Founder & Leadership
Helen Thomas founded DeafMetrix to change the way organisations understand exclusion.
Not as a niche issue.
Not as an unfortunate side-effect of complexity.
But as a signal that something fundamental in the system has been designed without enough imagination.
DeafMetrix is a Deaf-led strategic consultancy that helps organisations redesign systems that quietly fail Deaf people — and, over time, fail the organisations that depend on them.
Seeing What Others Don’t
Helen holds a first-class law degree and an MBA, grounding her work in strategy, governance, operations, and risk. But what most shapes her leadership is not what she studied — it’s how she experiences the world.
As a Deaf person moving through systems designed around sound, Helen learned early that exclusion is rarely dramatic. It doesn’t announce itself. It hides inside everyday interactions.
It shows up in meetings where decisions are made without access.
In services explained verbally, once.
In products that rely on sound for safety, clarity, or confidence.
In brands that invite loyalty, but never designed for Deaf presence.
None of these moments are usually intended to harm.
But taken together, they shape lives.
They decide who gets information in time.
Who feels safe using a system.
Who feels confident, independent, and welcome.
And who quietly adapts — again and again — to something that was never built with them in mind
““Exclusion isn’t usually malicious. It’s what happens when systems are built without imagining who isn’t in the room.””