People
The Paciello Group (TPG) a software accessibility consultancy, employs the most knowledgeable and experienced technology and business consultants in the field of software accessibility. Experts in assistive technology, accessible design, usability, quality assurance testing and web development, TPG consultants work with our clients to help bridge the information gap in accessibility that exists in most enterprises today. TPG consultants show our clients the most efficient and cost effective way to address accessibility and to reach out to the more than 50 million Americans with disabilities as potential customers and partners.
Mike Paciello
Michael Paciello is Founder and President of The Paciello Group (TPG), a limited liability company. For more than 20 years, Mr. Paciello has served as an international leader, technologist and lecturer in the areas of assistive technology, usability, and accessible interface design.
Along with MB Technologies and Hyperion Corporation, TPG developed the first-ever AJAX development toolkit containing imbedded support for accessible controls and interfaces to people with disabilities.
In 2006, Mike was appointed co-chair to the Federal Access Board Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC).
In 1997, Mr. Paciello received recognition from President William Clinton for his work in the creation of World Wide Web Consortium´s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Mike is author of the first book on web accessibility and usability, "Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities" and is chiefly responsible for founding the International Committee for Accessible Document Design (ICADD) and W3C´s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
Charlie Pike
Charlie is the Director of TPG (Europe) in Dublin, Ireland and manages our web-development team. He has been working in the field of web design accessibility for the past seven years. Previously he was director of IMS Ireland, an international technology consultancy. At IMS he managed large projects for Chase Manhattan Bank, Merck Plc and New York State Development Authority as well as numerous clients in Ireland. Charlie led the design team for i.Doc, a browser based document management tool used by a number of fortune 500 companies
In 2003 he set up Usable Design to build web sites that demonstrated how accessibility could be merged seamlessly into cutting edge design. Among the innovative sites created by Usable Design were the National Disability Authority, The European Year for People with Disabilities, Data and Records Management and several sites for New York University.
In 2005 Usable Design merged with The Paciello Group to form TPG (Europe). Charlie is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin.
Steve Faulkner
Steven is the Senior Web Accessibility Consultant and Technical Director, TPG Europe. He joined The Paciello Group in 2006 and was previously a Senior Web Accessibility Consultant at vision australia. He is also the Director of The Web Accessibility Tools Consortium (WAT-C) . He is the creator and lead developer of the Web Accessibility Toolbar accessibility testing tool. Steve is a member of several groups, including the Web Standards Group, and the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS).
Steve has a Bachelors degree in Psychology form the University of Sydney and a post graduate qualification in Information Technology from Swinburne University
Frank Porter
Frank is Director of Sales and Customer Accounts. Prior to TPG, Frank was a Senior Sales Representative/Project Manager with Williams Scotsman, Inc. an international sales and leasing company. His experience also includes over a decade in the hospitality industry as a Manager with Marriott Corp. and as a consultant providing customer service seminars and training.
Mr. Porter attended the University of Lowell, Lowell, MA studying Computer Science.
Gez Lemon
Gez is one of TPG's Principal Accessibility Engineers and project leaders. He is an expert in several web technologies including PHP, ASP, HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, XML, XHTML, and XSL. Additionally, Gez supports TPG software development for C/C++ and Visual Basic applications.
Gez is a member of several accessibility groups, including the WCAG Working Group, WaSP Accessibility Task Force, WAT-C, and the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS). He is the publisher of the internationally renowned JuicyStudio.Com accessibility site.
Gez holds a BSc (Hons.) in Computing from the University of Surrey, in addition to studying at Farnborough College of Technology, UK.
Cedric Trevisan
Cedric is one of our key IT project managers and accessibility consultants. His skills include C, C++, Java, CSS2, web application development and database management. He played a critical role in adapting the Web Accessibility Toolbar for the Opera browser. He has been involved in numerous website and application audits. He developed an accessible system for tracking book reviews and publishing for two separate book review web sites for New York University. Before joining TPG he managed a major accessibility project for Atos Origin in Luxembourg.
He has a D.E.S.S. in Computer (Master Level) from Institut Supérieur d’Informatique et d’Automatique de Lorraine, Nancy, France.
Hans Hillen
Hans Hillen is currently active as an accessibility developer and consultant for TPG Europe. Currently Hillen is heading the development for the Firefox version of the WAT-C (Web Accessibility Tools Consortium) toolbar.
In 2006 Hillen received his master's degree in Human Computer Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His final research, which was partially conducted at Stanford University, discusses possibilities to improve website navigation by blind Internet users by offering alternative navigation interfaces.
Mark Hakkinen
Markku T. Häkkinen has worked in the field of human factors and user interface research and software development for over 20 years. His professional experience spans research and development of hardware and software user interfaces in academia, industry, and the non-profit sector.
Mr Hakkinen worked with the DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstems) Consortium on the development of information standards and open source software solutions. Mr. Hakkinen was a key technical contributor in the development of the DAISY and ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Digital Talking Book standards. Mark served as Founder and Chief Technology Officer for The Productivity Works where he pioneered the creation of the WebSpeak talking web browser, introducing key concepts in audio navigation of web content.
Mr Hakkinen's current research focus is in the design of accessible, multimodal public warning, and he recently presented his research at conferences in Europe and China.
He has a B.Sc. in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis (USA), conducted graduate research in speech-based Interfaces at Virginia Tech (USA), and has a M.Sc. (Eximia cum laude) in Computer Science/Cognitive Science from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). Currently he is finishing a PhD in Cognitive Science in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Jyväskylä, where he is also a visiting lecturer and researcher.
Mr. Hakkinen is a citizen of Finland and the United States.
Mary Hunter Utt
Mary is TPG’s lead usability engineer. Mary comes to TPG from Sitescape, Inc. where she was responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating the Sitescape Forum user interface, a web-based collaboration tool. Mary was responsible for the design, testing, and implementation of the accessibility user configuration profile contained within Sitescape Forum. Prior to Sitescape, Mary worked for Digital Equipment Corporation, Open Market, Inc. and Rational Software.
With more than 20 years as a usability professional, Mary holds an MS in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a BA from Carnegie-Mellon in English Literature.
Brian Landrigan
Brian Landrigan brings more than 25 years of high technology experience in sales, marketing and operations to The Paciello Group as Director of Operations. Previous assignments include Operations Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation, Director of Sales and Marketing for Object Systems, VP Sales for Ipswitch, Inc., and VP Sales and Account Management for Wolters Kluwer. He also established and ran his own consultancy, bl partners, specializing in sales compensation, processes and programs.
He holds a BA degree in Mathematics from Keene (NH) State College, resides in NH with his wife and is on the Board of Directors for My Act, a children's theater organization.
Debra Rapsis
As Corporate Controller, Debra has nearly 20 years experience in the financial arena. She began her career at Digital Equipment Corporation, where she was one of 15 chosen to participate in its Financial Development Program. After leaving Digital, she spent 10 years working for Red Ball, Inc., the leading manufacturer of hippers and waders. While there she developed and implemented an automated standard cost system.
For the past five years, she worked as Controller and Operations Manager for Single Point Financial, Corporation, a small software company which developed tools for financial planners and brokers. The company positioned itself for a private sale, which occurred in late 2000 to Money Star out of Austin, Texas.