About Us

Our Story

For over twenty years, our international accessibility and universal design consulting firm has served small companies, Fortune 500 corporations, educational institutions, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations representing people with disabilities. Tech for All’s sole mission is to help its clients successfully address the challenges of making their products, services, websites, kiosks, and mobile apps accessible for all, including people with disabilities.

TFA seeks to be your Accessibility Partner. We will work with your organization to craft practical and effective solutions for the accessibility challenges you face. TFA offers a broad range of accessibility support services including training, planning, evaluation, remediation, implementation, and monitoring.

greater than or equal to symbol

The TFA Logo

The greater than or equal to symbol is represented in the Tech for All logo and signifies our mission to help our clients provide equivalent or greater access to technology for people with disabilities.

Leadership

At the heart of TFA’s practice are the exceptionally talented, skilled, and experienced consultants who develop accessibility solutions and support successful implementation. Many of TFA’s experts are living with disabilities themselves. Each of TFA’s project teams includes seasoned consultants who bring specialized knowledge, capabilities, and solid experience to the task at hand.

Caesar Eghtesadi, PhD

Caesar founded Tech for All in 2001 after leading the development of the Universal Access Copier System, office equipment that was accessible by people with disabilities. Since then, he successfully led over 300 accessibility consulting projects. Under his leadership TFA has grown its diverse client base for airlines, eCommerce, higher education, publishing, retail, technology, and non profit organizations, representing people with disabilities. He served on the Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee, advising the U.S. Access Board to create accessibility standards for the Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act Amendments. For his achievements, he has received several awards including Computerworld Smithsonian Medal, and recently the James R. Olson Distinguished Service Award from American Council of the Blind.

Caesar received a Ph.D. from the University of London, UK, for his research in Active Noise Control Systems, and a Master's Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Bradford, UK.

The TFA Leadership Team

Crista Earl
Principal Accessibility Consultant

As a user of screen-reading technology, Crista has over 20 years of experience in design, development, and testing of accessible information and communication technology. Previously as Director of Web Operations at the American Foundation for the Blind, she oversaw a team of developers, database administrators, content managers, and social media professionals to develop and expand several accessible websites and software applications.

With CrissCross Technologies, she also created and distributed audio tutorials on Windows-based applications for users of screen-reading technology and developed and distributed games and educational software for people with visual impairments. As a senior member of the TFA consulting team she leads non-visual accessibility evaluation of software, website, mobile, and integrated hardware & software products.

Crista has a B.A. from Indiana University. As an instructor at the Baruch College Computer Center for Visually Impaired People, she taught several courses in software and web applications for users of assistive technology.

Andre Lukatsky
Principal Accessibility Design Consultant

Andre has over 15 years of experience in accessible information technology & associated standards & best practices, and extensive design & development expertise in accessible web and software applications. He has developed accessible distance education frameworks for blind and visually impaired students, and implemented technology solutions for users with disabilities.

As a senior member of TFA team, Andre has conducted accessibility trainings and executed numerous accessibility evaluation and development projects, spanning desktop, online, and mobile platforms. Andre is a graduate of Illinois Institute of Technology with a BS in Computer Science.

Sue Cullen
Director of Universal Design & IT Accessibility

Sue has over 20 years of experience in digital accessibility compliance. Between 2011 & 2015 she created and was the Program Manager of the Universal Design Center at the California State University at Northridge. She has shared her expertise with industry, government and higher education entities to help them devise strategies for access to information communication technology.

She has extensive experience in evaluation & training of web and software applications for conformance with the accessibility standards and usability best practices. As a senior member of the TFA team she has been leading consulting projects for higher education institutions & technology corporations. She is a frequent presenter on strategic business planning for accessibility compliance, was co-chair of the EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Constituency Group, and has published in EDUCAUSE Review. Sue is a graduate of Syracuse University with a Masters in Information Resource Management and Certificate in Information Systems/Telecommunications Management, and State University of New York at Albany with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology

Steve Kaye
Chief Accessibility Consultant

Steve has over 30 years of experience designing, developing, and testing software, web applications, user interface, and integrated hardware and software for accessibility and usability.  He also has significant experience in human factors and human-machine interface design. Steve has worked on products ranging from simple embedded systems to complex, enterprise level software applications and hardware products.

