About James Warnken

I was nine years old when I was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a progressive condition that gradually takes away central vision.

Growing up, I didn’t know there was a field called accessibility, or that anyone was working to make the world work for people like me. So I made it work for myself. I advocated. I reminded people. I found workarounds, and when there weren’t any, I brute-forced my way through.

That drive followed me to Walsh University, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in business marketing in 2020. While still in school, I started my own company, Clear Vision, and interned in digital marketing across the cybersecurity, health and wellness, and advertising industries. After graduation, I helped small and mid-sized organizations grow through strategic marketing, and eventually moved into operations and sales.

Then came the question.

During a conversation with a prospective partner, someone asked me: “How do you make the websites you build and promote accessible for people with disabilities?”

I didn’t have an answer, and that stopped me cold. I had been living that question my entire life. I knew exactly what it felt like to land on a website that wasn’t built for me. I had just never asked whether the work I was putting into the world was doing the same thing to someone else.

From that day on, accessibility stopped being something I simply navigated and became my profession.

I rebuilt Clear Vision around that mission. Today it’s a digital accessibility firm that helps organizations build accessibility into how they work, through strategy, WCAG and Section 508 auditing, website and document remediation, VPATs and ACRs, training and education, and ongoing consulting. In 2024, I also founded Stark A11y, a nonprofit bringing accessibility awareness and resources to my home community in Stark County, Ohio.

Along the way, I’ve trained more than 600 professionals, led more than 150 accessibility projects, and helped create empathy labs and interactive experiences that let people feel the impact of inaccessible design firsthand. I’m a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) and soon-to-be a DHS Trusted Tester and Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA).

But credentials are only part of what I bring. I’ve spent my life on the other side of inaccessible design, and that shapes how I approach every audit, training, and strategy. I know the difference between a site that technically passes and one that actually works for the person using it.

I’ve also learned that real, lasting accessibility doesn’t come from a one-time fix. It takes a committed team, a strong network of support, openness to learning, and a refusal to get comfortable with “good enough.” That’s the kind of work I love doing, and the kind of change I help organizations build.

If you’re working on making your digital experiences more accessible, want to brainstorm ideas, or just want to talk assistive technology, I’d love to connect.