Staff
Donna Danielewski is Director of The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media. She develops and maintains collaborative relationships with corporate and public sector partners, identifying challenges and possible accessibility solutions for a wide range of products and services that utilize new media. She works closely with industry leaders such as Apple, AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield MA, BlackBerry, Yahoo! and Verizon, leading educational publishers, and other companies, as well as federal, state, and local agencies, creating and maintaining NCAM’s consulting relationships. These companies and agencies have formed partnerships with NCAM and, with our help, have accomplished their goals of providing more accessible products and services for their customers. Donna holds a BA from Boston University, an MA from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD from Florida State University. She joined NCAM in 2008.
Geoff Freed, Director, Technology Projects and Web Media Standards, has been involved in broadcast-, Web- and multimedia-accessibility initiatives for 30 years. He has represented NCAM within working groups of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C/WAI), the DAISY Consortium and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), and has participated in the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s (ASTC) Mobile Handheld working group to ensure that mobile content and devices meet the needs of users with disabilities. He is a co-author of the W3C’s Timed Text Markup Language (TTML), a non-proprietary method for providing captions and subtitles in digital media, and is a specialist in captioning technologies in all formats, from broadcast to Web. Geoff has led numerous federally funded R&D projects focused on hardware and software accessibility solutions, standards development and content preparation. He is expert in authoring and display technologies for electronic text and digital talking books, as well as solutions for accessible mobile media. He is an authority on Section 508 regulations and frequently consults on accessibility issues with a wide range of clients, from software and hardware manufacturers to museums, major publishers and universities. Geoff is also the author of extensive training materials and guidelines related to Web- and multimedia-accessibility, and has trained hundreds of public broadcasters, higher-education institutions and service providers on how to create accessible digital materials of all kinds. Geoff holds a B.A. from the University of Nebraska.
Richard Caloggero, NCAM Access Technology Specialist, is an expert screen-reader user, as well as a programmer and Web developer. Mr. Caloggero also has more than a decade of experience as an assistive-technology consultant and educator. For nine years, Caloggero has worked for both NCAM and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Rich works on NCAM tools development and conducts software and Web site accessibility evaluation and repair projects for NCAM clients such as Adobe, Apple, Yahoo!, Centers for Disease Control, and IBM. He has programming expertise in PHP, HTML, C, JavaScript, PERL, LISP, and Unix shells. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Bryan Gould, Director, Accessible Learning and Assessment Technologies—with the Media Access Group at WGBH since 1996—is well versed in overall accessibility, and is particularly well-suited to address issues related to blindness and how people who are blind or who have low vision (or any print limitations) access technology and various types of media. Mr. Gould conducts blindness-related research and development projects for NCAM. He conducts training sessions for publishers, accessible material producers, and state organizations on how best to present complex images to meet the needs of students with print disabilities. He is also spearheading efforts to develop standards-based methods of embedding short and extended image descriptions in digital books, online curriculum, and online high-stakes assessments. He led an NSF-funded collaboration with researchers and practitioners at the American Foundation for the Blind, Learning Ally, and the American Printing House for the Blind to research and develop guidelines for creating efficient and effective access to STEM images via description. He was the project manager for the "Description Enhanced Assessments" a DOEd-funded project which focused on access to high-stakes testing for students with print disabilities. He is a co-Principal Investigator for the DIAGRAM Center which is focused on delivering accessible digital textbooks including accessible images to students who have print disabilities. He continues to research and advise on issues related to audio description for video and on-line presentation of multimedia. He works with museums, theme parks, educational publishers, multimedia producers, and retail and entertainment organizations in their efforts to enhance services to people who are blind or visually impaired. Prior to joining NCAM, he spent ten years at WGBH’s Descriptive Video Service, hiring and training describers and refining WGBH’s description style guidelines. He has conducted numerous focus groups and interviews with blind consumers and educators serving blind learners of all ages. Bryan holds a BA from Syracuse University and an MA from the University of Massachusetts.
Madeleine Rothberg, Senior Subject Matter Expert, specializes in access solutions for users with disabilities, both through directly accessible solutions such as captions, talking software and audio description, and through improvements to infrastructure through standards efforts. She established the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Accessibility Working Group which created the Access For All specifications for personalized accessibility of online information. She participated in submission of the Access for All specifications to the International Standards Organization (ISO) which resulted in approval of Access for All specifications as the ISO/IEC standard 24751, "Individualized Adaptability and Accessibility in e-Learning, Education and Training." She continues to work internationally to refine the standard through the ISO/IEC JTC 1 (Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology Standards). She led development of the first-ever implementation of a fully accessible home media center based on the open source, Linux-based MythTV platform. She served on the U.S. Department of Education’s National File Format Panel that developed the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard for publishers. Through successive NSF grants, she has developed prototypes and guidelines to make science and math software and content accessible to learners with visual impairments and usable by learners with motor disabilities. With Bryan Gould, she leads training sessions on STEM description guidelines. She leads development of implementation of the Access for All standard into Teachers' Domain and directed the "Dissemination of Effective Practices for STEM Description" NSF-funded project. She has an Ed.M. in Technology in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Peter Villa is the Business and Production Manager overseeing the administrative and financial management of the department. Peter has a BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and joined the Media Access Group in 2007.
