[8] in Software Accessibility Project email archive
25 Universities Pledge to Increase Research in Computing for
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kathleen Cahill)
Thu Oct 12 14:13:20 2000
Message-Id: <3.0.32.20000922133647.00ab9990@po12.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 13:36:49 -0400
To: atic@MIT.EDU, web-access@MIT.EDU, barbarar@MIT.EDU, donaghey@MIT.EDU,
richg@MIT.EDU
From: Kathleen Cahill <kcahill@MIT.EDU>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Resent-To: swaccess@nemesis.mit.edu
Resent-From: Jean Foster <jfoster@MIT.EDU>
We're always the last to know! MIT is involved in this.
Kathy
>
>>
>>This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
>>(http://chronicle.com) was forwarded to you from: graciela@astro.temple.edu
>>
>>
>>
>> Friday, September 22, 2000
>>
>>
>>
>> 25 Universities Pledge to Increase Research in Computing for
>> the Disabled
>>
>> By FLORENCE OLSEN
>>
>>
>>
>> The White House announced Thursday that the presidents of 25
>> research universities have pledged to take substantial new
>> steps to expand research and educational opportunities in the
>> field of computer accessibility for people with disabilities.
>>
>> President Clinton mentioned a letter including the pledge on a
>> trip to Flint, Mich., where he visited Mott Community College
>> to speak about closing the "digital divide" for the disabled.
>>
>> In the letter, the administrators pledged to offer programs in
>> which computer scientists and engineers would learn how to
>> make information technology accessible. The presidents also
>> said they would hire more faculty members to do research on
>> accessibility, and would guarantee that their institutions'
>> online resources and information were accessible to people
>> with disabilities.
>>
>> The White House did not immediately release a copy of the
>> letter, but Mr. Clinton said that the universities had pledged
>> to create tenure-track positions for research in the area.
>> "That's a big deal, think about it -- major universities
>> giving people tenure to teach how to provide equal access to
>> all Americans without regard to disabilities, to have
>> information-age technology," he said.
>>
>> The College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin at
>> Madison, one of the institutions named in the letter, is
>> planning to hire tenure-track faculty members for a new
>> program that teaches students how to design accessible
>> information technology, according to a White House statement.
>> The presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>> and the Universities of California and Michigan were among
>> those who signed the letter.
>>
>> The White House also announced related programs, among them a
>> $2.5-million grant from the Education Department's National
>> Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to the
>> World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative. The
>> program is writing guidelines for Web developers to ensure
>> that Web content is accessible. The Web consortium is run by
>> M.I.T.; the National Institute for Research in Computer
>> Science and Control, in France; and Keio University, in Japan.
>>
>> The Education Department will also provide $1.8-million under
>> its Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships to create
>> accessible online-learning environments for students of all
>> ages. Another grant, $7.5-million to the Georgia Institute of
>> Technology, will enable the university to provide
>> accessibility design training and technical assistance to
>> information-technology product designers and manufacturers,
>> the White House said.
>>
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>
>>Chronicle subscribers can read this article on the Web at this address:
>>http://chronicle.com/free/2000/09/2000092202t.htm
>>
>>If you would like to have complete access to The Chronicle's Web
>>site, a special subscription offer can be found at:
>>
>> http://chronicle.com/4free
>>
>>Use the code D00CM when ordering.
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>
>>You may visit The Chronicle as follows:
>>
>> * via the World-Wide Web, at http://chronicle.com
>> * via telnet at chronicle.com
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>Copyright 2000 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
>>
>
Kathy Cahill
MIT ATIC lab 11-103
253-5111
kcahill@mit.edu
