SWUX Returns In Person: A Behind‑the‑Scenes Look at Real‑World Accessibility
- natalieburnsy
- Jul 16
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 17
After a long stretch of virtual meetups, SWUX finally returned in person on Thursday 9th July 2026 — and it felt great to be back in the game! Hosted at GAIN’s Queen Square office in Bristol, the evening brought together designers, researchers, product teams and accessibility advocates for a relaxed, honest, and deeply practical conversation about what accessibility really looks like inside real organisations. Thanks to everyone who made it, both online and in person!
This event was organised and hosted by Natalie Burns, and Indu Kaila long‑time SWUX organisers and passionate advocates for user‑centred, accessible product design. Natalie and Indu have been steering SWUX for years — keeping the community active, inclusive, and focused on meaningful conversations rather than surface‑level UX chatter. Also, thanks to Tom Checkley for helping us out with the teams admin!
A Quick Note About SWUX...
For anyone new: SWUX (South West UX) is Bristol’s long‑running UX community — a space for designers, researchers, product thinkers, accessibility specialists and technologists to come together, share real stories, and learn from each other.
SWUX has always been about practical UX, not theory. Real teams, real challenges, real conversations.
This event was a perfect example of that ethos.
Our Speakers: Jason Bennett & Joel Strohmeier
We were joined by two leaders who’ve been pushing accessibility forward in meaningful, measurable ways:
Jason Bennett — Head of Digital at Zurich
Joel Strohmeier — Head of Accessibility at GAIN
Their talk drew on the work featured in GAIN’s case study, Embedding Accessibility as a Core Principle, which explores how organisations can move beyond compliance and start building accessibility into everyday product decisions.
You can view the presentation from the evening here. Comments welcome!
What We Explored
Jason and Joel took us through:
How Zurich shifted accessibility from “specialist work” to shared team responsibility
The cultural and organisational changes needed to make accessibility stick
Real stories from teams navigating constraints, legacy systems, and competing priorities
Practical tactics for embedding accessibility into discovery, design, and delivery
The importance of leadership buy‑in — and how to get it
Why accessibility succeeds when it becomes part of the team’s identity, not a checklist
It was refreshing to hear two leaders speak so candidly about the challenges as well as the wins. The audience especially loved the “behind‑the‑scenes” moments — the honest stories about what didn’t work, what surprised them, and what they’d do differently next time.
A Proper SWUX Evening
Doors opened at 6pm, with GAIN and Zurich kindly providing drinks and refreshments (thank you again!). The room filled quickly — a mix of familiar faces and new ones — and the atmosphere was exactly what SWUX is known for: friendly, curious, and collaborative.
The hybrid format worked beautifully, and it was great to see people joining from outside Bristol too.
Key Moments
A few standout moments from the night:
A lively discussion about how to measure accessibility impact without reducing it to vanity metrics
A brilliant audience question about how to handle accessibility when deadlines are tight
Jason’s point about “accessibility as a cultural shift, not a project”
Joel’s insight that teams become accessible when they feel personally connected to the people they’re designing for
Several attendees sharing their own stories about trying to champion accessibility in organisations at different maturity levels
The energy in the room was warm, thoughtful, and a lot of fun!
And finally, some thoughts
Bringing SWUX back in person was great — not just because of the turnout, but because of the quality of conversation. Accessibility is often talked about in abstract terms, but this event grounded it in real work, real teams, and real challenges.
Huge thanks to Jason, Joel for speaking, and to GAIN for hosting us, supporting us, and helping make the evening such a success.
And thank you to everyone who joined — in person or online.
We’ve missed you.
Here’s to more practical, honest, community‑driven UX conversations in Bristol... and beyond!
Come and join us for the next event! TBC, but you can sign up here... https://www.meetup.com/swux-meetup-com/
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