Board Listening Session regarding information technology in the Federal sector

Posted on Behalf of Access Board. Please refer all questions to the contact information below:

Kathy Roy Johnson
Legislative Analyst
U.S. Access Board
1331 F Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004-1111
(202) 272-0041
Fax: (202) 272-0081
www.access-board.gov
email: johnson@access-board.gov

On behalf of the Access Board, I am pleased to invite you to participate in a virtual listening session that we are hosting on ways to improve access to information technology in the federal sector. This listening session will take place on September 8, 2011, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET). The Access Board is hosting this event in collaboration with the Chief Information Officers Council, the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, and the General Services Administration’s Office of Governmentwide Policy. This forum will provide an opportunity for members of the public to suggest steps the federal government can take to improve its acquisition and implementation of accessible technology under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Information is also sought on emerging technologies that may pose barriers to access. People with disabilities, advocates, technology companies, government employees and other interested parties are invited to participate.

The listening session will be accessible. Computer assisted real-time transcription (CART) will be provided. Persons wishing to participate in the virtual listening session can either call in and speak their comments over the telephone or go online and type them on the afternoon of the listening session. Log-on and dial-in instructions are posted on the Board’s website. I hope that you will be able to join us on September 8th. Additional details about this meeting are provided in a notice published in the Federal Register.

Making the Web More Accessible to People With Disabilities and Special Needs

ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2011) — In posting information to the Internet, one of the main aims is for that information to reach as many people as possible. That usually means achieving a prominent position in the search engine results pages, providing legible and attractive enough information that potential readers are wont to read it and to ensure that it meets the demands of users with disabilities. Researchers in Hungary suggest that only if all these criteria are fulfilled does a website become truly accessible.Writing in the International Journal of Knowledge and Web Intelligence, the team, based at the University of Szeged, suggests how theoretical and practical dimensions of screen structure, data structure and metadata can be analysed and used to promote universal accessibility.
Medical informatics expert Erzsébet Forczek, explains that access to the Internet, and more specifically the world wide web, has become essential for all members of society. Physical access is a prerequisite but the availability, retrieval and processing of information on the web must be supported by information technology.

NOTE: To read the entire article, click on the title above.