FW: Blind Access Journal Launches Community Effort to Improve WSJT-X Accessibility for Aging and Disabled Amateur Radio Operators
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csm...@cogeco.ca
Dec 21, 2025, 10:08:08 AM12/21/25
to yrarc...@yrarc.org
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
## Blind Access Journal Launches Community Effort to Improve WSJT-X
Accessibility for Aging and Disabled Amateur Radio Operators
**Peoria, Arizona - December 20, 2025** - Darrell Hilliker, **NU7I**, a
totally blind Amateur Radio operator and accessibility professional, is
spearheading a community initiative to improve the accessibility of
**WSJT-X** (and WSJT-X Improved) for blind, low-vision, and
mobility-impaired hams. The work is being organized and documented through
**Blind Access Journal**, the blog Hilliker publishes to advance practical
accessibility and inclusion in technology.
Digital weak-signal protocols like **FT8** have become a core part of modern
Amateur Radio. Yet many hams-especially those who are aging or who acquire
disabilities-are finding it harder to participate fully when widely used
software lacks accessible user interface foundations.
"A month doesn't go by where I don't hear at least one conversation on the
bands where an older ham is contemplating giving up or curtailing their
activities due to a physical disability like arthritis or a visual
impairment," said Hilliker. "We can do better as a community-and we can do
it together."
### Recognizing Existing Innovation and Building an Inclusive Future
This initiative is not a critique of existing community solutions, nor is it
intended to replace them. Blind Access Journal recognizes and commends the
developers of alternative tools such as **QLog**, whose efforts have helped
many operators. Instead, Hilliker's project aims to broaden inclusion by
improving accessibility in the widely adopted WSJT-X ecosystem so that more
hams can participate using the tools their clubs, friends, and on-air
communities already rely on.
"The entire Amateur Radio community benefits from all efforts to adapt,"
Hilliker added, "especially in situations where disabled hams are not fully
included from the beginning."
### Goal: Full and Equitable Access to Digital Operating
The initiative's objective is nothing less than **full and equitable
access** to Amateur Radio digital communication protocols and the software
that enables them. Key accessibility goals include:
* **Expected keyboard navigation** throughout the application
* Strong compatibility with screen readers such as **JAWS** and **NVDA
(NonVisual Desktop Access)**
* UI that can **reflow and resize** for operators using magnification
* Support for **dark mode**, **high contrast**, and other visual
accommodations that many aging hams depend on
### Highest Priority Technical Need
The most critical improvement-especially for blind screen-reader
users-centers on the **Band Activity** and **Rx Frequency** tables. Today,
these areas are widely experienced as inaccessible because the data is
effectively "painted" to the screen or presented as unstructured text,
rather than implemented using the underlying **Qt5 UI structures** that
expose information to accessibility interfaces.
The initiative seeks a redesign and implementation approach that ensures
these tables are true, semantically structured UI components-so assistive
technologies can reliably read, navigate, and interact with them.
### Call for Volunteer Developers
Blind Access Journal is calling on a small group of experienced Amateur
Radio software builders and tinkerers-especially those who:
* Have deep experience with **Qt5 user interfaces**
* Can **build and compile WSJT-X or WSJT-X Improved from source** with
confidence
* Are willing to collaborate with disabled hams in an open, test-driven,
user-centered process
Familiarity with accessibility design and standards such as **WCAG (Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines)** is welcome but **not required**.
Disabled hams involved in the effort are prepared to lead the process,
define needs, perform testing, write documentation, and support the work in
every way outside of the core design and coding tasks.
Volunteers will gain the satisfaction of delivering long-sought, meaningful
accessibility improvements to a widely used mainstream Amateur Radio
application-work that can make a real difference for **thousands of fellow
hams**.
### Looking Toward 2026
Blind Access Journal thanks the Amateur Radio community for its time,
creativity, and tradition of public service. The initiative's organizers
hope to make **2026 a year of digital accessibility and inclusion for all
radio amateurs**.
**To volunteer or learn more:**
Email
**[edi...@blindaccessjournal.com](mailto:edi...@blindaccessjournal.com)**
and follow updates via **Blind Access Journal**.
---
**Media Contact**
Darrell Hilliker, NU7I
Blind Access Journal
Email:
**[edi...@blindaccessjournal.com](mailto:edi...@blindaccessjournal.com)**
73,
Darrell Hilliker, NU7I, CPWA, Salesforce Certified User Experience Designer
When disabled people ask you to improve your accessibility, they're asking
you to make a conscious choice. Will you welcome us in or leave us out? Good
people make the right accessibility choices every time.
