Ryan Duncan, senior frontend engineer

I build frontends that work for everyone.

I have built frontends for nine years and hold an MSc in Cyber Security with distinction. I also audit web applications for accessibility, and I work remotely from Scotland.

  • 9 years building frontends, from agency sites to a marketplace selling into more than 40 countries.
  • 500,000+ accessible parking locations in Close to the Door, the app I founded and maintain.
  • 2 degrees, a first-class BSc and an MSc in cyber security with distinction.
Ryan Duncan

I’m Ryan Duncan, a senior frontend engineer in Scotland

I spent nearly six years at agencies before Fruugo, a marketplace, where I lead the frontend of the retailer-onboarding tools. Lately I have also been building for Disabled people, which includes me. I am a Disabled driver, and Close to the Door started with my own problem: a painted symbol on the tarmac says nothing about whether the space suits my needs.

Along the way I led a team of four and completed an MSc in Cyber Security with distinction alongside the day job. Since 2025 I have also audited the web applications of European banks and retailers for an accessibility consultancy, which taught me to write a finding that an engineer can act on without asking me what I meant.

Work

Close to the Door

A free app for finding accessible parking, built by a Disabled developer with Disabled people.

Role
Founder and sole developer
When
2025 to present
Five phone screens from the app's store listing: a map of London with accessible spaces marked and a list of the nearest; a satellite map of Dublin; a space's details with Park here, Directions, capacity, surface and fee; the Report this space form with reasons such as temporarily unavailable or safety issue; and the preferences screen for theme, language and distance unit.

Fruugo

Retailer onboarding and finance tools for a marketplace selling into more than 40 countries, on an accessible component library.

Role
Senior Frontend Engineer
When
2023 to present

Personal website concept

A personal site for a CEO, speaker and author, with accessibility and performance checked on every change.

Role
Design and build
When
September 2026

Accessibility audits

WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 audits of large web applications for European banks and retailers, for an accessibility consultancy.

Role
Digital accessibility consultant, freelance
When
2025 to present

How I work

  • Accessibility is tested with the people it’s for.

    Twelve Disabled drivers and passengers tested Close to the Door over two rounds, and most of the best decisions in that codebase came from them.

  • I give every page a performance budget.

    Slow pages cost the people on old phones and poor connections first. The budget covers size and speed, it is checked on every change, and a miss is fixed in the page rather than by raising the budget.

  • Security is part of frontend work.

    I completed an MSc in Cyber Security with distinction in 2024. On the frontend that means a content security policy, dependencies checked for known vulnerabilities, and untrusted input cleaned before it reaches the page. When a penetration test of Close to the Door showed row-level security leaking data, I closed the database to clients, and every write now goes through an edge function that checks the token, rate-limits and validates.

  • A change is mine until it is running in production.

    At Fruugo I deploy and monitor my own changes to production weekly. I introduced Vitest and Playwright there and put axe and IBM Equal Access checks into the pipeline, so a change is tested before it goes out and watched after it does.

  • Leading a team means review, tests and teaching.

    At Aspect Digital I led a team of four and brought in code review standards, automated testing pipelines and mentoring for the junior developers. At Fruugo I started the company’s accessibility group and built its internal training tools.

Writing

  1. What mobile development can learn from Disabled testers (external website)

    Twelve Disabled drivers and passengers put Close to the Door through two research phases. What they taught us about navigation, silent failures, text scaling and honest data applies to any mobile team.

    , published on closetothedoor.com

  2. Why I built Close to the Door (external website)

    Close to the Door is now live. I am a software engineer and a Disabled driver, and this is why I built an accessible-parking app for us and how it came about.

    , published on closetothedoor.com

Get in touch

Whether it’s to chat or to discuss future work, email is the best way to reach me.

Email Ryan