Mozilla Supports the Wick Editor to Improve Access and Accessibility!
We’re happy to announce that the Wick Editor has received a Mozilla Open Source Support Award for 2020! This grant will focus on improving access to the Wick Editor, and the tool’s overall accessibility.
What is the Wick Editor?
The Wick Editor is a free and open source tool for creating animations, games and everything in-between. It lives entirely in the browser at www.wickeditor.com, making it available on any computer with an internet connection. We have aimed to make the tool a user-friendly experience for beginners and intermediate creators everywhere who might not otherwise have access to another multimedia tool!
We’ve been developing Wick Editor since 2016. Since then, over 300,000 people have used the project. During that time, our community has created countless games, animations and interactive projects. From skilled game developers making advanced projects, to beginners creating their first ever YouTube video, we’ve been so incredibly impressed with what our community has created!
What will the award be used for?
Our MOSS award will be used to improve the Wick Editor’s Access and Accessibility.
Improving Access to the Wick Editor
“Access” refers to a person’s ability to use the tool. Right now, the only way to use the Wick Editor is by heading to editor.wickeditor.com or by downloading the source code of the editor and running it locally! This grant will support the development of downloadable versions of the Wick Editor for Mac, Windows and Linux!
To reach even more creative beginners that may not have access to laptop or desktop computers we’ll also be looking to create downloadable apps for Android and iOS Tablets and Mobile devices!
Improving Accessibility of the Wick Editor
As a team, we’re constantly trying to learn more about improving Wick Editor’s accessibility so that we can reach more people. This award will allow us to perform an accessibility audit of the Wick Editor, and design improved interfaces for our tool in line with several WCAG standards. We’ll be starting by targeting issues that affect the largest areas of our user base, such as color contrast of interface elements, and move on from there!
Will the Wick Editor Still be Free?
Yes! The Wick Editor will always be free and open source. From the MOSS project itself “Mozilla Open Source Support (MOSS) awards recognize, celebrate, and support open source projects that contribute to Mozilla’s work and to the health of the Internet.” We love working with Mozilla due to their commitment to creating a better internet for everyone, and are so glad we can be a part of their mission.
How can you support the Wick Editor?
You can support the Wick Editor, and our Access and Accessibility goals in a number of ways. Contributing to our community with suggestions, comments, and support through our forum at forum.wickeditor.com is the fastest way to get started. Contribute code and documentation on our Github page at https://github.com/Wicklets/wick-editor (We’ll help you get started!). You can also support us with a donation through Github Sponsors or Patreon. If there’s another way you think you could contribute to the project, we’d love to talk to you. Send us a message!
We have a lot of work to do, and have already started. Check in on our progress at https://github.com/Wicklets/wick-editor. We’d love to get your feedback!
Thank You
As always, we owe so much to our incredible community and supporters. With your help, we’re reaching nearly 20,000 creators every month and providing access to some that may otherwise never have an opportunity to create animations, games and interactive projects of their own. Seeing the growth of the Wick Editor community, and the awesome work produced by it is astounding, and we can’t wait to see it continue.
The Wick Editor has been supported in part by the Mozilla Open Source Support Awards Program, The Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier,The Clinic For Open Source Arts, CMU Project Olympus, The Henry Armero Award for inclusive Creativity, and generous donations by the Wick Editor community. You can support the Wick Editor by going to www.wickeditor.com/#supporters