## Blind Access Journal Launches Community Effort to Improve WSJT-X
Accessibility for Aging and Disabled Amateur Radio Operators
**Peoria, Arizona - December 20, 2025** - Darrell Hilliker, **NU7I**, a
totally blind Amateur Radio operator and accessibility professional, is
spearheading a community initiative to improve the accessibility of
**WSJT-X** (and WSJT-X Improved) for blind, low-vision, and
mobility-impaired hams. The work is being organized and documented through
**Blind Access Journal**, the blog Hilliker publishes to advance practical
accessibility and inclusion in technology.
Digital weak-signal protocols like **FT8** have become a core part of modern
Amateur Radio. Yet many hams-especially those who are aging or who acquire
disabilities-are finding it harder to participate fully when widely used
software lacks accessible user interface foundations.
"A month doesn't go by where I don't hear at least one conversation on the
bands where an older ham is contemplating giving up or curtailing their
activities due to a physical disability like arthritis or a visual
impairment," said Hilliker. "We can do better as a community-and we can do
it together."
### Recognizing Existing Innovation and Building an Inclusive Future
This initiative is not a critique of existing community solutions, nor is it
intended to replace them. Blind Access Journal recognizes and commends the
developers of alternative tools such as **QLog**, whose efforts have helped
many operators. Instead, Hilliker's project aims to broaden inclusion by
improving accessibility in the widely adopted WSJT-X ecosystem so that more
hams can participate using the tools their clubs, friends, and on-air
communities already rely on.
"The entire Amateur Radio community benefits from all efforts to adapt,"
Hilliker added, "especially in situations where disabled hams are not fully
included from the beginning."
### Goal: Full and Equitable Access to Digital Operating
The initiative's objective is nothing less than **full and equitable
access** to Amateur Radio digital communication protocols and the software
that enables them. Key accessibility goals include:
* **Expected keyboard navigation** throughout the application
* Strong compatibility with screen readers such as **JAWS** and **NVDA
(NonVisual Desktop Access)**
* UI that can **reflow and resize** for operators using magnification
* Support for **dark mode**, **high contrast**, and other visual
accommodations that many aging hams depend on
### Highest Priority Technical Need
The most critical improvement-especially for blind screen-reader
users-centers on the **Band Activity** and **Rx Frequency** tables. Today,
these areas are widely experienced as inaccessible because the data is
effectively "painted" to the screen or presented as unstructured text,
rather than implemented using the underlying **Qt5 UI structures** that
expose information to accessibility interfaces.
The initiative seeks a redesign and implementation approach that ensures
these tables are true, semantically structured UI components-so assistive
technologies can reliably read, navigate, and interact with them.
### Call for Volunteer Developers
Blind Access Journal is calling on a small group of experienced Amateur
Radio software builders and tinkerers-especially those who:
* Have deep experience with **Qt5 user interfaces**
* Can **build and compile WSJT-X or WSJT-X Improved from source** with
confidence
* Are willing to collaborate with disabled hams in an open, test-driven,
user-centered process
Familiarity with accessibility design and standards such as **WCAG (Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines)** is welcome but **not required**.
Disabled hams involved in the effort are prepared to lead the process,
define needs, perform testing, write documentation, and support the work in
every way outside of the core design and coding tasks.
Volunteers will gain the satisfaction of delivering long-sought, meaningful
accessibility improvements to a widely used mainstream Amateur Radio
application-work that can make a real difference for **thousands of fellow
hams**.
### Looking Toward 2026
Blind Access Journal thanks the Amateur Radio community for its time,
creativity, and tradition of public service. The initiative's organizers
hope to make **2026 a year of digital accessibility and inclusion for all
radio amateurs**.
**To volunteer or learn more:**
**[edi...@blindaccessjournal.com](mailto:edi...@blindaccessjournal.com)**
and follow updates via **Blind Access Journal**.
---
**Media Contact**
Darrell Hilliker, NU7I
Blind Access Journal
Email:
**[edi...@blindaccessjournal.com](mailto:edi...@blindaccessjournal.com)**
73,
Darrell Hilliker, NU7I, CPWA, Salesforce Certified User Experience Designer
When disabled people ask you to improve your accessibility, they're asking
you to make a conscious choice. Will you welcome us in or leave us out? Good
people make the right accessibility choices every time.
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