Bio

Having a lived experience of Assisstive technology and the various barriers and challenges that can leave individuals digitally excluded from many aspects of society, Accessibility is something I always felt extremely passionate about. I have many years of experience within the Inclusive design, accessibility and assistive technology. As part of my current role, I work with many organisations raising the awareness of inclusive design and Accessibility and assisting organisations in making that 'shift left' approach which aims to embed both Inclusive Design and Accessibility into the day to day practice / DNA of the organisation, helping to make that cultural journey, rather than that which is based on compliance. I also write business cases and proposals for various firms looking to make this transition as inclusion benefits everybody, as does the embedding of accessible practices at all organisational levels. I am also Chair of governors at a primary school in London which is mainstream, but, also has a V I unit fully integrated into the School. I previously headed up the BBC's assistive technology team, who's mission / function is to work with all teams looking to either internally develop, externally procure services, or provide IT support to employees. As part of this, I set up a fully operational assistive technology licensing model which was centrally funded, which removed any potential stumbling blocks or barriers for anybody requiring the use of Assistive Technology for reasons relating to disability, providing testing, educating teams and a whole myriad of reasons as I truly believe that 'enforced declaration' of disability or any other protected characteristic is bad practice, and goes against the terms set out within the Equality act 2010. During my time leading the team, I saw it grow from 1, to 4. I also oversaw and was instrumental in a number of Service improvement initiatives and workstreams, as well as a number of third party strategic contracts, including, but not limited to; Working on our OpenMedia project to ensure * out of the box * accessibility, Renewing of the BBC's IT hosting contract, A number of globally recognised accessibility events as part of Global Accessibility Awareness day over many years as these demonstrate the public service values of the organisation. I have also worked in organisations providing a host of end to end test solutions, assisting with IT support functions. I am also experienced in speaking at many public events over the years on the topics of accessibility and inclusion.