Switching careers from education to tech can feel like stepping into a completely different world — new language, new tools, and often a loud inner voice asking, “Do I really belong here?”

After years as a teacher and assistive technology adviser supporting neurodiverse children and learners with special educational needs, I retrained as a Power Platform consultant. What surprised me most was that I hadn’t left my skills behind — I’d simply changed the setting.

In this session, I’ll share my journey from classroom to cloud, exploring how teaching builds some of the most valuable foundations for creating great digital solutions: empathy, communication, accessibility, and designing with cognitive load in mind.

Drawing on my Master’s in Special Educational Needs, I’ll show how principles from inclusive education directly translate into building apps that are intuitive, supportive, and genuinely usable for everyone.

Whilst AI is accelerating how quickly we can create apps, we still need humans at the heart of the process to design thoughtfully and ensure every solution is accessible to every user.