Accessibility 
Robert is Policy Connect’s Director of Policy, overseeing the organisation’s strategy for policy engagement and influencing.
Robert has a background in the assistive and accessible technology (ATech) sector, working as a support worker and consultant for over five years before joining Policy Connect as an ATech Policy Manager in 2017. In 2022, Robert established and became Director of Policy Connect’s ATech Policy Lab. The Lab brings together disabled people, researchers, and the tech sector to design evidence-based policy to make technology work for everyone. Robert’s team supports the APPG for ATech, which is now in its eighth year of raising the profile of this agenda within Parliament.
While at Policy Connect, Robert has authored three reports: Accessible VLEs (2018), Disabled Students’ Allowances (2019), and Connect to Success (2025). Robert chairs the Department for Education’s Assistive Technology Engagement Group. He was previously Chair of the Advisory Group for the Digital Lifeline Fund, which made £2.5m available for data, devices and support for for adults with learning disabilities during the pandemic lockdowns.
Robert holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from King’s College London and a PGC in Teaching Adults with Specific Learning Difficulties from London Metropolitan University. He is dyslexic and was first introduced to ATech when he received a Disabled Student’s Allowance as an undergraduate. Outside of work, Robert chairs the arts charity SET Centre, which provides low-cost studio and gallery space to emerging artists, and volunteers with the Adult Literacy Trust. He enjoys playing Padel, reading philosophy, and listening to country music.
Articles written by Robert McLaren
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Assistive and Accessible Technology (ATech) and the New Government
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What will AI mean for people with dyslexia like me?
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Look ahead: what’s on the horizon for the ATech Policy Lab
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The ATech Policy Lab – a new venture in Assistive and Accessible Technology from Policy Connect, with supporting partners Bournemouth University and the Ace Centre
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#WeThe15 is about breaking down barriers – assistive and accessible technology is part of that movement
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The National Disability Strategy: tech is the opportunity, collaboration its realisation.
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This Learning Disability Awareness Week, let’s celebrate digital inclusion to enable connection and creativity
