In February of 2003 the Kentucky Assistive Technology Service (KATS) Network , in collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Education Division of Exceptional Children Services, launched the Accessible Information Technology in Schools (AITIS) project .
"Accessibility Rallies" represent a promising practice for promoting accessible web design. This article describes the Georgia Accessibility Rally (GAR), which was designed to create new, accessible Internet sites for rural Georgia schools, train students in accessible web design techniques, and build the capacity for teachers and administrators to create accessible information technology opportunities for all students.
In 2002 Blue Ridge Community College, in Flat Rock, North Carolina received funding for a two-year initiative to improve access to information technology in community colleges. The project used student feedback to identify barriers; assess and upgrade existing information technology on campus; and implement faculty-wide trainings on overcoming barriers to information technology experienced by students with disabilities.
Postsecondary institutions nationwide are making increasing use of information technology. Using technology has become a daily occurrence in the lives of most students. Unfortunately, some electronic resources are not accessible to some students with disabilities. Inaccessible web pages are of particular concern because of the great number of them used in higher education for everything from activities registration to course delivery.
The University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries have developed a how-to website for users of PubMed, a popular online database from the National Library of Medicine that provides citations for biomedical articles dating back to the 1950s. The how-to site, PubMed at the UW, teaches library patrons how to use the database and helps them understand the idiosyncrasies of the product that are unique to the University of Washington.
In 1998, the South Carolina Department of Education released a new state educational technology plan. This five-year plan, which was scheduled for review and expansion in 2003, contained goals and benchmarks for implementing technology access to all South Carolina schools. In preparation for the 2003 review, the Department of Education worked with the SouthEast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education Consortium (SEIR*TEC) to devise a five-year plan to direct South Carolina's strategic technology development from 2003 to 2008.
Microsoft® Word is the world's most popular word processing software application, and files created with Word (typically ending in .DOC or .DOCX) are common as a means of distributing materials over the web, including materials used in education.
Growing numbers of educational entities at all levels are embracing the web for delivery of curriculum, as well as for administrative functions, outreach, and communication. Delivering web-based content to a variety of audiences demands a respect for the varieties of technologies that people use to access the web. In addition to the standard combination of computer screen, keyboard, and mouse, many web users with and without disabilities use alternative devices both for providing input to the computer and for perceiving output from the computer.
The following content was developed through a joint project between AccessIT and the ADA National Network Centers.
The Bellingham Public School District (BSD) in Bellingham, Washington has taken many positive steps toward improving the accessibility of its information technology infrastructure. For many years, Bellingham has valued "equal access for the learning community", and has openly stated this as part of its vision regarding the role of technology in facilitating teaching and learning. However, prior to 2004 the goal of equal access had not specifically been articulated as including students, employees, and parents with disabilities.