ARMONK, NY —
IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today announced a program to
equip computer science majors at colleges and universities with the
technical skills to develop or adapt computer programs for people with
disabilities, the maturing population, and non-native language speakers, so
that they can more easily access, navigate and use the Web and electronic
office documents.
Just in time for the fall semester, IBM is posting a Web-based, lecture
available for viewing anytime (ibm.com/university/skills/accessibility)
that teaches programming techniques to make electronic documents and the
Web more accessible to all users. The lecture also discusses and
illustrates the importance of developing software and Web applications that
are accessible to all. Professors who lead computer science courses can
easily incorporate the material into their curriculum.
As part of the program, IBM is also launching a contest that challenges
students to propose and design open source software for people with
disabilities. To qualify, their entries must be based on a new
international standard, called the OpenDocument Format (ODF). Familiarity
with ODF will be increasingly important, as the format will be required by
50 percent of governments and 20 percent of commercial organizations by
2010, according to the Gartner. More information on the contest can be
found at
href="http://www.ibm.com/able/contest">ibm.com/able/contest/.
“While there are many courses on programming skills, few, if any, lectures
are devoted to encouraging students to consider the needs of computer users
with sight, hearing or mobility disabilities when they write software
code,” said Dr. Wayne Dick, Chair of the Computer Engineering and Computer
Science Department at the University of California State University at Long
Beach. “IBM’s considerable expertise in assistive technologies will help
computer sciences majors differentiate themselves in the job market, and
give the students the satisfaction of helping others and solving
challenges. The skills also make good business sense, given the size of
the disabled community.”
Between 750 million and 1 billion of the world’s 6 billion people have a
speech, vision, mobility, hearing or cognitive disability, according to the
World Health Organization. According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
one-quarter of the U.S. population will reach 55 by 2008, and about
two-thirds will experience a disability after age 65. Vendors that hire
computer science graduates recognize the growing spending power of people
with physical disabilities. Collectively, their income is estimated at $1
trillion, and they control up to $10 trillion in financial assets,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau and American Association of People With
Disabilities.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified computer-based jobs as
one of the fastest growing occupations through 2012, particularly those
involving skills for jobs related to systems analysts, database
administrators, computer scientists — with growth rates ranging from 40 to
70 percent in the U.S. alone.
“The program announced today is an effort by IBM to foster innovation that
really matters,” said Frances West, Director, IBM Human Ability and
Accessibility Center. “We’re distilling our extensive experience and
know-how when it comes to accessibility, and bringing it to bear for the
generation of computer scientists-in-training, who can really make a
difference in their professional careers.”
“This contest brings together three critical ideas that have significant
importance in the computer industry today: open standards, open source, and
accessibility,” said Dr. Bob Sutor, IBM Vice President, Standards and Open
Source. “We hope that these efforts spark significant uptake in how we
make our information and applications available to as many people as
possible.”
IBM has been involved in matters of accessibility ever since it hired its
first disabled employee in 1914. It has developed many dozens of products,
such as screen magnifiers, narrators and stabilizers, that make computers
more accessible to all, including disabled users. It operates several
human ability and accessibility centers around the world, and has well over
100 researchers, computer scientists and experts that advance the state of
the accessibility art.
The program announced today complements the efforts of IBM’s University
Relations Academic Initiative, a program offering education-related tools
and technologies via the Web or in person. IBM works with schools that
support open computer standards and seek to use open source and IBM
technologies for teaching purposes. More than 1,900 institutions, 11,000
faculty members and 450,000 students take advantage of the training
programs offered through the Initiative.
Participating schools receive free access to IBM software, discounted
hardware, course materials, training and curriculum development. The value
of the free resources can range into millions of dollars. For more
information on the IBM Academic Initiative, please visit
ibm.com/university.
Last week, the New York City Mayor’s Office for People With Disabilities
bestowed the Title IV Telecommunications Award on IBM. New York City’s
mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, praised IBM’s commitment to increasing
technological accessibility for people with disabilities. Examples include
an IBM service that assesses the accessibility of customers’ Web sites; and
for providing accessible products such as the Home Page Reader, and Lotus
Learning Management System.
Contact:
Ari Fishkind
IBM
914-766-3210
fishkind@us.ibm.com
SOURCE: IBM
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