Category: University of Edinburgh

  • Building a new home for Teaching Matters 

    Building a new home for Teaching Matters 

    Estimated reading time: 4 minutesThe University of Edinburgh’s popular Teaching Matters blog was successfully migrated from a standalone WordPress instance created in 2016 to the Academic Blogging Service’s WordPress service. This short post focuses on the technical challenges, new features and support/security benefits.

  • Maid of Fabuland

    Maid of Fabuland

    Estimated reading time: 13 minutesLego kindly invited me to build a Fabuland ship for the prestigious Lego House in Denmark. Going blind in one eye has been the hardest year and this creative challenge absolutely helped me move forward. Read about the ‘Maid of Fabuland’ paddle steamer and one of the happiest days ever.

  • Women in STEM Illustrations

    Women in STEM Illustrations

    Estimated reading time: 3 minutesTo celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2024, I created two new colouring-in illustrations of notable Women in STEM – author and codebreaker Irene Jessie Brown, and geologist Charlotte Murchison. I also discuss AI enhancement tools and vision loss challenges associated with my design process.

  • YouTube loves our cows

    YouTube loves our cows

    Estimated reading time: 3 minutesOver 100,000 people on YouTube have watched our openly licensed training videos that aim to prevent mastitis in smallholder dairy cattle.

  • Are disabled web publishers hidden behind their content?

    Are disabled web publishers hidden behind their content?

    Estimated reading time: 3 minutesMaking our online content accessible to a broad audience is something a lot of us strive to achieve. But how many of us consider who created the content we consume daily and what their publishing journey was?

  • Lego Main Library

    Lego Main Library

    Estimated reading time: 5 minutesI’m currently building Lego versions of the University of Edinburgh’s Main Library to raise money for the charity Sight Scotland who support people with sight loss and blindness.

  • My sight loss journey

    My sight loss journey

    Estimated reading time: 7 minutesAfter five major eye surgeries for a detached retina I’ve written a new reflective blog post describing my experiences to date. I’ve illustrated my vision loss for each medical procedure and current condition to potentially help others going through similar medical journeys.

  • Virtual elf benefits

    Virtual elf benefits

    Estimated reading time: 2 minutesI had a great time attending our virtual festive office party this week. A kind team of University colleagues designed a creative agenda, stuffed full of genuine LOL moments for us all. Inclusive event Traditionally we’d all have a wee quiz and fancy meal in an Edinburgh restaurant. For 2020, our…

  • Animal Crossing x Carlyle Circle

    Animal Crossing x Carlyle Circle

    Estimated reading time: 4 minutesFollowing on from a post earlier this year, I wanted to revisit the video game Animal Crossing and import University artworks I had recently discovered whilst working on a brand-new digital exhibition. Carlyle Circle digital exhibition The Carlyle Circle was formed in 1990 to bring together and thank everyone who pledges to leave…

  • Struggling with vision loss

    Struggling with vision loss

    Estimated reading time: 5 minutesWithin the last month the vision in my right eye has significantly diminished. This personal blog post details what the impact has been on my daily life and how recent web accessibility work has helped me cope a little better. Subtitling legacy content Since 2014 we’ve always made a concerted effort…

  • Xia Peisu (夏培肃) (1923 – 2014)

    Xia Peisu (夏培肃) (1923 – 2014)

    Estimated reading time: < 1 minuteTo celebrate the last day of Women’s History Month we’re sharing this brand new colouring book illustration. Chinese computer scientist and educator Xia Peisu (夏培肃) (1923 – 2014) has been hailed “the mother of computer science in China.”  Download, reuse and share this openly licensed image from our We Have…