Willie Walker's Weblog

Last year, George Kraft from IBM worked with the Linux Journal folks to help get an issue with a focus on accessibility. As a result of this, Eitan Isaacson and I wrote feature articles on Accerciser and Orca, respectively. They were accepted! Yeah!

My wife was bringing in the mail the other day and said "Why the heck did these people send us 3 copies of the Linux Journal? I'm calling them to make sure we're not being charged for three subscriptions." That was my cue to tell her to read the front cover. After a while, she got it: Orca and Accerciser were prominently displayed on the front. I then turned to page 70 and there it was: "Orca -- Take the Killer Whale for a Ride." On page 76 was Eitan's article: "Make Your Application Accessible with Accerciser." Neat.

The significance of this is not seeing my name in print. To me, the significance is that we have a widely read magazine bringing accessibility to mainstream thinkers and developers.

When I started working on accessibility 20 years ago, it was always a game of "Mother May I?" and continual negotiation with developers and management. Accessibility was always viewed as that once-in-a-while special interest segment you see on the nightly news -- sappy music playing in the background with the narrator using words such as "bravery," "overcoming hardships" and other content-free ilk meant to focus on the disability and tug at people's heartstrings. When push came to shove, though, we learned what people really thought.

Over the years, I've seen the mentality change. Yes, there are still those sappy special interest segments with sappy music narrated by some teary eyed tart, but we're also seeing people making accessible design part of their normal everyday thinking. People "get it." We see companies like Sun supporting leadership roles in creating and building accessible design into platforms such as GNOME. We see accessibility having an impact on the decisions being made to procure and deploy software. We see mainstream developers incorporate accessibility considerations into their applications. We see increased understanding that it is about independence, efficiency, and productivity for everyone.

These two articles represent another round of awareness being brought to the mainstream. They represent more exposure to more people, especially people who will "get it" and have the ability to make a difference. Many thanks to the Linux Journal for their conviction and courage in dedicating space to these articles.