[NFB-History] FW: [tech-vi Announce List] 'Revolutionary': Remembering John Boyer, a pioneer for the deaf and blind in computer science

Mon Jan 30 17:27:30 UTC 2023

Hello List:

     Below is the obituary for John Boyer.

Regards,

Robert

From: tech-vi at groups.io <tech-vi at groups.io> On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2023 9:52 AM
To: List <tech-vi at groups.io>
Subject: [tech-vi Announce List] 'Revolutionary': Remembering John Boyer, a pioneer for the deaf and blind in computer science

https://madison.com/content/tncms/live/

'Revolutionary': Remembering John Boyer, a pioneer for the deaf and blind in computer science

  <https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/madison.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/97/697fc247-4936-5ad1-b01a-bc3bc0888358/63cf0ba0ce804.image.jpg?resize=703%2C500> 

Where the likes of Louis Braille and Abraham Nemeth made it possible for the blind to read and perform mathematics, John Boyer took it a step further.

Boyer, a Madison resident who was pivotal in the development of STEM reading material for the blind, died on Jan. 17 from a bout of pneumonia. He was 86.

Born in rural Minnesota without the ability to see, Boyer eventually lost his hearing from infection as a boy. From the 1960s onward, Boyer excelled as a computer programmer, a pioneer in a field then barely understood by the general public let alone widely accessible to the blind. Through Boyer’s work, people who had lost their sight had greater access to science, technology, engineering and math literature.

Boyer’s work as a programmer “enabled thousands upon thousands of blind people to advance in mathematics fields and get jobs in those fields, which was not possible before,” said Marcia Carlson, his longtime friend.

People are also reading…

“He foresaw very, very early that the use of computers was a way for people with disabilities, who are vastly underrepresented in the job force, to be able to work,” Carlson said.

After learning Braille in his youth, Boyer grew frustrated by the lack of quality scientific reading material.

“This lack was to motivate me many years later to do something about it,” Boyer wrote in a short autobiography on his company’s website.

“I also established a lab in the basement and had dreams of becoming another Edison,” he said.

Photos of the late John Boyer are shown at his former workstation at his apartment in Madison. 

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL 

Navigating an industry often driven by profit, Boyer insisted that his software be open-source and available to all, said Jack Schroeder, his former office manager and caretaker.

“He was determined that that would be his life’s work ... and it’s been adopted by nearly all the world’s national blind libraries,” Schroeder said.

In the ’80s and ’90s, Boyer managed a nonprofit, Computers to Help People Inc., to help publish scientific books in Braille and to train those with disabilities to work with computers.

Yet the early 2000s arguably saw Boyer’s greatest impact. Partnering with an international team, Boyer helped design Braille translation software that allowed the printing of high-quality graphics in Braille. Then, his company AbilitiesSoft Inc. produced software that allowed the blind to read web pages via a Braille display.

By the mid-2010s, Boyer was developing the initial version of BrailleBlaster, a Braille transcription program that allows users to create and edit documents while interfacing with high-quality graphics and text.

“The way you can accomplish things as a blind and deaf person and to get around in life is amazing when you have the technology and wherewithal to push yourself to do it,” said Sara Sandberg, Boyer’s niece.

A communication device that's about 70 years old that translates letters into Braille and once used by John Boyer is displayed in the apartment of the late researcher and software developer on Friday. 

JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL 

‘Religious reawakening’

Like others who have left a lasting impact on the country, Boyer’s drive to bring the information age to the blind earned him official recognition, with  <https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/champions/stem-equality-for-americans-with-disabilities/john-boyer> former President Barack Obama honoring him in 2012.

Beyond the successes of his life, Boyer persisted despite tragic personal loss.

While working at UW-Parkside, Boyer married his wife Hazel, adopting her son from a previous marriage.

But only a few years into the marriage, Hazel developed Lou Gehrig’s disease and died in 1977. Her son, Bob, later developed the disease as well and died in 2001.

The loss of his wife drove Boyer into a “religious reawakening,” he recounted in his brief autobiography. By the 1990s, he pursued becoming a deacon in the Catholic Church only to be rejected for his disabilities. He eventually launched an online ministry, writing about faith and politics through the final years of his life.

Sandberg remembers her uncle as “revolutionary” and awe-inspiring, especially to those who got to communicate with him either through writing letters in his hand or typing messages back and forth with him with computers and a Braille printer.

Others knew Boyer, who was more than 6 feet tall, from his walks with his seeing-eye dog, though those became less frequent after the dog’s death and as his balance grew worse.

While people in the U.S. who are both deaf and blind number in the tens of thousands, Boyer knew he had to use his intellect and drive to help them and that it might not be done by anyone else, Schroeder said.

Even in the last days of his life, Boyer continued to receive questions about his work over email.

“I had this presumption that he was needy and incomplete without us, a sighted person,” Schroeder said. “I realized that’s on me, that’s not on him. He taught me very much in that regard.”

Photos: Olson’s Flowers in Mount Horeb

Judy Olson-Sutton, right, sister of Bill Olson, the founder of Olson’s Flowers who died in November 2020, talks with customer Terry Dahm at the shop in Mount Horeb. The Olson family is trying to sell the business that was started in the root cellar of a log cabin east of Barneveld.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Heidi Wittwer, who has been an employee at Olson’s Flowers for 43 years, puts together a floral arrangement of tulips and baby's breath for a customer at the shop in Mount Horeb. Wittwer, 65, plans to retire.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Judy Olson-Sutton, right, and Heidi Wittwer, who has worked at Olson's Flowers since 1979, talk about the business funded by Olson-Sutton's brother, Bill. He died in 2020 but started the business in 1954.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

A photo of Bill Olson, owner of Olson’s Flowers who passed away in November 2020, and his wife, Muriel, from a 1995 Business Excellence Award from Madison Magazine, hangs in the office at the shop in Mount Horeb.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Judy Olson-Sutton takes a photo off the wall of the office at Olson's Flowers that shows Bill and his wife, Muriel. The business is located inside a house that is likely more than 100 years old in downtown Mount Horeb.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Customer Terry Dahm leaves Olson’s Flowers in Mount Horeb.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Bill Olson, who died in 2020, is seen here in a 2015 photo putting together his last floral arrangement. Olson founded his business in 1954.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

This photograph shows the log home east of Barneveld where Bill Olson started Olson's Flowers in 1954. The business began in the root cellar underneath the house, later moved to Barneveld and then, in the early 1960s, to Mount Horeb.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Olson’s Flowers in Mount Horeb was one of the first businesses in Mount Horeb to establish itself in a home on East Main Street. The business moved from Barneveld in 1962.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Heidi Wittwer, who has been an employee at Olson’s Flowers for 43 years, packages a tulip arrangement for customer Terry Dahm.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Fenton Art Glass fills the front room at Olson’s Flowers in Mount Horeb.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Judy Olson-Sutton walks into Olson’s Christmas House, located next door to Olson's Flowers. 

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Judy Olson-Sutton, sister of the late Bill Olson, walks through Olson’s Christmas House, located next to the flower shop. The Christmas store opened in 1979.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

Judy Olson-Sutton walks through a room at Olson's Christmas House filled with Christmas villages. The business and the neighboring flower shop are for sale.

AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL 

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     David Goldfield 

Assistive Technology Specialist

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