As volunteers in progressive and civic spaces, it’s our goal and responsibility to create technology that works for everyone. All people should be able to use the tools we build and access information that we share. We want our projects to be as inclusive as our community, and a reflection of our values and culture at Progressive HackNight.

To learn more about how you can design and build tech for all, join us on August 28 for an Accessibility HackNight! We’ll begin with two speakers committed to changing the culture and conversation, starting with Thomas Logan, the founder of Equal Entry, which audits technology and aims to improve public education about accessibility. We’ll also be joined by Xian Horn to speak from her experience as an advocate, teacher, speaker, blogger with Cerebral Palsy, and discuss her work as an Exemplar with AT&T NYU Connect Ability Challenge, a global software development competition leveraging mobile and wireless technologies to improve the lives of people living with disabilities.

Speakers

Xian Horn is a joyful half-Asian woman with Cerebral Palsy, who serves as teacher, speaker, beauty advocate, blogger, and Exemplar for the AT&T NYU Connect Ability Challenge toward the creation of Assistive Technology. She was named one of the 21 Leaders for the 21 Century by Women's eNews in 2017. Xian has judged NYU Hack the last two years, run workshops for the Monthly Music Hackathon, and just joined Cooper Hewitt's Accessibility Advisory Board in 2018. Xian has been featured in The White House Blog's Women Working To Do Good series, NPR, Forbes, Fast Company, NBC News, Fox 5 and Yahoo Lifestyle among others. Xian founded her 'Give Beauty Wings’ Self-Esteem program at NYU's Initiative for Women with Disabilities, the Jewish Community Center Manhattan, and M.S. 131. She is also a blogger for Positively Positive, a community of over 2.5 million readers.

Thomas Logan has spent the past fifteen years assisting organizations to create technology solutions that work for people with disabilities. Over his career Thomas has worked on project deliverables for numerous federal, state, and local government agencies as well as private organizations from startups to Fortune 500s. He is the owner of Equal Entry, whose mission is: “contribute to a more accessible world.” He is also co-organizer of Accessibility New York, a monthly Meetup for people interested in topics related to accessibility and people with disabilities.

Whether you’re an accessibility expert or this is all totally new to you, join us for these exciting speakers and breakout groups to follow! Ask questions of our experts and learn more about how to create accessible tech. If you’re familiar with accessibility best practices, join one of our breakout groups to advise on how they can make our projects work better for everyone.

Progressive HackNight is a bi-weekly gathering of coders and creatives, makers and doers, to foment and inspire action. We use our collective talents and abilities to push forward pro-social change in benefit of the common good. We’re all about making great ideas happen.

This event is open to technologists, organizers, data enthusiasts, ux/ui, creatives, project managers, product managers, coders, etc, of all backgrounds/experiences.

Food will be provided!

The schedule is as follows:

6:30p - 6:45p : registration, networking (mingle!)

6:45p - 6:55p : Introductions & announcements

6:55p - 7:30p : Speakers

7:30 - 7:40p : Announce Breakouts – Start a Breakout Group

7:30p - 9:30p : Breakout - Breakout Groups

After the program, the community will break out into two types of groups: discussion groups and working groups. Please notify the team at organizers@progressivehacknight.org if you want to announce a breakout group for that night. Start one by filling out a project issue on Github, or come to the HackNight to learn more!

DISCUSSION GROUPS: Groups centered on learning new things, discussing solutions to addressable problems, building networks, and strategizing.

WORKING GROUPS: Working groups are breakouts focused on either onboarding, training, or just having a team setup on collectively coding for your awesome project!