Founder @ Empower Accessibility
Jaunita George is an internationally-recognized digital accessibility leader with over 8 years of specialized accessibility expertise and 13 years of program management experience. Jaunita is the founder of Empower Accessibility, a global accessibility consultancy offering strategic consulting, training, audits and dremediation assistance. She was the Head of Technical Accessibility at Navy Federal Credit Union for five years, having founded the enterprise accessibility program and led a team of 12 employees as well as oversaw an Accessibility Task Force of 55+ volunteers. Jaunita holds multiple accessibility certifications including IAAP Web Accessibility Specialist, IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies, IAAP Accessible Document Specialist (ADS), Accessible Player Experiences (APX), DHS Certified Accessibility Trusted Tester and two program management certifications: a Project Management Professional (PMP) and A SAFe Agilist certification (SA). Her legal background, including admission to the Maryland Bar, combined with her training and communication expertise, enriches her technical approach with a unique perspective. A respected thought leader in the accessibility community, Jaunita actively contributes to shaping the future of web accessibility standards through her work with W3C's Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AGWG), ARIA Working Group, and Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group. She has presented at numerous global conferences including the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, A11yTO, A11yCamp, and Perth Web Accessibility Camp. Jaunita is deeply passionate about creating a web that's free, fair, and accessible to everyone, having founded A11y-DMV, the largest accessibility meetup in the DC metro region and more recently the A11y A11ies, a similar meetup in Melbourne. Jaunita’s commitment to inclusion extends beyond her professional work—she volunteers at Calvary Women's Services, serves the leadership team of Accessibility Community to direct globa11y, an initiative providing accessible development training and employment pathways for people with disabilities worldwide and mentors emerging leaders in the accessibility space from around the globe. Jaunita also serves on the leadership team of OZeWAI, Australia's web accessibility initiative. Jaunita is a reading tutor with the Washington Literacy Center, which helps promote adult literacy and holds a B2 certification in French. Jaunita is also active in the legal community in Victoria, having recently joined the Law Institute of Victoria and is working to transfer her legal credentials to Australia.
