About the Action for Access Project

Funding provided by the Centene Corporation

Exhibition Advisory Board

These members of the St. Louis community provided valuable feedback on content and accessibility to make this website available to people of all ability levels.

Kate Brueggemann

Kate Brueggemann is the Development Director for Paraquad, one of the oldest and largest Centers for Independent Living in the country. Kate has been with the organization for more than 6 years and has had a career in nonprofits spanning over a decade. She is proud to work at an organization that helps provide the skills and resources people with disabilities need to live more independently and as vital members of our community.

Nancy Martin

Nancy Martin works as an administrator of the Parent Education and Diversity Awareness Program for Special School District. Formerly with Paraquad, Inc., the local Center for Independent Living, as Director of Independent Living Specialists, she holds a bachelor’s degree in social welfare and a master’s degree in rehabilitation administration and services. Martin is a Missouri-licensed professional counselor and a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor. She has cerebral palsy.

David Newburger

David Newburger is Commissioner on the Disabled for St. Louis, a principal at the Starkloff Disability Institute, and practices law. In each capacity, he works toward enabling individuals with disabilities to be full and active participants in community life. He had polio as an infant and has a mobility disability.

William Sheldon

William Bixby Sheldon serves on the Board of Directors of the Central Institute of the Deaf and as their co-chairman for their upcoming 100th anniversary celebration. He has degrees from Washington University in business, counseling, and nonprofit organization management and has worked for many years as an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. He is deaf.

Steven Smith

St. Louis entrepreneur and blogger Steven Fitzpatrick Smith owns and operates the Royale Food and Spirits restaurant in South City.

Naomi Soule

Naomi Soule graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in broadcasting and has worked in radio programming. Naomi started working for Missouri Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in 1995. She has served on the American Council for the Blind national Board of Directors, the ADA Advisory Committee for Metro, the Starkloff Disability Institute Leadership Committee, Governors Council on Disabilities, and the Missouri Assistive Technology Council among others. She is blind.

Sharon Spurlock

Sharon Spurlock, Director of Family Supports and Quality Enhancement at the St. Louis Arc, has supported people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families since 1982. She chairs the St. Louis Arc's Social Justice and Human Rights Committees and regularly speaks to people in the St. Louis area about how to include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the everyday life of the community.

Colleen Kelly Starkloff

Colleen Kelly Starkloff, Vice President of Public Affairs at the Starkloff Disability Institute, co-founded Paraquad (1970–2003) and the Starkloff Disability Institute (2003–present). Her career includes advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities in adoption, accessibility, Universal Design, home and community design, and accessible public transportation. Married to Max Starkloff, she has 3 children: Meaghan, Max, and (the late) Emily Johanne.

Max Starkloff

Max Starkloff was the co-founder and president of Paraquad in 1970, and the co-founder of the Starkloff Disability Institute in 2003. He has been a constant advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, especially in making society more accessible to and more accepting of people with disabilities. He became a quadriplegic as a result of a car accident.

Joan Suda

Joan Suda is the Communications Manager of The Marianist Province of the United States.

Jim Tuscher

Vice President of Public Policy for Paraquad, Jim Tuscher has had a long career as an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. He uses a wheelchair.

The Action for Access website was developed with usability and accessibility in mind.

Design

Strong visual contrast is designed into all navigation, text and rollovers. All text links are clearly identified and are descriptive ("View the images" instead of "More"). All menus are built with text instead of graphics making them easily read by screen readers. Whenever sound is utilized, users have the option to read a script or subtitles.

Coding

The HTML is semantic and standardized in order to separate the content of each page from its presentation and make the site accessible with a wide variety of devices and browsers. The content on each page has been tagged and titled. All photos include alternative text for screen readers to audibly describe, and every link includes information about the next page the user will visit. Extraneous code has been removed.

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