James W. Thatcher (March 25, 1936 – December 7, 2019) was an American computer scientist, and the inventor of the first

screen reader A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blindness, blind, and are useful to people who are visual impairment, visually ...

, a type of

assistive technology Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly. Disabled people often have difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, or even with ...

that enables the use of a computer by people with visual impairments. Thatcher was also important to the development of the accessibility consulting industry. Among many other awards, Thatcher was awarded the first ACM SIG Access Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility for his contributions to

digital accessibility Computer accessibility (also known as accessible computing) refers to the accessibility of a computer system to all people, regardless of disability type or severity of impairment. The term ''accessibility'' is most often used in reference to sp ...

in 2008.

Career

Thatcher earned one of the first PhDs in Computer Science in 1963 from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. His thesis advisor, Dr. Jesse Wright, was blind, and together they joined the Mathematical Sciences Department of IBM Research, to work on practical computing and the development of an audio-based computer access system for the IBM Personal Computer. The result of this work was the one of the first screen readers for DOS, originally called PC-SAID, or ''Personal Computer Synthetic Audio Interface Driver''. This was renamed and released in 1984 as IBM Screen Reader, which became the

proprietary eponym A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products or ...

for that general class of assistive technology. Thatcher went on to lead the development of IBM Screen Reader/2, the first screen reader for a

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

. In 1996, Thatcher joined the IBM Accessibility Center in Austin, Texas, where he helped establish the internal IBM Accessibility Guidelines for software development. These guidelines helped inform the later development of the

W3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...

standard WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). Thatcher retired from IBM in 2000, to become an independent accessibility consultant. He retired from accessibility consulting in 2016.

Awards

*Distinguished Service Award (1994), from the

National Federation of the Blind The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is an organization of blind people in the United States. It is the oldest and largest organization led by blind people in the United States. Its national headquarters are in Baltimore, Maryland. Overvie ...

for the development of the GUI screen reader * Vice President's

Hammer Award The National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), originally the National Performance Review, was an interagency task force created under the Clinton administration to reform the way the United States federal government works. The NPR wa ...

(1999), for work on the development of software accessibility standards with the

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

* ACM SIG Access Award (2008), for Outstanding Contributions to Computing and Accessibility for his contributions to digital accessibility * Making A Difference Award (2009), from

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

Special Interest Group for Computers and Society, for his career in accessibility

External links

* https://jimthatcher.com/ * https://highlandscurrent.org/2019/12/12/jim-thatcher-1963-2019/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thatcher, James W. 1936 births 2019 deaths American disability rights activists Web accessibility American computer scientists American inventors SIGACCESS award winners University of Michigan alumni