http://www.netsquared.org/projects/vote     Down-Syndrome.  Makes one wonder why would our Creator give an innocent child, who hasn't even seen the light of day, Down-Syndrome, a Disability that has no cure.  The entire family is affected and heart broken. Trying to find a Rehabilitation Facility for some one with Down Syndrome is a great challenge even in North America.

Disabled computer users often regard their browsers as a lifeline to the world.  But during last year's natural disasters, it became very clear that the lifeline was tenuous - perhaps broken entirely - as so many relief sites were not accessible to those who need them most.  To help people with disabilities find what they need more easily, Google Labs released a new product yesterday.  Called Accessible Search, it optimizes pages based on some key accessibility features, including alt text, keyboard navigation, simple language and so forth.  The idea is to save blind users the wasted time and frustration of trying to get information from inaccessible sites. To see how your standard search stacks up against the accessible searc, try out this comparison tool

We saw a bunch of cool new tools at the conference.  It seemed like blogging was a very big deal for attendees thinking in new ways about communicating their mission-based work.  I was inspired to become hyper-alert to identifying accessible, equivalent tools and communication methods.  In that spirit, I offer EasyJournal as a tool that meets accessibility standards, but more importantly that opens up the blogging experience for millions.  The most well-known blogging tools may create accessible pages - usually mostly text, after all. The problem comes when someone - the student at the school for the blind, perhaps or the personnel administrator with quadriplegia - who can't use a mouse tries to post a blog.  It doesn’t work well.  It is difficult, perhaps impossible for the person with a disability to have the blogging experience using well-known tools because thecontent creation interface is not accessible.  The interface for EasyJournal was designed with accessibility in mind, however and you might consider trying it.  It’s free, it’s accessible, and it requires no additional software.

OK, I know, I should have been paying attention earlier.  If I wanted accessibility sessions I had my chance to suggest themes, questions and topics...right?  But as I look through the sessions for the latest in accessible blogging tools, content management systems, fundraising software, do I really find....nothing?! absolutely nothing about accessibility?

Nothing on accessibility at the coolest nonprofit tech conference ever? 

How could that be?  I admit that I am a bit cocooned.  I spend 90% of my time with people who know tons about accessibility...people like John Slatin, Jim Thatcher, Molly Holzschlag, Kelsey Ruger, Glenda Sims... or with people who want to know more about accessibility, like the participants in AIR programs, Access-U and CalWAC. But am I really so sheltered? so deluded?  Does the rest of the world really care about access to the web for 55 million Americans and 750 million people worldwide...not at all?!