Introduction to EOWG

Dear EOWG Friends,

I have just joined the group and would like to briefly introduce myself.

My name is Vicki Menezes Miller.  I am of Goan origin, born in Kenya and I
have lived in Geneva, Switzerland, for more than 28 years.  My day time job
over the last 14 years has been juggling all kinds of web stuff (quality
assurance, user testing, managing web content, editing content, creating
sites, interface design, training, usability) with a particular focus on web
accessibility at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

I first heard about accessibility in 2007 when a delegate informed us that
he experienced a variety of problems in using the WIPO web site.  I was –
like many others I frequently meet  – not ignorant but simply not aware of
what an accessible web site meant technically, morally and practically.  To
cut a long story short, this led to me taking the lead in the Organization
in implementing accessibility, introducing WCAG 2.0 as a requirement and
organizing and conducting many training sessions, plus two workshops for UN
webmasters, the last one took place in 2010 with close to 200 participants.
We have made some progress but there is still a lot of ground to cover in a
large Organization with decentralized publishing.

What I have learned is that the biggest step forward in implementing
accessibility is, in fact, raising awareness about the topic.  It is often
the lack of knowledge about the topic which hinders people from making their
sites accessible.  The formula I like to use is:  “accessibility + usability
+ universal design = a user-friendly web for everyone”.

I feel very fortunate to be amongst such a diverse group of people
passionate about accessibility.  I am convinced with such enthusiasm, varied
skills and expertise, we can move forward towards building a better and more
usable web for everyone.

On a personal note, I am married to Mark Miller, who is very supportive in
my work on accessibility.  In my spare time, I’m an artist dabbling in oil
and water colors.

I look forward to working you, learning from you and with you and sharing
information along the journey.

Vicki Menezes Miller