International Association of Visually ImpairedComputerProfessionals

[John G. Heim]

Note: We now have an email list. It's iavicp at ultragroups.net. To subscribe, 
send a message to iavicp-request at ultragroups.net.

There are a couple of problems with the British Computer Association of the 
Blind. One, it's got the word"British" in the name. Secondly, their focus is 
not entirely on computer professionals. I know that is somewhat of a special 
interest of theirs but they also just want to help blind people use 
computers. There's nothing wrong with that but as technologists, we have 
special needs.

The example I like to give is vmware. Vmware has a lot of accessibility 
problems, especially ESX, their top of the line system. Suppose you work for 
a company that decides to go big time into virtual computing. They spend 
$10,000 on software and you find out you can't install it or use it after 
it's installed. Soon, somebody else is the vmware expert at your company. If 
that kind of thing keeps happening, pretty soon you're expendable. And at 
the next round of layoffs, you're out of a job.

The NFB sued Target because blind people couldn't use their web site. Not 
that there's anything wrong wit that but it doesn't particularly matter to 
me. I care way more about the accessibility of vmware. But most blind people 
don't even know what vmware is. Most blind people don't care that they can't 
just whip out a Windows installation disk and re-install Windows at a 
moment's notice.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob Harris" <robh at apearl.net>
To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: International Association of Visually 
ImpairedComputerProfessionals


> CAB in the UK do a similar thing and for a similar purpose here.
> British Computer Association of the Blind;  do a search, I can't remember
> their   url now.
>
> Membership would be of interest, not sure how much time I'd have to do 
> more.
>
> I do do tech support at a local university and have done programming and
> writing of various sorts for years.
>
> Thanks,  RobH.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John G. Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
> To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list at redhat.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 8:06 PM
> Subject: International Association of Visually Impaired
> ComputerProfessionals
>
>
> All,
>
> I would like to inform you of the creation of a new organization 
> tentatively
> called The International Association of Visually Impaired Computer
> Professionals. The purpose of the organization is threefold:
> 1. To serve as a source for information on adaptive techniques for 
> visually
> impaired computer professionals.
> 2. To serve as a source for social networking for visually impaired 
> computer
> professionals.
> 3. To serve as an advocate for visually impaired computer professionals.
>
> A Board of Directors for this organization is being formed now. Anyone
> interested in being on the board should contact me as soon as possible at
> jheim at math.wisc.edu.
>
> We are in the process of establishing tax exempt status for our group 
> under
> the laws of the United States. However, members of the Board of Directors
> need not be Americans. In fact, we'd prefer to have an international Board
> of Directors.
>
> Please direct questions to me at jheim at math.wisc.edu. And please feel free
> to forward this message to anyone who might be interested.
>
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