organization:international society of accessibility professionals

  • Universally Designed » Considering the Case for Creating an International Society of Accessibility Professionals
    http://blog.knowbility.org/content/considering-the-case-for-creating-an-international-society-of-accessibility-professionals/comment-page-1/#comment-618

    ATIA/AIA, IBM, Adobe – these are entities with deep pockets and a vested interest in seeing something like this move forward, and I am sure that they are willing to make investments to a point. But as one who has worked in this space for over a decade, I (we) well know that for the most part those who are currently working in the field of “web accessibility” are, for the most part, independent consultants, smaller development firms, or inside actors at a larger establishment who’ve embraced the role of advocate and agent provocateur where they work, often not because it’s part of their job description, but because they have come to our cause and profession for other reasons. Very few however actually have the privileged of being professionally focused exclusively on web accessibility: it’s part of what they do, and they do it for all the right reasons, but sometimes that alone doesn’t pay the bills. (I’ve personally been lucky and persistent, but I remember the early days, and the struggle to stay afloat while trying to focus on this industry: I also worked as a waiter and bar-tender to make ends meet.)

    Boum.