Caren Launus-Gamble

IWC member Caren Launus-Gamble has been nominated by her son, Callum. He says “I would like to nominate my mother and business partner, Caren. When I lost my first job out of uni because of my autism and the employer’s unwillingness to make reasonable adjustments for me, she picked me up off the floor. We started KreativeInc Agency to help other people like me.

Our mission was initially to show employers how the amazing talents of people with autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and ADHD and other conditions can benefit rather than hinder their business. And during the Covid crisis, we discovered that 70% of UK websites are inaccessible to disabled and impaired people.

Therefore, we changed our business focus to making the UK digital landscape more inclusive by creating a buzz around web accessibility so that it is not only understood but desired by website owners. Our vision is to change the status quo and make the UK digitally inclusive by 2025.”

Our 2020 Igniting Inspiration Campaign is proudly sponsored by

Who has she helped/who will she help?

“Digital inclusion will help everyone to interact with the new world we are living in. The Coronavirus crisis has forced many disabled and impaired people – with sight, hearing, cognitive, neurological, or physical conditions – into isolation as they are not allowed full access to the Internet.

My mum has worked hard to create awareness about web accessibility on LinkedIn and in networking circles. Her posts are now trending regularly on LinkedIn and website owners are coming to us to commission accessible, WCAG 2.1 compliant website designs and builds.

Our work has helped businesses to realise that they need to be more inclusive so that disabled and impaired people are able to access and interact with more websites.”

What’s worked?

“My mum is creating a lot of content that tells my story to make web accessibility personal and tangible. She also shows people how to test their website for accessibility and what to do to fix things if they are inaccessible. We also offer free audits of home pages to show website owners where the problems lie.

I believe that we have also shown business owners the commercial benefits of having a website that can be accessed by everyone to attract more sales. At the same time, we have made web accessibility affordable.”

What has she learned? Any challenges?

My mum has researched courses for me as a web developer and her as a salesperson. We have both passed our relevant courses. We have both learnt so much about the benefits of digital inclusion and how assistive technology used by disabled people interacts with websites.

Our challenge was and still is that in the UK, web accessibility is virtually unknown. Therefore, there are not many UK resources that were affordable for us to access. We had to use US resources and get to know a community that initially was not very welcoming.

My mum never gives up though, and we now have people advising us on accessibility because she challenged their views and had meaningful conversations with them. She’s not easily intimidated, and when she is passionate about something, she doesn’t stop.”

What’s next?

“We cannot fulfil our mission alone. Therefore, we are planning to offer web accessibility support and training to other web agencies and freelance developers as well as in-house development teams. We are also hoping to employ other neurodivergent team members to help us grow KreativeInc Agency into a neurodiverse agency.”

What advice, contacts, or resources would help her?

“We would love to be connected with influencers that can help us spread our message and fulfil our vision. We would welcome mentors that can show us how to scale our business into a consultancy.”

Why we’re sharing these stories

Each year, an individual or organisation from each of our five categories plus one exceptional judges’ choice individual is recognised at our annual Igniting Inspiration celebration event.

We publish each and every nomination to raise awareness of all the positive work that goes on in the North. While, this year, our physical event had to be deferred, our campaign to spread stories of positive social impact continues – good news is needed!