Johanna Bolton works as a web accessibility officer in DCU
Career snapshot
Johanna is a project officer on an important web accessibility project at Dublin City University (DCU). Web accessibility is the effort to make web pages usable by as Webmany people as possible, regardless of any disability.
This EU-funded project, Support-EAM, aims to help create a web accessibility quality mark. The DCU team works with six other organisations throughout Europe.
Johanna is from Galway and went to Salerno Secondary School in Salthill. Previously, Johanna worked as a designer in a web development company.
Degrees
- BEng (Electronic and Computer Engineering), NUI Galway, 2002
- MSc (Multimedia Systems), TCD, 2004
What’s so brilliant about your job?
“I love my job as I have always been fascinated by the Web and all that it can offer. It was designed to be accessible to all regardless of disability and it’s important to ensure that as web technologies evolve we don’t lose sight of the initial goals. “One quote from Dr ZhangXu is often used when people speak about web accessibility, and I think it gets the point across; ‘If anybody asks me what the Internet means to me, I will tell him without hesitation: To me (a quadriplegic) the Internet occupies the most important part in my life. It is my feet that can take me to any part of the world; it is my hands which help me to accomplish my work; it is my best friend – it gives my life meaning.’”
What do you like least about your job?
“As jobs go it’s pretty great, but if I really had to pick something it would be the fact that it is sometimes difficult for me to motivate myself to keep focused constantly in the research environment.”
How do you spend a typical day?
“I do all of my work in front of a computer. It involves, research, writing documents, commenting on documents and website evaluations.”
Does your work require a lot of equipment?
“No, just a computer.”
Are you a science/engineering/technology nerd?
“No, I don’t think so, but as technology evolves constantly I do try to keep up-to-date with new technologies. I enjoy the arts, particularly electronic art and film, since my time on the multimedia course.”
Did those subjects give you a buzz at school?
“I always preferred the science, engineering and technology subjects. I found them more interesting.”
What has been the highlight of your career to date?
“I suppose that would have to be going to Brussels for a meeting on the project I’m currently working on. A lot of the important organisations involved in Web accessibility were there.”
Want to find out more?
Check out the e-access lab in DCU
Have a look at the Support-EAM website
