Hi, I'm Dylan

I'm a translator between worlds. Whether as a full-stack developer, accessibility coach, or AI engineer, I help different ways of knowing speak to each other. For organizations, this means transforming decades of siloed expertise into scalable patterns—one expert's knowledge becomes a ladder thousands can climb.

I call this building ladders—creating ways for people to climb to expertise that was previously out of reach. Unlike bridges that assume you can already walk their path, ladders meet you at your current understanding and let you climb, rung by rung, to heights you couldn't access before. Now as an AI engineer, I build these ladders by encoding your organization's unique expertise into patterns that adapt to each person's way of knowing.

What I Focus On

AI + Accessibility

Both AI and accessibility work in the same fundamental domain: translating meaning across different representations. Whether it's making visual information legible to screen readers or helping AI understand human intent, I specialize in preserving meaning as it moves between modalities. This isn't about compliance—it's about ensuring ideas remain intact regardless of how they're perceived.

axe Assistant Epistemological translation systems Adaptive interfaces

Systems & Automation

Automation should be like a dishwasher for information work—handling the soulless drudgery so you can focus on what matters. I design transparent, human-in-the-loop systems that automate the mechanical connections between your ideas, not the ideas themselves. Think of it as having a calculator for prose or a Roomba for repetitive workflows: the tool handles the tedious parts while you retain control over everything meaningful.

Glass box workflows Human-in-the-loop systems Context automation

Semantic Understanding

My accessibility work showed me the importance of explicit, machine-readable semantics—but creators don't always internalize these requirements. They have a vision, but struggle to express it in the formal structures needed for inclusion. I see AI's opportunity as the translator between what creators envision and the necessary semantics that make their work accessible to all. It's about bridging the gap between human intent and machine understanding.

Intent-to-semantic translation Vision preservation systems Structured prompt patterns

What I'm Building

I'm the inventor of axe Assistant—a RAG-based AI that utilizes the unparalleled domain knowledge of Deque Systems to help enterprise product organizations get customized accessibility support on demand. It adapts existing knowledge to the personal context of developers, designers, and product owners exactly when they need it.

Let's Connect

I love conversations about accessibility, AI, epistemology, and education as empowerment. Whether you're working on similar problems or just want to chat about making technology more human, I'd love to hear from you.