About Me
In Brief
- I am an accessibility specialist at TetraLogical.
- From 2013 until 2020, I was a senior accessibility consultant at The Paciello Group.
- Prior to that, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the
School of Computing at the
University of Dundee.
- My current interests lie predominately in the creation of usable and accessible Web sites (and
other contemporary technologies) for diverse groups of users, in particular for disabled and older users.
Professional Qualifications
- PhD (2008) and
MSc (2003) in Applied Computing, University of Dundee.
- BA (Hons) (1998) in Accounting, University of Abertay Dundee.
Professional Skills
Technical
- Strong awareness of current Web accessibility guidelines and legislation.
- Significant working knowledge of HTML and
CSS.
- Reasonable working knowledge of Ruby on Rails and PHP.
- Basic working knowledge of Java, C++, jQuery, Drupal and JavaScript.
Transferable
- Strong written and spoken communication skills.
- Regularly engage in public speaking at academic conferences and other events both within the UK and overseas.
- Experience in providing hands-on training in accessible web design and evaluation.
- Experience in organising and carrying out user-centred design sessions with diverse groups of people,
including disabled and older users.
Outside Interests
- I play keyboards, and am a big fan of putting together my own silly
mashups, although
sadly not as often as I'd like these days.
- I'm also a bit of a foreign language buff, which is partly why I created
Twasebook.
I've been studying Danish over the past seven years or so, and I've
also dabbled in German, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic and Mandarin Chinese. When I say "dabbled", I mean I have
various Teach Yourself courses sitting on a bookshelf at
home waiting to be studied!
- During the summer months, I try to do a bit of
walking and cycling.
- I'm an extremely amateur photographer. Check out my efforts
on Flickr, which also covers another interest -
travel.