Updated accessibility news

IBM can deliver solutions that address end-to-end accessibility requirements facing organizations today.

Dojo: an accessible JavaScript toolkit

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

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.

Accessibility in e-learning is an emerging awareness.

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.

A global collaborative exploration for accessibility in the next decade.

IBM can help your company make it happen.

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.

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

Learn about virtual classroom solutions and best practices that instructors can follow to deliver the most accessible online course despite the limitations of virtual classroom tools.

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.

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.

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.

Our world is becoming increasingly intelligent, interconnected, and instrumented, resulting in massive amounts of data being collected. This data is a treasure trove of information that can be mined to improve service, increase sales, determine risk, or make operations more efficient.

Analysis of such large amounts of data, often called analytics, is increasingly desired by governments and businesses alike.

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.

Seth Bravin testifies before US Senate about higher education and employment for people who are deaf and hard of hearing

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.

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.

HTML5 is the fifth version of the World Wide Web Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML5 accessibility is a work in progress with many details still under development.

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.

At the 28th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference California State University, Northridge (CSUN) conference, IBM brought together accessibility experts from government, major enterprise IT (information technology) providers, mobile OS (operating system) providers, mobile device providers, and industry standards efforts to bring focus and direction to addressing accessibility in one of the most liberating opportunities for people with disabilities in the last decade.

The desire to connect whenever we want, wherever we are has created a unique opportunity for the private sector to capture new markets as they work to fulfill our desire for ubiquitous connectivity. The growth in mobile ICT technology is profound and shows little signs of slowing down.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirming the dismissal for failure to state a claim allegations of First Amendment violations by the City of New York, but reversing as to Manhattan Community Access Corporation and its employees because public access TV channels are a public forum and the corporation and its employees were state actors when they fired workers who produced segments critical of the corporation.

(United States Supreme Court) - Held that a private entity operating public access cable TV channels was not subject to First Amendment constraints on its editorial discretion. The producers of a controversial documentary film contended that the nonprofit corporation running the public access channels was a state actor because it was exercising a function traditionally exclusively reserved to the State, and therefore was subject to suit for violating their free speech rights. However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. Justice Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the 5-4 Court.

RT @antimega: At @GDSTeam we’re running a number of online events for Global Accessibility Awareness Day on 21 May - please join us! #accessibility #AccessibilityRegulations

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Certified Question. The panel certified the question of state law to the Nevada Supreme Court asking whether an insurer is entitled reimbursement of costs already expended in defense of its insured where a determination has been made that the insurer owed no duty to defend and there was an agreement requiring reimbursement, but with no reservation of rights.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirming the dismissal for failure to state a claim allegations of First Amendment violations by the City of New York, but reversing as to Manhattan Community Access Corporation and its employees because public access TV channels are a public forum and the corporation and its employees were state actors when they fired workers who produced segments critical of the corporation.

(United States Supreme Court) - Held that a private entity operating public access cable TV channels was not subject to First Amendment constraints on its editorial discretion. The producers of a controversial documentary film contended that the nonprofit corporation running the public access channels was a state actor because it was exercising a function traditionally exclusively reserved to the State, and therefore was subject to suit for violating their free speech rights. However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. Justice Kavanaugh delivered the opinion of the 5-4 Court.

(United States Second Circuit) - In a RICO action alleging injury arising from the activities of an international criminal enterprise, or more specifically, "a massive racketeering scheme to take over a substantial portion of the Russian oil industry", dismissal of the action is affirmed where: 1) the question of the justiciability of the RICO claims was properly one of whether the complaint adequately stated a claim for relief; and 2) because the RICO statute lacked a clear statement of extraterritorial reach, plaintiff's claims were barred.

(United States Second Circuit) - In a RICO action alleging various injuries to plaintiff arising from the activities of defendants' alleged international criminal enterprise, the dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where: 1) the question of the justiciability of the RICO claims is properly one of whether the complaint adequately states a claim for relief; and 2) because the RICO statute lacked a clear statement of extraterritorial reach, plaintiff’s claims are barred.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Certified Question. The panel certified the question of state law to the Nevada Supreme Court asking whether an insurer is entitled reimbursement of costs already expended in defense of its insured where a determination has been made that the insurer owed no duty to defend and there was an agreement requiring reimbursement, but with no reservation of rights.

The plans need to be approved by the U.S. Forest Service.

While no one is arguing that a handmade face covering will ever work as effectively as a medical-grade mask, an increasing number of infectious disease experts and politicians are arguing that some sort of barrier is better than nothing.