[NFBCS] Accessibility for programmers

[Brian Buhrow]

	hello list members.  This is Brian Buhrow, current president of the
NFB in Computer Science, chiming into this topic.  Although I'm coming into
this discussion rather late, I have been following it and, like Steve, I am
excited to see folks interested in working on some of these accessibility
issues.  Since a lot has been covered in this thread, I'll try to address
some of the points I've seen in this discussion and, perhaps, clarify where
I think we are as an NFB division and what my vision is going forward for
the division.  For those of you following this thread and contributing to
it, if there are particular points you think I've missed in the below
paragraphs, feel free to point them out in the discussion that's sure to
follow  this message.

1.  For those of you who don't know me, I'm a long time NFB member who has
worked in the IT field for the past 25 years.  My expertise is in the field
of Unix/Linux system programming and  networking, both in writing client
and server software, as well as building and maintaining local and wide
area IP networks.  I also have a good deal of experience building and
maintaining VOIP telephony networks and services.  For purposes of computer
access, I am totally blind and rely completely on braille and/or speech
output to gain access to the systems I work on.  Because I use a variety of
equipment, I use a variety of access technologies.  I'm proficient with
VoiceOver for iOS, NVDA under Windows, a long time user of Jaws, and,
thanks to Mike Gorse, another member of this list, the Yasr program under Unix.
It has long been my experience that creating access solutions which enable
me to do my work have required thought, creativity, a lot of trial and
error, much frustration on my part, and, some assistance from my colleagues
and co-workers.  As someone mentioned up thread on this list, I'm certain
that I've missed opportunities in my career due to lack of accessibility,
or my inability to think of a viable access solution, or just an assumption
on my part  that I couldn't do this or that.  Getting "backwatered" in the
IT field is a constant problem for everyone who works in it, and it is a
particular problem for blind individuals, myself included.  Still, with
that said, my career has been a rewarding one that has allowed me to enjoy
life, participate in a variety of exciting adventures and to join the
society of my friends and neighbors as a first class citizen.  The NFB and,
by extension, the NFB CS division, has been a key element of that success
because they gave me access to the likes of Steve Jacobson, Curtis Chong,
Curtis Willoughby, Lloyd Rasmussen, Jim Barbour and John Miller, not to
mention a vast array of other mentors and friends who could not only teach
me a bit about how to do what I wanted, but who lead by example by doing it
themselves.  I hope that overview will help inform the comments I have
about particular issues in this thread that I'll mention below.

2.  As Steve pointed out, the NFB CS Division is made up entirely of
volunteers.  That means the things that get done in the division are the
ones folks find interesting to work on and which can be scheduled in
available time.  To that end, regarding the topic of an NFB CS web site or
wikipedia, I think David Andrews said it best.  It's not hard to build a
web site or wikipedia pages, but maintaining them and their relevance is
very difficult over time.  A complaint I saw in this discussion was that
folks didn't know how to find the kinds of information they were getting
once they asked on this list.  Since this list is archived and since there
is a web site where the archives are  stored and accessible, it seems that
maybe what we should think about doing as a division is figuring out how to
funnel folks to that archive so they can find the answers folks have
provided on this list.  As an example, Nicole provided a nice summary of
the solution to her 3270 emulation software problem.  There is not a real
need, in my mind, to complicate the process of geting the word out to other
folks by asking her to write a formal wikipedia page explaining her fixes.
Rather, a simple page explaining that we have this list and the best terms
to type into Google to harvest what it has to offer seems like the quick
and easy way to leverage this list as a valuable resource.  

3.  As to the issue of accessible certification testing, I do see this as a
barrier to job entry and, as such, I think it is something the division
should try to address.  I do not have the bandwidth or enough familiarity
with the details of the problem to take the lead to work on this issue.
However, if there are folks who are willing and able to work on this issue
and to cary it forward, possibly to formal actions, I'm willing to
facilitate that work and help bring it to fruition, either by advocating
for it on the national level, or by writing letters to appropriate
individuals or agencies, or some combination of that and other means.  Write
me off list if you are willing and able to work on this issue and we'll
figure out what steps need to be taken to get things moving.

4.   As an NFB national division, our business meeting, must, by
definition, be held at the NFB national convention.  That  doesn't preclude
us from holding other meetings throughout the year, but our official
business meeting is at the NFB national convention.  That said, beginning
last year, we began offering the ability for folks to join the division on-line,
allowing them to reep the benefits of NFB-CS membership.  
Browse to:
https://web.nfbcal.org/nfbcsreg
to sign up as an NFB-CS member.

	Today, membership gains you the right to receive a copy of the
recording of the 2019 NFB-CS meeting held in Las Vegas last summer.  In
future, it will entitle you to access the archive of recordings from our
past meetings.  If you attend our business meeting, it gives you the right
to vote.  If you are interested in working on any of the issues I've
outlined in this e-mail, it would be my preference, but not a requirement,
that you join the NFB-CS division as part of starting inon the work.  In
that way, you will be more officially connected with  the division if any
of the work becomes formal.

5.  Again, as Steve pointed out, most of the NFB-CS board monitors and
participates in discussion on this list.  Curtis Chong, our most recent
past president and current treasurer, recently posted a treatise on the
virtues  of upgrading Windows to Windows 10 and trying out the new
Microsoft Edge browser.  Steve Jacobson, our vice president, regularly
contributes insightful comments on various ongoing discussions.  Jeanine
Lineback, one of our board members, posts job postings for various
accessibility related positions.  I send out meeting related announcements
regularly, and also try to contribute to discussions where I think my input
might be helpful.

6.  In my mind, as I said earlier in this message, the real value to our
division is the knowledge and experience of its members.  This mailing list
extends that knowledge and experience further because it includes many
people who have a lot of experience but who are not officially members of
the Division.  I know some folks would like us to cater more toward people
who are working in the computer science or IT fields.  I understand that
and have tried to move our agendas at our annual meeting in that direction
by including at least one panel or topic of interest to folks working in
the computing profession.  last year, for example, Tom Moore gave an
excellent talk on how to build and maintain AWS networks and servers with
nonvisual tools.  However, I don't see a lot of value in splitting our
resources into two lists, those discussing computer sciencey issues and
those asking general accessibility questions.  The truth is, access
technology being what it is, complicated, buggy and a moving target,
every blind computer professional I know has, at one time or another, been
reduced to a neophyte user by a piece of buggy access technology, a buggy
application, or just forgetting the magic sequence of commands or gestures
to do a particular task with a particular ap from time to time.  As such,
my feeling is that we can all learn from every question that comes up on
this list and for those of us who are more sophisticated, we can provide
our own filtering if there are things we don't want to follow on this list.
I, for example, have a very strong knowledge of Unix/Linux, systems
programming and integration, networking and VOIP systems.  However, my
knowledge of Windows is definitely not as complete.  Therefore, I value the
Windows questions that come up on this list because they teach me things I
didn't know.  
Also, to that end, if there are things folks want us to work on as a
division, I'm happy to entertain a discussion and potentially embark on the
work, but I need your help to do it.  So, when you think about suggestions
for the Division to work on, also try to think about how we might go about working
on them in a sustainable manner.

	Thank you for taking the time to read this missive.  I hope it helps
clarify how I see the Division.  In the mean time, let's see if we can move
some of these ideas in this thread forward, shall we?

-thanks
Sincerely,

-Brian, President, NFB in Computer Science.