Accessibility Institute: A legacy in limbo

It's rare that the closure of an academic research group causes controversy. But when UT-Austin shuttered its institute researching Web accessibility, it triggered a firestorm of controversy about its attitude toward making technology available for people with disabilities. The Accessibility Institute was the brainchild of UT professor John Slatin, who died in March after a three-year battle with leukemia. A lecturer in the Department of English, Slatin became an internationally recognized expert in making websites and interfaces user-friendly for all users, especially those with specific needs, such as the visually impaired (Slatin himself was blind).