[games_access] New co-chair for the SIG

[Chad Philip Johnson]

Hello everyone,

My name is Chad.  I have been associated with the Games Accessibility 
SIG for the past four years.  The majority of my contributions thus far 
have involved technical advisement and support for the SIG alongside Dan 
and Thomas.  I am very fortunate to have come to know a handful of you 
during this time, and I am regularly impressed by the kindness of the 
SIG's members and the larger accessibility community to which it belongs.

As Thomas mentioned, I will be taking on additional responsibilities, 
alongside Dan.  My background is perhaps unusual, but really no more so 
than anyone else's.  I briefly studied Electrical Engineering and 
Computer Science at UC Berkeley but left because I am a self-starter.  I 
am a programmer and have an affinity for cross-platform technologies.  
During the summer months, I manage a Semi-Pro Baseball Club in Northern 
California. My work history is comprised mostly of small businesses an 
organizations, but I have had brief stints in IT at Microsoft and the 
Quality Assurance department at Sega of America (alongside another 
member of the SIG).

My interest in accessibility came from a close family friend who is 
deaf.  We grew up together and spent many hours playing video games as 
children and teenagers.  As a child, I was perplexed by his ability to 
frequently challenge me in competitive games.  As an adult, I better 
understand the additional focus and tenacity that was required by him to 
perform at such a level.

We will be unveiling a new SIG website in the coming weeks--Thomas 
posted a message a little while back so some of you have already seen 
the "work in progress" version.  More info soon.  Tara and Ian also 
knocked it out the park again today with another GAConf.  (Please pardon 
the baseball analogy.)

-- Chad

On 3/18/19 5:48 AM, Thomas Westin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I’d just like to announce that I’m stepping down as co-chair. I’ve 
> been sitting on this chair for many years and it needs to be replaced 
> :) I’ll still be in the SIG of course, I just have too many things 
> going on in my life, both at work and private.
>
> Instead Chad steps up with Dan who has co-chaired with me for several 
> years. Chad has helped out a lot with the SIG and is also running our 
> roundtable at GDC this week:
> https://schedule.gdconf.com/search/game+accessibility
>
> I’ll leave you with this food for thought I’ve made for the coders of 
> you – guess the obsolete language in which you can run this :)
> Do("orDoNot(" & QUOTE & "there is no try{}" & QUOTE & ")")
>
> Have a great GDC!
>
> Best,
> Thomas
>
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> games_access at lists.igda.org
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