Well, I would have done this earlier on this site but for the fact that I managed to log out of the admin page and then could not remember the password details and, somewhat untypically, didn’t have a note of it backed up in another obscure and passworded location. So I’ve been attempting log-ins for the last few days!
So, Joe Clark announced at @media Europe that he was "pretty much retired from web accessibility". As many of the readers of this site will know, Joe’s been focusing on a captioning project for a while now (link further down the page, should you wish to contribute) and there are more than enough experienced and web standards savvy web developers out there who are fighting the good fight where accessibility is concerned, many of whom probably learned the ropes from reading Joe’s seminal book on the topic. He can, therefore, claim to have left some kind of legacy.
However, a world of web accessibility without Joe’s presence will not be the same. Often outspoken, Joe has never shyed from saying what he feels, and sometimes to his own detriment (as Joe would freely admit):
" …market forces have shown that pretty much nobody wants to hire a sarcastic gay vegan to fix their Web accessibility"
While his guidance of the WCAG Samurai and other such side ventures are largely done, I suspect that this won’t be the last we’ll hear of Joe. The next time that something stupendously moronic crops up on the accessibility circuit (as I’m sure it will), I defy Joe to resist the temptation of very quickly hammering out a lengthy explanation of exactly how many mistakes have been made in the name of accessibility 
Good luck in your ‘retirement’ Joe, and keep us posted on the captioning progress.
JackP wrote:
Hear hear. He can certainly be a sarcastic so-and-so at times (and I’m happy to take his word on the gay vegan bit), but that doesn’t stop him being right an awful lot of the time. His writings show him to be intelligent, articulate, passionate, determined and witty. His tireless efforts on behalf of accessibility have indeed left a significant legacy.
I’m not claiming he’s perfect - who is? - but as I said on my blog, he’s a genuine Accessibility Superhero.
Now, if he’d only admit to liking Comic Sans…
Posted on 15-Jun-07 at 4:20 pm | Permalink
Bloggeries wrote:
LOL! I agree with JackP regarding he is right an AWFUL lot of the time. That being said retiring from web accessibility is alot harder than retiring from a 9-5. The computer will always be there for Joe!
Posted on 26-Jun-07 at 9:11 pm | Permalink