Tim Pennick, Technical Research Consultant, Accessibility and Usability, BT

I work in BT's Research and Technology department focussing on Accessibility. Before joining BT, my first job, back in the early '80s was for a company (Erleybridge Communications) manufacturing a "microcomputer" specifically aimed at the needs of blind and vision impaired users, including Braille display and speech synthesiser. I also worked at the RNIB for a short time in 1985 before returning to education and an M.Sc in information processing at York.

I joined BT in 1987, and have worked in software maintenance/development, and application support as well as research.

I have been involved in a couple of EU funded research projects, including ENABLED, which looked at approaches to enhancing access to many types of internet-based information for people with a visual impairment. The project included the use of Haptic maps, and location based services.

In the current financial year, I’m researching approaches to interfacing assistive technology with media and other devices on the home network.

I am totally blind, and have a guide dog. I work at BT's premises at Martlesham Heath near Ipswich. I'm married with one son (8 years old).