at the University of New Brunswick, and the former Executive Director of the WorkLife Office and Senior Adviser to the Provost, Michigan State University.
Barbara has been a Board member of provincial and national organizations, working on issues of human rights implementation in education. Her Ph.D. dissertation explored policies related to students with disabilities in professional education programs.
Since the mid-1990s, Alan and Barbara have combined their expertise to implement complex accommodations for university employees and students with disabilities.
Remembering Daniel Hilton-Chalfen (1957 - 2020)
Daniel Hilton-Chalfen, PhD, was a pioneer of adaptive computing services in higher education, beginning with the UCLA model program he established in 1984. He advised and nurtured assistive technology programs at colleges and universities throughout the United States and internationally, and during the early 1990s, served as Chair of EDUCOM's Project EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information).
I first encountered Danny on the Project EASI mailing list in 1992 or 1993. I was just launching my career, and Danny seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing. He was my first assistive technology and accessibility "guru" — although Danny being Danny, we quickly became friends. We hung out at CSUN conferences, baked pesto pizza together at his home in Los Angeles, and exchanged cooking ideas by email. We hiked together in the Santa Monica Mountains, and after Danny and his family moved to Boulder in 2000, in the Rockies. Whenever I visited Colorado, I tried to make time to visit Danny, Sally, and Ted.
We were last in touch by email four weeks before he died. He wrote, "Yes, looooonnnng overdue for a chat!" Danny and I were sounding boards for each other's ideas for 25 years.