Léonie, a fair-skinned woman with amethyst purple hair cut into a short bob, is wearing a black turtle-neck sweater. She holds a white teacup and saucer in her hands, and her nails are painted almost the same colour as her hair.

About Léonie

Léonie Watson has spent almost 30 years making the web work better for everyone. She is co-founder and Director of TetraLogical, Chair of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Board of Directors, and co-chair of the W3C Web Applications Working Group. In 2026 she became an Institute of Directors Certified Company Director.

Léonie started using the internet in the early 90s, turned it into a web design career in 1997, and despite losing her sight along the way, has been enjoying herself thoroughly ever since.

Her career includes delivering the first United Nations global web accessibility audit, launched alongside the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, being part of the original team behind the award-winning GOV.UK platform, and being elected to the inaugural W3C Board of Directors in 2022. Léonie is founder and co-organiser of the Inclusive Design 24 (#id24) conference, co-creator of the Inclusive Design Principles, and co-author of Digital Accessibility Ethics: Disability Inclusion in All Things Tech, and the Do No Harm Guide: Centering Accessibility in Data Visualization.

She speaks internationally about emerging technologies like AI, agentic systems, and conversational interfaces, and about corporate governance and strategy — always with an accessibility influence. She also speaks about losing her sight and what it taught her about technology, resilience, and design.

The rest of Léonie's time is spent on food and cooking, reading large quantities of crime fiction, and drinking improbable amounts of tea!