[Trainer-talk] Fwd: Help Qwitter, improve accessibility!

[David Andrews]

I am forwarding the message below and ask everyone to help out.  I 
use Qwitter daily, and love it.  It is an innovative piece of 
software that allows blind persons to use Twitter, and other 
services, on the basis of quality.  Let's help reward some deserving 
young blind programmers.

David Andrews


>From: Q <q at qwitter-client.net>
>To: dandrews at visi.com
>Subject: Help Qwitter, improve accessibility!



>Our world is rapidly changing.  Technology is being integrated with 
>our daily lives as never before, and as blind individuals we know 
>better than most people the importance of having real access to this 
>technology.
>I am a developer of a piece of accessible technology which you may 
>currently use, The Qwitter client, the most powerful and flexible 
>Twitter client for the blind.  Qwitter, as a new breed of 
>application known as an accessibility layer, sits between you and a 
>remote web site's API, providing innovative access to modern web 2.0 
>web sites such as Twitter and soon Facebook from anywhere on your 
>system at any time.
>      Why am I bugging you now?
>About two months ago, Qwitter was entered into a contest being run 
>by a relatively-large web site devoted to social networking known as 
>Mashable.  This is a prominent web site for the sighted, covering 
>many developments in the social networking space.  With the help of 
>hundreds of blind Qwitter users, we have moved on to the final round 
>of voting, surpassing literally thousands of other applications.
>You may be wondering why some relatively trivial social networking 
>application or contest is at all relevant to you.  In this case, it 
>is my strong belief that what we as blind computer users need is 
>exposure to sighted developers to show them that we represent a 
>large, powerful market.  What better way to do this than by spanking 
>them all in a contest?
>Seriously, though, I believe that with your help, we can demonstrate 
>the efficacy of creating accessible software.  Let us proudly 
>represent the size and power of the blind community and get the 
>message out there that we're more than ready for equal access to 
>these, and many other important technologies.
>The process to vote only takes a second if you have either Twitter 
>or Facebook.  All you need to do is click on the following address:
>http://mashable.com/awards/votes?c=28&v=191
>At the bottom of the first list of links you'll find two graphical 
>links, one which reads Twitter Login2, and one that reads Facebook 
>login.  Depending on which service you use, click the appropriate 
>link, sign in with your credentials, and allow the service to use 
>your account with the allow button.
>     Once you have logged in, you will go back to the original page, 
> but magically, two combo boxes will appear.  Navigate to these and 
> verify that the top one is set to Best use of API and the second to 
> Qwitter client (they should be by default.)  Then, just hit the vote button.
>You are allowed to vote once a day, and I ask that you please 
>do.  There are only seven days left, and with your help and 
>perseverance we can win this contest and show a large amount of 
>sighted developers that accessibility is more than worthwhile!
>Thank you very much for your time and at tension,
>      Christopher Toth
>      @Mongoose_q on Twitter.