Before I built websites, I trained to be a nurse.
Around 2009, a hospital job in the Philippines was either impossible for me to find or didn't pay enough to live on as my only income. I started out as a freelance writer while working different jobs.
After a couple of years, I eventually transitioned to web development while also working as a hospital nurse. It has always been my interest for years; I just never gave it my full attention. Through online and practical learning, I studied how to professionally code websites. I learned HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP. I eventually became a full time web developer in 2012.
Accessibility came later, almost by accident. I'm always on a quest to improve my knowledge and skills in what I do, and when I watched a guest interview about web accessibility from a content creator I follow, something clicked: I'd been unknowingly causing frustration, and sometimes real harm, to the people using the sites I built. I took an intro course on how people with disabilities actually use the web, and that was it. I've focused on accessibility ever since.
Where that’s led
These days I work with agencies who don't yet have the capability to implement accessibility themselves, as a consultant and hands-on service provider. But most of what I've learned has come from doing the work in public, alongside other people.
Agencies I work with
Teaching and speaking
Pro-bono and volunteer work
Things I've built
WCAG Reference
The full WCAG 2.2 as a PWA, so it's usable straight from a phone.
Read the launch story →WA11y Audit
This is the internal accessibility audit logging tool that I've built. Its first real job: auditing the home pages of top Philippine government websites, in the same spirit as WebAIM's Million, but focused on PH gov sites. More info to be published soon.
Access Notes
A monthly newsletter on web accessibility from a Philippine perspective, under Web Accessibility Philippines. Insights, news, a tip, WCAG app updates, and a spotlight on a community member or project each month.
Read Access Notes →