Barry Toner

I'm a digital accessibility consultant with something rare in this field: enterprise IT experience since 2007 across Apple, Microsoft and Linux, combined with a lifetime of using the assistive technology I now advise organisations on. I don't audit accessibility from the outside. I live it, and I've built the technical career to back it up. As a board director of the British Computer Association of the Blind, I designed and built the BCAB Pocket PC, a USB stick that turned any borrowed computer into a blind person's own accessible environment: their screen reader, email, a media player, and a browser loaded with their own bookmarks, all laid out like a familiar desktop. They could launch the whole thing themselves with no sighted help to get it talking, then unplug and leave the borrowed machine untouched. Independence years before smartphones made that ordinary. On the enterprise side, I spent two years contracted to Apple in an advisory sales, customer service and AppleCare role, working directly with customers across the full product range and troubleshooting the complete accessibility feature set on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch for disabled people. Before that, at a housing association, I ran the Apple device estate on my own, designed and deployed its mobile device management system, and looked after the computers and network access across 32 sites spread across Northern Ireland, each one connecting back to head office. More recently, Visa engaged me to evaluate the accessibility of their credit card application flow as an expert screen reader user. I'm an IAAP member, currently studying for CPACC, and I bring lived experience, technical depth, and no patience for accessibility that passes the audit but fails the user. I'm exploring relocation to Canada and keen to connect with and contribute to the accessibility community here.