Welcome to Walei’s A11y!
Creating Accessible Digital Experiences for the past 10 years!
I’m Walei and for the past ten years, I’ve worked in the accessibility space within local government, small businesses, art institutions, nonprofits and most recently at Walmart. Currently, I am an Accessibility Product Manager at the Walmart Omni Channel Product Accessibility team.
My experience includes:
WCAG compliance for large ecosystems such as 300+ websites owned by the City of New York
Going beyond compliance and creating accessible and usable products
Adopting a shift left approach for designing inclusive products
Implementing end-to-end accessibility processes into product life cycles
Assistive Technology demos, digital accessibility analysis & bug reporting
Educating and empowering digital professionals through accessibility trainings so that they can better meet their goals
Composing playbooks, reports, accessibility statements and VPATs
Work and Videos!
I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of products and content that you can find on the My Work as well as Talks and Presentations pages. Below are a few of my favorites.
NYC Vaccine Finder
In the Spring of 2021, the Covid-19 vaccine was rolling out nation-wide. It was important that all New Yorkers, especially those with disabilities, be able to access this complex product to schedule their vaccine appointment. I am proud to have worked diligently with my colleagues at the City of New York as well as Esri to provide an accessible experience on desktop and mobile. You can check it out using the link below.
Disability Rights Virtual Art Gallery
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, I worked with my colleagues at the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities to create a virtual exhibit commemorating the rich disability rights history in New York City. For this gallery, we wrote vivid and descriptive alt-text to immerse blind visitors. Browse through the exhibit using the link below.
Our History Disability Rights Virtual Exhibit
Audio Description
Audio Description (AD) is near and dear to my heart. As a blind advocate working in city government, I was able to get the City of New York to start adding AD to some of it’s videos. This goes back as far as 2016. Here’s one of the first videos that we made accessible together. Can you recognize the voice of the audio describer? I’ll give you a hint. It’s me 😊.
Becky Curran NYC at Work with Audio Description
Free Consultation
Since starting at Walmart, I do not do consulting work anymore. However, I do enjoy pro bono work for small businesses, art institutions, nonprofits and individuals. At the very least, I’m happy to give you 30 minutes of my time where we can discuss digital accessibility, test your website with a screen reader or answer any questions you have about getting started. Use the button below to send me a message.