About Jim Byrne
Jim has been programming computers and involved in the technical issues of computing since the late 1970s. He has been promoting the benefits of accessible web practices since 1996, when he founded the accessible web design consultancy 'The Making Connections Unit' with his colleague David Donald.
He has written and spoken widely on the subject of accessible Web design, including on national radio and television. He also develops and delivers accessible web design training programmes for the private, public, and voluntary sector.
In the mid 1990s Jim worked as a Disability Information Officer and Trainer with The Wellbeing Initiative; a training organisation set up to help disabled people get back into work. Working for the Wellbeing Initiative raised his awareness of equality and access issues, and he became interested in finding ways to remove the barriers that many disabled people face when trying to access information and services.
He is a former Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University where he taught research methods, Statistics and IT skills - he then became the Manager of Glasgow Caledonian University's Accessible Web Design Project. Jim now runs his own business focusing on everything related to accessible Web design, including design, development, accessibility auditing and training for developers and web publishers.
In 2001 he was identified as one of Scotland's 'movers and shakers in e-commerce in Scotland' for his work in the area of Web accesssibility (NB Magazine, June, 2001).
In 2003 Jim founded the Worldwide Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS), a networking and support organisation for accessible web designers and developers.
Publications
Standards for Disability Information and Advice Provision in Scotland: Making Websites Accessible (November 2002)
published by The Scottish Accessible Information Forum.
ISBN 0-9543408-0-9
Towards a Communications and Information Technology Intensive Learning Environment: Supplementing a Political Economy Module: (2000) David Donald, Alan Hutton and Jim Byrne in Innovative Approaches to Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business Higher Education. Stafford University Press ISBN 1 897898 82 7
Accessible Web Typography - An Introduction for Web Designers. A free online book published by ScotConnect. ISBN: 0-9545375-1-3
How To Create Accessible PDFs with Adobe Acrobat 6 - a practical guide.
New: 50 hot to touch accessible web design tips - the tips no web developer can do without. My latest ebook, published by ScotConnect. This ebook is currently only available to people who buy a copy of the QnECMS accessible Content Management System.
Extracurricular activities
Photography (see Jim's West End Photo Diary at http://www.glasgowwestend.co.uk/gallery/index.html). Writing songs, singing and playing guitar in a loud rock band. Assists his wife Pat run Pat's Guide to the West End of Glasgow; doing all the technical duties, including maintenance of Linux Webservers.
Author of a number of Web applications:
- The Turbo-charged style-sheet switcher: Providing user customisation options by making css files scriptable.
- QNECMS - the Quick and Easy Content Management System.
- QuicknEasyImage Pro - for making it easy to add photographs and other images to web pages in an accessible way.
- CommentIt - for adding comments to the bottom of web pages (now maintained by David Bayly as a plugin for Manila).
- FlathuntingPHP - for adding a flathunting service to a community website.
- BusinessListPHP - for adding a business listing service to a community website.
- PropertyListPHP - for adding a property sales service to a community website.
- EditIt - for simple forms based editing of web pages (for use with Frontier content management).
- AutoNews - for creating a simple news page (for use with Frontier content management).
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