FOR RELEASE Contact: Jim Bradshaw April 3, 1997 202/401-2310 STATEMENT BY SECRETARY OF EDUCATION RICHARD W. RILEY On the establishment of the World Wide Web Accessibility Project America's rush to the Information Superhighway risks leaving behind a crucial element of our population -- our nation's 49 million persons with disabilities. The Internet has fast become one of the great inventions of our lifetimes. Yet for some citizens, this dazzling medium may offer about as much usefulness as the Pony Express. Many Web pages cannot be accessed by people who are blind or have limited vision. Many home pages incorporate graphically-based technology that limits the accessibility of individuals with disabilities. Audio clips are of little use to those who are deaf or hearing impaired. To address these and other concerns, we are pleased to join the National Science Foundation in contributing up to $800,000 for the new World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative. This effort will guide the development of industry-sponsored specifications to make the Internet accessible to all. Exciting possibilities like descriptive video, video captioning and innovative input devices will be explored. The department welcomes the opportunity through our National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the Office of Special Education Programs to build on its long-term support of rehabilitation engineering and accessibility. Learning online must not become a new fault line in American education, dividing the haves and have-nots. The Internet is the blackboard of the future. This also applies to the increasing role of the Internet in the workplace and as a means of regular communication. All persons -- disabled and non-disabled -- deserve access to information that promotes excellence in education, work and social understanding.