Technology and Disability Policy Highlights: February 2017

In February, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) began accepting nominations for the Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility (Chairman’s AAA). The awards ”recognize the efforts of individuals, organizations, academic institutions, companies and government agencies to make communications tools more accessible to people with disabilities.” Send nominations to chairmansaaa@fcc.gov.

In Wireless RERC news, Young-Mi Choi, Wireless RERC project director and assistant professor in the School of Industrial Design at Georgia Tech, received the 2017 Georgia Tech Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Class of 1940 Course Survey Teaching Effectiveness Award for her excellent instruction of College of Design’s ID Studio II class. Students have an opportunity to engage in evidenced based research by examining multiple roles played by users, industrial designers, engineers, and marketers during the process of creating new products and assistive technologies. Like the students, the TDPH editors also the many perspectives, policies, and technologies related to accessible and assistive technologies. In our annual review of the TDPH content, we awed at the wide range of disability access issues that were covered in 2016. The keywords that appeared the most include Disability, Wireless, Accessibility, Communications, FCC, Inclusive, Information, and Community. Not surprisingly, “hot” topics were the provision of accessible information, wireless technology, emerging technology, the community and public impact, research, and policy. See the Wireless RERC Updates section or the full story.

This issue also includes news about artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmentative and alternative communications (AAC) apps, and the LeadingAge Hackathon.