In on the ground floor

In the early 90s, when the web was still the “Information super highway”, Julie Howell was one of the first to travel on it

I like to think of myself as one of the web’s pioneers, an early disabled adopter. I first got online in 1995, before most people knew what “online” was. Within months I’d set up one of the first online communities for people with multiple sclerosis (www.mswebpals.org).

The web is now a fact of life for me and, like running water and electricity, it’s an essential resource that I take for granted.

There are a handful of sites that I wouldn’t want to live without, that have become a group of trusted friends to whom I turn when I need advice or just want to know “what’s happening”.

The first is the BBC News site (news.bbc.co.uk). I must look at it more than 50 times a day from my PC and – when I’m on the move – my BlackBerry.

I was a relative latecomer to Facebook (www.facebook.com). But eventually the sheer number of friends using it persuaded me to try it out. Now I can’t leave it alone.  And I’m hopelessly addicted to Facebook Scrabble.

My other favourite sites indulge my passion for spending money. Ebay (www.ebay.co.uk) and Amazon (www.amazon. co.uk) have been part of my everyday life for more than a decade now. But it’s the Apple iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) and fan-to-fan ticket exchange SeatWave (www.seatwave.com) that have more recently stolen my heart.

I know (because I’ve read it in these very pages) that some people are of the opinion that the web is “bad for disabled people” because too much time at home in front of the computer could lead to further isolation. I strongly disagree. For me the web has become a way for me to reconnect with my passions, and because of it I’ve never been so up-to-date with the news or what’s happening in the lives of my friends. I definitely go out more since the web came along, because now I have better access to information about travel and I feel more confident getting around on my own than I used to.

The web is a terrific channel through which we can make our voices heard, and where we’re no longer constrained by geography but can move about freely and independently.

In my darkest moments I imagine life without the web and I don’t want to be there. Let’s keep the pressure on website owners to remember the needs of disabled people when they design their sites, because just as we have the most to gain, I suspect we now also have the most to lose.

• Julie Howell is director of accessibility at digital design agency Fortune Cookie.