We’re delighted to welcome Zac Shaw, world-leading para athlete, Patron of the Macular Society, ambassador for Epilepsy Action and Puma’s only British para athlete brand ambassador as CACI Digital Experience's new Accessibility Lead. Zac will provide guidance from his unique, lived experience to clients and internal CACI teams.
As an organisation with deep and award-winning expertise in digital accessibility, we’ve always focused on inclusion, not only because it’s the right thing to do for a fairer society, but because it enables us to better understand the range of user accessibility needs required for brilliant digital experiences, products and services.
Zac Shaw competing in a 100m sprint
Without diversity in our team and approach, we wouldn’t be able to do the user-centred design and technology work that we do. Although our work is compliant with relevant accessibility standards like WCAG 2.2, delivering inclusive design is an ongoing journey, which we’re excited to have Zac join us on in his new role.
A leading Great Britain para athlete in the 100m sprint and recently chosen to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Paralympics Games in Paris, Zac has numerous World, European and Commonwealth medals under his belt, as well as leadership roles like being co-captain of Team GB for the World Para Athletics Championships 2024. In addition to his charity and disability campaign work, he also sits on the athlete panels for England Athletics and UK Athletics athlete commission.
A Grimsby native, Zac was born fully-sighted but at age nine started to become visually impaired due to Stargardt Disease, a form of juvenile macular degeneration affecting central vision. He studied Sport at Sheffield Hallam University and later Loughborough University after receiving a sport scholarship in 2016, becoming an elite Team GB athlete during this time.
A visual representation of how Stargardt Disease affects the central vision of those with the condition
As someone with lived experience of complex, hidden disability – he also has epilepsy – Zac provides a unique perspective to our team. Even though 1 in 5 people self-describe or are medically categorised as having a disability, in practice many more people face additional and diverse challenges using digital and phygital products and services.
With Zac’s deep insight of these challenges, he will help further our expertise in inclusive and accessible digital transformation projects. In particular, Zac will lead on our renowned Inclusion Lab: our online and in-person training workshops on inclusive design and accessibility that can be tailored according to team accessibility maturity, size and audience (technical, design, content, senior stakeholder or otherwise). He will also support our Accessibility Audits, and campaigns and client work around inclusive design. We are thrilled to have him on board.
If you’re interested in having Zac speak at your company about inclusive design and accessibility, want to assess your digital product or service for accessibility improvements or compliance, or want to run an Inclusion Lab in your organisation, do get in touch today.
