In an effort to encourage application developers and handset manufacturers to consider the needs of seniors or customers who have disabilities when designing products and services, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) announced today that the company's approach to Universal Design will be made publicly available for the first time. Read AT&T's press release.

AT&T is pleased to announce a new Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) for iPhone. This new Text Accessibility Plan was developed for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, have a speech disability and/or hearing loss, and was designed with input from the community. Read about AT&T's plan

Verizon Wireless announces the availability of three new Nationwide Messaging plans that will allow customers to use unlimited messaging on their wireless handsets. The new plans do not require an accompanying voice plan and are designed to meet the needs of customers who primarily rely on messaging to communicate with others. For more information read the Verizon Wireless press release.

Radio broadcasts in a text format for deaf persons and for hard of hearing persons is finally becoming far more real thanks to a new public-private consortium that will provide captioning on car LCD displays. National Public Radio stations, Harris Corporation and Towson University in Maryland will be the headquarters for the new International Center for Accessible Radio Technology (ICART). The consortium plans to develop both home and car radios. See the PC Magazine article on this new technology.

CNET Networks, Inc., an Internet-based American media company based in San Francisco, California, recently started providing captioning for its on-line videoclips and encourages others to do so. By clicking on the CC button below the videoclip, when you get to the CNET Internet site, viewers can activate the captioning. Head over to CNET TV and watch the show.

AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) has added a feature long requested by text users: showing each character as soon as it's typed, rather than waiting for the other person to hit the "Enter" key. This AIM option is more natural, and works the way TTYs do. Read the AOL press release for more details.

Verizon's VCCD celebrated its 15th anniversary by adding videophone service so sign language users can communicate directly with service representatives. Here's the Verizon press release for more info.