Geoff Freed, Director, Technology Projects and Web Media Standards, has been involved in broadcast-, Web- and multimedia-accessibility initiatives for 30 years. He has represented NCAM within working groups of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C/WAI), the DAISY Consortium and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), and has participated in the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s (ASTC) Mobile Handheld working group to ensure that mobile content and devices meet the needs of users with disabilities. He is a co-author of the W3C’s Timed Text Markup Language (TTML), a non-proprietary method for providing captions and subtitles in digital media, and is a specialist in captioning technologies in all formats, from broadcast to Web. Geoff has led numerous federally funded R&D projects focused on hardware and software accessibility solutions, standards development and content preparation. He is expert in authoring and display technologies for electronic text and digital talking books, as well as solutions for accessible mobile media. He is an authority on Section 508 regulations and frequently consults on accessibility issues with a wide range of clients, from software and hardware manufacturers to museums, major publishers and universities. Geoff is also the author of extensive training materials and guidelines related to Web- and multimedia-accessibility, and has trained hundreds of public broadcasters, higher-education institutions and service providers on how to create accessible digital materials of all kinds. Geoff holds a B.A. from the University of Nebraska.
Richard Caloggero, NCAM Access Technology Specialist, is an expert screen-reader user, as well as a programmer and Web developer. Mr. Caloggero also has more than a decade of experience as an assistive-technology consultant and educator. For nine years, Caloggero has worked for both NCAM and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Rich works on NCAM tools development and conducts software and Web site accessibility evaluation and repair projects for NCAM clients such as Adobe, Apple, Yahoo!, Centers for Disease Control, and IBM. He has programming expertise in PHP, HTML, C, JavaScript, PERL, LISP, and Unix shells. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Bryan Gould, Director, Accessible Learning and Assessment Technologies—with the Media Access Group at WGBH since 1996—is well versed in overall accessibility, and is particularly well-suited to address issues related to blindness and how people who are blind or who have low vision (or any print limitations) access technology and various types of media. Mr. Gould conducts blindness-related research and development projects for NCAM. He conducts training sessions for publishers, accessible material producers, and state organizations on how best to present complex images to meet the needs of students with print disabilities. He is also spearheading efforts to develop standards-based methods of embedding short and extended image descriptions in digital books, online curriculum, and online high-stakes assessments. He led an NSF-funded collaboration with researchers and practitioners at the American Foundation for the Blind, Learning Ally, and the American Printing House for the Blind to research and develop guidelines for creating efficient and effective access to STEM images via description. He was the project manager for the "Description Enhanced Assessments" a DOEd-funded project which focused on access to high-stakes testing for students with print disabilities. He is a co-Principal Investigator for the DIAGRAM Center which is focused on delivering accessible digital textbooks including accessible images to students who have print disabilities. He continues to research and advise on issues related to audio description for video and on-line presentation of multimedia. He works with museums, theme parks, educational publishers, multimedia producers, and retail and entertainment organizations in their efforts to enhance services to people who are blind or visually impaired. Prior to joining NCAM, he spent ten years at WGBH’s Descriptive Video Service, hiring and training describers and refining WGBH’s description style guidelines. He has conducted numerous focus groups and interviews with blind consumers and educators serving blind learners of all ages. Bryan holds a BA from Syracuse University and an MA from the University of Massachusetts.
Madeleine Rothberg, Senior Subject Matter Expert, specializes in access solutions for users with disabilities, both through directly accessible solutions such as captions, talking software and audio description, and through improvements to infrastructure through standards efforts. She established the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Accessibility Working Group which created the Access For All specifications for personalized accessibility of online information. She participated in submission of the Access for All specifications to the International Standards Organization (ISO) which resulted in approval of Access for All specifications as the ISO/IEC standard 24751, "Individualized Adaptability and Accessibility in e-Learning, Education and Training." She continues to work internationally to refine the standard through the ISO/IEC JTC 1 (Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology Standards). She led development of the first-ever implementation of a fully accessible home media center based on the open source, Linux-based MythTV platform. She served on the U.S. Department of Education’s National File Format Panel that developed the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard for publishers. Through successive NSF grants, she has developed prototypes and guidelines to make science and math software and content accessible to learners with visual impairments and usable by learners with motor disabilities. With Bryan Gould, she leads training sessions on STEM description guidelines. She leads development of implementation of the Access for All standard into Teachers' Domain and directed the "Dissemination of Effective Practices for STEM Description" NSF-funded project. She has an Ed.M. in Technology in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Peter Villa is the Business and Production Manager overseeing the administrative and financial management of the department. Peter has a BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and joined the Media Access Group in 2007.