Posted:
by QW+ staff writer
The company we keep: Tarryn Tomlinson
Blurb Tarryn Tomlinson is a disability activist who has embraced the opportunities AI offers to make real changes in accessibility and understanding of disability issues. As a tech innovator, she has created the world’s first AI accessibility assistant. She is also a television presenter, media producer, and media personality.
Pronouns: She/Her
Born: 11 October 1998
Status: Single
School: Good Hope Girls Seminary in Cape Town, South Africa
University: Distance education centre Intec College, based in South Africa
First job: Sales assistant at Edgars department store.
Home: Cape Town
Transport: Uber
Book on your bedside table: The World is Waiting for You by Edwina Findlay Dickerson
Music in your playlist: John Mayer, Afrobeats
Describe your job in no more than seven words: To teach people how to build for inclusion.
What keeps you awake at night? Thoughts
Who is your biggest hero? Oprah Winfrey
Remote or office? Both
What’s the most exciting part of your job? Going to new places and meeting new people.
Career highlight? Developing the world’s first Universal Access Assistant, an AI, called AVA (Accessible Virtual Assistant). It was developed together with my company LiveABLE and tech builders Cerebral Circuit. AVA helps tourism and hospitality businesses assess how inclusive and accessible their spaces are, and guides users through a self-audit via WhatsApp. It then provides personalised recommendations to improve accessibility for people with disabilities, seniors, and families with small children. It’s designed to empower businesses to take practical, empathetic steps toward inclusion, independently and affordably.
What is your superpower? High intelligence
What is the least known fact about you? That I am deeply spiritual.
If you could get the ear of one person, to convince them your work is important, who would it be? If I had the opportunity to speak with Bill Gates, I would talk about how we can use systems thinking and AI to build solutions to global problems. For example, our AI, AVA (Accessible Virtual Assistant), is a tool that provides real-time, onsite assistance and helps transform properties into fully accessible spaces for everyone. I’d love to explore how similar AI-driven approaches can be scaled to address broader social challenges and promote inclusion worldwide.
If you had the power to pass a presidential decree, what would it be? I would decree free education and change the curriculum to ensure financial literacy, emotional and mental wellbeing, and soft skills.
Your best piece of advice? Whatever you can believe you can achieve.
What’s your next big thing? Expanding my business
What do you do to relax? Read