Gavin Henrick is more than a technologist: he’s a Moodle expert with years of experience under his belt — within Moodle HQ, as an independent consultant and as the co-founder of educational tech firm Brickfield Education Labs.
“Fundamentally, our philosophy is: find, fix, and future-proof,” he explains. “Accessible, usable course materials make for an effective and inclusive teaching and learning environment.”
Brickfield’s toolkit adds a range of helpful features to Moodle, including a real-time accessibility checker, a brand-new plugin translator and a collaborative Moodle Board feature, which allows teachers and students to communicate using sticky notes. Users can evaluate course content, bulk fix issues within Moodle courses, generate accessible file formats and get multi-tier support to help them create better, more engaging learning experiences.
Last week, we caught up with Gavin in the run-up to MoodleMoot Global to hear more about his thoughts on edtech, accessibility and creating sustainable change.
Bridging accessibility gaps with technology
“There’s a conflict between the world we design and people’s capabilities,” Gavin explains. “It comes down to this: if you create a barrier — deliberately or without realising it — you could make things more difficult for everyone. Or, as a student once said, ‘When technology just works, I’m not reminded of my disability.’”
For Gavin, Brickfield represents a chance to contribute to the community that shaped his career — becoming a certified integrator was his way of “giving back”. He founded the company with his wife, software developer Karen Holland, in 2019.
In simple terms, Brickfield integrates with the Moodle learning management system (LMS) to help organisations improve content accessibility and make course materials easier to use.
The toolkit includes an engine that scans content created in Moodle, identifies accessibility issues and generates reports at the course, category or site level. These reports highlight what’s wrong, where it’s wrong, and include KPIs to track progress.
“Some of our clients have existing accessibility projects going on, while others use Brickfield to kick-start their initiatives,” says Gavin. “We’re lucky to work with different organisations in different countries who want to support their students and staff in a better way.”
Why technology, culture and skills all matter
Part of the inspiration for Brickfield grew from Gavin’s training experience, where he often had to help learners grasp a lot of material in very little time. He points out that the same time constraints exist for learners in modern organisations.
“That’s why we support clients as they build capacity for learning,” he explains. “We do this both in the application and in our accessibility training courses.”
In an effort to make the most impact possible, Gavin, Karen and the Brickfield crew provide unlimited accessibility training to their partners and clients — whether they have 20, 200 or 2,000 people in their teams — with both synchronous and asynchronous training options available.
“To make lasting change in an organisation, you need the right technology, a supportive culture and strong skills,” says Gavin. “That’s why we put so much emphasis on capacity building, from just-in-time resources to full training courses built into Moodle.”
Nowadays, Brickfield clients with their own Moodle sites can access training courses directly from their reports panel with a simple button click. This is something Gavin is especially proud of.
“We just want to make the world a more accessible place for everyone,” he says, smiling.
Counting down to MoodleMoot Global
Gavin is no stranger to MoodleMoot Global, having attended the worldwide conference and run local MoodleMoots in the past — including one in Scotland.
“It’ll be lovely to visit Edinburgh again,” he says. “Chatting face to face is great. I’m looking forward to meeting our local clients and partners, sharing Brickfield’s work with people who’ve never heard of us before and talking through new ideas with the Moodle HQ team.”
Gavin’s sessions at the event will cover digital freedom and Brickfield’s 18-Point Accessibility Skills Framework, which aims to help educators, instructional designers, and content creators build truly inclusive digital learning experiences.
We’re really looking forward to learning alongside the community as Gavin dives into these topics. If you haven’t registered for MoodleMoot Global yet, now’s the ideal time to buy a ticket and join us in September. See you in Edinburgh!
