Gautam Rao
Head of Accessibility | Inclusive Design Leader | Disability/DEI Champion | Compliance Area Lead | WAS, CPACC
- Role
- Global Head of Accessibility at EY
- Location
- Princeton, NJ, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Gautam Rao
Thought leader passionate about creating exceptional and accessible digital experiences by bringing 20+ years’ experience in accessibility, UX design, and product development. Founder of EY’s Accessibility Center of Excellence focused on delivering accessibility services to internal and external clients and our people. Collaborator partnering with executive leadership in technology, procurement, risk, legal, learning, branding, and DEI functions. Presenter in key conferences and panels, and an IAAP-certified professional (CPACC, WAS) in web accessibility and assistive technologies. Inclusiveness champion working towards digital equity by elevating accessibility awareness and promoting culture change.
Experience
Global Head of Accessibility
Jul 2008 — Present · New York, NY, US
Defined the vision, strategy, and roadmap for digital accessibility in alignment with organization’s product strategy and business objectives to achieve WCAG 2.1 AA. • Established and led the Accessibility Center of Excellence (ACE) to provide accessibility testing, training, governance, methodology, and consulting support for internal and external clients. • Partnered with the CIO, the CTO, and other executive leaders from procurement, risk, legal, branding, learning, and DEI functions to infuse accessibility into business processes; and built a network of accessibility champions at executive level to help drive accessibility initiatives. • Accelerated revenue generation for EY by developing client accessibility services such as program development, testing, remediation, and consulting, as standalone services and as add-ons to digital transformation engagements. • Represented the firm to the community, the market, and clients as a thought leader by speaking at Disability:IN, ATIA, NOD, Teach Access conferences/panels; and by participating in leadership groups of PEAT, Disability:IN, and BDF. • Orchestrated training of engineering, design, product, learning, and content teams including UI developers, UX designers, instructional designers, audio/video creators, documentation specialists, and business teams. • Integrated accessibility in the product development methodology, the product planning/estimation process, the development of accessible code libraries, the inclusion of accessibility non-functional requirements, and the adoption of accessible coding best practices. • Formalized factoring of accessibility into procurement, product selection, and vendor management processes by adding accessibility requirements to product selection matrices, RFx materials, MSAs, SOWs, and contracts. • Created the Accessibility Help Desk, launched the IT Disability Support service, and led the Employee Resource Group on Accessibility.
Education
Penn State University
Human Factors Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Product Design
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