About Martin

It’s very nice that you want to know more about me! I’m Martin and I help companies design and build accessible websites and apps. I’m from Glasgow but live in Newcastle upon Tyne; married with two kids and two cats.

My career in the web

I love the web. It’s for everyone. Anyone can access information and anyone can have a voice.

I first dabbled with HTML in 2002 when I put together a website for the band I played in. Six years later, I was lucky enough to work out that a career in web design was my thing and put all of my energy into making it happen.

Webmaster

It sounds a bit antiquated now, but that’s exactly what I was: a webmaster. In fact, for a select few clients, I still am!

Working with small business to create, establish and improve their web presence made up the core of my work. Planning, designing and building websites, then improving them over time gives me a huge amount of satisfaction. I have had the pleasure of working with some really great clients, and our long-lasting relationships have made their websites fantastic business tools.

Freelance

Over the years, I also worked freelance for larger companies. I’m a very easy person to get along with and have slotted nicely into many teams over the years, forging some lasting friendships as well as producing great websites.

My freelance work normally involved coding accessible interfaces, wrangling out-of-control CSS, or consulting on UI decisions.

Digital product design

In 2016 I made the move from websites into digital products. I worked full-time on a ground-up redesign/rebuild of a suite of web apps for contact centres. I redefined the look and feel of the product, introduced a robust pattern-library-first design system, and delivered components (in production-ready HTML and CSS) to the dev team.

GOV.UK

I worked in UK government from early 2018 to late 2020 on a Scrum team in the Digital Delivery Centre. I was a senior interaction designer, building my designs as working prototypes (in HTML/CSS/JavaScript) for usability testing.

I also got very involved in the frontend code and accessibility testing of the services I worked on, as well as sharing my expertise with designers, developers and testers across the centre.

Sage

From 2020 to 2025 I led accessibility at Sage, a global tech company with over 11,000 employees. I was brought in as their first accessibility specialist and built the discipline from the ground up. Sage now has a thriving accessibility community and a Champions network that extends the core team’s influence, and I’m proud to have helped make accessibility part of the organisation works.

Accessibility consultant

I now work independently, helping organisations to weave accessibility into their culture, processes, and products. I partner with leaders to set strategy, guide design and development teams, and build the confidence and structures that make accessibility sustainable.

Sharing

I’m a big believer in sharing. The web community is exceptionally generous and I owe my career to blog posts, Stack Overflow, talks on YouTube, and help from people I’ve met along the way.

A local meetup

In 2015 I co-founded Frontend NE, a monthly frontend web development meetup and annual conference. Across 6 years, 96 speakers, 57 meetups, and 2 conferences, we gave over 3,500 frontend web developers a place to learn more about their craft and make connections.

Speaking

Although I’m an introvert, I’m certainly not shy! In fact, I really enjoy presenting ideas to audiences, and do so regularly as part of my day-to-day work, as well externally at tech meetups.

Training and coaching

Accessibility was central to everything I did in Government, and I carried that same mindset into my time at Sage. Now in my consultancy, I continue to run training and workshops, helping everyone from developers and designers to researchers, analysts, and product owners build their skills and confidence.

Writing

I love to write. I’ve been blogging consistently since 2011 covering accessibility, interaction design, frontend development. My posts are read by thousands each week, and I share them in a monthly newsletter. Writing helps me refine my own thinking and, hopefully, gives something useful back to the community.

What about right now?

I love learning and I love my work; I also have a life outside of the web! Find out what I’m up to at the moment on my now page.