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Meet Catriona, an Accessibility Specialist at TetraLogical with a keen eye for detail, a love of inclusive content, and an enthusiasm for stories in all their forms.
Her workspace may be dotted with half-finished craft projects and a stack of well-loved books, but no matter if she’s testing a new design or writing image descriptions, Catriona brings the same thoughtful precision and creativity.
Catriona is an Accessibility Specialist at TetraLogical, where she focuses on accessibility assessments and testing. She helps organisations meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 and beyond, ensuring digital products are not only compliant but genuinely usable.
She holds an MSc in Publishing (Interactive Media) and is certified in Full Stack Web Development. Combining content and code, she helps teams think inclusively at every stage.
Before joining TetraLogical, Catriona worked at Jadu, auditing public sector websites, design systems, and web platforms. She supported teams with accessibility reviews, resources, and training, to embed accessibility into everyday processes.
Her journey into accessibility began in publishing, where she spent two years in the HarperCollins eBooks team before spending her next five years at Bloomsbury Publishing. Starting from a love of books and interactive media, she led eBook accessibility, integrating inclusive practices into workflows through training and guidance. She also established accessibility working groups, developed role-specific guidelines, and prepared the business for the European Accessibility Act. Her specialisms, image descriptions and accessible layouts, combine her passion for storytelling with her problem-solving mindset.
When she’s not working, Catriona is a proud hobby-dabbler. A classically trained pianist (currently restarting lessons, inspired by her musical colleagues), she also loves hiking, wild swimming, and weekend adventures in the Scottish Highlands.
She once took three months off to road trip around New Zealand in a van, which turned out to be a brilliant combination of travel, hiking, and Lord of the Rings fandom.
At heart, she’s a lover of stories, whether found in books, story-driven games, or a good TV binge. For Catriona, accessibility is about ensuring everyone has the right to enjoy stories too, whether through audiobooks, e-readers, or inclusive design.
That you don’t have to be an expert to start! The WCAG and WAI-ARIA documentation can seem overwhelming at first, and it’s natural to feel a sense of pressure that you should know it all before you can start. Yet, one thing I’ve learned since joining dedicated accessibility teams is that both experts and beginners still have the same discussions on how to interpret a specific success criterion or what is the most accessible way of designing a certain pattern.
With constantly evolving technologies and standards, accessibility is a continuous learning process. Stay curious, keep learning and don't be afraid to ask questions. There are many excellent high-level resources out there, such as our accessibility foundations blog post series, and a welcoming community who are all trying to make experiences more inclusive, regardless of knowledge level. As long as you continue to care and learn about the barriers people face, you’ll be well on your way in the journey to accessibility!
Always keep the people who use your products in mind.
When you're deep in the technical specifications, it’s easy to focus on meeting all the success criteria and forget about the real people on the other end. Meeting WCAG is just the beginning of inclusive design practice. You can build something that is technically compliant without actually considering the needs of real people. Accessibility is nuanced; often, there’s more than one way to design an accessible pattern, and by focusing on certain success criteria, you may end up underserving people with different disabilities. Aim to go beyond and not assume, reach out for help and be open-minded to feedback.
Vice versa, as an auditor, it’s also important to remember that the WCAG standards have been interpreted into international legislation across the world. If we are auditing specifically against WCAG 2.2 Level AA then it is important not to fail something just because we don’t like it! Know the standards, but always advocate for the most inclusive solution.
There are so many brilliant resources out there! Beyond the WCAG 2.2 Understanding Docs and MDN Web Docs accessibility documentation, I’ve come across so much rich knowledge just from exploring the a11y webring project, where accessibility experts share insights that go beyond the standards, addressing real-world implications and practical challenges.
However, some of my favourite resources come from our very own brilliant TetraLogical team members. When I’m in need for some real-world examples and clarity on the more “hand-wavy” success criteria, I constantly refer back to the talk These (still) aren’t the Success Criteria you’re looking for from Patrick H. Lauke and the TGPi quizzes from Ian Lloyd, especially When I Get That Low Contrast Feeling, I Need Non-Textual Healing; just remember to turn the sounds off if you don’t want to give the people around you a fright!
Find out more about TetraLogical, the team, our principles and our community.
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