Julie Howell

Julie is the UK's most established name in web accessibility. In 1999, she founded RNIB's Campaign for Good Web Design and travelled the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, China and the Middle East to champion disabled people's right of access to new technologies. She has provided web accessibility consultancy to many of the world's leading brands, including Tesco.com, BBC, British Bankers' Association and the Cabinet Office. Julie has addressed more than 50 national and international conferences, and made appearances on several major television and radio programmes. Her regular contributions to BBC WebWise continue to inspire disabled people to become involved in the internet revolution.

She is the author of the British Standards specification PAS 78 (Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites) and the original chair of the BSI technical committee that produced BS 8878 (Web Accessibility. Code of Practice). In 2005, Julie received the New Media Age award for 'Greatest Contribution to New Media' and the following year she was awarded the Net Imperative 'Lifetime Achievement' award for services to the digital industry. The online community that she founded for people with multiple sclerosis in 1995 ('Jooly's Joint') has won both the New Statesman New Media Awards and the Yell UK Web Awards (Julie has been living with MS since the aged of 19).

In 2011, Julie established her own PR consultancy 'Julie Howell PR', through which she provides communication services that remind the world of the huge and valuable contribution that disabled people make to British society.