The Dame Allan’s 1705 Magazine
Inclusive by Design
Jo Larby (Class of 2015) is shaping a more inclusive digital world - leading accessibility strategy for global tech products, championing women in the industry and proving that the most powerful technology always starts with people.
When Jo Larby talks about technology, she doesn’t begin with code. She begins with people. Her perspective has been shaped by years of building large-scale digital systems, by navigating an industry that still struggles with representation and by caring for her mother while maintaining a demanding career. But its foundations were laid much earlier, in classrooms at Dame Allan’s Schools, where her path into technology was not clearly mapped out, but revealed itself through a series of quietly influential moments. Today, Jo is one of the North East’s leading voices in accessible technology. As Accessibility Community Lead and Technical Product Manager at northern software consultancy Leighton, she shapes accessibility strategy across the organisation while managing complex technical products for global clients. Alongside this, she is an award-recognised advocate for women in tech, whose work spans mentoring, community leadership and hands- on action to widen access to the industry. At Dame Allan’s, Jo was not a pupil with a fixed destination in mind. What she did have was curiosity and teachers who opened doors. Having joined in Year 7, she says it was her form tutor, IT teacher Mrs Dunne, who made technology feel accessible rather than exclusive. “That early exposure really mattered,” she says. “It made tech feel like something I could belong in, even before I fully understood what it could lead to.” At A level, she studied Biology, Maths, Computing and Business Studies – a combination Jo now knows was pivotal. While Computing developed her technical thinking, Business gave her a wider lens on how technology operates in the real world. “Business showed me how systems exist within organisations – how decisions are made, how users interact with products and why some things succeed while others don’t,” she explains. “That was the hook. I realised tech wasn’t just about sitting and coding all day.”
A Dame Allan’s STEM placement scheme, arranged by Mr Downie, proved equally influential. Jo spent several weeks at Newcastle College working on a computing project – her first sustained experience of technology outside the classroom. “It wasn’t just observing,” she says. “I was learning, contributing and seeing what studying and working in tech actually looked like day to day. That experience made it feel real and gave me confidence when applying to university.” Jo went on to study Computer Science at Northumbria University, graduating with First Class Honours. Out of around 200 students on her course, only a small handful were women. “The imbalance was very apparent,” she says. “And comments about getting opportunities ‘because you’re a woman’ really fed into imposter syndrome.” She completed a placement year with global professional services firm Accenture, which proved decisive. “That’s when everything clicked,” she says. “I realised how collaborative and varied tech careers actually are.” After graduating, Jo returned to Accenture full-time, working on large-scale Government digital services and progressing from application developer into senior technical architecture roles. By 2020, as her career gathered pace, Jo was also caring for her mother during cancer treatment. Balancing high-pressure projects with the emotional and practical realities of being a carer was challenging, but she says it shaped her. Supporting her mum through appointments, dense medical language and inaccessible information brought Jo face to face with how easily people can be excluded. “You realise how much is taken for granted,” she says. “When systems aren’t built with real people in mind, everyday life becomes so much harder than it needs to be.”
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