inclusive : media and design
web media accessibility for all

We are

an innovations company focused on advancing accessibility of digital media.

Principals

Charles Silverman, Co-Director
Charles has been in the adaptive technology field for almost 30 years. For the last 10 years his main focus has been accessible media on the web, specifically captioning and descriptive video. He is also the developer of CapScribe, a popular and free captioning and video description tool. Charles is on the Faculty of Ryerson University's School for Disability Studies where he focuses on accessibility, technology, and Inclusive and Universal Design. He has worked with the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto and CAST, Center for Applied Special Technology, in Boston, and has collaborated with the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH. He currently serves on the Media Access and Participation Initiative (MAP) and the Access2Entertainment advisory boards.

Rob Harvie, Co-Director
Rob brings a rich background in IT and accessibility solutions. At University of Toronto for the previous 10 years, he directed Information Technology Services with the iSchool, taught on human-computer interaction and emerging technologies including augmented reality and multi-sensory interfaces at the Communications, Culture and IT (CCIT) program, and worked with the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre on various federally-funded research initiatives. Rob continues his lecturing at the University of Toronto and serves on the executive of TorCHI, the Association for Computing Machinery’s Toronto-Region Computer-Human Interaction chapter, and Centennial College's Media Engineering Design Integration (MEDI) Program Advisory Committee.

Advisory Team

Steve Hockema, Research Advisor
Steve is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Information and the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto. He earned a BS and MS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, and holds a joint Ph.D. in Computer and Cognitive Science from Indiana University. He also has over ten years experience working as a software engineer. His current research focusses on social media and digitally-mediated communities, and how design- and interface-related aspects of technology are related to issues of authority (including epistemic, cognitive, institutional and political authority), credibility and participation. More generally, he is concerned with the inclusive design of social and "information" interactions, material-digital interfaces and mediation, with a broad interest in how technology can be used to help bridge cultural and linguistic differences, while respecting and valuing diversity.

Eric McLuhan, Media Advisor
Erik has over 30 years of teaching experience in literature, media and communication theory. He is the author of Electric Language, The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake; editor of the journal McLuhan Studies, and the collections of Marshall McLuhan's work: The Book of Probes, McLuhan Unbound, The Medium and the Light; and the co-editor of Essential McLuhan. Eric worked closely with his father, Marshall McLuhan during the development of the Media Studies field in the 1960's and 70's, collaborating on a number of renowned books including The Medium is the Massage, War and Peace in the Global Village and Laws of Media.