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In the world of accessibility, Cynthia D. Waddell, JD, is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the field of electronic and information technology as well as employment and construction. A stakeholder in the accessibility effort, Cynthia Waddell was born with a bi-lateral hearing loss and is a member of the deaf/hard of hearing community. Through her work as the former Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance Officer for the City of San Jose, CA, and through her service in Federal, State, and County appointments, she has served as a tireless advocate for the entire community of people with disabilities.

During the past decade, Cynthia Waddell has worked as an ADA consultant for university and government entities and has lectured at various universities, presented at international conferences, received numerous awards, served on several boards and published a number of papers on law and policy for information technology. Her seminal paper, "The Growing Digital Divide in Access for People with Disabilities: Overcoming Barriers to Participation," was commissioned by the US government and has been translated and cited by foreign governments, universities, disability organizations and entities around the world.

As the author of the first accessible web design standard for US local government, Cynthia Waddell's accessibility efforts in the international arena have included participation on the Portuguese International Accessibility Board; an effort that led to Portugal's adoption of the Portuguese Accessibility Guidelines for web sites. In addition, she participated several years in the "Boosting the UK Digital Economy- A Virtual Think Tank" event and at the invitation of the Japan Executive Committee of The Internet Society, presented at the "Global Everyone Access" INET2000 in Yokohama, Japan, and currently participates in the European Union "Design for All" initiative. In order to dedicate all of her time to promoting accessibility on a national level, Cynthia Waddell co-founded ACE and is a Principal Consultant and Accessibility Subject Matter Expert.

As a key member of the ACE team, Cynthia Waddell combines her expertise in disability legislation and technology to provide education and professional consulting services for access to electronic and information technology for persons with disabilities. She was the subject of a feature story "Enabling Technology" in the February 2001 issue of Government Technology Magazine. In addition, as one of the world's leading experts, she was the sole US speaker at the 2001 "Design for All European Day of Disabled People" at the invitation of the European Commission and the European Disability Forum. Recently in the US, the National Council on Disability cited her influential paper "Applying the ADA to the Internet" in their impact report The Accessible Future.

Cynthia Waddell is a member of the National Task Forces on Disability and Technology. She also serves on the National Committee for Information Technology Standards (NCITS) V2 IT Access Interfaces Technical Committee. Current appointments include Chair of the Santa Clara County Advisory Commission for People with Disabilities and Vice-Chair of the State of California Building Code Access Committee. She assisted the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters in the accessibility evaluation of the Registrar of Voter's website, County voting equipment and the drafting of voter accessibility information for voter ballot information materials. She is an active participant on the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative Interest Group, The Internet Society, and the National Association of State Chief Information Officer (NASCIO) workgroup on accessibility.

Cynthia Waddell holds a Juris Doctorate from Santa Clara University School of Law where she was designated a Public Interest Disability Rights Scholar and Dan Bradley Fellow at the Employment Law Center in San Francisco, CA. In addition, she was a Rotary International Foundation Fellow at Exeter University, England, as well as an USC-Cambridge University Scholar at Cambridge University, England. She received her B.A., Cum Laude, from the University of Southern California.