Finding a Collective Voice

At ATIA 2001, Hertz lauded the work of the ATIA and emphasized the importance of partnering to meet current and future customer accessibility needs.

Microsoft Accessible Technology Group Director, Janice Hertz addressed the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) 2001 World Conference and Exhibition held January 24-27, 2001, in Orlando, Florida. Hertz lauded the work of the ATIA and emphasized the importance of partnering to meet current and future customer accessibility needs. ATIA members include more than 60 vendors of adaptive technology and many other organizations serving people with disabilities. The ATIA is a not-for-profit member-driven organization including a wide variety of assistive technology vendors and other organizations providing services for people with disabilities.

Microsoft has more than a decade of experience and commitment to accessibility, Hertz said. "Throughout this time, we've realized that we have to build accessible infrastructure into our products, but we also rely on the work of assistive technology vendors to truly make our products accessible to everyone. Today, we test new releases of our products with selective assistive technology software and hardware so that we can address compatibility issues—or, at least, alert vendors that changes must be made. We work closely with selective vendors to ensure that new releases of our operating system, such as the forthcoming release code-named Whistler, has the support of a critical mass of assistive technology upon release. We continually look to add infrastructure to allow easier access by assistive technology.

"We know that without our partners in this industry, we can't be successful in meeting our customer's accessibility needs. And, as important, assistive technology vendors need each other as partners too—and that's why ATIA is so important. The assistive technology (AT) industry needs a collective voice:

A voice to persuade mainstream software and hardware vendors to make their products accessibility-ready.
A voice to Web developers and companies that their Web sites need to be accessible to AT.
A voice to AT vendors to solve the problem of AT that can't co-exist on a system with other AT.
A voice to get the word out to educators, rehabilitation professionals, and to consumers, that there are solutions available right now.
A voice to tell system integrators about these same solutions for corporations and government agencies that are hiring people with disabilities.
A voice to help shape government regulations that apply to the accessibility of technology products.
And a voice to persuade government to improve funding for technology solutions for individuals with disabilities.

"ATIA is positioned to become that voice—it just needs you and other AT vendors to participate and make that collective voice a reality.

In closing, I want to leave you with a caution and a challenge. The technology world right now is rapidly changing-a great revolution is occurring. Cell phones merging with hand-helds and PDAs and every appliance imaginable accessing the Internet. I predict that unless AT vendors can collectively deal with some of these issues, people with disabilities will be left out of the revolution longer. You know what it takes to meet the access needs of all types of people. You need to be a part of the revolution. You need to partner with mainstream vendors to make sure that no one is left out of this new information revolution."