Just wanted to let all the developers on this list know that AOL is
running a TopCoder contest to create accessible applications (web or
otherwise). There are several phases to the contest starting out with a
$7500 idea generation step and $100,000 in prize money associated with
the entire competition. Finalists receive an all-expense paid trip to
the TopCoder Open Event in Los Vegas in June. Deadline for the idea
stage is 5PM EST Tuesday so if you're interested please take a poke at
sensations.aol.com
From Tom Wlodkowski, Director of Accessibility at AOL
The AOL TopCoder accessibility challenge will leverage AOL's open
technology framework and the TopCoder developer community to promote the
design of accessible Internet applications. The final product of this
collaboration could be a prototype or deployable application that
broadens use of popular Internet features (e-mail, instant messaging,
social networking, etc.) by a segment of the disability community.
Aside from the actual development, the awareness this initiative will
bring to mainstream developers is perhaps its biggest area of impact.
Because I'm helping with the advisory board I'm intelligible but I'd be
happy to answer any questions. As an international contest there will
probably be lots of web and windows submissions so of course I would
love to see more Mac/VoiceOver representation.
Feel free to share this info with other relevant listserves.
CB
