About

My name is Brian Matthews. I'm a certified Web Accessibility Specialist based in the Rep. of Ireland.

I'm passionate about trying to improve access to websites & apps for people with disabilities (recorded as 22% of people in Ireland ; CSO figure).

Disabilities that cause issues with vision, mobility, hearing & cognition, can all have an impact on how people interact with digital content. The good news is that technology now means there are new ways to assist people with disabilities to access content equally.

I assess digital content with WCAG 2.2 (required AA standard) audits using Automated & Manual Keyboard-only techniques, combined with assistive technology, to provide meaningful insights that can help to make a website or app more accessible.

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) provide the international industry standards used to measure levels of digital accessibility. Learn more about WCAG.

These are some techniques I use:

Manual & automated checks.
Assistive technology checks (e.g. NVDA screen reader, VoiceOver and TalkBack screen readers).
Colour contrast checks.
Device checks (e.g. PC’s, tablets, mobile phones).
Browser checks (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari).
Operating system checks (e.g. Windows, iOS and Android).

By combining test techniques, accessibility audits commonly reveal issues with screen reader announcements, keyboard access, focus visibility, focus order, headings, colour contrast, zoom resize, and link purpose, to name but a few.

My Credentials

I am CPACC (Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies) accredited with the IAAP (International Association of Accessibility Professionals). Here is a link to verify my CPACC certification.

I also hold U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Section 508 Trusted Tester accreditation. My registered certificate license number (TT 2402 05615) was issued 15th February 2024. For a copy of my Certificate, please contact me, or to verify please email: accessibility@hq.dhs.gov (for certification listed under my name).

Lastly, I hold an International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) Certified Tester Foundation Level award, relating to software testing concepts such as Waterfall, Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD. Here is a link to verify my ISTQB credential.

My Background

Since studying to achieve a degree Level 8 award in Computer Science, I subsequently worked for a number of organisations, one of which was for Google AFS as an Adwords Technical Support Specialist B2B. Now my focus is solely aimed at delivering web accessibility advice as a consultant.

I have conducted accessibility audits of website homepages of some Irish Bank, Telecoms, E-Commerce, Transport and Hospital organisations. Homepages can be a good barometer of the level of accessibility a website may have. If you wish to know more detail about my test case findings, please feel free to contact me.