Léonie Watson
Léonie is a Co-Founder and Director at TetraLogical. She specialises in data visualization accessibility for screen readers, and the impact of generative AI on accessibility.
With almost 30 years' experience working for organisations including UKOnline, Nomensa, TPGi, and Government Digital Service, Léonie is a respected member of the web community. She sits on the Board of Directors for the W3C, and is co-Chair of the W3C Web Applications working group.
Naturally hard-working and organised, she has spent time managing complex web projects, as well as working in her habitual capacity as accessibility specialist, with particular interest in web and web adjacent technologies like AI, WebXR, and QR code accessibility.
Léonie is Chair of the W3C Board of Directors, and in 2026 became an Institute of Directors Certified Company Director.Léonie is co-organiser of the Inclusive Design 24 (id24) conference, co-creator of the Inclusive Design Principles, co-author of Digital Accessibility Ethics: Disability Inclusion in All Things Tech, and co-author of the Do No Harm Guide: Centering accessibility in data visualization.
Posts by Léonie Watson
Public sector accessibility regulations
A new law concerning the accessibility of public sector websites and mobile apps came into effect in 2018. This article explains what the Public Sector Accessibility Regulations mean, what’s included and what isn’t, and the deadlines by which all public sector websites and mobile apps must comply.
WCAG primer
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of recommendations for making websites and apps accessible to people with disabilities. This article explains WCAG and how to use them.
Representative samples for accessibility assessments
When a website is assessed using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), it is rarely feasible to test every single page. Instead, the assessment can be based on a sample of pages that are representative of the website as a whole, to keep things as efficient and cost-effective as possible.
Choosing the right type of accessibility assessment
This article gives an overview of what an accessibility assessment is, when it is beneficial, and when another service may be better suited.
Sustainable accessibility
It takes time and effort to embed sustainable accessibility into an organisation. It cannot be achieved through disconnected activities like assessments or training (although such things can be useful in their own right); sustainable accessibility needs a co-ordinated and evolving plan that encompasses every aspect of the organisation.
Foundations: landmarks
Most websites have common areas of content like a header and footer, a main content area, and one or more navigation blocks. Sighted people can identify these areas based on the way they're styled and the content they contain, but people who are blind cannot do that quite as efficiently. Landmarks, like headings and lists, offer screen reader users a more comparable experience for identifying and navigating between different areas of content.
Foundations: lists
A list is generally agreed to be a series of words or phrases that are grouped together for a reason. That reason might be to remember the items we want from the store, to share our top five favourite movies, or to write down the steps needed to complete a task.
Can generative AI help write accessible code?
Like many inventions before it, Generative AI is changing the way we do things. Like those inventions that went before it, Generative AI is capable of great good and great harm, and like the humans that used those inventions before us, we need to be smart about the way we use Generative AI.
Understanding the European Accessibility Act (EAA)
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires that products and services made available within the European Union (EU) are accessible. Like most EU Directives, the EAA (DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/882) is hard to understand, and this has left many people unsure about what it means - and more importantly, what they need to do to make sure their products and services comply.
With this in mind, we'd like to share our understanding of the EAA as it applies to digital products and services.
Accessibility and the agentic web
Imagine being in a department store that sells clothes from multiple brands and having a personal shopping assistant to help you select the clothes you want to buy. As a blind person, that's about the only way it's possible to go clothes shopping, independently at least, but few stores offer such a service, so you resort to shopping online.