Most people with an interest in web accessibility are likely to have at some point stumbled across the work of the Accessibility Institute at the University of Texas in Austin, which was founded by the late Dr. John Slatin.

The University of Texas has decided to close the Accessibility Institute, which has been a guiding light in our field, giving important opportunity for research and providing useful resources to the world. It would be a real blow to web accessibility to see it go.

If you care about web accessibility, please show your support by putting your name on the petition to save the Accessibility Institute that Knowbility have set up. It only takes a few seconds to do.

There are some great thoughts and comments from people who have signed the petition. Henny Swan has also given some reasons to keep the Institute going on her blog:

Reasons for saving the Accessibility Institute include:

• Need for research based findings to support accessible design practice.
• Opportunity for a world class institution like UT to serve as an example to other institutions.
• Place where emerging practices can be tested and modelled.
• Contributions to international body of knowledge on inclusion.
• Maintain thought leadership in Texas, easily disseminated to state agencies that have accessibility mandates.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Extra special thanks if you have signed the petition.

Read more

• Call-to-action: Save the UT Accessibility Institute on the WaSP blog.
• Petition to save John Slatin’s Accessibility Institute on Henny Swan's blog.
• Petition to save the Accessibility Institute.