E55 – Interview with Becky Gibson – Part 1

In this episode, Becky talks to us about how changes in technology has changed her perception of accessibility. She also tells us how she came to be so passionate about accessibility! Thanks to Twilio for sponsoring the transcript for this episode. Make sure you have a look at: Their blog: https://www.twilio.com/blog Their channel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/twilio Diversity event tickets: https://go.twilio.com/margaret/ Transcript Nic:    Welcome to the Accessibility Rules Podcast. You’re listening to episode 55. I’m Nic Steenhout and I talk with people involved in one way or another with web accessibility. If you’re interested in accessibility, hey, this show’s for you.   To get today’s show notes or transcript, head out to https://a11yrules.com. Thanks to Twilio for sponsoring the transcript for this episode. Twilio, connect the world with the leading platform for voice, SMS and video at Twilio.com. So this week I’m speaking to Becky Gibson. Thanks for joining me for this conversation around web accessibility Becky. Becky:    Oh, thanks. I’m thrilled to be here. Nic:    Cool. Hey, I like to let guests introduce themselves. So in a brief introduction, who is Becky Gibson? Becky:    Let’s see. Who am I? I am a 55 plus-year-old woman. I live alone with two cats. I haven’t always been alone. And I guess I kind of am a computer geek although less so than I started. I started life with Lotus if people remember that, as a customer support representative and then I moved on to become a programmer. I actually worked on the print subsystem on 1, 2, 3. I’m proud of that. Yes, and then I went on to work on Lotus Notes, which some people will hate me for because a lot of people don’t particularly like Lotus Notes. But it was innovative for its time. And then I eventually got into accessibility about 13, 14 years ago working with Rich Schwerdtfeger, he was starting a new group in emerging technologies and I really enjoyed that because it gave me-- it felt like there was more than just business, right, Nic:    Yeah Becky:    It was okay when I worked on 1, 2, 3, when it was small and people were using it to record their book production for cows but then it got into business and that’s not what I was about so it gave me more of a reason-- it put excitement back in. and I got to do a lot of open source work with that so, yeah. And let's see, what do I do for fun … I’m a-- I figure skate. Not something I would recommend taking up in your 40’s but I enjoy it. And I like doing outdoorsy kind of stuff and I’m addicted to reading as well-- Nic:    Well, there are worse addictions to that. To have than reading so, yeah. So I was going to ask you, tell me one thing most people don’t know about you but you gave us a few, from Lotus to figure skating and reading. So, is there anything else you think that our listener might be interested in knowing that you haven’t told us about? Becky:    Well, I came into computers sort of backwards. I mean, I was always very much a science related, math type person. But back in the late 70’s when I graduated from High School nobody really suggested that I might be interested in computer science or civil engineering, which would’ve been a fit for me. I went to school and my degree is in Natural Resource Management and I have a minor in soil science and an option in land use planning. But, when I graduated from school there weren’t many jobs in that, unlike today. So, I had taken a computer programming course. I had taken Fortran with punch cards. And I loved it. And so, my woman who was to become my sister in law said, “Oh you should learn to program in Cobol and you could work in the computer industry”. Well, I did take a Cobol class and said, “Ew” and I did eventually get into computers … through Lotus. And I got my Masters in Computer Science, but, yeah. Nic:    Right. So, just to show all roads lead to accessibility event