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RE: Knowbility

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From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Feb 4, 2002 7:18PM

Yes, Scott, I think that that is a case of over-militance. The AIR Austin
program is a terrific example of people doing great work.

Just a brief encapsulation of what AIR (Accessibility Internet Rally) X is:

In city X high tech groups are paired with non-profit organizations. The
high tech group is given a day training on accessible web design (trainers
like Phill Jenkins, IBM, John Slatin, U Texas, Jim Allan, Texas School for
the Blind and Visually Impaired). Then the teams get together on a Saturday,
they have 8 hours to produce an accessible site for the non-profit. The
results are judged and there's a big party honoring the winners. They are
judged for accessibility. The winner is the most accessible site.

I have served as a judge for AIR Austin for the past couple of years. As a
judge, I spend the Saturday when the sites are being created answering
questions (and taking bribes) and then in the week following the event, the
judges evaluate all the sites created in the competition.

I suspect that Knowbility through AIR Austin has trained more web
developers, really trained them, than any other program in the country. The
high tech people LEARN web accessibility because they want to do a good job,
they want to win.

And just by the way, the non-profits win too, ending up with a quality web
presence.

Jim
<EMAIL REMOVED>
Accessibility Consulting
http://jimthatcher.com
512-306-0931