Protesilaos Stavrou

I won a Google award for my Emacs contributions

I received an award from Google’s Open Source Peer Bonus program for my modus-themes for GNU Emacs. Here is the announcement, which includes my name in the list and a link to my project’s GitHub page: https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/05/google-open-source-peer-bonus-program-announces-first-group-of-winners-2023.html

I am happy for this recognition and am especially thankful that it pertains to the Modus themes. I started this project with the intent to improve the accessibility of Emacs. The Modus themes are designed in accordance with the highest standard for legibility (measured in terms of colour contrast). Though this description alone undervalues the effort that goes into their design, as they are also attentive to details, avoid exaggerations, account for colour harmonies, rely on colour complementarity where necessary, are highly customisable, support a broad range of Emacs packages, and come with comprehensive documentation. Furthermore, they have variants that are optimised for people with deuteranopia or tritanopia (the latter is part of the current development version).

I consider accessibility—and usability more broadly—integral to the realisation of software freedom. I elaborate at length here: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2023-05-11-accessibility-software-freedom/. The gist is that I am not satisfied with having the right to use a program freely. I also want the program to help me do so, such as with its interface or instruction material.

Thanks to the folks at Google for this award! Recognising free software is a step in the right direction.

Sources of the Modus themes

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