The winners of the 45th annual competition showcase a spectacular blend of science and artistry under the microscope.

Featured accessibility news

University of Toronto leads project for adaptive Web applications

U.S. Department of Education Applauds Effort; Congratulates IBM Programming Contest Winners

Featured accessibility news

Updated accessibility news

The IBM approach: Make air travel easier with accessible self-service travel kiosks

IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research John E. Kelly accepted the AFB’s 2008 Helen Keller Achievement Award in Accessibility on behalf of IBM.

More information about IBM accessibility solutions and IBM presentations.

Learn how to create accessible documents with IBM Symphony.

IBMer Seth Bravin wins Employee of the Year Award from Careers & the disABLED magazine.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communications Technologies (G3ict) unwrapped a first-of-a-kind toolkit that addresses the needs of policymakers and regulators across a broad range of government agencies and ministries in countries that are implementing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

On the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) President Obama proclaimed July 26 the official anniversary of the ADA, and announced that the United States would become an official signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

150 cross-disciplinary leaders from university, government, industry and advocacy organizations came together with IBM and IEEE in July 2009 and generated a list of ten accessibility recommendations to help ensure digital inclusion for current and future generations.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in India recently presented its National Award for Technological Innovation to the IBM India Research Lab for Project Spoken Web.

Recently, a public-private partnership - the Georgia Alliance for Accessible Technologies - has been formed to help make inclusive travel and tourism a reality in Georgia. Over 60 Georgia-based companies, research and academic institutions, NGOs and public sector organizations have been involved in the initiative, which IBM is co-chairing.

In the six years since Shanghai won its bid to host the 2010 World Expo, China has appeared to be on a mission to revitalize the Fairs' faltering image. Critics of the nearly 160-year tradition claim that technology has rendered the experience obsolete. Why travel to explore humankind's latest achievements when you can get all the insight you need from a quick Google search? Allow the leaders of China's second-largest city to enlighten you: this Expo isn't focused on nature, or the world's oceans or any number of previously selected topics that may or may not be of interest to the average global citizen. It's about you. Where you live. How you live. And the many ways in which governments, businesses and individuals can work together to transform cities into smarter environments that contribute to an overall better quality of life for everyone.

In early July, the Linux Foundation announced new licensing terms for IAccessible2 (IA2) and the availability of AccProbe, a new desktop application testing tool for the development community.

With Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), developers can make advanced Web applications accessible and usable to a broad range of people with disabilities.

The USBLN 2010 Annual Leadership Awards highlighted employer achievements in seven categories, including supplier diversity and market share. IBM was among those honored, receiving the "Employee Resource Group (ERG) of the Year" award for exemplary strategies to advance disability inclusiveness in the workplace, marketplace and supply chain.

The City of Nettuno worked with IBM Human-Centric Solutions (HCS) to develop an interactive service providing real-time accessibility information via a smartphone application. Called "Accessibility City Tag" (ACT!), the service allows residents or visitors with disabilities to view accessibility information about Nettuno points of interest, filtered by their particular disability type, on their smart phone.

Given enough attention, a browser that closes the digital divide between us and our older generation could soon become a reality.

Designed with business people in mind, IBM Lotus Connections 3.0 software gives you fast access to everyone in your network - your colleagues, customers and partners.

For many people, accessibility and disability are philanthropic efforts that represent requisite components of every company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) portfolio. Well, that is one point of view. At IBM, we've traditionally viewed these issues from a more out-of-the-box perspective that asked: What if accessibility was a REAL business? How could including people with disabilities in the workforce create an additional business advantage for companies?

Faced with a stagnant, 10-year budget forecast, restricted resources and the need to address healthcare and safety needs of a rapidly growing percentage of healthy citizens over the age of 70, city leaders got creative. Partnering with IBM, TIS Innovation Park, the technological park of Bolzano, and Dr. Hein GmbH, the city sponsored the Secure Living project to help seniors safely 'age in place' at home.

Learn how IBM is how incorporating WAI-ARIA techniques and examples into: IBM accessibility guidelines, product accessibility reviews by the IBM Accessibility Architecture Review Board, and automated accessibility testing via IBM Rational Policy Tester.

For many people, accessibility and disability are philanthropic efforts that represent requisite components of every company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) portfolio.

More and more users are adopting the mobile platform. It is predicted that the tipping point will be reached in 2013 with mobile devices surpassing the desktop computer as the most common Web access device

Eclipse now contains additional support for IAccessible2 application programming interfaces that makes accessible coding easier than ever.Eclipse contains additional support for IAccessible2 application programming interfaces that makes accessible coding easier than ever.

IBM is piloting a first-of-a-kind prototype application, called AccessMyNYC, for a limited time in New York City to study accessible travel solution requirements for Smarter Cities.

The ability to read small visual displays (SVDs) affects successful functioning at home and in the workplace. SVDs can be found in products as diverse as cell phones, personal digital assistants, photocopiers, fax machines, kitchen and laundry appliances, home entertainment devices, exercise equipment, and diabetes self-management technology. Individuals with vision loss face severe limitations in using such products safely and effectively because the visual displays lack accessibility features.

Many talented, creative clients and colleagues have physical limitations, such as blindness or visual impairment, deafness or limited mobility. When you schedule a meeting, do you take potential disabilities into consideration? These 10 steps should help you design your meeting and include everyone.

As IBM turned 100 in June of 2011, the corporation embraced its history of service to the communities in which it does business. IBM encouraged employees to participate in the global IBM Celebration of Service. The IBMers who make up the Human Ability and Accessibility Center found many memorable ways of including accessibility as a focus of their participation in the Celebration of Service.

As cloud technology evolves to seamlessly configure, integrate and deploy applications, IT of the future will be able to focus higher up in the software stack to deliver business value. This article explores what we know thus far with how assistive technologies work in this environment, As cloud technology evolves to seamlessly configure, integrate and deploy applications, IT of the future will be able to focus higher up in the software stack to deliver business value. This article explores what we know thus far with how assistive technologies work in this environment.

Five common accessibility presentation problems — the frustrating five — can thwart your attempts to enlighten your listeners. Rest easy. This article identifies these troublesome issues, then details the techniques you can use to avoid the issues, whether you are using IBM® Symphony® or Microsoft® PowerPoint®.

IBMers from all over the world collaborated to win a grant from FineP - Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos – the Brazilian government agency tasked with funding educational and scientific projects that will have lasting impact on the country's social development.

A Smarter Cities approach to closing the workforce skills gap

On Monday, May 7, 2012, the White House honored fourteen individuals as Champions of Change for their efforts to advance access to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for people with disabilities.

The ultimate goal of the COGNO 2.0 initiative is to develop technology that leverages patterns of human cognition to become smarter with every use and experience.

The City of Bolzano's Living Safe Project was one of the top five Laureates, or nominees, in the "Innovation" category at the ComputerWorld Honors program, and was recognized publicly at the Laureate Medal Ceremony and Gala Evening.

IBM advocacy partner, the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM) received the FCC Chairman's Award for Advancement in Accessibility for Mobile Applications for their development of the Media Access Mobile (MAM) solution. MAM is designed to serve visitors to entertainment venues and cultural institutions who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or visually impaired, or who speak languages other than English.