Accessibility

Initiative

Let's Make the World More Accessible

Imagine a world where the web is accessible and empowering for everyone, including those with disabilities. This vision drives our accessibility initiative, a passionate pursuit to shatter digital barriers by raising awareness, and research and development to increase web accessibility through hard work and innovation.

Challenges

Every day, billions of people rely on the web for essential tasks, information, shopping, and communication. Web accessibility ensures that everyone has access without barriers, including the estimated 1.3 billion people living with some level of disability as of 2026, a number that is expected to grow to 3.5 billion by 2035. However, as of 2026, it is estimated that more than 95% of the top 1 million websites still fail to meet basic accessibility standards.

Solutions

Presently, being updated.

Initiative

• Media Projects

Presently being updated.

• Software Projects

Years ago, I embarked on a mission to simplify website authoring and to improve website accessibility for people with visual and other impairments. This passion project, fueled by countless hours and a relentless desire to make a difference, led to the creation of StackSite.

My personal journey with accessibility challenges began in my youth, first with various learning disabilities and later when I temporarily lost my sight for several days. Since then, I have learned to live with and overcome these disabilities while experiencing occasional episodes of optic neuritis. More recently, I have struggled with painful and debilitating limitations, primarily affecting the use of my hands, feet, and speech. However, this is nothing compared to what so many in this world must endure, facing far worse daily.

StackSite served as a functional prototype toolkit experiment, showcasing various innovative concepts utilizing a mix of web and pre-experimental software language standards, along with some features I created. In simpler terms, StackSite was an experimental web-based toolkit for website authoring, including features like themes, layouts, sections, rows, columns, menus, content areas, and more. Its ultimate goal was to simplify website creation and eventually integrate accessibility features. You can explore my early work on StackSite at github.com/zoshe/stacksite

While StackSite addressed some initial goals, it remained in the experimental stage due to its reliance on non-existent web language standards at the time. Without a clear path forward and facing no established standards, I shelved the project around 2010 to address more pressing needs. This included caring for others and focusing on crucial research to explore potential treatments or cures for various dire illnesses.

It wasn't until 2020 that advances in browser support for new standards reignited my passion for simplifying website creation and enhancing accessibility. Inspired by my mother and her late life vision challenges, I embarked on a new mission, aptly named after my Mom, Helen. This endeavor involved applying these new standards to create new innovative tools, to successfully overcome the limitations that hindered StackSite. Our aim is to continue development and make these tools available across various platforms in the near future.

Sources