|
The Northeast ADA & IT Center at Cornell University provides training, technical assistance and materials on the ADA and accessible information technology throughout New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This monthly technical bulletin is part of our dissemination efforts and if you do not want to receive this document or would like others from your organization added to our list, please call 1-800-949-4232 or reply to this message. Thank you Let the Buyer be Aware: The Importance of Procurement in Accessibility Policy Excerpted from the NCDAE April 2006 newsletter Education entities are making the important move to create policies that cover accessible technologies in general, and Web accessibility in particular. However, very few of these policies explicitly include procedures for the procurement of accessible goods and services. This is vital for any group that wants to adhere to their policy and avoid expensive accommodation if newly purchased materials pose barriers to access for persons with disabilities. Read this NCDAE article (which includes links to sample Web Accessibility policies in Higher Ed) at the NCDAE website: http://ncdae.org/policy/procurement.cfm IBM WebAdapt2Me Software and Accessible Internet Consulting Services Are Helping Older Students and Faculty, as Well as Those With Disabilities, Unlock the Power of the Web Excerpted from AT Journal, May 2006, Vol. 121 WebAdapt2Me software from IBM to help its students and faculty gain easier access to the Web. WebAdapt2Me software allows individuals to view the Web in a way that's most productive for them. For example, people with low vision can change the size of the type and the colors and contrast of the page for easier viewing. People with learning disabilities can reduce the visual clutter of the page by, for example, reducing several columns to one, so they can follow the text more easily. People without full mobility can set up their system so the mouse and keyboard are easier to use. And people with learning disabilities can ask WebAdapt2Me to read the text on the screen aloud, using IBM ViaVoice technology. Read more about WebAdapt2Me from the IBM website: http://www-306.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/WebAdapt2Me.html Guide for kids with dyslexia released Excerpted form May 14, 2006 article in San Mateo County Times, CA: If 15-year-old Zachary Burket reads for two hours every day, he can finish "To Kill a Mockingbird" in five days. But without a special reading tool that helps him with his dyslexia, the San Carlos resident said he would never finish the book. There are now a plethora of tools and devices available to students with learning disabilities, such as Zachary's, that open doors for them that were shut before. The nonprofit program of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation recently released a guide to assistive technology, with information about these tools for students struggling with listening, math, organization and memory, reading and writing. Find the Schwab Foundation Assistive Technology Tools guide at SchwabLearning.org website: http://schwablearning.org/resources.asp?g=6&s=4 Michigan first to mandate online learning Michigan became the first state in the nation to have students experience some form of online instruction before receiving a diploma when the state legislature on March 30 approved a bill to ratchet up the state's graduation requirements. Read this eSchoolNews article at http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6223 . As this trend of offering or requiring online instruction at the K-12 level continues to grow, we need to work even more quickly to make sure that online instructional content in K-12 schools as well as colleges is designed to be accessible to and usable by students with disabilities so they are not left behind in this movement. Please contact us for more information about how to create online instructional content that is accessible. (email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) netTrekker d.i.: Search Engine to match Students reading levels to online resources Excerpted from an eSchoolNews May 22, 2006 article ( http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/partners/showrelease.cfm?ReleaseID=894 ): because the use of online resources for learning has become an everyday occurrence, Thinkronize, Inc., the developer of the netTrekker suite of safe educational search products, has assigned readability ratings to its bank of award-winning online resources for the classroom. netTrekker d.i. is the first online search product to include readability ratings for websites. The netTrekker d.i. safe Internet search engine, specifically designed to support differentiated instruction, provides educators with fast and easy access to more than 180,000 educator-selected, standards-based online resources. The search engine goes a step further by assigning each resource a readability measure based on Lexile ratings and eight other popular methods. Using the standards-based search results generated by netTrekker d.i., an educator can find grade level content at one of five reading levels match to a particular student's abilities. Learn more about netTrekker d.i. at http://school.nettrekker.com/frontdoor/ First-Ever AAPD Survey Reveals Growing Economic, Political Clout of People With Disabilities [Press Release] Market Wire via Yahoo! Finance A first-ever national survey of members of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the largest cross-disability membership organization in the United States, gives an unprecedented, inside look at members' purchasing choices, technology usage, and political participation. Results of the survey, which was conducted to learn about the demographics of AAPD members, to understand how the members felt about the organization's offerings, and to gauge how they use available computer technology, revealed a level of economic and political influence that was previously unknown. The findings provided proof for the belief that AAPD members are influential across many areas of life. Collectively, approximately 75 percent of AAPD members surveyed have a source of income, own a computer, have access to the Internet, are registered to vote, and make their purchasing decisions based on companies that have demonstrated support for people with disabilities. Today more than ever before, AAPD members living with disabilities are looking to technology that will streamline and simplify their work/life balance. The AAPD survey indicated that 81 percent of respondents own a computer, while 82 percent also have access to the Internet. 79 percent of respondents said they use email regularly. With the available income that this market has and the increased use of Internet among this group, it is important to recognize the significance of e-commerce, online shopping and online marketing to the members of AAPD. Read the full article at http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/060523/0130672.html New York State Education Department information on IDEA and NY Part 200 regs All State Education departments are required to review their regulations and provide that information to the US Department of Education under IDEA. New York just finished their analysis and is now available on their website. In many instances, New York's Part 200 exceeds federal requirements. Please go to NYSED's website for the complete analysis at: http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/idea/regsanalysis.htm 201 ILR Extension Building Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 1-800-949-4232 (TTY and voice) NY, NJ, PR, USVI www.northeastada.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
