ADA Experts
Steve Taylor - CEO
Steve Taylor has been in the payments and software industries since 1998 and licensed his e-commerce platform to Reynolds and Reynolds in 2002 e-shaping commerce for the auto industry.
In 2004 he began working as a partner with EFunds (now FIS) on pioneering wireless commerce starting with farmers markets nationally. It launched in early 2008. What we did as the wireless commerce pioneers created has become pretty much …all commerce now.
In 2008 Steve launched his classifieds listings platform and it was carried by almost every hosting platform globally having over 20 million free version users and around 20,000 commercial users and helped the newspaper industry convert to online during the housing crash era.
In January 2016, he invented /created the world’s first and only ADA stands and mounting for card reader terminal point-of-sale checkouts, which was patented in the spring of 2018.
2021-2024 Steve was asked to assist the U.S. Access-Board with a Point-Of-Sale (SSTM) Notice of Proposed Rule Making laying down the foundation and blending requirements of the ADA, 508 (ICT), PCI-PTS-POI, ISO 9564 and VISA, INC requirements for businesses at their checkouts and for pure self-Service like ATM’s, NCR style Self-Checkouts and Kiosks.
His ADA stands and mounts to this day remain the only ADA true-accessibility-compliant stands and mountings for card reader terminal point-of-sale checkouts and with a full deep knowledge on the topics of regulation and standards and consults as an accessibility point-of-sale expert to top-level DC. Steve is on the board of the United States and International Council on Disability (USICD policy team) and is also A Gold Star Family U.S. Marines.
John Wodatch - Advisory
John Wodatch is the chief author of the Department of Justice’s 1991 ADA regulations, created the DOJ’s initial ADA technical assistance programs, and assembled the Department’s ADA enforcement staff. (ADA.GOV)
He served as a member of the White House negotiating team and as the Department of Justice’s chief technical expert during the writing and passage of the ADA. He was also part of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations that helped develop the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with USICD.
From 1990 until 2011 he served as the Director and Section Chief overseeing all interpretation, technical assistance, and enforcement of the ADA at the Department of Justice. Just before he retired, he was responsible for the first major revision of the Department’s ADA regulations, including the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design. He is also the chief author of the first Federal regulations implementing section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. (Watch crip camp on Netflix). He just wrapped up a major update/overhaul to the Section 504 regulation May of 2024.
John is a disability rights attorney, with over 50 years specializing in the Americans with Disabilities Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He served for 42 years in the Federal government, where he authored the government’s comprehensive disability rights regulations and created and led the Department of Justice’s office in charge of enforcing the ADA.
In 2010 he was honored with the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award for exceptional achievement in his career.. He received a B.A. from Trinity College, an M.P.A. from Harvard University, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law School. John is on the USICD policy team.
Janet E. Lord - Advisory
Janet is a senior fellow at the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and a board member with the U.S. International Council on Disabilities. She recently concluded a term as senior legal counsel for the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She is the executive director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
She participated in the drafting of the CRPD, wrote extensively on disability rights issues, and worked with disabled peoples’ organizations (DPOs) around the world. She serves on the Board of Amnesty International USA and also teaches international disability rights at American University.
A longtime international human rights lawyer, Lord was a lead drafter of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She has shaped law reform in dozens of countries to advance disability rights, has taught and engaged in research on human rights and disability, and has provided counsel on inclusive development for the World Bank, the United Nations, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of State, and numerous other organizations. USICD policy team.