These articles and essays feature people and organizations using accessible technology to realize their full potential, and the products and technology they use.
Video: Inspiring Future Technologies for Everyone
"A Family Day Out" demonstrates concepts for innovative technologies to enrich the lives of people with vision impairments.
(February, 2013)
Adapting Kinect for Physical Therapy
A Kinect-based system could help combat veterans perform physical therapy at home.
(December 2012)
Adapting EDF and Microsoft Team Up to Enhance Accessibility
Microsoft and European Disability Forum reaffirmed the common objective that the web and digital environment must be made accessible to all.
(December 2012)
Accessibility Survey
Most organizations view accessibility as an important strategic consideration while citing a lack of resources as a main factor in it not playing an even bigger role.
(November 2012)
Top Seven Accessibility Tips
Viewers of this 6-minute video will quickly learn how to access features in Windows 7, Office 2010, and Internet Explorer that can help them make their computer easier to see, hear, and use.
(October 2012)
Making Technology Safer & Easier for Aging Baby Boomers
Bonnie Kearney highlights Microsoft's commitment to addressing accessibility issues that accompany the "Silver Tsunami" (an increase in the average age of the population worldwide).
(September 2012)
Online Ease and Safety for Aging Adults
Learn how Microsoft's awareness of an aging population – known as the "Silver Tsunami" – helps drive more secure, accessible technology.
(September 2012)
Week of September 17: Accessibility in Education
Throughout 2012, Anthony Salcito has posted stories of global heroes in education on his Daily Edventures blog. The week focused on people who are making education more accessible for students with learning challenges. To get inspired about ways you can personalize technology to prepare students for learning, read the week's posts:
September 21: Students create inclusive games and planetarium tour
September 20: Shannon Putman creates a Kinect for Xbox game
September 19: Mexico Imagine Cup team creates an ADD treatment
September 18: Philippines Imagine Cup team creates KidCAMP
September 17: Robin Lowell teaches math with Microsoft Lync
Global Accessibility: NCPEDP Recognizes Microsoft India
The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) honored Microsoft India for partnering on initiatives that help extend the use of technology to persons with disabilities.
(August 2012)
Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2012 Winners
Team quadSquad from the Ukraine took top honors in the Software Design Competition with its device, Enable Talk, which uses a pair of gloves equipped with 15 flex sensors and a microcontroller that continuously recognize sign language patterns, which are then transmitted via Bluetooth to a Windows Phone device that uses the Microsoft Speech API and Bing API to translate the signs into audio. This year, twenty-three percent of Imagine Cup projects were created to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities such as visual and hearing impairments and diseases that limit a human's physical mobility. Find more accessibility projects in the theme "promotion of accessibility and universal design for all".
(July 2012)
Technology ‘Saved My Life’: Making Life Better for Boomers, Seniors
From improving fitness and aging in place to ending isolation and engaging more easily with family and friends, technology solutions help aging computer users and seniors successfully address many of the issues associated with aging.
(July 2012)
Microsoft, Dell Empower Students with Accessible Technology and Training
Through Dell's Assistive Technology Service, schools receive training including accessibility resources that illustrate how to use accessibility features in Windows and Office and how to create accessible teaching materials and talking textbooks.
(June 2012)
Delivering Success Through Technology for Students with Disabilities
With creative use of technology, educators are finding new ways to break down barriers and positively impact learning for all their students equally—including students with learning style differences and disabilities.
(June 2012)
Using Kinect in Special Ed Classrooms: Advice from Loudoun County, Virginia teachers
We continue to hear inspiring stories every day about how teachers are using Kinect for Xbox 360 to bring learning to life in the classroom. Read about how special education teachers at Steuart Weller Elementary School in Loudoun County, Virginia are using the Kinect with their special needs students.
(June 2012)
Microsoft Public-Private Partnership Helps Seniors Get Healthy and Have Fun
Los Angeles seniors are achieving and maintaining a more active lifestyle, improving their general health, and more safely managing their health data, thanks to a public-private partnership that includes Microsoft, the City of Los Angeles, the Partners in Care Foundation, and St. Barnabas Senior Services.
See also news release.
(April 2012)
Exergamers Wellness Club Uses Kinect and HealthVault to Enhance Well-being of Seniors
Los Angeles seniors in Exergamers Wellness Club report health benefits and increased happiness as a result of an innovative public-private partnership using Kinect interactive gaming and health-monitoring tools from Microsoft. See also news release.
(April 2012)
"We want to learn"—Celebrating World Down Syndrome Day—Colombia
March 21 marks World Down Syndrome Day. Children and adults with Down syndrome may have some developmental delays, but they also have many talents and must be given the chance to develop them. Read this blog by Luz Garcia de Galindo, CEO of the Down Syndrome Foundation, Bogota, Columbia.
(March 2012)
For Students with Disabilities, Personalized Technology is Great Equalizer—Qatar
David Banes, CEO of Mada, Qatar’s Assistive Technology and Accessibility Center has been advocating for the use of technology for people with disabilities and special needs since 1994—seeking out ways to apply technology to creating accessibility for an underserved population.
(March 2012)
Life-changing software for hearing impaired students—Ecuador
Imagine Cup winner Paco Pérez, along with fellow students and teammates created SkillBox, an affordable software solution to help hearing-impaired children by translating audio received from the teacher into sign language. The team (Falcon Dev) hopes to take their first step in making SkillBox available to children by selling the solution to public schools in Ecuador.
(March 2012)
Recommendations for Providing Accessible Technology for Students to Enhance Personalized Learning
A report released by UNESCO entitled "Accessible ICTs and Personalized Learning for Students with Disabilities" outlines practical solutions for ensuring students with learning style differences, special needs, and disabilities can use personalized technology to enhance learning.
(March 2012)
The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools
This book shares best practices for developing an assistive technology team within a school and using readily available assistive technology in Microsoft Windows and Office to address diverse learning needs of students with special needs and disabilities.
(February 2012)
Different Students, Same Dreams
School Principal, Escola Secundária de Lagoa, São Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal has been a Portuguese teacher for 15 years, a drama teacher for seven years and the Lagoa Secondary School Principal for three years. Amaral is interested in improving students' learning process and skills and in introducing the right tools—in and out of the classroom—to improve students' academic success.
(February 2012)