Submitted by 508admin on Fri, 2006-09-22 08:00.
 TecAccess blogs chronicle the award-winning practices of TecAccess employees. We span a range of topics from accessible technology and Section 508 to the business case for accessibility. Find out what company leaders, topic experts and guest bloggers think about the technology landscape of today - and tomorrow. Become part of the conversation by reading and sharing your comments with us.
TecAccess specializes in award-winning accessibility, W3C standards, Section 508, and Section 255 compliance solutions. We serve clients in government, industry, and education throughout the world. TecAccess is also positioned to address ISO Accessibility Standards as well as current and emerging International Standards.
As an SBA 8(A) woman-owned company, TecAccess is known as a leading provider of a full suite of consulting, training, auditing, and testing services.
Widely recognized for our expertise in worldwide accessibility solutions, TecAccess employs a diverse and skilled team of professionals, most of whom are people with disabilities. This uniquely positions us to realistically evaluate compliance, accessibility, and usability from the perspective of people with disabilities.
With TecAccess as a partner you'll be a leader in compliance, accessibility, and usability.
Submitted by cmckean on Fri, 2008-02-29 11:01.
ZEN (Z-axis ENabled) Computing concept is designed for blind users, and is basically a gigantic 3-D touchpad that can rise and fall physically at a high resolution, conveying everything from window locations to text using Braille.
Check out what bloggers are saying about the concept at CrunchGear.
Submitted by cmckean on Thu, 2008-02-21 15:23.
Disaboom.com has posted an excellent article regarding AbilityOne, a federal program employing thousands of workers with disabilities. AbilityOne is a federal initiative that generates jobs and training opportunities for Americans with disabilities. Read more...
Submitted by cmckean on Thu, 2008-02-21 13:28.
Do you have a question about accessibility? Or how about anything just loosely related counts. If so, www.evengrounds.com wants you to ask them! It can be a basic question, or something highly technical. Ask about software, document or web site accessibility, standards or regulations, programming or legislation. To ask your accessibility question, visit
http://www.evengrounds.com/web/articles/article2.shtml.
Submitted by cmckean on Thu, 2008-02-21 13:25.
Creating Accessible Online Learning Made Easier by EASI Faculty online are mainly concerned with pursuing their chosen academic field and teaching it to their students. Learning the technical intricacies of online learning systems is a low priority for most of them. How can we then expect them to learn how to master the technicalities of making their online materials accessible to students with disabilities?
The Barrier-free E-learning course in March is designed to solve that problem. Many of the Web accessibility issues relate to the CMS interface system and seldom relates to the content faculty create and post inside it. The course presents strategies for preparing most content using the computer tools they already use and showing how to use those tools so that the output will meet most accessibility concerns. Schools and colleges need to take similar strategies to design short, simple training for faculty.
In March those who register will also receive a free copy of the Barrier-free E-learning Handbook. You can view its contents online at
(http://easi.cc/download/elearn-toc.htm)
Also in March participants will be provided with the opportunity for hands-on experience with using the instructor privileges in a special empty course in Blackboard. Part of accessibility is how a system is used and modified. Participants will also have the opportunity to play with their own course in Moodle with full administrative privileges.
You can read more and register online at:
Submitted by cmckean on Fri, 2008-02-08 13:40.
AT YOUR SERVICE: WELCOMING CUSTOMERS WITH DISABILITIES:
A free, accessible, self-paced web course for people interested in discovering best practices for working with customers who have disabilities. This course has recently been revised and expanded in response to requests from more than 10,000 participants who have taken the course.
It was funded with federal dollars for training local public customer service representatives, but has been found to be a valuable training tool for the private sector. http://www.wiawebcourse.org/
Submitted by cmckean on Fri, 2008-02-08 13:35.
The AIR Foundation committed to 'accessibility is a right'
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- The AIR Foundation, a nonprofit
organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn. was announced today at a
press conference held during the Assistive Technology Industry Association
(ATIA) 2008 National Conference at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando,
Florida. The mission of the foundation is to promote universal
accessibility so that every blind and low-vision person in the world has
access to digital information over the Internet and Worldwide Web.
