Frances West – Founder of Frances West Co.

Frances West
Frances West

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Frances West is a champion for the rights for persons with disabilities on a global scale.  Frances served as IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer, as well as the Director of the IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center until June 2016.

Since retiring from IBM, Frances founded FrancesWestCo, a company providing inclusive digital innovation, enterprise accessibility technology strategy and women in technology consulting to help institutions achieve market differentiation and talent acquisition.

She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the World Institute on Disability, is a board advisor on the National Business Disability Council, is a trustee with the National Braille Press and is the Chair of the Strategy and Development Committee of the G3ict. The mission of G3ict is to promote the rights of persons with disabilities in the digital age and it operates to support the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Frances was born in Taiwan and attended universities in Hong Kong and the US.  She also holds an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston for her work in accessibility.

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