Accessibility has become my profession. And my approach to accessibility is to empower people who can't make it their full job to do the right thing when their job does call for them to do something that affects accessibility. If you participated in the improvement of Drupal 6 after its release or the development of a highly accessible Drupal 7, I hope you found any interactions with me positive and helpful. That work on Drupal has helped me immensely in my day job, and I have finally reached a position in which I can give back to the community once again.

I managed the Drupal 6 website of a nonprofit organization's magazine until the organization's decided that others had taken up the cause and it was time for their nonprofit to disband. I do dabble a bit in developing Drupal sites and hope to one day convince a small business or another nonprofit that they'd be better off having a website that works for them rather than having to hire someone to work on their website.

I rescue dogs, too—sometimes by adopting them from rescue operations, and sometimes by rescuing an abandoned stray myself. Among other fun activities, I walk my dogs in natural spaces. When I'm lucky, we find morels. (I wish I had scent hounds—I'd train them to find the mushrooms for me!)

As we walk, I document the presence of invasive plants and other problems in the landscape. Then I coordinate volunteer projects to fix those problems. It's a way to get outside, get exercise, and make my corner of the world a little better for those who follow. And that's another place I need to build a Drupal site. Meetup.com is great for announcing meetings and events, but it's not so great for drawing people in to help with the planning, to share ideas, and to inspire one another to do greater things than they had thought possible. A Drupal site can.

And that's why I love to be a part of this community.

To be continued…