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Accessible Information
Technology Technical Bulletin: October 2004
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
New Jersey Statewide Conference: Technology and Students with
Disabilities: A Winning Combination
November 16 or 18, 2004
Informational sessions will be held throughout the day on
topics including reading and writing tools for main-streamed students,
differentiated instruction, grants and funding for assistive and accessible
technology and creating accessible web content.
To make it convenient
for everyone to attend, this one-day conference is being held in two locations
in New Jersey; West Atlantic City in the south on November 16th and Edison in
the north on November 18th. The conference will run from 8:30 am to 4:00
pm for those attending the day session and from 4:00 pm to 8:30 pm for those
wishing to attend the evening session.
To register to
attend or exhibit at the conference, please visit our website, www.northeastada.org and select
Events. You will also find additional information about the conference
presenters and sessions to be offered. Contact the Northeast ADA&IT
Center at 800-949-4232 or email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you have
questions.
New Web Course on Accessible IT from
AccessIT
What is information technology? How can it be made
accessible? Are there laws that govern access to information technology? Many
people who are involved with information technology implementation find these
questions confusing. The National Center on Accessible Information Technology
in Education (AccessIT) has addressed this need for guidance by developing a
free online course that provides an introduction to accessible information
technology in education.
To determine what gaps exist in the target
audience's knowledge regarding information technology (IT), the faculty and
staff at AccessIT first interviewed people who give presentations on IT across
the country. This information was used to focus the course as it was being
developed. The course was then written by content experts (mostly faculty and
researchers at the University of Washington). Each component of the course,
including lessons, interactive content, and review questions, was designed to
be as accessible as possible.
To take the course or learn more about
it, visit http://www.washington.edu/accessit/webcourse.php
The
Role of AT in Schools: From Assistive to Accessible
An excerpt
from the August 2004 Family Center on Technology and Disability (FCTD)
Newsletter:
"It's not what it should be, it's not what it will be, but
it's a sight better than it was." The origin of that adage has been lost
in time, but the truth it conveys applies to the role of assistive technology
in schools as this school year gets underway. Ten years ago, the AT we now
take for granted was, for the most part unimagined. What existed was expensive
and, for many schools and families, unattainable. As technology and state and
national legislation have evolved, more and more families of children with
disabilities have begun to enjoy the benefits of assistive technology. Still,
though, budget constraints at all levels in all school districts have left
families and schools largely unable to keep pace with the accelerating
evolution of technology. Nevertheless, that evolution will only continue to
accelerate and, in 10 years time, when principles of Universal Design for
Learning may become the norm for U.S. schools, AT will stand for accessible
technology, the direct descendant of today's assistive technology and
available to all children in every school setting.
This interesting
article and a wonderful list of resources appears in the FCTD August
newsletter. Read the entire newsletter at http://www.fctd.info/resources/newsletters/displayNewsletter.cfm?newsletterID=621
Online
Captioning Tools
Joe Clark has put together an extensive list
of online captioning tools and tutorials. For anyone involved in video or
audio on the Web, this is a great list of resources that pertain to media and
captioning on the web, http://joeclark.org/access/captioning/bpoc/bibliography.html
.
Accessiblity Features of DreamWeaver MX and MX 2004
Author: Jared Smith (WebAIM)
Dreamweaver MX, developed
by Macromedia, is one of the most popular and powerful Web development
applications available today. Macromedia has greatly improved the
accessibility features of Dreamweaver MX over previous
versions. MX and MX 2004 now allow developers to be prompted when
inserting certain Web elements that may need accessibility attributes added to
them. Unfortunately, these options are disabled in the preferences by default.
To learn more about these accessibility features read the full tutorial: Accessiblity Features of
DreamWeaver MX and MX 2004 or at http://webaim.org/techniques/dreamweaver/index
Bookshare.org
offers newspapers and magazines
In partnership with the
National Federation of the Blind NFB-NEWSLINE(r), Bookshare.org now has
newspapers and magazines available for download by Bookshare.org
members.
Subscribers have access to key publications including The New
Times, USA Today, The Economist and The New Yorker. More newspapers and
a small limited number of magazines will become available. Institutional
Access users can download periodicals at no additional cost for a limited
time.
Periodicals are in the same formats as their books (DAISY and
BRF). Periodicals are available to subscribing residents of Sponsored
States.
Visit the Bookshare.org website and go to the "Periodicals"
link in the navigation area from any main page. Or, go directly to this
link: http://www.bookshare.org/periodicals
Northeast ADA&IT Center
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]
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