Karen Hawkins

Karen Hawkins, CPACC, has a diverse work experience in the field of accessibility and user experience design. Karen is currently serving as the Principal of Accessible Design at Level Access since July 2023. Prior to that, they worked as the Head of Accessible User Experience Design at Level Access from October 2020 to July 2023.

Before joining Level Access, Karen held various positions at eSSENTIAL Accessibility. Karen served as the Head of Accessible User Experience Design from November 2021 to August 2022 and as the Manager of Instructional Design from October 2020 to November 2021. In the latter role, they overhauled the training content and ensured it tied back to the end user experience.

Karen has also worked at Bounteous Canada as the Associate Experience Director from September 2019 to October 2020. In this role, they mentored and led a multidisciplinary creative team and played a key role in growing the team.

Karen has also gained experience in teaching at Miami Ad School Toronto, where they worked as an instructor for their UX bootcamp from May 2018 to June 2020. Karen developed and taught lectures on wireframes, user flows, and web accessibility.

Earlier in their career, Karen worked at Publicis Sapient as a User Experience Lead and Global Creative Accessibility Lead, where they led teams on website redesign projects and developed educational programs on accessibility. Karen also worked as a Senior User Experience Designer and User Experience Designer on various Fortune 500 projects.

Before transitioning into the UX field, Karen worked at CGI as a Senior Project Management Consultant and User Experience Designer, where they successfully delivered website redesign projects and led brainstorming sessions.

Karen started their career as an Ergonomist Intern at Ontario Power Generation, where they spearheaded industrial ergonomic projects and conducted office ergonomic assessments.

Overall, Karen Hawkins brings extensive experience and expertise in accessible design and user experience, making their a valuable asset in various organizations.

Karen Hawkins, CPACC, holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, which they obtained from 2007 to 2011. Karen has also acquired various certifications, including DesignOps from the Nielsen Norman Group (to be obtained in 2023), Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies from IAAP - International Association of Accessibility Professionals (obtained in August 2023), Mobile User Experience from the Nielsen Norman Group (obtained in 2022), Lean UX and Agile Certification from the Nielsen Norman Group (obtained in 2019), Enabling Our Potential Management Training Certificate from Publicis Sapient (obtained in 2019), How to Evaluate Your Website's Accessibility Workshop from Accessibility Ontario (obtained in 2017), How to Create Accessible Websites Workshop from Accessibility Ontario (obtained in 2017), and Introduction to Website Accessibility Workshop from Accessibility Ontario (obtained in 2017).