Featured accessibility news

Featured accessibility news

University of Toronto leads project for adaptive Web applications

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

Diversity/Careers in Engineering & Information Technology

Diversity/Careers in Engineering & Information Technology

Updated accessibility news

Updated accessibility news

By enabling human capability through innovation, IBM strives to help all people maximize their potential, regardless of age or ability.

When you're all about standards, there's a tendency to set your own pretty high. At least that's the way it worked out for IBM's Andi Snow-Weaver. And apparently that's how Sun Microsystems saw it, too, when it awarded her one of its very first Innovation in Government Technology Awards.

For all of their promise, mashups introduce a number of accessibility and usability problems stemming from inaccessible services, inconsistent keyboard navigation and other issues.

IBM's Phill Jenkins recently was appointed to serve a four-year term on the U.S. Access Board.

The first law of accessibility: consider the needs of disabled people as early as possible when you are designing a product. Cathy Laws is one person who sees that this rule is followed at IBM.

IBM interviews Judy Brewer from W3C about the new WCAG 2.0 guidelines and the challenges her group faced in developing the new principles.

Learn how to create accessible documents with IBM Symphony.

First-of-a-kind conference developed to identify the next generation of accessibility challenges—challenges arising from the increasingly pervasive use of technologies such as 3-D Web, online collaboration, shared medical records, and advanced systems for transportation and communication.

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.

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.

In February, IBM was a gold sponsor of Techshare India 2010. Read about the conference and IBM's participation.

A team from IBM Research in Tokyo presented a study they conducted to determine if it was possible to customize an existing product, Easy Web Browsing, to each individual user, and presented their findings at the California State University at Northridge (CSUN) 25th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference.

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.

Social networking has literally transformed the way the world communicates. What began as entertaining online forums for reconnecting with old friends and former colleagues has also morphed into real-time virtual hotlines for job posters and seekers, political compatriots and natural disaster survivors.

The Lille Metropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art (LaM) has a new Smartphone application called "Tag My LaM" — that describes nearby sculptures when visitors are strolling the extensive outside sculpture garden.

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 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.

IBM has been a leader in making IT accessible to many people, including those with disabilities. IBM is committed to creating accessible and easy-to-use technologies that enhance the overall workplace environment and contribute to the productivity of all employees.