As the months continue to tick by during a global pandemic due to COVID-19, people with disabilities are feeling isolated. With the inability to hang out in traditional manners with friends, it is more important than ever that online games, which have always been seen as a frivolity, are made digitally accessible.
I recently had my first direct experience with telemedicine, as I had a “virtual” doctor appointment. This got me thinking about how telemedicine can benefit many people, including those with disabilities - not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but well beyond.
There are many American national holidays for various and important reasons. Perhaps, without question, one that should be much more widely celebrated is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, now hitting its 30th anniversary. The need for the ADA to be enacted in 1990 was obvious, and the point was quite clear from the top of the formal text; “in enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), Congress intended that the Act ‘provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities’”. Plainly stated, the ADA provided the disabled community with a resounding voice to demand equitable access that was long overdue.
Here at Accessible360, we want to give a resounding ‘Thank You’ to the ADA for providing many of our amazing employees, Accessibility peers, and more than 61 million Americans living with a disability the chance to live and experience an equal life. Although we have a long way to go, especially on the digital accessibility front, the roadmap was provided 30 years ago, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to push this forward every day.
I was born in 1993 and diagnosed with cerebral palsy a few months later. As an American with a disability, I have had the privilege of living my entire life under the rights given to me by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which turns 30 this Sunday. Due to my cerebral palsy, I have used an electric wheelchair for almost all of my life. As a person with a disability, (who uses a wheelchair), I have greatly benefited from the ADA in several aspects of life, including education, technology, and transportation.
July 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). As an American born in 1987 with congenital glaucoma, I have had the benefit of living almost my entire life with the rights and benefits afforded to me under the ADA. In truth, it is likely impossible to identify all of the specific ways in which I have benefited from the ADA, but some of the key areas include education, technology, and a greater societal awareness of the needs of people with disabilities.
Accessibility overlays, toolbars, and plugins are third-party widgets that attempt to automatically improve the accessibility of websites they are added to. They may provide additional functionality such as text resizing, element highlighting, and color scheme adjustments through a custom “popup” interface, all aimed at making your website easier to use. But most of the functionality does not move the needle too far if you’re attempting to conform to either WCAG 2.0 or 2.1 requirements.
Atlassian’s JIRA software is utilized by many of Accessible360’s customers to help manage their internal software development projects. Because of this, we’ve been asked a number of times to integrate the power and accessibility of the A360 HUB with JIRA to simplify workflow between the two systems. Accessible360 is proud to announce that we now have a bi-directional integration between the A360 HUB and JIRA Cloud Server available for our customers today.
Accessible360 Celebrates Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Equitable Digital Access and Inclusion Webinar
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - May 18, 2020. Accessible360, a digital accessibility auditing firm, is excited to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 21, 2020, in a joint virtual event partnership with partner agency, O8. The virtual event will occur on Tuesday, May 19, to discuss inclusive practices of digital accessibility. Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is a worldwide event aimed at getting people to start thinking and learning about digital accessibility (web, software, IoT, mobile apps, etc.) and how to offer equitable access for the more than one billion people across the globe that have a disability. GAAD’s founders created the initiative to engage design, development, usability, and related communities.
Thursday, May 21st, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a day to raise awareness for people with disabilities. In honor of GAAD, I would like to tell you about “Crip Camp,” a documentary about teenagers with disabilities during the early 1970s. The teens who participated in this camp went on to become some of the leaders of the disability rights movement in America.
In response to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, more and more people are working remotely, and schools are beginning to have online instruction. Even presidential campaign rallies are being held virtually. These measures are certainly warranted during this public health crisis, and will hopefully make people realize the importance of digital accessibility for people with and without disabilities.
