Go ON Gold

online access for disabled people

Julie Howell

Julie Howell

Julie HowellJulie Howell’s story is an inspirational one for anyone who feels they don’t have the technological knowledge needed to make a difference to their own and others' lives. “I’ve never been interested in working with technology”, says Julie. “My background is actually in humanities. While it’s true that I spend a lot of time in front of computers, I regard them as little more than tools to get certain jobs done.”

However, this didn’t stop her from founding one of the first online communities for people with multiple sclerosis to communicate with each other (Jooly’s Joint) in 1995, and becoming the technical author of a document, PAS 78, which would lay the foundations for the first British Standard on developing accessible websites.

After working as a library assistant, Julie began working for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in 1994, where she worked with some of the UK’s largest organisations including Tesco, the BBC and NHS, to highlight the importance of making information systems, products and services accessible to disabled people.

Her time at RNIB also included a lot of work helping to make websites usable for people with disabilities. However, when it comes to getting people online and using computers, perhaps for the first time, Julie says only the basics are essential. “Disabled people don’t need to know about ‘web accessibility’ – that should only concern technology solutions developers. Disabled people just need to know how to get the mouse to work when they can’t see the screen, how to change the text size to suit their needs, where they can get a keyboard that is more comfortable to use, etc. Very, very basic stuff.”

In fact, says Julie, a lack of awareness of how to adapt a computer to make it easier to use as the most significant problem.

“I suspect many disabled people (particularly those not in employment) become very frustrated with the computer because they can’t get it to work in the way they need, and that’s purely because no-one has explained how to make simple changes to the computer to make it easier for them to use”, she says.

Julie lives with multiple sclerosis, a long-term condition that affects the central nervous system, and says technology has made it easier for her to adapt her working pattern. “Technology has given me greater flexibility over when I can work, and this means I can work when I feel most up to it, rather than according to a fixed 9-5 regime.”

Julie’s main role now is as managing director of Giraffe Sense Mentoring, a company boosting the confidence and self-esteem of women at work. She recently received an award as Brighton University’s ‘Alumnus of the Year, 2012’, which recognised her varied work and achievements, particularly her work with RNIB and mentoring that she has given to students at Brighton University.

Her greatest moments of satisfaction, however, came from her work as a campaigner addressing thousands of people at conferences around the world. “If any of that effort led to improvements in the lives of disabled people then I’m really happy, but it was meeting people who wanted to further the agenda in their own way that made that work particularly enjoyable”, she says. “People care about these issues more than you might think – show them what they can do to make disabled people’s lives better and give them the tools and the incentives to do it and positive change can and will come about.”

Read Julie Howell’s thoughts on ‘Entrepreneurship: Do People With Chronic Conditions Make Great Entrepreneurs?’ in an article for E-Access Bulletin.