Rich Schwerdtfeger: Helping People Who Are Blind or Deaf Get Information Online

Occupation: Engineer and chief technology officer of accessibility, IBM Software

Effort to help the disabled: An engineer and inventor, Mr. Schwerdtfeger seeks to make sure that disabled people are able to access information online, even if they are unable to see or hear. He helped develop the first graphical user interface screen reader for IBM personal computers, which interprets information that is displayed on computer screens for those who are blind or otherwise visually impaired. Mr. Schwerdtfeger also collaborated with Sun Microsystems to promote accessibility for its Java software platform and led the creation of WAI-ARIA, which is now used throughout the world to make online applications accessible to disabled users.