Dr Chandra Harrison

Managing Director

Chandra is an experienced user researcher, published author, university lecturer, conference organiser, accessibility advocate and reasonably progressive business owner. She also has a lifetime of lived experience of ADHD and several chronic health conditions of her own as well as observing many family connections with access needs.

Chandra’s first paying job in digital accessibility was 25 years ago. As part of her Master degree she evaluated a low vision reading aid for HumanWare, one of the leading manufacturers of assistive tech at the time. After completing her Masters degree in Applied Psychology (with Merit) and a few Masters papers in Ergonomics, she moved to the US to work at Siemens Corporate Research Centre in Princeton NJ. There she set up their user research lab, assessed diabetic software, oven interfaces and worked with radiologists.

From there she moved to the UK to do a PhD in Human Computer Interaction at the University of York, via a short stint at City University London. Chandra's thesis explored the web user experience back when animated gif advertising was actually a thing. At the same time she did a bit of consulting and training, mainly for an EU funded project on digital accessibility. 

Following on from the academic world, she worked in digital agencies in London as a user researcher, lectured at Kings College London, City University London, St Andrews University and University of York.  She also did usability and accessibility research for the likes of Qualcomm, Nokia, Vodafone, Deustch Bank and the BBC. Chandra was also the Accessibility representative and President of the UK User Experience Professionals Association for many years. And when she took a breath she instigated and organised a couple of pretty awesome conferences.

Having acquired a husband and two kids, Chandra returned home to Aotearoa New Zealand in late 2014 after 11 years travelling the world helping people understand and implement user experience and accessibility. In 2015, many organisations had not yet embraced digital accessibility, so she made do with working with awesome brands helping with their web upgrades, information architecture, persona research and even a stint as Head of UX at a leading health software vendor, to name but a few.

After a few years Chandra started working for BLVNZ as a digital access advisor on contract. It was her dream job, helping organisations improve their digital interfaces. Not long after starting BLVNZ decided to sell Access Advisors, and Chandra bravely took on the challenge, with two client contracts and as much enthusiasm as she could muster. 

Now Chandra is the owner and Managing Director of Access Advisors, a for-purpose business, with a team of seven, helping organisations understand and implement digital accessibility. She is also the New Zealand Country Advisor for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, a daughter, a wife, a sister, a mum to two teens, and the person for an aging Springer Spaniel and a lonely Zebra Finch.

Check out more details about Chandra on LinkedIn.