What does vicug-L mean to you?  What role does it have in your life?  How
does Vicug-L fill a unique need that no other resource can?  Mark Senk and
I, co-owners of vicug-L, contemplated recently these questions and the
future of the list.  For those who haven't seen the list postings, St.
John's University in New York will be closing its e-mail server shortly.
Vicug-L has been on St. John's servers since it was started by Gregory
Rosmaita, Mark Senk and me in 1997.  We were representatives, co-founders
actually, of the three largest visually impaired computer user groups
(vicugs) in the United States.  Gregory was a member of the New York group,
mark helped lead the Pittsburgh group, and I worked with Chicago folks.  Now
more than eight years later, we wonder if the list has not served its
original purpose.  Having achieved what we both set out to do, we are both
ready to move on to other projects.  We are interested in hearing the
thoughts of list members about the next steps that might be taken for the
list.  What should it now attempt to accomplish?  How would it still be
relevant where blind online communities are now more diverse, global, and
use both text and audio?  Some of these projects are as innovative and
cutting edge if not more so as vicugs were ten years ago.  We welcome
inquiries from those who are interested in being list owners going forward.
If you want to learn more about being a list owner, please write mark and me
at:

[log in to unmask]

Please also use that e-mail address to share your answers to the earlier
questions or any comments about the future of the list.  Mark and I will
compile comments and respond after consideration.  All of us can be proud of
the invaluable assistance, increased technology access and the many tools,
training packages, support mechanisms, and even national technology access
policies that members of vicugs have created.  Tremendous progress has been
made with the development of web accessibility guidelines, revision to
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, commitments by major corporations to
technology access, new services that deliver highly customized and
accessible information easily and without charge, and many communities, most
of them online, where blind computer users can share information by text and
most recently in audio.  Vicug-L itself was used by members of the New York
vicug as an immediate and accessible means to identify and share community
resources and offer assistance following the devastation resulting from the
destruction of the twin towers in lower Manhattan in September 2001.

In the city where I live, Chicago, technology has advanced the lives of many
blind people in just the last eight years, thanks in part to the efforts of
Chicago vicug members.  Talking ATM's are in every city neighborhood and
suburban community as well as at more than 20 subway stations.  Movie
theaters in both the city and suburbs now have audio description for at
least one show each week.  Chicago transit buses now use twenty-first
century technology to automatically call out the more than 12,000 bus stops,
eliminating the problem of missed stop calls by bus drivers.  Chicago's
largest state university now fully supports and accommodates blind computer
users.  Many hundreds are online and are active information sharers and
seekers, thanks to the Chicago vicug.  Soon, accessible voting will be not
only possible but easy and effortless thanks to a couple of former vicug
members who totally revised the audio interface of a major voting machine
company.
With all this in the past, what should be the future of vicug-L.  The list
was founded to serve as an online vicug and for members to share efforts
between cities and countries.  Currently, others do this very well and in a
way that is both broader and more specialized.  From a user peak of more
than 500, vicug-L has experienced a 30 percent erosion of subscribers.  In
addition to scores of mailing lists, services such as For the People, Audio
tips, Talking Communities, and even Skype and instant messaging clients
offer live, interactive communities with voice access, a dream of blind
computer users in the 1990s.  Blind entrepreneurs have created training
packages for many popular software applications.  The federal government has
heard our concerns for training and support and now funds the production of
such training packages.  In the past year, support and assistance options
increased with the advent of the Podcasting craze.  Blind people are now
recording demonstrations of adaptive technology in their own homes and
sharing these recordings with other blind people worldwide.  It seems there
is no need any longer to gather in one place to learn, grow, develop, skill
share, offer mutual aid, or band together for collective action to initiate
community change.  Call it what you will:  VOIP, an online seminar, voice
chat, a podcast, or a computer phone.  It is the latest example of how blind
people come together to aid each other to master technology to live
independently and be economically self-sufficient.

With all these changes, tools, and resources in the past eight years, does a
need still exist for vicug-L?  If so, help us move forward.  Again, please
do not reply to the list but to the e-mail address listed earlier.

Kelly


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html