Think of it like a cheatsheet version of the manual, with the most important information for working with me.
I’m an overweight, white, autistic, chronically ill bloke in his 50s and looking like a bad Gandalf cosplay.
I’m your new front-end developer, accessibility specialist, and mental health advocate. I’m here to make your digital products more inclusive and user-friendly for everyone.
I work from home for reasons of mental and physical health, and I have a lot of experience working remotely. I’m also happy to visit an office from time to time if that’s what the team prefers, but I will have to work from home when I need to.
If your project requires me to use a client-configured laptop, I prefer a Mac so I can work efficiently, as well as use VoiceOver for accessibility testing and personal use. I can work on a Windows machine if necessary, but it’s not my preferred setup.
Summer hours are earlier in the day, while winter hours are later in the day.
My health has obliterated my circadian rhythm, so I work when I can. I’m not a 9 to 5 person, and I don’t expect anyone to treat me as one. I will do my best to be available during core hours, but I may need to take breaks or work outside those hours when my health allows.
Text-based communication is always best for me. I can do video calls if necessary, but I prefer to keep them to a minimum. I find that they can be overwhelming and exhausting, especially if they’re not well-structured or if they involve a lot of small talk.
Send me an email if it’s not urgent, or a message on Slack or Teams. Embrace the nature of asynchronous communication and Ask The Thing, without expecting an immediate response. I will get back to you as soon as I can, but I may need some time to process the information and formulate a response.
Email it to me as a summary and schedule a follow-up call to discuss in more detail. I prefer to have a written record of feedback for referral at a later date, and I find that it helps me to process the information more effectively. I’m also happy to have a conversation about feedback, but I prefer to have it in writing first so I can prepare for the discussion.
- I need to be comfortable in my surroundings, because I’m always in some form of pain or discomfort due to my chronic illness collection or my mental health.
- Empathy towards the fact that I’m an introverted and chronically ill nerd who likes to write code in peace.
- I prefer input into planning the work I’ll do, so I can prepare accordingly and educate the team about any issues that arise.
- My mental and physical health.
- I cannot do team building or organised fun. I cannot stress that enough.
- Meetings which consist of people chatting about their weekend, evening, family, or other non-meeting agenda items.
- I’m autistic with ADHD and I don’t understand the need for small talk in the workplace. I need to get on with whatever needs discussing so I can get back to work.
- Coffee. Cake. Cats. Code.
- I’m a self-taught web developer but I’ve had books published and seen them on the shelves at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.
- I persuaded my GP to write to my landlord to say that a cat would benefit my mental health, so I basically got a cat on prescription.
Is he working today? Where is he?
He’s probably offline while his brain is powering-up to deal with communication.