NVDA at 20: celebrating, reflecting, envisioning, acting

[josephsl]

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of NonVisual Desktop Access. As this is the 20000th GitHUb issue/discussion/pull request for this project, I think it would be fitting to discuss NVDA's legacy and impact, a snapshot of the state of the community, reflecting on current happenings, and suggest and perform actions to make the project relevant in the long term.

• Celebrating: to think of ways that NVDA had impacted the access tech industry as a whole. Most notably, I imagine people have become a bit more comfortable around open-source access tech development.
• Reflecting: while we should celebrate NVDA's legacy and impact, we should also take time to reflect on current state of affairs. What are we doing right now that keeps the screen reader project relevant? What are we doing right now that makes the NVDA project welcoming (or not) for contributors? What are we doing right now to ensure community voices, including folks with strong disagreements, are heard?
• Envisioning: based on what NVDA and the community are doing well and ways to improve, let us envision what NVDA would be like in say, 2030. How can we make NVDA relevant then? What are some things we are doing well to keep the momentum going? Wat are the barriers that prevents NVDA from achieving its goals toward long-term relevance?
• Acting: let us think and act practical steps that celebrates, reflects, and envisions NVDA's relevance for the long term. What practical actions can we the community do to keep each other (including NV Access) accountable, be faithful to the overall purpose of the project, and show responsibility to the access tech community overall?

I understand that some of these questions are hard to answer, let alone swallow. But we need to ask these critical questions to make the project relevant in the long term. Let us not just celebrate and promote NVDA and its impact for the last two decades. Let us also reflect on current state of community affairs in hopes of suggesting improvements and actionable items. Let us envision practical actions to make the project relevant in the long term. More importantly, let us do things that can make the project and the community accountable and responsible to each other and stakeholders.

Thanks.

[seanbudd]

NV Access has begun the 20 year reflection in this in process

This includes a review on the NVDA development history.