Accessible Technology

This series of webinars, hosted by the DBTAC Great Lakes ADA Center, helps to increase understanding of technology accessibility for people with disabilities. Upcoming webinars include "The Power of Social Networking Sites for People with Disabilities" and "Best Practices in Developing and Disseminating Documents Electronically".

Discusses educational needs of students with disabilities and how those needs may be met with software, digital books and other technologies. These guidelines also look at ways to achieve the goal of helping students learn while using adaptive and accessible technology.  The National Center on Access to the General Curriculum at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) provides more information on access adaptations and the educational goals of instructional materials.

Watch a captioned Webcast from the TARGET Center's Discovery Series about accessible eLearning. Learn how to use CourseAvenue software to provide Section 508 compliant accessible training to learners of all abilities.

Webcast from the National Center on Disability and Access to Education that provides information on the most common web accessibility issues for users with cognitive and learning disabilities, and strategies for designing to accommodate these audiences. Archived webcasts address subjects including accessibility of social media (Web 2.0) and how accessible technology can help students with different disabilities.

Learn about the free, built-in assistive technology and accessibility features in Windows 7 during this Webcast from the USDA TARGET Center Discovery Series.

Learn how to prepare electronic files to more easily convert to accessible PDF, as well as the tools within Adobe Acrobat that help with accessibility. This Webcast is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's TARGET Center Discovery Series.

From the October 14th TARGET Discovery Series, now available as an archived recording. Take a quick look at updated and new features in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 that simplify internet usage. Learn about a programmable keyboard device which can cut down on repetitive keystrokes and mouse movements while using the web.

Learn the basics of Web accessibility and understand the different ways that users experience your Web site. This Webcast is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's TARGET Center Discovery Series.

FCC has taken steps to make clear that the hearing aid compatibility rules cover customer equipment that contains a built-in speaker and is designed to be typically held to the ear.  The FCC’s order also modifies an exception in the existing rule so that all large entities are required to offer at least one hearing aid-compatible model after a two-year initial period.  FCC also adopted a Policy Statement that emphasizes to developers of new technologies the necessity of considering and planning for hearing aid compatibility at the earliest stages of the product design process. This link opens a PDF document.

The FCC has issued the agency's firstever working paper addressing accessibility and technology issues. The paper builds on recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, and looks at the many barriers to broadband usage faced by people with disabilities, including inaccessible hardware, software, services, and web content and expensive specialized assistive technologies. This link opens a PDF document. This information is also available in text format.

Video of stories from FCC officials, and personal reflections of indviduals who are deaf or hard of hearing, on the progress made and lives shaped by accessible technologies since the passage of the ADA.

This article from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the U.S. population has a disability that might affect their ability to use technology. In order to tap into this large talent pool of potential employees, employers need to make sure that their entire recruitment process is accessible--including their job application and recruitment websites. In 2009 the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and SHRM signed an Alliance Agreement to work together to promote the employment of people with disabilities.

Would you like to embed YouTube videos on your website? Would you like to ensure that your website viewers with disabilities have equal access to your video? Business.gov has made its YouTube video player available to web managers who would like to embed YouTube videos on their websites. This video player follows the Section 508 Standards for web-based applications.