Meet Professional Speaker, Accessibility Marketing Consultant, and Writer Meryl Evans

Bio

Meryl is a white female with shoulder-length curly brown hair and a whitish top with black specks
Meryl is a white female with shoulder-length curly brown hair and a whitish top with black specks

I’m Meryl K. Evans, CPACC, professional speaker and trainer, accessibility marketing consultant, and author of Brilliant Outlook Pocketbook and the co-author of Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites. I’ve done a TEDx Talk and have been quoted in the Wall Street Journal. I’ve been honored to be included as one of the 12 Top LinkedIn Voices for Accessibility Advocacy.

Since starting this digital marketing and writing business in 2000, I’ve written and edited for “Billiards Digest,” “The Dallas Morning News,” MarketingProfs, “PC Today,” O’Reilly, Pearson, Sams, Wiley, and WROX.

Clients hire me to speak to their employees on accessibility, inclusion, and lived experiences as a person with disabilities. If you’re looking for a motivational speaker, I’m not the right person.

If you’re looking for a speaker to educate and encourage action, then contact me. Employees walk away with actionable items to create more accessible experiences for employees, customers, stakeholders, and prospective employees.

Past jobs include two Fortune 500 telecom companies, the federal government in Washington, D.C., and IT consulting. A native Texan, I live a heartbeat north of Dallas in Plano, Texas with my husband. We have three human kiddos and two fur babies where one thinks she’s human and the other thinks she’s a cat.

People call me the accessibility marketer because I educate people on the importance of accessibility. And besides, accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. I’m a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC).

How you and your company benefits: Companies that create an inclusive and accessible culture achieve more revenues and reach a larger audience than those that don’t. People with disabilities and their supporters have enough disposable income to give everyone in the U.S. 13,000 boxes of cookies! (This is $13 trillion per year — a market larger than China — according to the Global Economics of Disabilities report.

Champions that include and support people with disabilities in their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts experience 28% more revenue according to Accenture’s report [pdf].

Why work with me? Companies know about my reputation for delivering high-quality and engaging presentations and training. Most clients work with me again, some come bring me on after changing companies. Here are client testimonials.

Contact me to discuss what you need.

IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies
IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies

Connect

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Media

Speaking

I’m a professional speaker on diversity equity inclusion (DEI) with a focus on accessibility and people with disabilities. Happy to travel to your location. My presentations and training educate, entertain, and encourage action.

Contact me if you’d like to chat and schedule a possible date. Don’t wait too long as I don’t have many openings because it takes time for me to create an E3 presto: educating, entertaining, and encouraging action. Here’s a list of my speaking and podcasting appearances.

In the News and Around the Web

Want more? Here are older article appearances.

In Books (as an editor, contributor, or researcher)

History

Meryl first joined the Internet pre-revolution in 1992 with Internet in a Box.

Why the name meryl.net?

I racked my brain to come up with a name that would stick. Alas, nothing came. Ironically, I love to read about names and the meanings behind them. I’m even a professional namer! Yet, I couldn’t name this electronic baby.

I never had a nickname, a big hobby or a way for making up a creative name using my name. For example: If your last name was Boot, then a good Web name would be “Reboot.” Although I had a handle from my BBS (pre-Internet) days, I was embarrassed for ever having used it. Considering “meryl” is so uncommon considering the lifetime of misspellings and mispronunciations, I used it thinking a better name would come later. No brilliant idea ever came. So, meryl.net stuck.

Not So Vital Info

Bio: The cool version

I’ve been hanging out on the pre-Internet aka BBS since 1986. (I appear in BBS: The Documentary, which landed me my own IMDb.com page. Color me shocked.) I met the Internet in 1993. In digital years, that would be the 1800s. I fell in love with it at first text.

I’ve written for anything and everything relating to Web design, technology, content marketing, writing, automotive and buffaloes (not kidding).

I’m the president, CEO, CIO, CMO, CFO, and founder of meryl.net, writing, editing, digital marketing, content marketing, email marketing, social media, tech fixer-upper, and all that extra stuff services.

I’ve blogged about living life as a deaf person. You can find this southpaw in the Lone Star State … not wearing 10-gallon hats.

Stats

  • Sign: Cap-Aquarius (some say Capricorn and some say water bearer).
  • Birthday: January 20 – Inauguration Day.
  • Myers-Briggs: ISTJ, ISTJ, ISTJ. (Every single time since taking the first one in ’90.)
  • Birth order: The youngest of three, but practically an only child.