Steve's areas of interest include universal design, design and development for disabled users, accessibility and usability evaluation. He has contributed to design & development of several accessible kiosks applications. Steve has Bachelor & Master degrees in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Experimental Neuropsychology from City University of New York.

Elaine Ober
Director of Accessibility Consulting Programs

Elaine has spent over 30 years in higher education publishing, working across all disciplines. In 2011, she dove into accessibility full time, serving as Associate Director of Accessibility for Pearson’s Higher Education division, and then as Head of Accessibility Advocacy for global Pearson until her retirement in 2017.

Since then, she has been leading TFA accessibility consulting projects for publishing, higher education, digital media, and academic organizations. Elaine serves on the Advisory Board for the DIAGRAM Center, and on the National Task Force of the the Center for Accessible Material Innovation at Georgia Tech. Elaine has Master of Library and Information Science, Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Boston, MA, and Bachelor of Arts, English & Comparative Literature from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.

Frederick Bowes
Executive Consultant

Frederick has been leading TFA business development & partnership arrangements since 2011. He contributes directly to the design of end-to-end accessibility project and program solutions. Since 2000, Rick has focused on the opportunity to leverage digital publishing technologies for the benefit of users with print disabilities.

Frederick served as the American Foundation for the Blind’s representative on the NIMAS Development Board and later was chosen by the Association of American Publishers to lead its Alternate Format Solutions Initiative. His proposal to reengineer the way alternate formats is provided for distribution to students with disabilities resulted in the highly successful AccessText Network. Rick is a graduate of Dartmouth College with an MBA from Columbia University.

Ricky Enger
Senior Accessibility Consultant - Project Manager

As a blind technology professional herself, Ricky has a deeply personal understanding of how accessible products benefit the disabled population. Ricky has over 15 years of experience with a variety of assistive technologies. She has been heavily involved in the development of accessible websites and software from design to final release.

Recently, Ricky has been involved in design, development, evaluation, and launch of multiple accessible kiosk applications for airlines and health applications. Ricky holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from West Texas A&M University.

Michael Parker
Principal Content Accessibility Consultant - Team Leader

Michael has more than 15 years of experience in accessible information technology and the assistive technology field. He has developed information access solutions for people with disabilities in many different public settings. Most recently, Michael has been working on website and document accessibility providing both training and remediation services to help organizations meet accessibility requirements for people with disabilities.

Michael is a member of the Rehabilitation Engineering Society of America and has a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. 

Catherine “Cathy” Schmitt Whitaker, Ed.D.
Senior Accessibility Partnership Consultant

Cathy has over 20 years of experience with accessible technology, strategic planning and training. She has collaborated in the creation, review, and implementation of accessibility related policies at the organization and system levels within higher education. An interdisciplinary background and desire to make a difference, she embraces a universal design approach and collaboration with strategic partners.

Cathy has served on numerous advisory groups including as a founding member of the Cal Poly Pomona University’s Inclusive Excellence Council Executive Board, and the California State University (CSU) Services to Students with Disabilities Advisory Committee. A Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), she actively conducts presentations and workshops for private, non-profit and educational institutions. Legally blind since birth, she uses screen reader technology and is an active member of the disability community.

Cathy earned her Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from the University of La Verne, Masters in Counseling from CSU at Fullerton and Bachelor’s in Social Ecology from the University of California at Irvine.

Awards and Recognition

The Tech for All team has received numerous awards and recognition for their contributions to technologies for people with disabilities, including:

  • Access Award, American Foundation for the Blind
  • Technology of the Year Award, Industry Week Magazine
  • Computerworld Smithsonian Medal, Smithsonian Institute
  • Nominated for Stevie Wonder/SAP Product Vision Award, in top 10 finalists from 200 products from 27 Countries