[html4all] Introduction

[Debi Orton]

Hi all,

My name is Debi Orton.  I became interested in accessibility because 
of a strong family history of diabetes (on both sides of my family) 
and because I watched my mother lose her eyesight, her kidneys, and 
eventually her life to complications of the disease.  I also watched 
her struggle to try and remain independent in a world that did not 
seem to believe a blind person could or should be independent.  My 
brother and I are both diabetic now, and I have glaucoma.

In my day job, I'm the Manager of IT for the NYS Governor's Office of 
Employee Relations (GOER).  As my agency's liaison to the NYS Forum, 
an organization fostering information delivery and networking for 
technologists in the public sector, I am co-chair of the Forum's IT 
Accessibility Committee.  I am granted liberal time from my primary 
responsibilities to work on IT accessibility initiatives, both with 
the Forum, and with the State's CIO's office. I have been active in 
the NYS accessibility initiative since 1998, and have been 
contributing to policy development since that time.

New York's initiative is based on a policy, a hybrid (of U.S. 508 and 
WCAG 1.0), 14-point mandatory technology standard, and best 
practices.  As is most other organizations, little or no training is 
provided in web standards, usability, or accessibility.  The only 
training provided for NYS web developers has come from the Forum IT 
Accessibility Committee.  Fortunately, our Committee has a relatively 
even mix of people who are comfortable presenting information, and 
people who are more comfortable working behind the scenes.

This year, our new governor issued an Executive Order that all public 
meetings be webcast on the Internet, and our Committee has had a 
large role in making sure that all webcasts are captioned -- either 
live, or within 7 days of the live event.  It's been a learning 
curve, since few of us had any experience with multimedia.

Our Committee's current project is to oversee development of a 
single-point validation utility that can do some rudimentary code 
correction.  We have funding for development and the first year of 
operation, and will need to secure ongoing funding beyond that.

Like Laura, I saw an invitation to participate, and did so in the 
hope that we'd see greater accessibility in the new version.  I'm a 
little disillusioned with the process so far...a lot of cacophony and 
little progress -- and very little civility.  Nonetheless, I 
recognize the validity of Ian's comment that if you don't work for 
change, you have no right to complain about what form that change takes.

In my spare time, I run the online literary journal flashquake 
(http://www.flashquake.org) and do web site design and maintenance 
for a number of writers.  I also make jewelry, and practice archery 
and knife throwing.  I live in Upstate New York, on the banks of the 
Hudson, with four cats and a groundhog.  Well, the groundhog isn't 
exactly tame...but she's been around so long I feel I know her.

So that's about all there is to me...I'm pleased to be in such 
interesting company!

Debi Orton/ oradnio at gmail.com