[Promotion-technology] FW: Announcing the Association for Accessible Technology

[Sam Joehl]

-----Original Message-----
From: Karl Groves [mailto:karl.groves at ssbbartgroup.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 10:44 AM
To: everyone
Subject: Announcing the Association for Accessible Technology



Like many of you, I subscribe to a lot of the accessibility-related
discussion lists out there: WebAIM, Knowbility, the Section 508 list hosted
by TRACE, etc.  Last July, a member posting from George Mason University
sent out a laundry list of products to the WebAIM list asking, to
paraphrase, "Does anyone have any experience with any of these products to
know if they're accessible?".   You could practically hear the crickets
chirping.  Nobody responded at all and I'm pretty sure we all know why, at
least when it comes to the Government employees on the list: Doing so could
have been seen as "interfering with the procurement process" and gotten them
into a lot of hot water.
  
Because of what we do for a living, we all know that every single day,
products and services are purchased which do not meet the technical
standards outlined by Subpart B of Section 508 and organizations place
themselves at risk of legal action by disabled citizens or employees.  This
is largely caused by ignorance. The reality is, the people buying these
products don't know about accessibility.  Most of the time they're not even
IT people anyway but even if they were, this stuff isn't taught in school.
Computer Science programs in college don't include accessibility and, of the
more than 30 programming books I have in my house, ONE discusses it. So,
after reading that post to the WebAIM list, I made a decision.  What's
needed is an independent organization which will perform research on IT
product accessibility and will report its findings in a factual, unbiased
manner so that those who need this information can get it and make the
proper buying decision.  Imagine, if you will, a "Consumers Reports" of IT
product accessibility.  

The Association for Accessible Technology was created to perform research on
and disseminate information about accessibility in electronic and
information technology. The information we will gather and report will allow
those who purchase electronic and information technology products and
services to make purchasing decisions that are better informed and more
likely to be accessible. The challenge this new organization faces in
meeting its goal is twofold:  Lack of personnel, and lack of money.  

I'd like to invite all of you to join me in doing this work.  I am looking
for volunteers to help with everything from basic organizational & marketing
work to performing the product reviews.  Our product reviews will follow the
standard full SSB methodology leading to a VPAT and we'll be using AMP to do
so.  Your time commitment will vary depending upon what you commit yourself
to do.  As this is volunteer work, there's no required time commitment.  If
you're interested, please go to: 
http://www.accessible-technology.org/volunteer/volunteerapplication.php

If you cannot volunteer your time, please consider donating some money. We
have a secure online donation form located at:
https://www.accessible-technology.org/donate/

Thanks!


Karl