Alexa to the rescue of inaccessible websites

The Web is over 30 years old, yet some websites are still not accessible.

This is the tale of how Alexa, with a little bit of help, came to the rescue of a blind person who could not get access to local news.

In this talk, Alex Nicol speaks about accessibility, web crawling, tech-for-good, Alexa, running Ruby on Lambdas, and working on a side project whilst having a six-month-old baby.

Alex Nicol is a web developer working at BridgeU and Bounce Technologies. He's also founded his own consultancy company, specialised in conversational systems and tech-for-good. He previously spent six years at EDF Energy as an R&D engineer specialising in automated voice systems and chatbots.

You will be able to join us in-person at Spaces or online.

As always we welcome people of all backgrounds and experience levels, so whether you've got a few years under your belt, or you're just starting to look into development we'd love to have you along.

In-person attendees: please arrive at Spaces (ground floor) between 19:15 and 19:30 for snacks and socializing before the talk, and make sure you are registered to attend so we have an idea of numbers for catering. If the gates to Trafalgar Place are closed, please ring the buzzer and a member of their security should let you in.

Remote attendees: we will start broadcasting the event at 19:45 on YouTube, there is no need to register.