About Me
Aside from loving the colour teal, dogs, and the clients I am privileged to work with, who am I and who is Firefly?
Initially beginning my career in retail (women’s fashion), I also worked in property management, and the smash repair industry in administration roles, and even worked as a telephonist and radio operator for a taxi company in the days before they became computerised. (Boy, do I have some stories from that job! Haha)
With the experience of a few different industries and roles under my belt, I went back to school as a mature-aged student (I was over a decade older than most of my classmates!) to earn a Diploma in Multimedia. By 2009 I’d started my own Graphic Design business and I haven’t looked back.
Inclusive Digital Design
Since 2005, I have been advocating for making the text in publications easier to read. Initially, it was just to family, friends, and clients. Then, about five years ago, I started discussing it on my social media too. I talked about the importance of better font and colour choices and being more considerate of those with vision impairments. I emphasised keeping designs and layouts simple, considering where and how something will be viewed, and using simple icons and graphics to aid communication.
But, this hasn’t been enough for me.
In staying true to who I am, someone who speaks from the heart and advocates for what I believe in, it was becoming increasingly important to me to move Firefly towards more inclusive design.
Sometimes though, that fire I get in my belly when I feel strongly about something can get a bit unpredictable unless it’s fuelled properly and given a direction to burn in. So, I enrolled in an intensive two-month university course on Inclusive Digital Design, put Firefly on hold for the most part, and threw myself into the experience so I could soak up as much knowledge as possible.
The course covered digital inclusivity for those with hearing and vision loss, mobility issues, cognitive issues, neurodiversity, and even sociocultural differences, and I quickly realised how little I knew about this space. Each student brought with them a unique life experience and reason behind why they wanted to do this course and I found immense value in learning more about their lives and how they, and those around them, felt excluded by various design choices. Their combined experiences willingly shared, as did I from a vision-impaired and neurodiverse background, have truly given me a much wider perspective on this subject.
I threw myself into the assessments and it would probably be fair to say that I have never worked so hard as I did during those two months with many twelve-hour days at my computer. I wanted to do the best job I possibly could. As a result, I learned an incredible amount and earned my Inclusive
Digital Design for Business Badge! I also realised, that there is so much more to learn.
While initially a spark, the desire to know and do more, and to share this information with other small business owners who don’t have their own departments for such things, it’s now turned into a nice little campfire of sorts.
This is an evolving space with new things being learned and discovered all the time. It's also going to take some time to work through my own digital assets to make them as inclusive as possible. However, as I learn something new, I'll endeavour to share it with my social media followers, so they too can be more inclusive and reach a wider audience as a result.
I hope you’ll join me on this journey of making the world a more inclusive place because I am so excited about the possibilities.