Founder’s journey

THE FOUNDER’S JOURNEY

At the age of 13, Helix Opportunity founder David Fazio survived a softball-size hemorrhagic stroke that produced severe brain damage and left him completely paralyzed on the left half of his body, blind in the left half of each eye, and with severe cognitive impairments. As he navigated life with the resulting mobility and cognitive disabilities, he developed a vision of a truly inclusive world. It is his belief that every human being is unique, each of us having different functional and sensory strengths and weaknesses. Yet, there are ways in which all people are alike. The essential aspects of the human expe­rience, such as birth, death, love, struggle, and emotion, unite us all.

Through Helix Opportunity Mr. Fazio has worked with major global corporations to “Unlock the Power of Human Inclusion” by achieving what he calls “Harmony at Work”, that perfect intersection between accessible and meaningful experience. Products, environments, services, and economies, can connect all people through their shared human experience by engaging each person’s strongest combination of senses and abil­ities. This is the essence of what it means to achieve Harmony at Work. It is the core of who Mr. Fazio is and what he does. All of his work, from organizational development to product design, is driven by this vision.

Prior to founding Helix Opportunity, Mr. Fazio spent six years as a civil service employee of the United States Air Force, where he participated in the total Lean Transformation of a multi-billion dollar aerospace operation. He also served as an American Federation of Government Employees Union Representative, where he litigated all of the disability discrimination complaints before Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Administrative Law Judges on behalf of employees with disabilities.

Mr. Fazio is an Invited Expert in the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative, where he develops global Information Communication Technology accessibility standards as a participant in the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group, the Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force, the Silver Task Force, and the Accessibility Maturity Model Subgroup.

Mr. Fazio has worked with major global corporations to staff and support qualified STEM candidates with disabilities around the world, design inclusive products, environments and services, and develop inclusive corporate cultures.