Tom Adams
sonofswiss.bsky.social
Tom Adams
@sonofswiss.bsky.social
Head of user research at Department for Education. Will try and moan less about the trains on here than I did on twitter.
EIGHT YEARS
October 26, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Big fan of getting milk from a milkman (no plastic, satisfyingly retro/nostalgic). But not a fan of grabbing a bottle from the fridge to find I’ve actually just grabbed a big snail that had crawled up the side of it 😱
October 22, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Am at the very first UK Gov research operations conference today, which is very exciting. A room full of public sector people doing innovative things on shoestring budgets to help us do better research with government service users more quickly and efficiently. Inspiring 🙌
October 21, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Tom Adams
I am recruiting a Senior Accessibility Specialist to be part of the Government Digital Service accessibility and digital inclusion team. Applications open until Sunday 26th October. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

#a11y #Accessibility #AccessibilityRegulations
Quick Check Needed
www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk
October 7, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Moved a picture to a different room, and remembered it was hiding a MYSTERY LIGHT SWITCH. As far as I can tell it controls no light or anything else electrical in/outside the house, so assume instead that it controls some kind of terrifying portal to hell? Will cover it up again with a new picture.
October 8, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Just read something that said Michael Palin’s Around The World In 80 Days was the start of his “latter-day career” and yep I’ve just checked & Palin was younger than me when he did 80 Days - which is an unnecessary reminder for a Monday of both my general decay & my minimal overall life achievements
October 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Been listening to Ash recently, from the 90s, who I had sort of forgotten existed. Remembered a) how great Ash were, b) a mixtape I made in 1998 or so that started with Jesus Says - which is a banger of an opener. Don’t want to big myself up too much, but I was an absolute premier league mixtaper.
September 18, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Am in a nearly deserted jungle tent hotel in Thailand, with a poorly 9 year old. Everybody else is out doing activities, and all I can hear is birds and insects and the room fan. There’s nothing to do except lie/sit and read, and I could absolutely get used to this (apart from the poorly 9 year old)
August 17, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Steve Wozniak on why he sold his Apple shares (via @gruber.foo). More Woz in the world, please.
August 16, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Tom Adams
ADHD care in the UK is a postcode lottery.

Different rules. Long waits. Services that don’t talk to each other.

We’re mapping all this, starting with lived experience.

If you’ve been through ADHD assessment, diagnosis or treatment, your story matters.

No personal info, just what happened.
Your ADHD assessment experience
The information collected will be used to understand and describe the experiences of people seeking ADHD assessment. There is no identifying information collected with the form unless it is typed into...
docs.google.com
August 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Absolute made up that the Bluesky age verification photo upload thing reckons I’m only 46, when actually I’m 47. Screw you, AI!
July 31, 2025 at 7:49 PM
I’ve come to a different Aldi to normal and am genuinely outraged at the store layout. Why put the fake Ritz crackers over there?! Ridiculous.
July 31, 2025 at 7:34 PM
One of my colleagues’ husbands drove tour buses in the 90s, which is a pretty cool job. He spent a week or two driving a bunch of WWF wrestlers around a UK arena tour. Lovely lads apparently. Very quiet. Played cards and watched videos. The one with the snake played quietly with his snake.
July 24, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Hulk Hogan dying - I was never into WWF because I thought it was ridiculous (absolutely not because I was jealous of mates whose parents paid for Sky) but he was still a major cultural figure from my childhood. *Astounded* to find out he was only 71 - I genuinely thought he was about 50 in 1991?!
July 24, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Over on twitter @pulplibrarian.bsky.social accidentally posted an AI image of a fake 1960s tobacco mascot called “Mr Cig” and lots of people are really cross but others are saying things like “no, Mr Cig was real, I drank bourbon with him backstage at a Doors gig” and THAT’S the daft Twitter I miss.
July 23, 2025 at 8:34 AM
#campdigital love the tradition of ending the day with a keynote sort of tangentially about design, but mainly about an enthusiastic nerd sharing something cool. Last year was LASERS!, this year MAPS! (and how they lie to us, and what it means). Per Axbom is ticking a *lot* of geek boxes for me here
July 3, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Tom Adams
Likewise! Depressing to learn.

(Speaker was Jane Bowyer bowyerjane.co.uk )
Homepage - Jane Bowyer
Jane Bowyer is a Manchester-based designer and illustrator, delivering branding, illustration, and workshops. She helps clients get to the heart of their vision and bring their best ideas to life.
bowyerjane.co.uk
July 3, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Also a massive +1 for her neurodivergent bewilderment at the nightmare usability of HR/expenses systems.
#campdigital Claire Dellar’s talk on universal design and disability is brilliant. Full of uncompromising examples and insight - and very literally hands-on via the power of an elastic band.
July 3, 2025 at 3:25 PM
#campdigital Claire Dellar’s talk on universal design and disability is brilliant. Full of uncompromising examples and insight - and very literally hands-on via the power of an elastic band.
July 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
#campdigital really great 300 Seconds lightning talks. Although I’m distressed to learn via the “mid career MOT” talk that, apparently, I’m about to exit mid-career and enter late-career? Must be some kind of clerical error, surely. (I didn’t catch the speaker’s name, sorry! @sharonodea.com ?)
July 3, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Dr Zeynap Engin giving me lots to think about AI governance and human authority. #campdigital basically just working its way through my to-do list now. (Note to self, re lesson from earlier session: must talk in the open about the hopefully exciting AI thing we’re about to start experimenting with…)
July 3, 2025 at 1:28 PM
One of the best days of the year, #campdigital at RNCM in Manchester. Very excited about a day of meeting and catching up with all the best Digital people, and recharging my brain and ideas from all the brilliant talks and speakers.
July 3, 2025 at 9:14 AM
In the late 90s, when I was about 9 or 10 on a school trip to see something at the National Theatre, I stood next to Sylvester McCoy at the urinals. Best day of my life. My friend Stewart Polden was all wide-eyed and said “you had a wee next to Doctor Who!”
June 13, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Spent a lovely couple of hours in the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield today with my gaming obsessed 9yo. He played old Sonics and Marios, and I spent way too much time geeking out over the original hand-drawn plans for probably the 4th or 5th best ever ZX Spectrum game. @nvmuk.bsky.social
June 6, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Somehow managed to plan to deliver two entirely different talks and a workshop today. Ironically one of the talks is about ADHD, where poor future planning, taking on too many things, and struggling to focus on a task until it’s urgent, are all common traits. So, you know, it’s been a busy 24 hours.
June 5, 2025 at 8:56 AM