By Bernard Maldonado
Wow! It’s amazing how fast time goes by. Is it just me, or do you feel the same way and notice that the weeks and months fly by?
Today is a special day for Solona. On April 13, 2009, Solona went live. Today is the first anniversary for Solona. The content was published. A few messages went out. The green light was turned on for the first time. The project that had consumed so much of my time in the beginning of 2009 finally was a reality on April 13, 2009. Everything was in place so that a person could register, submit a captcha, retrieve their code, and negotiate the inaccessible Captcha that stood in the way of accomplishing a task.
Before Solona even had a name, when it was just a project called “image interpreter”, we were hard at work to put the package together and make it useful. I still remember sitting with Michael McCarty and asking him to try out this new page. Feedback from Michael, and a handful of other people, really made the initial release of Solona better. Alot of work went into making it screen reader friendly, fast, and efficient. After all, I didn’t even know what JAWS stood for (seriously).
I can still remember thinking to myself: “Will anybody use this kind of service?” “How will they find out about it?” “Do many websites use inaccessible Captchas that need to be solved?” In spite of those lingering questions, we marched forward to complete the project.
As I reflect on how it all started, and compare how it was then to the current situation, it’s obvious that there is no comparison. Every aspect of the service has improved during the first 12 months of service: the steps to solve a Captcha, the introduction of RAIVE, the website design, the reCAPTCHA training tool, the API integration, the number of sighted operators. The list of improvements goes on and on.
Now that people can use programs such as Qwitter and Send2Solona, solving Captchas has been reduced to basically one key stroke for both Windows and Mac users! The good news is that the API is being improved and expanded. The current API programs will reflect those changes, and new programs will be released, as well.
One thing remains the same: the never-ending goal to provide an easy-to-use interface for negotiating inaccessible images and objects. This is the foundation for everything that goes into Solona.
None of this would have been possible without help from other people. I owe so much to Larry for his PHP development and time. The sighted operators are a vital part of solona. Amanda, Matt, Corien, Brenda, Ann, Derek – thank you so much for the hours that you poll for Captchas around the clock. All of your help makes Solona a better service, and allows so many people to browse the web more independently. I am very thankful for your time, and willingness to help people in real-time.
A big thank you goes to Christopher Toth, hllf, and Theresa Ford for creating the initial API interfaces to Solona.
Thanks to the Solona Steering Committee for offering feedback and guidance whenever situations arise. Jeff Bishop, Steve Sawczyn, Serrebi, Cara Quinn.
I’d also like to say thank you to the users – from all over the world. Thank you for your patience, for your feedback, and for your trust. Perhaps most of all, thank you for validating that a service such as Solona has a place in the accessibility world. After all, that is the motivation to continue moving forward. Thank you for teaching me how to provide a useful web-based service.
The first year recorded a lot of progress for Solona. The roots and foundation are strong to implement new enhancements and ideas. The coming years will be just as exciting! There’s so much more to say, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll cut if off here.
Here’s to year number 1 for Solona.
Cheers!
Bernard Maldonado
Loading ...
Comments on this entry are closed.