We had the good fortune of connecting with James Warnken and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi James, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My thought process behind starting my own business was a bit unique as I was entering a field that had very little awareness in the general conversations. As a professional with a disability, I realized that I had a unique position in the accessibility space, and with such a lack of awareness, I decided I might as well get things moving. I took my background in tech, my lived experience with a visual disability, and all of the knowledge I had learned over the last year about accessibility and designed a new way to approach accessibility. Instead of following the industry, I decided to anchor in education, training, events, and workshops to raise awareness around digital accessibility. Most organizations in this space lean on managed services, legal risks, or the lack of awareness to close business. I am leaning toward helping businesses become self sufficient with their digital accessibility initiatives, thus eliminating the need for a third-party vendor like myself in the long run. It is very similar to how non-profits structure their mission to solve a problem, thus resulting in no need for the organization to continue.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As a digital accessibility professional with a disability, I am involved in a lot of different things from auditing websites for accessibility conformance, training organizational teams on accessibility best practices, and even instructing courses to help other professionals get into the space.

My professional journey started in the digital marketing space where I helped build websites for small businesses and run marketing efforts like search engine optimization, social media, and advertising. It wasn’t until a few years into my professional journey that I even learned about digital accessibility. Shortly after learning about digital accessibility, I began researching, experimenting, and getting mentorship to learn as much as possible about making websites, documents, apps, and systems accessible to everyone.

In early 2022, I earned my IAAP CPACC certification, becoming 1 of only 6,00 globally certified professionals in the space. I also learned during this time how to leverage my lived experiences with a disability to help others become more accessible.

Over the last year, I have worked with more than 1050 professionals to teach them how to think, design, and build with accessibility in mind. These professionals come from the development, UX, UI, design, marketing, legal, and management departments of all sizes of organizations, including a few global organizations.

For me, the biggest challenge I faced was getting comfortable sharing my experiences living with a visual disability. I grew up hiding it from others and in this new role, I needed to bring this lived experience into the discussions, training, and conversations. I learned through my mentorship that this was normal and is called imposter syndrome. With time and practice, I have become very comfortable bringing my lived experiences to the table and now see how much value it adds for those who do not have a disability and often find it hard to relate.

My mission moving forward is to make the online space more accessible and usable for everyone, regardless of ability or disability through community, technology, and innovation!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would start by taking them to some of the popular places around Canton, Ohio starting with the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the new Hall of Fame Village. I would then take them to some of the staples in the community like Pizza Over, Ben Heggys, and Cherry Blend Coffee Roasters!

Once we had covered the Canton Area, I would likely take them to Akron ro Cleveland to experience the sports, local food spots, and museums like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Art Museum, and the science center.

Other than that, I would probably take them hiking to some of the parks I frequent like Sippo Lake, Cuyahoga Falls, Quail Hollow, and Petros Park.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Blind Institute of Technology and the Founder, Mike Hess

Website: https://www.jameswarnken.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theapexchaser/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswarnken/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jameswarnken

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