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If anyone ants more info please let me
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Liz
Accessible IT Technical Bulletin: November
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 Web Accessibility Leadership Academy To increase awareness about the accessibility of web-based educational resources and implications for students with disabilities, we are organizing mini-conferences at various regional locations across New York State. The regional conferences are being termed a 'leadership academy' to reflect the goal of the program. For each region, we are inviting "teams" of representatives from several schools or colleges within the local region. The team, ideally, will consist of web developers, instructional technology staff, disabled student services support staff, other IT administrators and faculty representatives. The objective is that those attending will become the leaders on their respective campuses in raising awareness about web accessibility issues as well as taking actions to improve the accessibility of new and existing web content. This full-day leadership program focuses on the following topics: * benefits and costs of accessible web sites * accessibility implications for web-based distance learning content * legal considerations * evaluating web pages for accessibility * getting started / making a plan If you would like more information about conferences being held in your area or are interested in hosting a Web Accessibility Leadership Academy at your school or college, please contact the Northeast ADA & IT Center by calling 800-949-4232 or emailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] Assistive Technology Act Signed into Law President Bush has signed into law the Assistive Technology Act of 2004 (HR 4278). Every state and US territory has an Assistive Technology Act Program (AT Program) funded under the provisions of the Technology-Related Assistance Act of 1988. The State AT Programs were scheduled to sunset on September 30, 2004. The AT Act of 2004 supports the continuance of State AT Programs and eliminates the sunset provision for state programs. The Act also supports state grants for protection and advocacy programs related to assistive technology and national activities such as a national public awareness tool-kit, research and development, technical assistance and training, data collection and a national public internet site. For more information about the Act, visit the Assistive Technology Act Programs website (www.ataporg.org). No Child Left Behind (NCLB): Parent's Guide The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) and Schwab Learning, two national organizations, have collaborated to develop a handbook designed to provide simple, accessible information for parents on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The 22-page guide addresses the special issues, challenges and opportunities facing parents whose children are struggling to learn, and provides parents with information about specific actions they can take to improve educational services for their children. It is available at http://ld.org/press/PR2004/NCLBGuide_0904.cfm. The US Dept of Education also has a Parent's Guide to NCLB. It summarizes the main provisions of the law, answers common questions, and provides information on where you can find additional resources. To view or print this guide, visit the US DOE NCLB Parent Guide at http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/nclbguide/parentsguide.html . The Public Education Network has also published "An Action Guide for Community and Parent Leaders" regarding NCLB (http://www.publiceducation.org/pdf/NCLBBook.pdf ). The guide highlights ways NCLB can be used to strengthen the public's voice in education, and to increase community and parental involvement in school-level and district-level operations and decisions. eTEACH: multimedia authoring tool eTEACH is a new tool making the creation of multimedia easier for faculty and other content design people. This inexpensive authoring tool is easy to use and enables a teacher to stream video, PowerPoint, audio and more. It produces output that looks entirely professional and will also be fully accessible to viewers with disabilities. It also permits adding synchronized captions for viewers who are deaf. Visit the eTEACH on the Web: http://eteach.engr.wisc.edu/newEteach/home.html Web Accessibility Toolbar Accessible Information Solutions has developed an Internet Explorer toolbar which can be used for evaluating the accessibility of web pages for people with disabilities. The Web Accessibility Toolbar is provided by the Accessible Information Solutions (AIS) team at the National Information and Library Service (NILS), Australia. This free tool was developed to aid the manual examination of web pages for a variety of aspects of accessibility. It consists of a range of functions that:
Visit the Web Accessibility Toolbar website (http://www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/toolbar/index.html), to read more or download the toolbar to install on your computer. Video-"ENABLE: People with Disabilities and Computers" There are a few copies left of the award-winning video "ENABLE: People with Disabilities and Computers". ENABLE is an award winning documentary produced by David Bolnick, Ph.D. et al. that illustrates how people with disabilities use assistive devices, AAC and computers in all aspects of their lives. A review of this title has been posted on the ABLEDATA web site at http://www.abledata.com/text2/videos.htm. This 45-minute video is closed-captioned and includes narrative descriptions for the visually impaired. It is distributed on a nonprofit basis and is available in VHS, bundled with a digitized version (VideoCD / MPEG format) which plays on most DVD players and computers. 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] |
