Yeah, you make a good point. One of the first things somebody said to me after we'd settled on the name, International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists, was, "Why are you limiting it to just visually impaired people?" Well, I guess mostly because it didn't occur to me to include people with other disabilities. Doh! But I decided it was better this way because blind people have such specific needs when it comes to dealing with computers. You can't be all things to all people. But I would be willing to work with someone starting a more encompassing group. The final point I should make is that IAVIT is not a civil rights group. Legally, we're not set up that way and I personally have no interest in suing anybody. I want to work with companies to create technical solutions to access problems.I see IAVIT more like the W3C than like the NFB. Not that there is anything wrong with the NFB's approach. In fact, part of the reason I think IAVIT doesn't have to sue anybody is that there are already plenty of other groups doing that kind of thing. -----Original Message----- .From: "Sean Murphy"<mhysnm1964@gmail.com> .Sent: 6/26/10 5:24:14 AM .To: "Blind sysadmins list"<blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> .Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] I.t. Professionals . .John, .I am aware of that project and I am on the list. . .I want to focus on finding those peole people from any disability to develop .contacts to identify their problems and in turn get more people who have .disabilities employed into large I.T. companies. . .Sean .----- Original Message ----- .From: "John G. Heim" <jheim@math.wisc.edu> .To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> .Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 11:32 PM .Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] I.t. Professionals . . .> I'm trying to start an organization called the International Association .> of Visually Impaired Technologists. We have a web site at .> http://www.iavit.org and we are already incorporated as a non-profit. We .> do not have tax exempt status from the IRS yet. That will probably not be .> coming through until the fall. .> .> We have a wiki set up and our webmaster is going to be configuring the .> security pretty soon and then we'll be trying to get people to write up .> documentation for techniques to use if you're blind. And we are trying to .> set up some teams to work with manufacturers to make their products more .> accessible. If you have any interest in that project let me know because .> not too much interest has been shown in that direction. We'd like to .> contact Cisco, VMWare, and some of the BIOS companies to see if we can get .> them to design in features to make it easier for blind technologists to .> use their products. .> .> ----- Original Message ----- .> From: "Sean Murphy" <mhysnm1964@gmail.com> .> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> .> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 8:35 PM .> Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] I.t. Professionals .> .> .>> All. .>> .>> I am seeking for people in any country who are I.T professionals or wish .>> to join the ranks to get in contact with myself. .>> .>> The goal here is to establish a network of people to identify common .>> barriers and how we can help others to get into the I.t. industry or .>> advance in their current. [Message truncated. Tap Edit->Mark for Download to get remaining portion.]