Who are we?
Semantic Fish Creative Group is a consulting agency started by Ashlee M Boyer, a disabled and neurodivergent software engineer, with the goal of making a broader impact in accessibility. (Check out a PDF of her resume.)
She has a bachelors degree in software engineering and 5 years of full-time software engineering experience for companies large and small and projects new and old. She's co-founded and co-chaired 2 successful and engaged employee resources groups (ERGs) focused on disability, neurodiversity, and accessibility inclusion and has written and spoken about these topics for several years.
Through Semantic Fish Creative Group, Ashlee is focused on teaching others how to build accessible websites and workplaces. She deeply believes this her strongest opportunity to further impact the state of accessibility in the software industry and beyond.
What do we do?
The sections below describe the most notable services we can help you with. If you aren't sure whether or not your needs fall under what's described here, still feel free to send an email to inquiries @ SemanticFish.com.
- Website & web app development
- Cross-functional product development practices
- Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
Website & web app development
In terms of code and technology, Semantic Fish Creative Group as a whole focuses on front-end web development and web accessibility. We're open to most problem spaces, and particularly love to work on design systems, accessibility remediation, and websites serving up external documentation.
Ashlee is highly skilled at onboarding to technology stacks and codebases, and has several years of experience with dozens of web technologies and tools: React, TypeScript, Next.js, Node.js, CSS, ESLint, Enzyme, GitHub Actions, HTML, Heap Analytics, Jenkins, Jest, Less, MDX, Markdown, Netlify, NextAuth, React Context, React Query, React Testing Library, Sass, Vercel, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, LogRocket, Mixpanel, Segment, Sentry, and more.
Ashlee also specializes in various aspects of developer accessibility, and can help you shape up your software development practices to feel more collaborative, healthy, and productive through things like:
- Reviewing code and designs for accessibility
- Researching & proposing technical solutions and tooling
- Auditing codebases for understandability and onboarding efficiency
- Scoping work into manageable & iterative chunks
- Writing and maintaining clear project timelines and tasks
- Communicating regular updates to multiple audiences
- Writing & organizing plain language documentation
Cross-functional product development practices
In her career, Ashlee has worked on product teams of varying sizes and also worn the hats of multiple business functions when on smaller teams. On larger teams, she is highly skilled at removing ambiguity, building consensus, and driving forward progress with intention and shared vision. She's extremely perceptive of a team's processes and emotional well-being, and is a fierce advocate for helping everyone get what they need in order to deliver high value together.
Product development across Product, Design, Engineering, Content, Developer Relations, etc. teams is by no means simple, but it can absolutely be straightforward. If you're on the smaller side and just building out all of these functions, Ashlee can help you build strong foundations in data-driven, iterative, and empathetic approaches.
If you've been at this for a while but it still feels missing, Ashlee can help here too. She can sit in as an observer, build trust and rapport with everyone involved, gather direct feedback about what's not working for folks, make recommendations for iterative progress, and help implement and track the success of subsequent changes.
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
With lengthy experience in starting, growing, and running ERGs with different sized companies, budgets, and employee populations, Ashlee can help ERG leaders strategize at multiple levels with things like:
- How to make a case for a new ERG
- What to do with the budget
- How to keep track of adminstrative tasks
- What success metrics to track
- What kinds of events to hold
- How to keep members and allies engaged outside of events
- What ratio of member-to-ally activities to hold
She can also consult on the topics of disability, neurodiversity, and accessibility inclusion. This can look like speaking at ERG events, consulting with Human Resource / People teams about inclusive practices & policies, reviewing & critiquing manager/leadership training, and more.
Want to work together?
If you're interested in working together, send an email to inquiries @ SemanticFish.com. We'll exchange a few emails (at no charge!) and see if there's a fit. Please make sure to include your budget and timeline, even if it's a ballpark estimate.