By: Cindy Ryan, Vice President and Chris Dizon, Section 508 PM
The Front Page Blog: Blogs on Technology
By Cindy Ryan, Vice President
Overview
Instructional design is a systematic process for designing learning experiences and materials to improve learner performance and retention. Whether you’re using Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, Lectora, or other eLearning authoring tools to design online courses, consider broadening your audience to include those with disabilities who rely on assistive technologies.
By: Robert Chaiet, Accessibility Technician, Department of Homeland Security Office of Accessible Systems & Technology (OAST)
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, requires that electronic and information technology developed with federal funding be accessible to people with disabilities. This includes training materials developed with federal funds that are disseminated to users via the internet. Currently, I direct the National Clearinghouse on…
November is National Family Caregivers Month. While caregiving can be a very rewarding experience, caregivers are at risk of fatigue, increased stress, and other negative health consequences. One way to help reduce the stressors faced by caregivers is to learn about and employ helpful tools and resources.
In a recent industry show-and-tell, Paul Schroeder of the American Foundation of the Blind gave us all a good chuckle when he said “I didn’t realize 508 referred to the number of weeks it would take to get the standards updated!”
If the ADA were a person, it should be graduating college by now and looking for a job. However, workplace equality for people with disabilities is where the least progress has been made in the last quarter century, according to an informal poll of webinar attendees during “24 Years of the ADA: Progress, Pitfalls and Possibilities” hosted by Cornell University and the Northeast ADA Center on…
The country is aging and so is the workforce. According to the 2012 Census, there were over four million full time workers age 65 and older. The aging process can bring with it a gradual decrease in vision, hearing, and physical abilities. Jobs that were once easy for a 30 or 40 year old to perform can become challenging for a 60 or 70 year old. For example, in our work, some veterans have…
Want to know how to make a website accessible? Google the answers. Want a mainstream phone with built-in speech output for using it without vision? Go to an electronics store. Want to know how to make an ATM accessible? Put your headphone jack in pretty much any ATM. Want to know how to change your organization so that accessibility becomes an integral part of everyone's job? Um... As time…
Question: "How's 508 working out for your customers?"
Response: "We haven't had any complaints, so I think we're doing really well."
A lack of complaints is often cited in Section 508 circles as an indicator that we are all doing a great job for our customers. But are we? Research on consumer complaints suggests that people in general don't complain. They either go elsewhere,…