The foundation's executive director, Art Schreiber, also announced that
the organization's first offering will be free usage of a Web 2.0
accessible screen reader. The product is provided through an exclusive
license in perpetuity granted to The AIR Foundation from Serotek
Corporation, the leading provider of Internet and digital information
accessibility software and services. The screen reader is called SA To Go
and is powered by Serotek's award-winning System Access software which
provides immediate text to speech, magnified visual, and Braille access to
digital information presented through the Web or other means, while the
user is directly connected to the Internet. The software does not remain
resident on the user's computer when the connection to the Internet is
interrupted or terminated. Users can obtain access to the free software by
visiting http://www.AccessibilityIsaRight.org.
Submitted by cmckean on Thu, 2008-02-07 11:02.
Businesses weigh in on accessibility benefits in study sponsored by The Customer Respect Group
IPSWICH, MA, February 1, 2008 --A new study sponsored by The Customer Respect Group finds that companies strategically invested in removing barriers to customer interaction are deriving significant hard and soft benefits from accessibility initiatives.
The study, "Accessibility and business value: Profiles in success," evaluated the Web-site accessibility of Fortune 100 companies based on a benchmark developed by The Customer Respect Group. The accessibility benchmark was designed to measure the effectiveness of features that help improve the online experience for people who are blind or have low vision, and for those with cognitive and mobility challenges. The benchmark served as the basis for accurately identifying leading companies in the area of online accessibility. Subsequent interviews were conducted with executives from leading benchmark scoring companies-including Verizon Wireless, Southwest Airlines, General Electric, Proctor & Gamble, TIAA-CREF, Washington Mutual and others-to further investigate the companies' broader accessibility initiatives and determine the impetus for investment.
Executives interviewed by The Customer Respect Group cited increases in product sales, market opportunities, and customer loyalty as key benefits derived from accessibility and marketing efforts targeted toward people with disabilities and aging consumers. Study findings show that companies who approach accessibility as part of a larger corporate strategy realized the greatest return on investment. According to the study, "for some of the best-performing companiee, accessibility is part of a much bigger vision. The broad corporate strategy was not based upon a set of evolving technical standards but on a much more wide-ranging ambition to remove as many obstacles between the corporation and its existing or potential clients."
Submitted by cmckean on Thu, 2008-02-07 10:52.
Dan Welchman has created the MouseTrial Autism Software Database, a free resource for parents and professionals listing all kinds of software for autism treatment. Dan is inviting others to submit their site and/or info and product if your web page is autism-related!
The idea for the software database started after his son was diagnosed with autism in 2002. Dan embarked on a mixed program of discrete-trial work (both ABA-style, at a table, and more "Natural Environment" based) plus sensory-integration OT, and dietary intervention. He then decided to have a search for computer-based activities to help increase the amount of discrete-trial activity, and add variety and fun.
Dan ended up writing some discrete trial software himself, but now also uses some of the other software, and has amassed quite a collection of links to different kinds of software created especially for people with ASDs or other info that parents and professionals have found useful in practice. Dan has placed this list on his website to share it with other parents and therapists. He regularly adds new material in a mySQL database which allows the various publishers to log in and correct their own details and add information on new products. This helps to keep the information accurate and up to date.
Submitted by cmckean on Mon, 2008-01-28 10:09.
From the newsroom of the Associated Press, Thursday, January 24, 2008:
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Amid the wall-to-wall sound during next Sunday's Super Bowl, one commercial from PepsiCo could send some viewers grabbing for their remotes to check whether they'd accidentally hit the mute button.
The pre-game advertisement features a joke that originates from the deaf community and will play out on screen over 60 seconds of total silence, a veritable eternity when it comes to the noisiness of Super Bowl ads.
"It's a popular story and we just turned it into an advertisement," said Clay Broussard, a supply and logistics manager at PepsiCo who proposed the idea for the ad. "This is the PepsiCo flavor of that joke."
The joke goes like this: Two guys are driving to their friend Bob's house to watch the Super Bowl. Once they get to Bob's street, neither knows which house is his. They sit in the car, arguing, until one of them has an idea. He starts laying on the horn, and one by one, the houses light up and dogs start barking.
One house stays dark and quiet: It's Bob's.
Deaf people will be falling out of their chairs in disbelief, National Association of the Deaf president Bobbie Beth Scoggins wrote in an e-mail response to questions. Hearing people, Scoggins wrote, will stop what they're doing to see why there are no sounds. She believes it's an historic first for an ad featuring American Sign Language to get such prominent play.
"I was glad to see this part of deaf culture awareness shared in a most clever way," Scoggins, who is deaf, wrote by e-mail as she was traveling.
|
