S2E3 - Accessibility Evangelism With Brett Lewis

In this episode, we feature the story of Brett Lewis, a digital accessibility leader and Paralympic athlete. Today, Brett works for Freedom Scientific as a software engineer and product owner. He has also worked for Twitter, making sure the website was accessible for the disability community. Brett lost his vision at age six and left his local elementary school to attend a resource school. That summer, his mother attended classes for teaching blind students, enabling him to return to his local school and be mainstreamed. Reflecting on this part of his educational journey, Brett shared "I think having to go to my local school in many ways kept me from being too isolated. Maybe, as I said, helped shape a lot of my expectations for what I needed to do as I grew up." In the 1980s, Brett attended Stanford University, earning a bachelor's degree in math and computational science and a master's degree in engineering economic systems. This opened the door to software development, leading Brett to work for NADO, Freedom Scientific and Twitter. In addition to his work in the accessibility field, Brett is also a professional judo competitor, competing internationally at the Paralympics and World Championships. He has taken his love for judo to a new level as a sensei, teaching judo to others. Join us to hear about what it is like to work for Freedom Scientific, stories of judo matches, and tips about blindness along the way. You can contact Brett using the following social links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-lewis-judo/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/brettlewisjudo.bsky.social Twitter: https://x.com/BrettLewisJudo

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