Accessibility Engineer With Lived Experience Driving Real-World Impact
From auditing 3,000+ kiosks to building scalable documentation systems and training teams, I help organizations turn accessibility into measurable, lasting change.
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Accessibility Auditing & Testing
I work with developers and organizations to identify and resolve accessibility barriers in their digital products. My audits cover WCAG compliance, keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and inclusive design — giving you a clear picture of where your product stands and a practical path to improvement.
Beyond the web, I apply the same lens to video games — reviewing UI and accessibility features so that gamers with disabilities can make informed decisions before purchasing a title.
ADA Title II Digital Accessibility Mandates
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Final Rule establishes **WCAG 2.1 Level AA** as the technical compliance standard for all state and local government entities, public schools, and public higher education institutions.
With recent updates to the implementation timeline, public institutions have strict, clear compliance windows closing over the next two years.
Underlying civil rights protections remain entirely active throughout these grace periods. Platforms left un-remediated remain exposed to immediate litigation, and temporary third-party overlay widgets fail to satisfy structural procurement compliance rules.
Large Entities (Populations 50k+): Must achieve full programmatic conformance by April 26, 2027.
Small Districts & K-12 Boards: Must achieve full programmatic conformance by April 26, 2028.
Compliance Solutions Framework
Infrastructure Auditing: Manual screen-reader verification (NVDA, Orca,Talkback) across state portals.
Native Remediation: Root-level front-end code refactoring within React/Next.js to ensure robust focus flow.
Document Tagging: Remediating public PDF forms and legacy archives into accessible versions's that can be read by assistive technology.
Foster Youth Advocacy
As someone who has experienced foster care in my infancy as a disabled foster youth, I have strongly advocated for the improvement of disabled foster youth currently in care.
My advocacy centers on creating systemic awareness of disabled foster youth, supporting legislation that benefits them, and giving back to those currently in care.
I have spent years advocating for foster youth with various non profits such as California Youth Connection, Just In Time For Foster Youth, Foster Club, The Journeymen Of San Diego, The National Foster Youth Institute,
I have also trained social workers on how to best connect with foster youth in order to ensure success for both parties.
Real World Impact
Accessibility work is only meaningful when it creates tangible change for real people.
Here is a snapshot of what that has looked like in practice starting from 2013 until the present day in my career.
Eco Atm
15 Agents Trained
Created training used by a team of 15 customer service agents, instructing them on how to guide disabled customers in using 5,000 kiosks.
Eco Atm
More Than 2,000 Kiosks Made Accessible
Led a cross-functional team of legal, DevOps, and customer service professionals that resulted in a tactile keypad being added to next-generation kiosks — allowing both motor-impaired and visually impaired customers to use 2,000 new kiosks without needing to call in for assistance.
Eco Atm
200 Employees Reached
Led the company's Disability Business Resource Group, providing training and resources to 200 employees to better support disabled coworkers and their loved ones.
Tree House
Audism Prevention
Audited accessibility training courses by reviewing captions for accuracy, ensuring training material was free of errors that could cause harm to Deaf and hard-of-hearing learners.
Tree House
WCAG Content Review
Reviewed blog posts covering WCAG guidelines to ensure the information presented was inclusive, accurate, and accessible to readers learning about digital accessibility.
The San Diego Futures Foundation
Youth Workforce Entry
Created awareness of a digital literacy course aimed at giving youth with disabilities a pathway into the workforce through technical training, and reviewed training material to ensure it met the accessibility needs of various learners.
Youtube Content Creator — Video Game Accessibility
Continuously creating video content that reviews the accessible design, features and overall success of accessibility in video games, reaching a wide audience of gamers and developers.
PlayStation
Accessibility Subject Matter Expert Test Enablement Team.
- As a member of the test enablement team I led accessibility audits of production dashboards, identifying and remediating keyboard, screen reader, and color contrast issues to meet WCAG AA/AAA standards.
- Designed and delivered hands-on accessibility training for developers using real dashboard code, including side-by-side accessible and inaccessible implementations.
- Built a standardized documentation framework in Confluence, creating 9 reusable templates and dashboards to track ownership, freshness, and review cycles.
Blink UX
Provided accessibility consulting services to improve the accessibility of digital products such as a NASA website and their own Convey UX website.
The Journeymen Of San Diego
Built and maintained accessible web applications for the organization.
Video Game Accessibility
can you play it?
Disabled gamers shouldn't have to spend $70–$80 on a title only to find out it's unplayable for them. I review video games through the lens of accessibility — covering the features and design decisions that determine whether a game actually works for players with disabilities.
What I cover in every review
- Font size & readability
- Color contrast
- Subtitle & caption quality
- Control remapping
- UI & menu navigation
- Cognitive load
- Difficulty & assist options
- Audio design
As a disabled gamer myself, I know what it means to spend money on a game and find out the game wasn't designed with you in mind. These reviews exist so that doesn't have to keep happening. Every review includes an interactive transcript so deaf and hard of hearing users can access the content too.
Frequently Asked Questions
A few of the questions I get asked most often.
Talks & Interviews
Watch my speaking engagements and interviews covering digital accessibility and advocacy for disabled foster youth.
Each video includes an interactive transcript — click any line to jump to that moment.
Video Player Controls for Keyboard Users: Space bar - toggle play/pause.
Right and Left Arrow - seek the video forwards and back.
Up and Down Arrow - increase and decrease the volume.
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Journeymen Of San Diego Interview
James Bond Interviews me.
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Chronicles Of Social Change Interview
An interview for the chronicles of social change showing how I entered foster care and eventually started my career in tech.
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Ricardo's Success Story
The journey of Ricardo Rodriguez from severely disabled foster youth to successful entrepreneur.
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Journey of Resilience: Ricardo's Interview with Blink
Joe Welinske, director of accessibility at Blink UX, interviews Ricardo.