CONFERENCE SEEKS IT ACCESS FOR ALL.

Scientists and engineers are developing a variety of ways to make computers and other information age devices easier for people with disabilities to use. Yet advocates for the disabled say that information technology companies and government agencies could do more.

NIST held a conference to explore the issues and challenges involved in making accessibility a reality, with a focus on industry and government goals, challenges and strategies.

IT Accessibility 2001 brought accessibility leaders in industry, government, and academia together with advocates for people with disabilities. The conference, held in May 2001, at NIST's headquarters in Gaithersburg, MD, covered topics such as World Wide Web accessibility, economic incentives for creating accessible products and services, legislative trends and federal accessibility regulations (with emphasis on Section 508 requirements).

Speakers represented a variety of organizations, including the Center for Applied Special Technology, the Information Technology Association of America, the National Center for Accessible Media, and many others.

NIST has long played a pioneering role in making technology more accessible to a variety of people. For example, NIST research led to the development of the closed captioning system for television. NIST shared an Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in engineering development in 1980.

More recently, NIST developed an inexpensive prototype Braille reader that translates digital data into Braille characters. Researchers created the system part of a project to make electronic books more accessible to the blind and visually impaired.