Adium is a popular alternative to iChat, and supports multiple instant messaging protocols such as MSN, AIM, and Yahoo. Until now, the program has suffered from a variety of accessibility issues with VoiceOver, but that is all about to change.

This morning, we received a statement from Evan Schoenburg of the Adium development team. Here’s What Mr. Schoenburg had to say:

The Adium team is dedicated to supporting the blind and visually impaired community and is proud to note that the next version of their free, open source instant messaging client, 1.2.1, will have unprecedented support for VoiceOver and other accessibility devices. Previously, incoming and outgoing messages could be spoken aloud as they occurred, and the contact list was fully accessible. The contents of chat windows will now be accessible, as well. We plan to continue to improve accessibility to allow everyone to use Adium to its fullest. Adium 1.2.1 is slated for release in the near future, and a beta is currently available at http://beta.adiumx.com.

We’d like to thank the Adium team for their efforts, and we encourage you to let the team know that you appreciate their dedication and commitment to accessibility.