Nació en 1904 en El Viso del Alcor. Desde pequeño tenía inquietudes por inventar aparatos que pudieran facilitar la vida. Uno de sus primeros inventos fue un medidor para vender en las tiendas productos líquidos (como el aceite) aparato que creó estando interno con 12 años en los Salesianos de Utrera. Méndez estudió Ciencias Químicas en Sevilla y acabó estos estudios en la Universidad Central de Madrid.
Como docente, Carlos inició su actividad en El Viso del Alcor, opositó al Ministerio de Educación y obtuvo plaza de profesor de Ciencias en Manzanares. También opositó al Ministerio de Agricultura -consiguió la plaza de veedor de vinos- y fue inspector de calidad en las bodegas de Jerez de la Frontera. Al no poder desempeñar las dos plazas, optó por la de profesor y dejó la otra en excedencia.
Méndez León contrajo matrimonio con Blanca Cuesta Vélez-Bracho y residió en Madrid. Fue pionero en hidrogenar las grasas creando maquinarias para su obtención. Lo que más impacta de él es que creara la primera máquina traductora en el mundo. Al tener que leer numerosas revistas extranjeras (usaba el diccionario constantemente para consultar su significado) Carlos inventó una máquina que, escribiendo en su teclado la palabra en el idioma conocido, ésta la escribía en otro o varios idiomas. Dicho invento fue patentado el 26 de mayo de 1934.
Este ilustre visueño también desarrolló sus teorías en el campo de la Cibernética. Guillermo Marconi quiso que trabajara con él, oponiéndose la familia de Carlos.
En 1936 Méndez ejerció profesorado en Baracaldo. Ese año, la Guerra Civil le sorprendió en Madrid, donde preparaba sus oposiciones a Cátedra de Química Orgánica. La situación le obligó a trabajar en Barcelona en puestos técnico-científicos y luego en Francia donde conoció a Salvador de Madariaga, quien no convenció a Carlos para trabajar en EE.UU.
Carlos Méndez regresó a España, fue internado en un campo de concentración, desposeído de su Cátedra y su título de veedor, repuestos posteriormente. En los años 50 dirigió en Ecuador importantes instalaciones hidrogeneradoras de aceites.
Madariaga lamentó que Méndez no siguiese su consejo, ya que hubiera tenido posibilidades de conseguir el Premio Nobel de Ciencias. Carlos Méndez murió en Sevilla en 1979.
Revista de las Fiestas de la Santa Cruz. Asociación Cultural “Amigos de El Viso”. Nº 6, mayo 1994.
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To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
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Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
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Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to