Re: Introduction

Welcome Laura,

I can't express how excited I am to have you along as one of our merry band
:)

Thanks for your help, we doing a lot of intensive new work and can really
use your skills.

Onward!
Sharron

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 3:41 PM, Keen, Laura <lkee@loc.gov> wrote:

> Hello EOWG Members,
>
>
>
> I’ve recently joined the Education and Outreach Working Group. I’m writing to introduce myself and provide a bit about me and my experience.
>
>
>
> My name is Laura Keen. I’ve worked for the Library of Congress for the
> past 12 years in the web services unit of the Office of the Chief
> Information Officer. I’m currently the team lead for UI development as well
> as the accessibility SME for web services. My main focus is UI development
> and the content migration effort for loc.gov.  As you can imagine the
> Library has a lot of content. We have been slowly been migrating legacy
> static sub sites into a relatively new web application using SOLR, etl,
> python, and Django. Through a global search interface we increase the
> findability of our objects and are slowly migrating framework materials
> related to our objects and collections into a unified user interface.
>
>
>
> In this role I collaborate with designers, developers, and managers to
> implement loc.gov user interface strategy. I work with team members to
> implement responsive design that supports multiple screen sizes and
> orientations, across a variety of devices. I also serve as the subject
> matter expert for front-end development, mobile strategy, and web
> accessibility.
>
>
>
> Prior to joining the Library I worked briefly for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Section 508 Testing & Training Lab as their program manager. I provided project management and technical guidance to accessibility specialists for their documentation and testing effort.
>
>
>
> I was first exposed to web accessibility during my internship at
> Macromedia in Richardson Texas.  This is where I met Bob Regan and began
> working for him for over 2 years.  I met Sharron Rush while participating
> in the AIR Internet Rally in Austin TX. During this two year period, I was
> also involved in developing Macromedia’s trainingcafe.com educational
> eLearning accessibility modules. I designed an accessible kiosk demo for
> the Department of Homeland Security for the MacWorld Expo 2003 highlighting
> Macromedia Director MX accessibility features. The project included
> collaboration with TRACE Research Center and the engineering team for
> Macromedia Director MX.  Other projects included developing Dreamweaver and
> Contribute templates for the National Federation of the Blind, developing
> the digital version of the book “Constructing Accessible Web Sites”,
> developing a white paper and demo to aid developers in retrofitting their
> existing Director content for accessibility. As well as developing VPATs
> for Macromedia products.
>
> In my previous career I worked in the power generation industry for Stone
> & Webster in Boston. I performed system stress analysis of suspended piping
> systems, ensuring compliance with ASME and ANSI codes, for the design
> engineering of power plants.
>
>
>
> Personally, I live in Annapolis MD and I’m the mother of 2 boys ages 24 and 21. My oldest son Nathan lives and works in Portland ME and my younger son David will be a senior at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
>
>
>
> I’m looking forward to working with all of you, and I hope to be an asset to your group.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Laura Keen
>
> Lead IT Specialist
>
> Web Services
>
> Library of Congress
>
> 101 Independence AV SE
>
> Washington, DC 20540
>
> (202) 707-4722
>
>
>



-- 
Sharron Rush | Executive Director | Knowbility.org | @knowbility
*Equal access to technology for people with disabilities*