Andrew Hick
Accessibility and test person, Bath, UK. He/him.
I help make technology work for everyone. I also make things out of pixels, code, pens and bits of string.
This site includes my professional portfolio, hobbies and the bits in between. All opinions are my own.
Work
I'm a certified senior accessibility specialist, working at the UK Government Digital Service, to monitor public sector websites and apps for accessibility.
- Accessibility resources
- Colour and contrast checker
- CV and portfolio
Creative
Mainly visual hobbies.
- Design - web and graphic
- Art - drawings and cross stitch
- Maps - mind and city maps
- Photos
- Games - Pandora, a pixelly cat game
- Puzzles
Some recent things
Colour switcher and reduced motion
A couple of overdue tweaks to improve the accessibility of the site.
- There's now a colour scheme switcher in the menu for light, dark and low contrast modes. Bonus points if you can tell what the low contrast version is inspired by. Thanks to Elvis Ansima and Stephanie Eckles for the clearly-explained code!
- Added support for reduced motion, so if you've set your device to reduce motion where possible, you won't get the moving lines when you load each page.
WCAG 2.2 map by theme
Select the image or see the WCAG map page for more detail. This diagram groups all the success criteria from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 levels A and AA, by practical theme for testing.
Other versions:
San Gimignano - Smoky towers
San Gimignano - Piazza del Duomo
Milsom St, Bath
A first attempt at a watercolour with lines on top.
San Gimignano
A fairytale Tuscan city.
Blog post: How mobile apps undergo accessibility monitoring
An overview of the challenges we've faced applying Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to mobile apps, along with a case study.
Video: What WCAG 2.2 means for UK public sector websites and apps
A presentation with Chris Heathcote covering the latest draft Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (version 2.2), and what public sector organisations need to do about them.
Mucha window
Cross stitch of Alphonse Mucha's stained glass window in St Vitus Cathedral, Prague. I was blown away by the colours radiating from the centre and decided to plan my biggest cross stitch yet as a pandemic project. Two years and five months later (life also happened) it's finally finished.
Chrysanthemum colour chart
A chart showing all 4,096 colours with 3-digit codes, from #000 (black) to #fff (white). Click/tap for a larger version.
Go to the colour page for a fuller description.
Pandora on PICO-8
Get through 16 levels in as few moves as possible while looking for your long lost socky. Defeat your nemesis.
- Use arrows to move.
- On computer, Z to select or wait, X for menu
- On phone, O to select, X for menu