About Dan Aunspach

My Blog | My Tweets | My YouTube Channel

Dan has been involved with computer technology since first learning to program a Monroe 325 Programmable Calculator in 1980. From there he bought his first programmable calcualtor, a Radio Shack brand, of course!

When the Apple II arrived on the scene, Dan began building programs like a Spanish verb conjugation program and a basic recidivism database. Later, Dan would make his first entry into assembly code on the Apple II, learning how professional developers wrote fast code and protected their software from cheats and copying. (Okay, hacking.)

While pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, Dan continued to work computer science into his mostly social science progam of study. In those days, only math majors were allowed declare computer science as a major course of study. Even so, Dan successfully completed computer programming and engineering courses to ’round out’ his undergraduate experience. It was during this time that Dan wrote, designed and presented two theses on computer voice recognition and security applications. The final product was built on a Commodore VIC 20 system with a Covox Voicemaster interface. These were the only two theses in the department's history to include a final, working firmware product. Some may remember that the Covox Voicemaster was an offshoot of the US government’s bionic ear program. Dan also coded information for a statistical course in criminal justice for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers), using SPSS, (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), to track drunk driver recidivism rates.

After college, Dan went directly to work in Philadelphia in the security field, eventually returning to computers by accepting the position of Lead Systems Operator for Craftmatic Contour. If you received a laser printed letter signed by Art Linkletter because you called the toll-free number for a Craftmatic Adjustable bed in 1987-88, it was probably because Dan cranked it out as one of his daily computer operations jobs so that Art could make you a terrific offer on a fine adjustable bed.

In 1989, Dan moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he filled the position of the first in-house credit card fraud investigator for then Signet Bank, now Capital One. This was an extrremely interesting job, and the bank offered many opportunities for continuing education in credit, collections, accounting and the like. In 1992, however; Dan would land the opportunity of a lifetime when he became the first rehabilitation engineer for the commonwealth of Virginia to specialize in technology for persons with vision and multiple impairments.

As director of rehabilitation engineering for the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired, Dan built the rehabilitation engineering program from the ground-up. During the next twelve years of service to the agency, Dan was priveledged to work with some truly remarkable and inspiring people and build and design innovative solutions with cutting edge technology. Dan became an authority on speech and screen enlargement technology, speaking for international, government, educational, and business audiences. Dan provided consultation on web accessibility, contributing to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.0 and to the accessibility of a web-based training program used by educators statewide.

In 2004, Dan left DBVI to contribute to the development of the Portico accessible notebook system. The development of this product and the process of co-operative design were the topics of Dan's March, 2005 CSUN presetation, "Employers, Vendors, Developers and Engineers as Partners: Proactive Accessible Design and Acoommodation."

In April of 2006, Dan returned to the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired as a computer instructor with the Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Vision Impaired. Dan continues to develop training plans like those featured on the Iowa ASSIST site - "Freedombox SystemAccess and Basic Computer Operations."

Publications

Aunspach, Daniel A. “Employers, Vendors, Developers and Engineers as Partners: Proactive Accessible Design and Accommodation.” Whitepaper and Conference Proceedings, CSUN Center on Disabilities Technology And Persons With Disabilities Conference 2005

Metz , Cade “CAPTCHA-ing the Spammer.” PC Magazine, October 28, 2003 . Quotation of Daniel A. Aunspach as an expert on web technologies and accessibility.

Aunspach, Daniel A. "Screen Enlargement and Computer Access for Persons with Visual Impairments." Closing the Gap, April-May 1995.