OU Student’s Software AIDS Disabled
By Jim Stafford, The Daily Oklahoman
Mar. 23–Technology giant IBM offered a challenge last fall to student programmers at universities worldwide: Create software that ensures users with visual disabilities can read and use an OpenDocument Format computer program.
Computer software is evolving constantly, adding cool — but complex — features that often do not consider the visually impaired or users with other disabilities.
“Such wizardry has made those with disabilities feel like second-class citizens, as many graphics-laden and dynamic features have proved largely unreadable to assistive technologies (software),” said Ari Fishkind, public affairs manager for IBM Technology and Intellectual Property.
Among the 400 students from 111 universities in the U.S., Canada, Japan and China was Chase Pritchett, a junior computer science major at the University of Oklahoma.
Pritchett learned all he could about the open-source software, then spent about 20 hours writing a Java program that installed a series of accessibilities checks and balances to the program.
“The software makes sure that, for instance, color-blind people can read the documents created in the open-source format,” Pritchett said. “I made a general template to run through stuff and came up with a series of test documents. From there I put in different combinations of errors that I wanted the program to catch and made sure it caught all of them.”
Open-source software is created not by a single company but by a large group of people who freely share computer code with one another to collaborate on software projects.
Pritchett said he was motivated to participate in the project in part because he saw how difficult life became for his grandmother after she lost her arm to a tumor.
“Having one arm makes it difficult to use a normal keyboard, in this case, pretty much kept my grandmother from gaining enough interest to overcome this obstacle,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s fair for someone to be limited in what they can do or learn because of some physical or mental disability.”
Pritchett submitted his entry in November and learned in January that he was a co-winner of the contest along with a student from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Pritchett won a $2,500 laptop and a trip to Los Angeles, where he was honored Thursday at the Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference at California State University at Northridge.
“We are recognizing Chase because his entry reflected a keen understanding of the principles involved in making technology available to all users,” said Bob Sutor, IBM’s vice president of open source and standards. “As innovative technologies such as the OpenDocument Format proliferate on the PC desktop and Web, we need to ensure that they stay in the forefront of being easily used by the greatest spectrum of people. Chase’s tool is a wonderfully practical tool to help.”
Earning praise as an intern In addition to his academic pursuits, Pritchett is an intern at Chesapeake Energy Corp., where he develops Web applications and reports, among other duties in the information technology department.
The software he wrote for the contest brought him praise from his Chesapeake supervisor, Jeff Maxwell.
“I’m very proud of Chase and what he has done,” Maxwell said this week as he and Pritchett took part in a photo shoot on the Chesapeake campus. “He’s the kind of individual we are looking for, someone who is willing to go the extra mile, work hard, a good team player. Everybody likes Chase; it’s been a really great relationship.”
As for Pritchett, the contest might enhance his chances of finding full-time work at Chesapeake, but he’s developing a backup plan just in case.
“I’m looking into grad school, but I would really like to work here,” he said. “Nothing set in stone yet, but hopefully I’ve been doing a good job.”
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Daily Oklahoman
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