Accessible ITems
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center: Five years of Success
The ten regional ADA Technical Assistance Centers have been providing technical assistance and training on accessible information technology since 2001. The accessible IT initiative has included providing information and resources on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (federal law addressing accessible IT), Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act (accessible telecommunications), and accessible IT in education.
The New England and Accessible IT Center has focused on improving the accessibility of information technology in K-12 and postsecondary schools throughout New England. The Center, along with our state affiliates, have provided on-site training, technical assistance via telephone and email, print publications, and online resources to K-12 school personnel in the New England states. Our goal has been to encourage improved access to educational technology for students, teachers, and parents with disabilities. In the past two years, the ADA Centers have collected 970 surveys nationally from participants at our K-12 accessible IT awareness training seminars.
The Center has also provided website accessibility assessment, technical assistance and training to postsecondary schools throughout the region. Our postsecondary initiative has aimed to encourage and assist in the improvement of accessibility to postsecondary institutional websites, and to raise awareness of barriers and solutions to technology access. The ADA Centers have collected 1120 surveys nationally from our technical accessible web design trainings, and 750 surveys from our postsecondary accessible IT awareness trainings.
Source:
Will Miller
Information Specialist
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center
Accomplishments in Accessible IT
In the state of Massachusetts, Information technology is a prime example of an area that has changed [dramatically] in the past five years. We have all spent many years working with architects to create accessible design standards for the built environment, but it is only recently that we have gotten the attention of the architects who are designing information technology. Last September the Chief Information Officer of the state of Massachusetts announced that the state would be moving toward a requirement that would mandate all documents be stored in an open document format (ODF); thus allowing any operating system access to public records. At first blush this sounded like a very smart pretty benign requirement. We quickly learned however, that platforms that supported ODF did not support assistive technology; and that changing to operating systems that would support this requirement would make information technology inaccessible to people who use assistive technology. People with disabilities from around the world spoke up. The desire to implement ODF in Massachusetts remains strong, but the process for moving forward now includes people with disabilities. The Massachusetts Information Technology Division (ITD) has made a commitment to ensuring the proposed migration to “open documents” includes access for persons with disabilities. They have even established an accessibility lab headed by a person with a disability inside their agency. Five years ago, this type of involvement would not have happened.
Source:
Jeffrey L. Dougan
Assistant Director for Community Services
Massachusetts Office on Disability
