accessibility

October 2013 — The Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict) released a report highlighting the Corporate Accessibility Technology Office (CATO) at AT&T.  The report notes that although CATO was established in 2012, this is only the most recent effort by AT&T to ensure accessibility for both employees and consumers.

June 2013 — Wireless RERC principal investigator, Dr. Helena Mitchell, presented 9-1-1 & Alert Trends for People with Disabilities at the National Emergency Number Associations’ (NENA) annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. NENA’s educational tracks, among other things, addressed NG911, accessibility, text-to-911, public outreach, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released Alerting the Whole Community: Removing Barriers to Alerting Accessibility, a report outlining the current efforts made to ensure accessibility for people with access and functional needs within the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). According to the report, approximately 25% of Americans may need “assistance or accommodation to receive emergency alerts,” including people with disabilities and limited English proficiency.

June 7, 2013 — W3C published an updated version of the recently released working draft Implementing User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0.