www.dameallans.co.uk
That insight now underpins her work in accessibility. As Accessibility Community Lead, Jo ensures the systems her teams build meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards and work seamlessly with assistive technologies - but her focus goes far beyond compliance. She brings the same care and attention to colour contrast, language clarity, screen readers and neurodiversity as others do to speed, scale and efficiency. Sometimes, it’s about the smallest details. Jo uses the example of hashtags on social media. “If they’re written all in lower case,” she explains, “screen readers can’t break them up, so they’re read as one long, meaningless word. Add capital letters, and suddenly the content becomes accessible.” It’s a tiny change, but a powerful one. “Accessibility is about understanding impact,” she adds. “Once you truly understand it, your approach changes.” That instinct to make things fairer defines Jo’s leadership. Alongside her role at Leighton, she mentors women retraining into tech through the TechUp programme, volunteers with Smart Works North East to support women returning to employment and works with organisations such as TechSheCan to introduce young people to the breadth of careers technology offers. She has seen how quickly perceptions can shift. During a recent primary school assembly, only a handful of pupils initially raised their hands when she asked if they might consider a career in tech. By the end of the session, more than half did. “That’s what sharing knowledge does,” Jo says. “It opens minds and makes new possibilities feel achievable.” Jo has also returned to Dame Allan’s to deliver careers talks, keen to challenge outdated stereotypes for both girls and boys. Her message is deliberately broad: technology is not just coding, but design, testing, communication, problem-solving and leadership. “There’s a role for every strength,” she says. “And you don’t have to fit a mould to belong.” Asked about success, Jo doesn’t list job titles or awards, even though she has earned national recognition, from being named in the Tech Women Celebration 50 curated list of inspirational women in tech to being shortlisted as a Rising Star in national industry awards. Instead, she talks about influence.
“If I can make someone’s life a little easier,” she says, “or help them see they belong - that’s success.”
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