I'm James — a passionate UI Developer and Digital Accessibility Specialist with over a decade of experience. I'm empathetic, hard-working, reliable and always keen to learn new things. I care about the craft and I care about people. I love making services accessible to as many people as possible and being part of a culture that supports this.
Developed custom Gutenberg blocks leveraging the platform's block editor framework, empowering clients with flexible page layout capabilities and a streamlined content management experience
Proficiently utilised Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) to architect and implement complete WordPress solutions, from initial design to full functionality
Leveraged Tailwind CSS to rapidly prototype and develop responsive user interfaces, ensuring consistent design language and optimised performance across devices
Conducted comprehensive accessibility audits across multiple client sites, employing a combination of automated testing tools and meticulous manual evaluation to identify and address potential barriers
Generated detailed accessibility audit reports outlining identified issues, prioritised recommendations for remediation, and actionable guidance for developers
Championed the adoption of accessible and performant coding practices, ensuring optimal user experiences and adherence to web standards
Front End Engineer and Accessibility Specialist at Code Computerlove
April 2021 - July 2024
Formed and ran the accessibility champions network. Helping bring together people from multiple disciplines with a passion for accessibility to collaborate and make change
Contributed to the successful rollout of interactive design annotation workshops using Figma to improve accessibility awareness and feedback loops between designers and developers
Advocated for more understanding and use of semantic HTML over custom JavaScript solutions
Bridged the gap between accessibility best practices and diverse tech stacks (MVC, React) by seamlessly integrating inclusive features and bug fixes into existing product codebases and at the start of new projects
Led the implementation of several automated and manual accessibility testing practices. Including axe DevTools, WAVE, keyboard-only, VoiceOver and NVDA. Championing for this to be part of ticket writing in the process
Ran a series of multidisciplinary accessibility skillshares in various interactive and presentational formats
Leveraged my passion for accessibility to deliver engaging talks at QA Beginners Club (Testing Accessibility), Manchester Tech Festival (Accessibility Champions: Creating an Accessibility Culture), and HCD Manchester, influencing attendees to embrace inclusive practices
Performed accessibility reviews of components and pages on various products. Highlighting priority issues and actions to internal colleagues and client partners in technical and non-technical roles
Collaborated across product teams, leveraging diverse tech stacks which gave me knowledge of working with frameworks and languages including React, TypeScript, C#, and HTML templating languages
Implemented robust development workflows using linters, task runners, and continuous integration pipelines.
Designed and developed accessible, responsive, semantic, and robust UI components and features. Using Figma to collaborate effectively with design teams.
