Dr Gregg Vanderheiden

Gregg Vanderheiden


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Dr. Vanderheiden has been active in the area of Technology and Disability for over 45 years.  His early work was in Augmentative Communication, a term taken from his writings in the late 70’s.  Starting in 1979, his focus shifted to personal computers and he worked inside Apple, Microsoft and IBM on increasing the accessibility and usability of their products. Apple included features in Apple IIe, gs, and MacOS and iOS.  IBM and Microsoft licensed 9 features from Dr. Vanderheiden’s group for inclusion in DOS, OS/2, and Windows.  Dr. Vanderheiden co-chaired and co-authored the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0 and 2.0), worked with the Access Board on 255 and 508,  and lead the effort to develop the EZ-Access package of cross-disability access features that are now built into Amtrak ticket machines, Automated Postal Stations, Homeland Security Passport Kiosks, and many other ITMs across the country.

Dr Vanderheiden, leads the GPII initiative (the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure) and on September 13 (AAATE COnference) launched the DeveloperSPace (an online site where developers can find all resources in one place). It already has real uses and DeveloperSpace implementations that can be inspiring (first accessible business intelligence suite, alternative input modalities into educational games, printing services for blind in universities etc.).

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