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About Accessibility NZ
Accessibility NZ is a web accessibility firm led by Nicolas Steenhout. Based in New Zealand, it offers most of its services worldwide.
Nic and Wix
Photo courtesy
Picture Perfect Photography
Nic is passionate and knowledgeable about web accessibility. He first encountered HTML in 1994. He "played" with websites for a few years and began developing websites for small non-profit organisations on a regular basis after that. As a person with a disability, Nic intimately understands many of the issues faced by web users with disabilities.
Nic's experience in web development gave him the opportunity to work with programmers, database specialists, server engineers and many other "ITS wonks". He understands the issues, and he understands the lingo.
Following several years as Programme Director of Progress Center for Independent Living in Forest Park, Illinois, Nic became Executive Director of LIFE CIL, in Savannah, Georgia. Centers for Independent Living are non-profit service and advocacy organisations operated by and for people with disabilities. During his work with these non-profit organisations, he worked directly with people with a wide range of disabilities, including but not limited to vision impairments, hearing impairments, mobility impairments, and cognitive disability. His interaction with people with disabilities gave him a keen understanding of the very real barriers faced by people on the web. As manager of relatively large non-profits organisations, he developed extensive understanding of your needs as a business owner.
Nic has worked on multiple small projects as well as several large development projects, such as Mambo and Joomla!. He is adaptable and flexible.
This combination of skills and experience provides a unique perspective.
In his spare time, Nic enjoys spending time with family (including two aging dogs), playing wheelchair rugby, and growing bonsai.
Approach
Nic is not there to lecture anyone on accessibility. He believes in simple solutions and common sense. He also believes in awareness training: He teaches not only how to build with accessibility in mind, but why.
The team
Depending on the project, Nic calls on a "stable" of team members - from graphic designers to database engineers, passing by "code jockeys", you will be in good hands. All aspects of projects are personally supervised by Nic.
Affiliations and experience
Nic Steenhout has extensive experience providing disability awareness and accessibility training. He has spoken to small groups, and large groups (up to 250 people). He has given trainings to various city employees, university staff & students, businesses, and developer gatherings, in the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
The following are some of Nic's web accessibility and development experiences and affiliations.
- Member HTML Writers' Guild (1997- present)
- Member Guild of Accessible Web Designers (2006 - present)
- Member Joomla! Core Development Team (2005 - 2006)
- Member Mambo Core Development Team (2006 - 2008)
- Team Leader Mambo Analysis and Design Team (2008 - present)
