Accessibility
Internet Rally for Austin Transcript
Jamie Rhodes - past Chair AIR-Austin
This past
Saturday, July 26th was the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities
Act, originally passed in 1990. People with disabilities often refer to
that date as the second Independence day because of the difference that
law has made in their lives. When George Bush Sr signed the Act into law,
he declared that "We will not accept, we will not excuse, we will
not tolerate discrimination in America." Passage of that law has
resulted in much more open and accessible public spaces. It has allowed
people with disabilities to receive workplace accommodations that make
it possible for them to earn an independent living. School children with
disabilities can expect to receive assistive technologies to help them
succeed in school. And technology is rapidly evolving to support the independence
of people with disabilities. But that technology is most often designed
without consideration of the access needs of people with various disabilities.
The promise of the ADA was that people would no longer be denied access
to our public spaces and opportunities because of a
disability. Since 1990, many of our public spaces have moved on line and
are accessed by technology. Knowbility and our Accessibility Internet
Rally or AIR program were created to ensure that as new technologies evolve,
the access needs of people with disabilities are considered and met.
I serve on Knowbility's board of directors, and last year had the honor to serve as Chair of AIR-Austin 2002. It was a great experience for a number of reasons. As founder and CEO of Austin Usability, we have always tried to incorporate accessibility issues into our usability work. To be part of AIR-Austin reinforced the value of that effort. To see these principles applied in a series of training and web-raising activities was rewarding. To learn from community leaders with disabilities about the critical significance of this work was enlightening. And to celebrate the progress in accessible design made by nearly 200 AIR participants from more than 40 businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies was a whole lot of fun!
So we are
here today to celebrate and recognize the meaning of
AIR-Austin. First let me recognize Knowbility board and staff members
who are have worked so hard on this project. These are the folks who have
kept the AIR-Austin mojo going into this our 6th year. The AIR effort
has helped more than 100 local nonprofit agencies, groups that serve tens
of thousands of Central Texans,
take their important work online. And because of the accessibility
training received by AIR participants, these nonprofit services are
available to everyone, including people with disabilities. Let me also
recognize the sponsors who make it possible to continue this work: The
Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, the City of Austin
Telecommunications Commission, The University of Texas, Austin Usability,
and Grande Communications. To add your name to that list, please give
us a call. We also want to thank St Ed's PEC for housing the Rally.
Many of you here today have participated in AIR in the past. I want to thank you for that and encourage you to join us again this year. And please spread the word among your colleagues and friends. AIR-Austin registration is officially open. If you know a nonprofit group that needs an accessible web site, send them to our web site at www.knowbility.org
And if you are a company that does any level of web design work, this is a tremendously valuable experience. Register a team to participate and they will receive accessibility training from nationally recognized experts. Training that will help your business to secure government contracts and reach 55 million Americans with disabilities. Besides that, your team members will connect to the nonprofit community in a way that brings the kind of reward that we don't measure in numbers, but in out hearts.
I want to congratulate Bill Morrow for his Chairmanship of AIR this year and thank the Mayor for the City's support of this effort and for being here today. Dan Updegrove is the Vice president of Information Systems for the University of Texas and serves on Knowbility's board. Although he could not be here today, he sent us his best regards and someone to speak for his office. Glenda Sims has been a passionate advocate for accessibility on the UT campus, advises and trains web professionals throughout the UT system, and served on the AIR-University advisory board since its inception. She is a great friend to accessibility and we are pleased to have her with us today to speak for the University...Glenda Sims.
