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We just published our vision for GitHub accessibility at accessibility.github.com. Here’s the TL;DR: the prime directive of the GitHub accessibility program is to empower people with disabilities to build cool technology.
There are more than one billion people in the world with disabilities. I’m proud to be one of them. However, those of us with disabilities encounter barriers every day. From transportation to civic participation, from education to employment, and from entertainment to healthcare, people with disabilities must overcome a myriad of environmental and attitudinal barriers to live the lives we want to live.
The World Bank labeled this state of affairs as the Disability Divide and identified technology as a “disruptive force in enabling the inclusion of persons with disabilities.” That has been the focus of my work for the past 12 years. During that time, I led the accessibility program at a large analytics software company, was awarded four patents, co-authored the first born-accessible digital astronomy textbook, co-created the Perkins Paths To Technology online community for Teachers of the Visually Impaired, and co-founded the annual STEAM Career Showcase for Students with Disabilities.
On August 23, I started the next chapter in my professional journey as Head of Accessibility at GitHub. I am absolutely thrilled to be here because GitHub is a critical point of leverage for improving accessibility and disability inclusion globally. Based on my personal experience, one of the most effective ways to improve the accessibility of software, and build more bridges across the Disability Divide, is to include people with disabilities in the development process.
We just published our vision for GitHub accessibility at accessibility.github.com. Here’s the TL;DR: the prime directive of the GitHub accessibility program is to empower people with disabilities to build cool technology. We will do that by focusing on the following pillars:
Do we expect every person with a disability to become a developer? No, but we firmly believe in the principle of “nothing about us without us.” Technology is ubiquitous. We want to make tools, processes, and communities that develop technology inclusive, along every dimension of identity, to ensure the resulting technologies benefit all of humanity. We know people with disabilities have a role to play in the future of software development, and we want to help them do it.
I invite you to bookmark accessibility.github.com and stay tuned for additional updates on our work in the near future.