About Marco Salsiccia

I am a Bay Area native and former senior animator and visual effects artist with a Bachelor of Science degree in Media Arts and Computer Animation from the Art Institute of California, San Francisco. After losing my vision in 2014 due to medical complications, I transitioned full-time into accessibility and inclusive technology work.

Hire Me For

Native mobile and web accessibility audits with practical remediation guidance.
Assistive technology testing with VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS, and TalkBack.
Design, engineering, and QA coaching for accessibility-first product development.
Accessibility training, workshops, and speaking on inclusive design and tactile graphics.

What I Do

I work as an accessibility consultant helping teams make apps and websites usable and robust for people with disabilities. I specialize in end-user testing, cross-functional accessibility strategy, and coaching Agile teams from early design through implementation and QA.

I advocate for accessibility to be built in at project start, not bolted on later. My approach focuses on practical engineering outcomes, cross-team education, and usability that holds up in real-world assistive technology use. WCAG is a foundation line, not a finish line.

Impact and Experience

I spent seven years at Lyft as a primary accessibility specialist, building strong native mobile expertise at scale, elevating the overall accessibility of their mobile apps and disability policies.

At Deque Systems, I served as a Senior Native Mobile Accessibility Coach, partnering directly with Agile teams and contributing to instructor-led client training. This entailed design critique and walkthroughs, assistive technology awareness training, design heuristic instruction, testing modalities, drafting accessibility acceptance criteria, and quick problem-solving.

My 18-month Mobile Accessibility Leader contract role at Intuit allowed me to work and train the design and engineering teams for QuickBooks, TurboTax, and MailChimp on accessibility and usability requirements and best practices. I became a Level 2 Accessibility Champion, spoke at CSUN with Ted Drake, and audited every component of the Intuit Design System.

I have given talks about AI and Accessibility, tactile art and education, accessibility testing fundamentals, design heuristics, and inclusive design practices. My speaking engagements have been at SXSW, APH Coding Symposium, CSUN, National Federation of the Blind national convention, Axe-Con, and more.

I'm currently open to contract or full-time work, either remote or hybrid if in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Tactile Art and SVG

I have returned to art through tactile graphics and design, using embossers and tactile output to support collaboration with design teams and feature planning. I also create personal and commercial tactile and digital artwork.

I built BlindSVG.com to teach blind and low-vision creatives how to build tactile and visual illustrations with SVG code. I also volunteer with the NYPL Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Books Library as a nonvisual drawing instructor and host a variety of accessibility-focused workshops and webinars. I contracted with the Washington School for the Blind and CATT Northwest to collaborate on the TADA curriculum for K-12 tactile drawing, coding skills, and SVG creation.

As a founding core member of the Tactile Art Collective, I take part in annual Tactile Teach-In events around the country, gathering 30-50 blind and low-vision people together to teach them Ann Cunningham's approximate perspective and tactile drawing curriculum. I'm also part of the annual Art Room at the National Federation of the Blind national convention.

Contact and Collaboration

If you need support with native app accessibility design and engineering, web accessibility implementation, research interviews, focus groups, or panel speaking on tactile graphics and universal design, feel free to contact me.