Mika Pyyhkala, President

Mika Pyyhkala lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts and is involved in information technology, technology civil rights, accessibility evangelism, and is an early adopter of all things tech. He received his BS in Marketing & Human Resources from Boston College.

Mika extensively works on technology civil rights, issues affecting blind airline passengers, and avidly works with new products and services that improve the independence, intigration, and quality of life for blind and sighted people alike.
Mika has been involved in airline issues since the early 1990's, and represents the National Federation of the Blind at Department of Transportation forums and works with individual air carriers and related service providers to bring about a better and more accessible air travel experience.

While its hard to reach Mika by phone, he is more accessible via his
@pyyhkala Twitter account account, and is constantly testing and adopting new communication tools like Heytell.

Mika regularly consults, provides training, and tests both mainstream and assistive technology products, and works with companys to bring about better accessibility for blind users. He was instrumental in accessibility fixes in such brands as TaskRabbit, Gogo Inflight WiFi, and is now testing the Nest Learning Thermostat which allows a blind person to access and control their HVAC system through the use of VoiceOver on an iPhone. Pyyhkala is also working with Uber to improve the accessibility of their mobile phone based private car service, which is disrupting the status quoe of the taxi cab business in citys served.

At NFB national conventions, Mika works to partner with leading, best in breed, products and services to expose them to our membership, and also to make accessibility and universal design part of their corporate DNA.