About me

I am an independent accessibility specialist and consultant from the UK

I am incredibly passionate about digital accessibility and have a wealth of experience that I love to share with people, teams and organisations.

I have over 20 years of digital and accessibility experience, starting as a web developer at the BBC, where I learned how to build accessible websites and grow and support an accessibility community. Since then, I have been:

• Head of Accessibility at Government Digital Service (GDS)
• Senior Accessibility Engineer at Apple
• Principal Accessibility Consultant at Nomensa.

I am now an independent accessibility consultant and enjoy raising accessibility capability through training, workshops, coaching and embedded support.

I am a strategic thinker able to help organisations effectively identify and prioritise accessibility issues and embed accessibility in their processes, culture and products.

Whilst skilled and experienced in accessibility audits and assessments, I do not believe they should be the focus of accessibility efforts. They help identify current gaps in knowledge and critical barriers that need fixing but do not equip organisations with the ability to implement sustainable accessibility. As such, I prefer to use them as a tool to support capability building rather than as a default approach to accessibility.

My accessibility career and experience

Web Developer and Accessibility Champion, BBC

In 2004, I created the BBC's first two websites to use CSS for layout, which led to the BBC moving away from table base layouts.

I was active in several working groups and contributed to the BBC's HTML, CSS and Accessibility guidelines.

I was the Lead Frontend Developer on the BBC 2012 Olympics website and helped deliver an accessible website for this by being an accessibility champion and leader. I organised training, ran learning lunches and clinics, shared best practices, and ensured accessibility was embedded throughout the design and development process. My approach and success led the BBC's Accessibility Team to create the BBC's Accessibility Champions Network.

Gareth Ford Williams, the Head of Accessibility at the time, talks about this in the video of his presentation Accessibility Culture eats WCAG compliance for breakfast.

I went on to be the Principal Developer at BBC Weather and led the development of the iOS and Android Weather Apps, which I helped to ensure were accessible. This was another first for the BBC.

Lead Frontend Developer, Money Advice Service

In 2015, at the Money Advice Service, I had the opportunity to lead the rebuild of their website to replace it with one that was accessible and responsive. We achieved this by again embedding accessibility throughout the process and creating one of (if not) the first accessible, reusable UI component libraries.

Head of Accessibility at GDS

I was Head of Accessibility at Government Digital Service for over three years, from 2015 to 2019. During that time I:

• Built the GDS accessibility team
• Initiated and supported the Government Accessibility Community, which grew to over 1500 people
• Managed the GDS Accessibility Blog and used it to share best practices and lived experiences of disability
• Ran the government's assistive technology survey
• Led an audit of automated accessibility testing tools
• Led a research project to understand how teams across government approach accessibility and the challenges they face
• Led the creation of the accessibility content in the GOV.UK Service Manual
• Ensured the GOV.UK Design System was accessible by embedding accessibility awareness and best practices into the team and their processes
• Led the creation of the Accessibility Empathy Lab
• Led the creation of disability user profiles
• Worked as a subject matter expert to support policy colleagues in implementing the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018
• Led a research project to identify user needs for public sector bodies trying to meet the Accessibility Regulations and guided the creation of guidance on GOV.UK for the meeting the regulations
• Helped ensure GOV.UK was accessible. It is still seen globally as an examplar of web accessibility

Accessibility London Meetup Organiser

While working at GDS, I took over as the Accessibility London Meetup organiser for over two years. I curated talks, found sponsorship and helped it become the biggest accessibility Meetup in the world, with over 1500 members.

Check out the fantastic talks on the Accessibility London YouTube Channel

Senior Accessibility Engineer, Apple

I was a Senior Accessibility Engineer at Apple, working on a team of consultants that supported the digital accessibility of public-facing and internal websites and native apps. My focus was on the Apple e-commerce website and the software used in retail stores.

Principal accessibility consultant, Nomensa

I have recently been a Principal accessibility consultant at the award-winning user experience agency, Nomensa. My work was split between leading a team of accessibility consultants, ensuring the quality of work delivered and running training and strategic accessibility programmes for clients. I was lucky to work with a diverse range of clients and projects. These included:

• Public sector - NHS Digital, DWP, The Charity Commission, The Insolvency Service, Essex County Council, Cornwall Council, Bristol University, Met Office
• Charity sector - Alzheimer's Society
• Private sector - WeTransfer, Zurich, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Dyson, Fat Face

Hire me

Please get in touch if you are looking for a digital accessibility specialist to help support you. My contact details are in the Get in touch section below: