Digital Accessibility News

East Hanover, NJ. October 24, 2022. Unemployment rose slightly in September for people with disabilities, reflecting a net rise in individuals entering the labor force, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) COVID Update. Experts referenced the increases in labor force participation and the employment-to-population ratio in this month’s nTIDE September Job Report released on October 7....

Like many Americans, I like to consume news first thing in the morning. After my wife and I prepare breakfast, we open our phones and catch up on the day’s headlines. But while my wife has finished the article and is ready to discuss it, I’m still working on the third paragraph. My wife likes to read with her eyes, but as a person with...

It's Disability Employment Awareness month, and as the workforce evolves, so must our communications....

Tennis Australia, Monash University and AKQA have launched Action Audio, an online audio stream designed to make the Australian Open broadcasts accessible for almost 600,000 Australians and 285 million people living with blindness or a vision impairment. Action Audio allows people with blindness or vision impairment to stay connected to the tennis experience throughout the entire match, and follow it in real-time. Action Audio uses...

When 26-year-old Nathan Johnston tried to connect with people during the peak of last year's COVID-19 lockdown, he realized how challenging it could be for people living with a disability to use social media networks like Twitter and Facebook. Mr. Johnston, who has cerebral palsy, lives on the New South Wales Far South Coast and has been inspired to start developing a new social media...

The Government of Canada is delivering on its commitment to create a barrier-free Canada with the implementation of the Accessible Canada Act, which will help remove barriers, and increase access and opportunities for persons with disabilities. Today, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, highlighted the publication of the first-ever proposed Accessible Canada Regulations under the Accessible Canada Act in the...

Advances in the digital economy significantly accelerated by Covid-19 pandemic are creating unprecedented opportunities to build a more inclusive world of work for the more than one billion people with disabilities globally, according to a new report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO). However, digital barriers also threaten to aggravate existing inequalities and exclusion unless they are countered with effective and targeted initiatives. The report...

The day President Joe Biden was sworn into office, those watching the inauguration saw fire Capt. Andrea Hall, the child of a deaf parent, recite the Pledge of Allegiance – spoken in English and signed. “Let's just say that's the first time I've ever cried at the pledge,” said Sara Novic, a deaf writer and college instructor based in Philadelphia. “Beyond access, that was representation,...

A collaborative effort will provide access and inclusion to blind and disabled populations by delivering more than 45 million tactile images to museums, science centers, libraries, schools, and government agencies. There’s more than one way to experience a great work of art, according to a new partnership among the National Federation of the Blind, Getty Images, and Tactile Images, a company that converts pictures into...

Today, Amtrak began accepting claims for monetary compensation for people with mobility disabilities who traveled or wanted to travel from or to one of the 78 stations listed below and encountered accessibility issues at the stations. Claims must be submitted by May 29, 2021. On Dec. 2, 2020, the Department of Justice and Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, entered into an agreement to resolve...

The Golden State Warriors (the “Warriors”) are the latest high-profile company to have a website-related American with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) lawsuit filed against them. On January 21, 2021, a class action complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that the Warriors website, https://shop.warriors.com/, violates the ADA and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act (“UCRA”) because it is...

The initiation and maintenance of an effective corporate diversity and inclusion policy is often viewed as being a core responsibility of an organization’s senior management team. While leadership at boardroom level is undoubtedly an essential enabling component, this alone will never deliver optimal outcomes for employees with disabilities. Governments certainly have a role to play in bringing forth the legislative frameworks necessary to scale and...