Related info: Shawn Lawton Henry at W3C WAI and About Shawn
On this page:
Contact Shawn to get permission to use these bios or photos.
Note: The best way to reach me is to call and leave a message. I will call you back.
Direct telephone: +1.617.395.7664
W3C e-mail: shawn@w3.org
Personal e-mail: shawn@uiAccess.com
First/given: Shawn
Middle: Lawton
Last/family: Henry
For publications, I prefer all three: Shawn Lawton Henry. No hyphens.
For all else — introductions, hotel reservations, etc. — I use just 2: Shawn Henry.
I often use 'shawna-slh' for public accounts to help communicate that I'm a 'cisgender' female. You can call me 'Shawn' or 'Shawna'.
Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her TAdER Project provides research to better understand users' needs to customize text for readability — specifically, people with low vision, dyslexia, and related conditions that impact reading, including older people. Her book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design, which is available free online, provides a user-centered accessibility approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.
Shawn is Director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that develops strategies, standards, and resources to make digital content and technology accessible to people with disabilities. She initially joined W3C in 2003 to lead worldwide accessibility education and outreach, and to bring user experience design to new WAI accessibility resources.
Before joining W3C, Shawn developed and implemented strategies to optimize user interface design for usability and accessibility as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, education providers, government agencies, non-profits/NGOs, international standards bodies, and research centers.
Shawn holds a Bachelor of Science in English with a focus on technical writing and computer science, and a Master of Science with Distinction in Digital Inclusion. When not typing on her little laptop, she is often out paddling her long sea kayak.
Shawn is Director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that develops strategies, standards, and resources to make digital content and technology accessible to people with disabilities. Before joining W3C, Shawn developed and implemented strategies to optimize user interface design for usability and accessibility as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, education providers, government agencies, non-profits/NGOs, and research centers. Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her book Just Ask provides a user-centered accessibility approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.
Shawn is Director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). From 2003–2025 she held a sponsored research staff appointment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Shawn holds a Bachelor of Science in English with a focus on technical writing and computer science, and a Master of Science with Distinction in Digital Inclusion. Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces. Her book Just Ask provides a user-centered accessibility approach for developing products that are more usable for everyone.
Shawn is Director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that develops strategies, standards, and resources to make digital content and technology accessible to people with disabilities. Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces, including the user-centered accessibility approach in her book Just Ask.
Shawn focuses her personal passion for accessibility on bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations in designing human-computer interfaces, including the user-centered accessibility approach in her book Just Ask. Shawn is Director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that develops strategies, standards, and resources to make digital content and technology accessible to people with disabilities.
Contact Shawn to get permission to use these photos.
artist: Len Peralta. about the caricature
Photo credit: John F Croston III
Up-to-date as of February 2026