Thread Subject: FYI: New Access Board members and their biographies....

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From: Creagan Tim
Date: Thu, Dec 13 2007 11:45 AM
Subject: FYI: New Access Board members and their biographies....

Hello TEITAC members,

I mentioned during the 12/4/07 general TEITAC call that new members had
been appointed to the Access Board by the White House,

Here are their biographies, along with their names. This is excerpted
from our current issue of Access Currents, the full issue of which may
be found here:
http://www.access-board.gov/news/Access%20Currents/Nov-Dec07.htm



See also the story about our TEITAC committee below that story.

Any questions, please contact me.

Thanks,

Tim Creagan





President Bush Appoints New Members to the Board

President Bush recently appointed three new members to the Access Board:
John Gunnar Box of Corona, California, Ronald J. Gardner of Salt Lake
City, Utah, and Neil K. Melick of West Palm Beach, Florida. The
President also reappointed three current or former members: Douglas
Anderson, of Wheaton, Illinois, James R. Harding II, of Tallahassee,
Florida, and Gary L. Talbot of Foxboro, Massachusetts.



John Gunnar Box, a native of Southern California, is founder of Colours
'N Motion, Inc., a company that manufacturers and customizes wheelchairs
and wheelchair accessories. He has run the company as its president for
the past 16 years. Previously, he organized and operated a family run
aerospace company. Box sits on the boards of UNITY, a Corona youth
organization, and the Los Amigos Research and Education Institute.



Ronald J. Gardner is an attorney who has practiced law for over 25
years. Most of his legal work involved litigating tax and bankruptcy
cases. He serves as President of the National Federation of the Blind
of Utah. Previously, Gardner served as Legal Director of the Disability
Law Center in Salt Lake City and as Director of the Professional
Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech
University.



Neil Melick, CBO, is Director of the Construction Services Department of
the City of West Palm Beach, Florida. He is a Florida licensed Building
Codes Administrator and International Certified Building Official, as
well as a Florida Certified Building Contractor. He is Chair of the
Florida Accessibility Advisory Council and is a member of the Florida
Building Commission's Accessibility Technical Advisory Committee. In
addition, Melick has served as president of the Building Officials
Association of Palm Beach County and chair of the Building Code Advisory
Board of Palm Beach County.



First appointed to the Board in 2003, Douglas Anderson, Associate AIA,
is a Partner at LCM Architects in Chicago who assists both public and
private entities in complying with the ADA. As an Accessibility Project
Manager at the firm, he has advised various clients, including Fortune
500 companies, on meeting the design requirements of the ADA. Anderson
previously was employed at the Great Lakes Disability and Business
Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC) at the University of Illinois at
Chicago.



James R. ("J.R.") Harding II, Ed.D., who previously served on the Board
from 2002 to 2006, is employed by the Department of Education, Division
of Vocational Rehabilitation as a Partnership Specialist for the Office
of the Director. Dr. Harding is active in a variety of organizations
and causes, including the Governor's ADA Working Group, the Florida
Building Commission Waiver Council, the Commission for Transportation
Disadvantaged, the Citizens' Advisory Council of Leon County, and the
Chamber of Commerce.



Gary L. Talbot is Assistant General Manager for System-Wide
Accessibility with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
(MBTA). He was named to his first term on the Board in 2003. Before
joining MBTA in 2007, Talbot served as a Senior Engineer with Walt
Disney World Ride and Show Engineering in Lake Buena Vista, Florida
where he oversaw design and development of ride and attraction
accessibility enhancements. He previously managed the General Motors
Mobility Center in Warren, Michigan.



The new members, who will be sworn in at the Board's next meeting,
succeed Pamela Dorwarth of Sarasota, Florida, James J. Elekes, M.Ed,
MPA/CPM of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, Denis Pratt, AIA of
Kennebunk, Maine, and Gwendolyn Trujillo of Cincinnati, Ohio.

===================

TEITAC Scheduled to Submit its Report to the Board in March

The Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology
Advisory Committee (TEITAC), held its seventh meeting November 13 - 16.
The Committee, which is developing recommendations to the Board on
updating its Section 508 standards for electronic and information
technology and its Telecommunications Act guidelines, continued review
of the most recent draft of its report. Discussion focused on
unresolved issues and on remaining steps in finalizing the report. The
Committee will continue its deliberations by teleconference on December
18th to reach consensus on these items.



The Committee will hold an additional meeting January 7 - 9 to complete
work on its report. Under this schedule, the Committee will present its
report at a meeting of the Board in early March. For more information
on the Committee's work, including dial-in instructions for the next
teleconference, visit the Board's website at
www.access-board.gov/sec508/update-index.htm, the committee's website at
http://teitac.org/, or contact Tim Creagan at = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ,
(202) 272-0016 (v), or (202) 272-0082 (TTY).

======================





Timothy P. Creagan

Senior Accessibility Specialist

U.S. Access Board

1331 F Street, N.W.

Suite 1000

Washington, DC 20004-1111



202-272-0016 (V); 1-(800) 872-2253 (V)

202-272-0082 (TTY);1-800-993-2822 (TTY)

202-272-0081 (Fax)

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =



"Thank you for your questions concerning section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. Section 508 authorizes the
Access Board to provide technical assistance to individuals and Federal
departments and agencies concerning the requirements of this section.
This technical assistance is intended solely as informal guidance; it is
not a determination of the legal rights or responsibilities of entities
subject to section 508."