Welcome to Disability:IN’s monthly round-up of digital accessibility news for November. At Disability:IN we know that digital accessibility impacts all aspects of disability inclusion. If you have questions about our digital accessibility program, please contact Jeff Wissel, our Chief Accessibility Officer.
Disability:IN celebrated National Disability Employment Awareness Month throughout October:
- Celebrating Disability Employment, Inclusion, and the Future of Work: https://bit.ly/3SxJhCz.
- Jeff Wissell Celebrates Disability Employment Awareness Month: https://bit.ly/3N0gchI.
Looking Ahead to Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023
For the first time ever, Disability:IN will have 24 hours of global content to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day!
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is May 18, 2023. This event will feature Disability:IN corporate partner representatives from all regions and will highlight the accessibility accomplishments and projects across our network. There will be 8 hours of content that will be rebroadcasted during the 24 Hours of GAAD. Space is limited and time slots are filling up.
We have sponsorship opportunities available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please reach out to our Corporate Relations Director, Mackenzie Ward ([email protected]) to discuss further if you are interested.
Other Digital Accessibility Conferences and Events
- 2022 Accessing Higher Ground November 14 – 18 Denver CO
- Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) 2023
Digital Accessibility Information and Resources
The Disability:IN digital accessibility team knows that the amount of accessibility resources can be overwhelming. Each month we share just a few of the many free resources from our Resource Library, our blog, our partners, or other sources that we think are great. Don’t forget to explore the Disability:IN Resource Library where you can filter resources by “accessibility” and find content created by Disability:IN and our partners.
Here are some resource suggestions for this month. If you are a Disability:IN partner and would like your accessibility resources featured in our monthly roundup, please let us know at [email protected].
External resource suggestions for this month are:
Claudia Gordon from T-Mobile appointed to the National Council on Disability
Amazon Accessibility
Amazon has just released a series of new videos, featuring people with disabilities (including an Amazon employee) using many of their accessibility features across Alexa, Fire TV, Kindle, and more. An attempt to help all of their customers to learn how these features can help them be more connected, entertained, and independent: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaQihAe6OdwIj3TkzYEKPN0Nycry8-Veo
Additionally, Amazon has redesigned the accessibility portion of their site to make it easier to explore: https://www.amazon.com/accessibility
Amazon continues to build new features and offerings with all customers in mind, including Tap to Alexa on Fire tablets: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/alexa-accessibility-features-extend-to-fire-tablets
And Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids on Fire TV: https://amazonfiretv.blog/fire-tv-launches-hearing-aid-pairing-423d56625683
This video is Amazon’s access flagship favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ4vkkGvUbU&list=PLaQihAe6OdwIj3TkzYEKPN0Nycry8-Veo&index=1
Finally, you can also visit the Amazon Accessibility blog at: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/how-amazon-is-building-a-more-accessible-future
ASL Now Launches New Mobile App
Connect Direct has launched its new ASL Now app. This is the first-of-its-kind, free mobile app that with the touch of a button connects American Sign Language (ASL) users with trained customer service agents who are fluent in ASL — no interpreters or captions required: https://www.csd.org/stories/asl-now-launches-new-mobile-app/
List of Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup Groups | Deborah Edwards-Onoro
Whether I’m on Twitter or attending an online event, every week someone asks me about accessibility and inclusive design meetup groups. So I decided to create a list of all the accessibility and inclusive design meetup groups I could find online. I’ve been updating the list since 2015. With over three dozen groups on the list, I wanted to make it easy for people to find a group. So I decided to organize groups first by region, then alphabetically by city within each region: https://www.lireo.com/accessibility-inclusive-design-in-person-groups/
‘First-Of-Its-Kind’ Program To Train Visually Impaired As Digital Accessibility Testers
This program in North Carolina seeks to train people with visual impairments to assess websites for accessibility: https://wraltechwire.com/2022/09/22/first-of-its-kind-program-to-train-visually-impaired-as-digital-accessibility-testers/
Senator Duckworth and Representative Sarbanes Introduce Bill to Make Websites and Mobile Applications Accessible to Individuals with Disabilities
Other Accessibility News
Hearing Aids are officially available over the counter: https://yhoo.it/3VDdmDh
Smart Phone Accessibility Features: https://bit.ly/3s3Lxqo
The Speech Accessibility Project with Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Google: https://bit.ly/3MCsooG and https://engt.co/3yLQeZw.
Google Brand Studio underwriting the accessibility efforts of Pop Up Magazine: https://bit.ly/3SaGhf7
Twitter has added Alt Text Reminders for Tweets with Images: https://bit.ly/3rYZPsi
News about the Disability:IN Digital Accessibility Team
Jill Houghton, President of Disability:IN and Jeff Wissel, Chief Accessibility Officer of Disability:IN appeared on Cheddar.com to talk about the Disability Equality Index and more during National Disability Employment Awareness Month. https://cheddar.com/media/2022-disability-equality-index
