We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James Warnken a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

James , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

While working in the digital marketing space I found myself in a conversation talking about building and designing websites when I was asked how I make sure the websites I work on are accessible. As a professional with a visual disability, this question had never been asked before and it caught me off guard. Instead of dismissing it, I leaned into the questions and asked how I could learn what that meant and if there was anyone I could talk to to ask questions. Until this point, I was under the impression that as a professional with a disability, I needed to make my world accessible to me and that it was no one else’s problem. I couldn’t have been more wrong. As I asked questions, explored, experimented, and dove into the topic of digital accessibility, an entirely new world opened up in front of me. I spent more than a year exploring, researching, networking, and experimenting before finally pursuing my IAAP CPACC certification and working on my first real project. For me, it all came down to one question “Do I want to diagnose the problem or fix it?”. I decided to try and fix it by training and teaching others about digital accessibility and how to do it right. I figure that I cannot do this alone and these skills, techniques, and best practices will follow those I train and teach through the rest of their careers. To date, I have trained several hundred professionals, including professionals with disabilities, on digital accessibility and it is my mission to continue raising awareness and driving change for a better,r more accessible future.

James , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am from Northeast Ohio and grew up wanting to get into the world of marketing and advertising. In college, I began my professional career by starting my own business where I designed and sold apparel. This business was my sandbox to learn how to build a website, market on social media, run ads, build customer relations, and explore the entire world of owning and running a business. As I grew my business, other people began asking me to fix their website or work on their social media, so I quit making apparel and started providing marketing services. After 5 or so years of working in the tech and marketing space, I transitioned to the accessibility space where I feel like I belong. This is my passion, my mission, and where I feel the most fulfilled.
I primarily provide digital accessibility consulting services focused around testing/auditing, training and educating, or generla business consulting. I have built several courses and trainings and they are offered to teams, organizations, and individuals.

My differentiating factor is that I live with a visual disability and have a wide background in tech, marketing, and now accessibility.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best way to meet new people or get clients is through organic networking and being yourself. It is very tempting to go into sales mode all the time, but just being yourself and actually taking the time to have a meaningful conversation, learn about each other, and listen goes an extremely long way.

One of my favorite questions to close out a new conversation is “Do you know anyone I should talk to or meet?” This has helped me to meet a ton of great, highly specific, people that I have been working with for months and years!

It is not always about how big your advertising budget is, how many messages you can send, or any other volume-based metrics. Quality is often more important when it comes to outreach, communication, meetings, and follow-ups!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Growing up with a disability, I was often told to avoid certain things, that it was too dangerous, that I couldn’t do it because I couldn’t see, and so on. Over time, the more you hear something, the more you start to believe it.

By the time I was entering college, I was under the impression that my disability was my problem, to hide it as much as I could, and to make it work.

As I moved into the accessibility space, I realized how significant my lived experience was and that that was something that couldn’t be replicated or copied. With this, I now believe that what others view as a disadvantage can be leveraged and used to my advantage to do this work that makes an impact on a fourth of the world’s population.

I guess the lesson would be tonever let your lived experiences and learned experiences go to waste. We are all unique and bring a fresh perspective to everything we do!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jameswarnken.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theapexchaser/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswarnken/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jameswarnken