Meet The Leaders

Before founding AccessAbility Officer in 2021 and launching the Certified AccessAbility Testing Program in 2022, Tanner unexpectedly joined the disability community when he woke up in 2004 as an adult in the hospital totally blind as a result of being in a terrible auto accident.
Tanner found sports for the blind several years later, re-igniting his love for competition. Tanner went on to become a US National Paralympic team member, 2011 ParaPan American gold medalist, 2012 Paralympian, 2013 World Championship team member, 3-time National Beep Baseball Association World Series MVP and Hall of Fame inductee, as well as being a 2-time National Champion in track cycling. Blind sports helped drive Tanner to succeed in other areas of his life, including as a professional and TEDx speaker, published author, and podcaster.

A Montessori teacher was the first to suggest that while bright, Heather might have some learning difficulties. The first psychologist to test Heather diagnosed such profound Attention Deficit Disorder and Learning Disability that he thought it unlikely that she would graduate from high school. With a supportive family and academic accommodations in place, Heather struggled but was able to graduate both high school and Cornell University.
Along her journey Heather found computers to be very helpful, providing spell checking as well as the ability to quickly get ideas down and then edit. She took typing classes, used computer magazines that published simple games in Basic, and took any course she could find on computer programming. Heather realized that computers have the power to give many more people with disabilities the opportunity to have an “invisible disability.” Peter Steiner's 1993 cartoon caption, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" became one of her favorite sayings.

As a Program Manager for Microsoft Office, Heather learned about career opportunities in digital accessibility that led to her managing, a team of Program Managers within Microsoft's Accessibility Group. Working on the fundamentals of Windows accessibility, Heather became an inventor on two UI Automation Patents (US7644367B2 and US7490313B2).
After 20+ years and five careers at Microsoft, Heather left to become an Accessibility Consultant working with a wide variety of private and government customers. Posting her Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) and Trusted Tester certifications on LinkedIn is how Tanner found Heather. The CPWA is a combination of the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) and the Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) certifications from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). Heather’s goal is to help others have invisible disabilities. Heather lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband and two teenage daughters.