COAT advocates for accessibility and usability of technology for people with disabilities. Enacting the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (21st CVAA) was a huge step forward and we are working to implement this new law. COAT’s overall aim is to ensure accessibility, usability, and affordability of all broadband, wireless, and Internet technologies for people with disabilities.
Feds To Give $85K to App Developers for Sec 508 & W3C Accessible Electronic Health Records
March 5, 2012. COAT is pleased to learn that the government's main office looking at health information technology -- HHS ONC -- has established a mobile app challenge to developers that should result in solutions that will allow people with disabilities to access health records. The challenge asks "multidisciplinary teams to create and test a module or application that makes it easy for people with disabilities to access their health information stored in electronic health records (EHRs).” Submissions are due by Monday July 23, 2012. The winner will receive $60,000 and “an
Text-to-911 Exhibition at FCC on March 28 and 29
March 4, 2012. The FCC's Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) is sponsoring an exhibition about Text-to-911 Technologies and Applications on Wednesday March 28 (2-7pm) and Thursday March 29 (10am-4pm), 2012 at the FCC. This will be held in the FCC's Technology Experience Center (TEC) located on the TW (12th street) level of the FCC building at 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC. The event is open to the public and should include many exhibits of great interest to the disability community.
Actress Geri Jewell to Keynote CSUN Technology Conference This Year: Many COAT Members to Attend
February 23, 2012. One of the people working on this year's CSUN 2012 conference contacted COAT and asked us to post the following information about this annual event. Many COAT organizational representatives, Friends of COAT and others willl attend the event to be held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego, February 27-March 3, 2012. Many of the exhibits and some of the forums are free as listed below.
Medical Diagnostic Equipment to be more Accessible: US Access Board Releases Proposed Rules
February 14, 2012. Recently the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (The Access Board) made an announcement releasing their proposed accessibility standards for medical diagnostic equipment. These contain the minimum technical criteria to ensure that medical diagnostic equipment -- e.g., examination tables, examination chairs, weight scales, mammography equipment, and other imaging equipment used by health care providers for diagnostic purposes -- are accessible to and usable by
Consumers' Digest article-- Spread of Touch Screen Technology Worries Advocates With Disabilities
Article by Katie Fanuko, published in Consumers Digest, January 2012: "Spread of touch-screen technology worries advocates for visually impaired"
From airline travel to banking to renting movies, the use of touch-screen technology now is routine for many consumers. But just because this technology is ubiquitous, it doesn’t mean that it’s accessible to all consumers: The visually impaired can’t operate touch screens easily.
Hooray! FCC Releases Television IP Captioning Rules
COAT is enormously pleased that on Friday January 13, 2012 the FCC released the long-awaited rules for Internet Protocol (IP) TV captioning. This rule is a major component of the 21st CVAA implementation. You can see the FCC Order and accompanying statements by the Commissioners online here. Deeply involved in the rulemaking process were many leading COAT
21st CVAA Implementation: VPAAC to Meet Feb 9: Advanced Communications Services FNPRM Comments due Mar 12th
January 13, 2012. Federal implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 continues with a meeting and comments this first quarter of 2012. A recent FCC Public Notice announced the next meeting of the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC) is to be held on Thursday, February 9, 2012. Again, like similar meetings last year, the VPAAC will meet from 9 am to 5 pm at the FCC, 445 12th St SW, Washington DC, and is open to
Closed Caption button on remote.