Matthew Shaw

I help organizations embrace accessibility to create value.

Disability has always been part of my life, but it took losing most of my sight to a deafblind condition to understand the enormous influence of disability on my decision-making.

My story is just one among a billion citizens, employees and customers with disabilities around the world. Yet institutions and organizations misunderstand disability as a market force and ignore the risks and opportunity costs of barriers that reduce or prevent human contribution from compounding.

We use our bodies and minds for everything we do. Yet so much of what we design and build in this world misses this crucial insight.

Accessibility considers the needs and preferences arising from functional diversity in the design of solutions. Any sector, business, function or team can leverage accessibility competencies to support the metrics they value. Every professional can benefit from adding accessibility to their skillstack.

My collaborators include governments, global brands, thinktanks, institutions and businesses across sectors and industries who are better prepared to deliver strategies, spaces, products, and services that respond to their people.

I've founded two firms and worked in and with many wonderful organizations. Today, my accessibility practice is embedded within the Rick Hansen Foundation, whose mission -- to create and deliver innovative solutions that accelerate a global movement to remove barriers for people with disabilities -- I share.

I speak and write on disability, and serve on boards and committees, including Vice Chair of Accessibility Standards Canada, Chair of the Accessibility Standards Advisory Council for the Government of Ontario, and Vice Chair of Canadian Blind Hockey.