About me
I'm a web developer with twenty years' professional experience, specialising in the front-end, accessibility and user experience. I love working with all sorts of organisations, teams, and individuals, sharing my knowledge, experience and expertise to build a better web for everyone.
I'm based in Brighton & Hove, and can often be found working out of the wonderful spaces of PLATF9RM.
If you'd like to learn more about how I can help, please get in touch and let's have a chat.
Accessibility and Sustainability
I have an accessibility focus as, after all, the Web is all about sharing, so it follows that we should make Web content available to as many people as possible.
Early on in my career, I learned about the access challenges that websites could create for many individuals. I quickly became passionate about accessibility as a part of my own development work, as well as promoting and raising awareness within the teams and organisations that I’ve worked with.
You can listen to a Q&A session that I gave for the Brighton Chamber of Commerce in November 2022: How to improve your website's accessibility.
I'm also interested in working in ways that limit the impact that our Web use has on the environment, both by reducing the resources that our websites use and by using sustainable hosting.
A recent project
A little more of my work
Services
Web development
I deliver bespoke front-end development and CMS-based website development. I'll often work with designers and creative agencies to realise their designs as closely as possible, with user experience (UX), accessibility and responsive design principles at the centre of everything.
This includes:
- Bespoke front-end development and templating;
- WordPress/Woocommerce theme and site development;
- Squarespace site building;
- Shopify site building.
Accessibility auditing
I can test, report and advise, based on the industry-standard WCAG guidelines, to help improve the accessibility of your website for visitors with a variety of needs.
What are the benefits of improving accessiblity?
It’s estimated that 20% of people in the UK have access needs. An inaccessible website can present confusion, frustration and barriers to those trying to engage with your content and services.
By improving the accessibility of your website, you will make it easier for all potential visitors, customers and clients to interact fully with it and find the information that they need. Accessibility isn't just about vistors with disabilities, either. It also provides benefits to customers and visitors in general, as you streamline and refine the content and journeys within your site.
What does an accessibility audit involve?
We can agree on a selection of representative pages/templates and content types to test, plus key interactive features and the most common or important user journeys.
I will perform a range of tests, checking for a multitude of factors that may present issues for users with different access needs. These include both automated and manual testing, and are based on established guidelines and best practices.
I will compile a report of the findings from these tests, and present a set of recommendations to improve accessibility and alleviate potential issues.
Testimonials
Some of the things people I've worked with have said about me:
“Let’s face it, no-one wants to do/redo their website but Barry makes the whole process almost pleasant.
“He knows the questions to ask to create a website that fully represents you and your company. He calmly holds space, takes you through each stage using his detective manner and creates a website that you’ll both be proud of.
“The most important part is that Barry has given me more work than I can handle and a website that absolutely encapsulates me. I am very grateful and have no hesitation in recommending him far and wide.”
“We’ve worked with Barry on a number of web projects and we have always been very pleased with the final product as have our clients. His attention to detail is spot on, replicating our designs very accurately and with a keen eye for web accessibility.”
“Barry has supported us on a few client projects so far, we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him. A great developer with an enviable eye for design, he’s also helpful and responsive — an absolute pleasure to work with!”
“We have worked with Barry on multiple occasions to help us improve our company website, It’s now visually appealing, clean, easy to navigate and responsive — everything we asked for. He understood our vision right away and did an excellent job at executing it.”