Owen Edwards Email & Phone Number

United States

Leading a team of senior accessibility consultants in a cross-functional group of consultants, project managers, and customer success managers focused on long-term strategic relationships with our Fortune 100 clients. Planning structure and processes to maximize Level Access's ability to support these key clients, and coaching senior consultants to grow their skills, to provide the maximum tactical and strategic value to clients.

San Francisco Bay Area

Auditing, remediation, technical, and process consulting to address the business and technical needs of organizations affected by digital & online accessibility regulations including Section 508, ADA, WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1, and CVAA.Accessibility Services Lead for several enterprise-level Fortune 500 strategic accounts in the Financial Services vertical.Subject matter expert on video accessibility including captions, subtitles, audio description, players, and platforms, and the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). Level Access's alternate on the FCC Disability Advisory Committee.

San Francisco Bay Area

Design, develop and deploy online systems and tools to improve the accessibility of information and communications technology, especially digital video, including description and captioning, to comply with existing and emerging WCAG and CVAA requirements. Consulting with businesses, non-profits and open-source developers to improve compliance and educate developer communities. Continuing development and support for YouDescribe.org as a platform to develop new accessibility techniques for video, and raise awareness around video accessibility and description. In 2014, YouDescribe won the FCC Chairman's Award for Advancement in Accessibility (AAA). Provide consultation and training on legislative and technical risks and opportunities in the technology accessibility space (CVAA, WCAG, Section 508), especially around video and audio.

San Francisco Bay Area

Project lead and senior engineer in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) and Video Description Research & Development Center (VDRDC), enabling research into the customization of information and communications technology to suit the needs and abilities of individual users, focusing on those with blindness and vision loss.Project lead and chief architect for YouDescribe.org, including initial system architecture, prototyping, planning and grant-writing.Lead developer of a proof-of-concept "WearaBraille" wearable wireless virtual Braille keyboard, capable of controlling an iPhone or other mobile device, which was featured at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2011.

Working on the application of advanced motion capture and wearable computing technologies to improve the mobility and independence of children with cerebral palsy. Led research into the combination of Functional Electrical Stimulation with MEMS-based sensor systems and portable computing platforms for use in gait assistance in clinical and community settings, and presented to groups at the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) conference, and at Stanford University.

Managing day-to-day operations at a camp on the South Fork of the American River, providing whitewater rafting trips to participants with physical and developmental disabilities, chronic illness, and underprivileged or underserved youth.Supervision, mentoring and training of on-site staff, volunteer guides and trip leaders, in carrying out safe, educational and challenging single- and multi-day raft trips, including expedition trips to the Klamath and Yampah Rivers. Trainer and role-model for guiding skills, swift-water rescue techniques and leadership principles.Risk management of river trips and in-camp activities. Operational logistics of camp and program resources. Maintenance of river camp, rafting equipment and vehicles.

Developed lesson plans and adaptive equipment to allow participants to learn and enjoy snowboarding, snow-biking and other snow sports, using an understanding of biomechanics and teaching/learning styles, as well as knowledge of the challenges presented by physical and cognitive disabilities, to address the specific needs of each individual. Helped develop and certify the curriculum for the national standards for teaching snowboarding to people with disabilities at both beginner and intermediate levels (PSIA/AASI Adaptive Snowboard certifications, Level 1 & 2).

San Jose, Ca

Senior engineer and chief architect for all audio firmware development, including supervising Dolby and DTS certification of two generations of audio decoders.Technical leadership of the DVD semiconductor program, leading a team designing semiconductors and associated firmware through complete product lifecycle, coordinating with hardware design groups in San Jose and Japan, and negotiating and reporting to a Japanese program manager and Japanese customers.

Feasibility study for Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) receiver chipset design, including COFDM demodulation and MPEG-1 audio decoding. Development of application software (including MPEG-1 and -2 audio decoders) in assembly language for custom DSPs.Specification, design support and software model development for an MPEG-2 Transport Stream demultiplexer IC for DVB set-top box applications.Technical support for marketing department for embedded DSP and set-top box products