Gareth Ford Williams
axe-con presenter in 2021, 2022

Pronouns: He/Him

In 2005 Gareth founded the BBC’s Digital Accessibility Team. Over the course of the first 3 years the Accessibility Team worked as an integral part of iPlayer’s core Product Team ensuring BBC iPlayer V1.0 launched as an accessible product. The accessibility team became part of UX when the BBC’s UX Design Team was founded in 2008. Gareth established the Design Research Team in 2010 and subsequently became a Head of UX Design. His team manages a network of over 200 Accessibility Champions, the oldest network of its kind in the industry. His team has also pioneered Mobile Accessibility Guidelines, BBC MAG, which were the first in the industry which have been used by thousands of organisations around the world. He has an interest in accessible typography going back his time on attachment as a product manager at YouView where he led the work on selecting the UI typeface, and since then he was a key stakeholder in the delivery of BBC Reith and BBC Qalam. Gareth is now Director at Ab11y.com

Watch Gareth’s 2021 talk here: “Don’t Believe The Type!

Read more about Gareth’s 2022 talk: “How Can You Measure Accessibility Impact At Scale?