Apps

March 2014 — H&R Block has entered into a five-year consent decree with the Department of Justice (DOJ).  The decree follows complaints by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and two individual plaintiffs that H&R Block violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to ensure accessibility on their website and mobile applications.

February 2014 — Sprint has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Change Maker Award. The annual award is presented by Quality Services for the Autism Community (QSAC) to recognize companies that have “made a meaningful commitment to supporting the needs of children and adults with developmental disabilities.” This year, Sprint is being honored for their accessible technology, which includes products and services such as Sprint’s ID Accessibility Packs and Accessible Education ID Pack.

February 2014 — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has begun accepting nominations for the third annual Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility (Chairman’s AAA).  The awards are designed to “honor outstanding private and public sector ventures that advance accessibility for people with disabilities.” Nominations may be made for mainstream or assistive technologies, standards, or best practices for the following areas:

February 2014 — The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Protocols and Formats Working Group published proposed recommendations regarding Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA).  The document outlines “ways to make web content, particularly web applications, more accessible to people with disabilities.” Complementing the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, the proposed recommendations provide developers with guidelines to ensure that dynamic content or interfaces developed with Ajax, HTML or JavaScript, are accessible for people with disabilities and operabl

Today, AT&T Foundation announced a $50,000 contribution to Shepherd Center to assist researchers in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Technologies (Wireless RERC) in launching a series of seminars to help consumers with disabilities uncover the range of accessibility features found on their mobile devices. Seminars are scheduled for five cities – Atlanta, Ga., Austin and Dallas, Texas, Chicago, Ill., and Washington, D.C. – throughout this spring and summer.