New Tools Boost Number of Disabled in IT Ranks
Untapped talent finds jobs with the help of technology and training
From: Information Week - May 14, 2001 - page 84
By: Judith N. Mottl 

The 54 million Americans with disabilities comprise a population that's
two-thirds unemployed or underemployed, says Susanne Bruyere, director of the
program on employment and disability at the Institute of Workplace Studies,
part of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in
Ithaca, N.Y. The employment rate for the disabled is 52%; it plummets to 26%
for those with severe disabilities, the U.S. Bureau of the Census reports. 

But new technologies and tools that adapt workstations for these workers are
creating opportunities, Bruyere says. Innovation in so-called assistive
tools--from desktop screen readers to infrared headsets--let people
manipulate a desktop and software. Separately, a new federal law, Section 508
of the Workforce Investment Act, that goes into into effect on June 21 will
require federal agencies' Web sites to use technology and software that's
accessible by the disabled. Yet there's still "a huge gap" to bridge when it
comes to employment, say Bruyere and other disability advocates. 

Read the complete story at:
http://www.informationweek.com/837/disabilities.htm



Assistive Technologies Span A Wide Range of Features, Prices
By: Judith Mottl 

Assistive technologies run the gamut from simple screen readers, to
mouse-activated foot pedals, to full-fledged software applications that
provide spoken text for the blind. Costs vary as widely as the products that
are coming to market.

Read the complete story at:
http://www.informationweek.com/837/assistive.htm


Keeping in Touch from the Top of the World
By: Matthew G. Nelson

Erik Weihenmayer is keeping the world posted as he tries to become the first
blind man to scale Mount Everest. he and his team from the National
Federation of the Blind's 2001 Everest Expedition enter daily spoken reports
into a PDA, which converts them to .wav audio files. The files are then
downloaded into a notebook and transmitted via satellite phone for use at
http://www.2001everest.com. Reason, a wireless device-management company,
provided the PDA. The expedition was to reach the summit early the week of
May 14th.