Revolutionary: Remembering John Boyer, a pioneer for the deaf and blind in computer science

Lucas Robinson, Wisconsin State Journal, January 24, 2023
Where the likes of Louis Braille and Abraham Nemeth made it possible for the blind to read and perform mathematics, John Boyer took it a step further. Boyer, a Madison resident who was pivotal in the development of STEM reading material for the blind, died on January 17 from a bout of pneumonia. He was 86. Born in rural Minnesota without the ability to see, Boyer eventually lost his hearing from infection as a boy. From the 1960s onward, Boyer excelled as a computer programmer, a pioneer in a field then barely understood by the general public let alone widely accessible to the blind. Through Boyer’s work, people who had lost their sight had greater access to science, technology, engineering and math literature.