Heartbreaking news to read last night: Molly Holzschlag died at the age of 60 years old.
A pioneer, an inspiration to web designers and developers around the world, and the fairy godmother of the web.
Someone I called friend.
Everyone in the web community owes her so much for her usability and accessibility advocacy.
She’s the force behind what many of us take for granted, on how web browsers work, web standards, and the open web.
Like many people in the web community, I learned about web design and standards from Molly’s books.
They inspired me to delve into web design and start my own freelance website business.
She worked with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Standards Project (WaSP), and worked directly with CERN, AOL, Microsoft, BBC, Opera, and Netscape to ensure browsers support modern standards.
Over the years, I chatted with her and got to know her better through the site formerly called Twitter.
Which is how our personal connection began in October 2011.
I replied to her tweet about wanting to return to southeast Michigan, “I’d be happy to make that happen.”
After several tweets, messages, and phone calls, Molly accepted my invitation and returned to southeast Michigan in April 2012.
She spoke twice in Detroit in one day: at the inaugural Rise & Detroit morning event and our Refresh Detroit group that night.
People loved her talks!
She was so friendly, enthusiastic, and welcoming to everyone. And she challenged people to make their work, whether it was on the web or not, accessible to everyone.
After her Refresh Detroit talk, she joined several of our members at a local Detroit bar for drinks and conversation.
The next day, I helped coordinate her visit to Michigan State University in East Lansing as well as her visit to TechSmith, one of the sponsors for her trip to Michigan.
That night, I joined her along with friends and colleagues Dylan Barrell, Keith Instone, Scott Williams, and Larry Ruskinsky for an intimate dinner at Palio in Ann Arbor.
What a fun conversation we all had!
We never got a chance to meet in person again, but we stayed in touch online with chats about the web, health, vacation, weather, and family relationships.
Word spread quickly about her health issues in 2013. And the web community turned out, with donations and support for her medical bills.
If you have personal stories and memories about Molly, share them in the comments or publish on your website.
I miss you Molly.
Molly, in addition to being a great advocate for accessibility, also wrote some very philosophical poetry.. We found one of the poems on her Facebook page and, with her permission, recorded it on Youtube. Hope you like it!
Hi Victor,
Thank you for your message, I didn’t know about her poetry. Yes, I liked the video. Thank for recording and sharing it on YouTube.