Who We Are

Beyond A11y is a consortium of professionals tasked with helping companies build accessibility into their daily processes through training, testing, and digital consultation.

A-11-y is shorthand for "Accessibility": the letter "a", eleven letters, and "y". It's a ubiquitous term in the community. We chose to use it as part of our name to show that we're not just part of the community, but that we're an allied force to move toward a more accessible world.

We're not in business to meet accessibility standards, we're here to #GoBeyond.

Photo of a group of people, in a collaborative session in a room.

OUR TEAM

Sometimes, there's a dog. Not the service type - the loud type.

Clyde Dupree

Co-Founder, Technical Lead

To Clyde, solving for the variety of human ability challenges makes his job great. Growing up in military communities gave him unique access to people from all over the world, with a wide array of needs due to temporary or permanent disability from military service, birth defects, and basically being alive on planet Earth.

Clyde's career in accessibility actually began in college as a Product Design major, minoring in Developmental Psychology. In that work, intense focus was placed on building to specific use cases that involved the real-world use of products based on how users think or behave within their environments, given their physical abilities. In other words, before digital accessibility had a definition, the foundation for Clyde's success was already laid.

Transportation, Banking, Finance, and Health Care sectors have all been influenced technically due to Clyde's input in crucial technical findings through web development.

Fred Hillsman

Co-Founder, Project Manager

Frederick Hillsman is an American Businessman, Philanthropist and Mentor. He is a Founding Partner of Beyond-A11y Inc., where he is responsible for building long-lasting relationships with partners around the globe and helping his comrades remove roadblocks that prevent success. Frederick has professionally consulted with a number of Fortune 500 companies to include Delta Airlines, Home Depot, Bank of America, ADT and Norfolk Southern. While working across these verticals he honed his skills and solidified his core belief that “we all need accessibility” and the best way to provide it is through helping others remove obstacles that hinder their growth and ability to achieve their goals.

He is a U.S. Airforce Veteran that grew up in Jacksonville, Florida a few blocks from Edwin Waters College as well as Sanford, Florida where he attended Seminole High School. Frederick attended St. Leo University where he majored in Business and Project Management (MBA). A few of his passions include accessibility, reading, sign language and fishing and Travel.

Priya Badhiyan

Co-Founder, Quality Assurance Lead

If there's an issue with an app or website, Priya will spot it. Some people are good at it, she's God-like, and it's spooky.

Priya joined this startup with a vision of making accessibility affordable and a realistic goal of taking Web and Mobile accessibility to the masses and impact the life of majority in a positive way.

For the past 6 years, her primary focus has been on setting up Environments and implementing the standards to meet latest WCAG guidelines. Keeping up with the latest guidelines .

In addition to her work experience, Priya completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of India. She also likes to paint and travel in her free time.

Priya is a firm believer of “let actions speak louder than words”. <3

Sabrina Simmons

Co-Founder, Testing Coordinator

A Detroit native, Sabrina Simmons graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1996. She was crafting a successful career as a project management team lead when her vision began to deteriorate in January 2012.

Determined to be self-sufficient, Sabrina enrolled at the Training Center for the Blind in Kalamazoo, MI. She learned skills and practices that would allow her to live the independent life to which she was accustomed. She also became proficient with a variety of tools designed to increase accessibility to technology for the visually impaired, including Jobs Access to Work Speech (JAWS) technology and Voice Over, an iOS screen reader. An entrepreneur and community servant at heart, Sabrina set out to help others by creating Eye Learn, an organization that trains persons with low vision in using assistive software and common technologies. Eye Learn was the recipient of the 2021 Jacob Bolotin Award receiving the top award from the National Federation of the Blind.

With a persistent sense of service to others, Sabrina proudly advocates for issues related to those with low vision to increase awareness of their existence, triumphs, and issues. She was featured in a public service announcement related to transportation services for those with disabilities. Sabrina has also risen through the ranks with the National Federation of the Blind, first as a board member and vice president of the local chapter and as a board member for the state affiliate. She currently serves as president of her local chapter, the largest in the state of Michigan.