CSUN 2004
The CSUN Conference on Disabilities, kicks off today at the LAX Marriot for its 19th year. This is the yearly event that people working on enabling technology attend. It’s a great place to share what you’ve been doing with not only your peers, but those who will benefit directly. From 1990 through 1994 I attended this conference as a representative of Henter-Joyce (now Freedom Scientific) as developer of the JAWS screen reader. Starting in 1995 through 1999, I represented Microsoft as a Program Manager for various projects, including accessibility to Windows, and Internet Explorer, and Active Accessibility.
Closing The Gap, held in Minneapolis each October has a similar focus.
Although I haven’t directly been involved in accessibility for sometime; I follow it closely and with admiration. Lately I’ve been reading Sara Ford’s blog. She’s presenting for the first time at CSUN on the accessibility improvements coming in Whidbey, the next release of Visual Studio. I’ve enjoyed reading about her concerns presenting and I’m reminded of my own pre-presentation jitters. Particularly in 1995, when Greg Lowney, Luanne LaLonde, Peter Wong and myself were announcing the formation of the accessibility team.
I’m amazed at how far technology has come to make technology accessible, and yet at the same time, it’s amazing how much more needs to be done. I’ve been criticized for being so unabashedly “pro Microsoft”, but it’s probably because I saw close up a big organization simply doing the right thing.
Apple has recently reemerged in this area and is announcing the “Spoken Interface” slated for the next release of the Mac OS X. Probably because of its extensive use in educational markets, Apple was doing accessibility long before anyone else. As the company as a whole withered in the mid-90’s, Gary Moulton, the brains behind Apple’s early accessibility efforts, came over to Microsoft to continue the fight. Gary is one of those fellows who quietly changes the world through sheer competence. He rarely gets behind a podium, but his passion for accessibility is unrelenting. In recent years, Gary’s developed key partnerships that draw attention to the fact that accessibility isn’t just about severe disabilities, but the multitude of conditions that can be helped via accessible technology. Gary was one of the major contributors to Microsoft’s book on the subject.
There are many people working on accessibility, at Microsoft and many other companies. There are dozens of very smart people at educational institutions around the world putting in research and effort into making computers more accessible to all. They are all doing it because it’s the right thing to do. A major stumbling block is that the developers of software and web content aren’t aware of the problems and solutions. People tend to “code in their own image.” Most web designers feel like “if I can read/use/understand it, anyone can.”
Older computer uses often are not familiar with features to help with diminishing vision, hearing and mobility – because they may not consider themselves “disabled.” An important reason to not segregate content or features to hard to find areas.
So, in celebration of CSUN, try one of the following:
· Do you write web sites? If so, check out the Accessibility Checker in FrontPage 2003 (also available for past versions), and the improvements coming in ASP.NET. The W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative has a lot of information as well.
· Do you write software? Then check out Microsoft’s portal for developers.
· Having trouble reading the screen? Using the mouse? Do you experience information overload? There are features built into Windows to help out, and in most cases, these features can improve productivity dramatically for everyone.
“A computer on every desk and in every home, usable by everyone!”