About Tessa

Everything I make, I make with the users in mind. Websites should be easy for people to use. Application UI should be intuitive. Everything should consider its user experience and the experience shouldn’t frustrate it’s users. This includes end users as well as those in the middle updating the Content Management Systems I design.

I prioritize accessibility in my design process. To me, accessibility is providing access to your content in various ways to accommodate neurodiversity and disability.

I believe everybody deserves a good experience.

I believe everyone is deserving of a baseline level of respect. You don’t have to earn it, you get it simply by existing.

Sometimes people see respect differently. Many authority figures will feel disrespected if they are treated as an equal rather than a superior. This is not equality, nor is it fair when they retaliate by treating the offending person as, not just inferior to them, but subhuman. I am autistic and it is challenging to me to identify these nuanced relationships and change my approach accordingly. Therefore, when I respect everyone equally and treat them as such, I have experienced this discrimination first-hand.

I believe transparency builds trust and trust is something that is lacking in the era of rampant misinformation.

I am not afraid to put myself out there and be judged for who I really am for I am proud to be me. I’d rather people like me for my authenticity rather than the mask I can curate to hide what society considers deficits.

To take accountability is to acknowledge the impact you had. Maybe it was different than what you had intended. Maybe it was a mistake. We are human and humans make mistakes. I believe it is important to step up and hold ourselves accountable for the things we do, not just the good things, but the bad things too.

Miscommunication is common with autistic and neurodivergent individuals and when we can reflect and see the harm we’ve caused, even accidental, we can learn from it.

Technology evolves rapidly, and so the people that develop technology needs to adapt too. We can’t become “stuck” in our ways or defer to a single method simply because it’s how it’s “always been done,” otherwise we risk becoming deprecated and eventually obsolete.

A hallmark of autism is that we prefer “sameness,” so I know better than most how challenging it is to overcome familiarity and embrace change. I probably have more experience in consciously doing so than most people too because I’ve recognized this struggle in myself and have done the work to prevail over obstacles time and time again.