Microsoft Accessibility : community events

Microsoft Accessibility Perspective on Federal Communications Commission Issues

AnnuskaP — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:12:00 GMT

Recently, Microsoft participated in a field hearing held by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. There are critical issues for people with disabilities relating to broadband access. For a description of Microsoft's technology solutions and collaborative approach, please read the blog article, Promoting An Accessibility Ecosystem of Choice and Opportunity.

Get quick updates about Microsoft Accessibility on Twitter

AnnuskaP — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:48:00 GMT

We've started twittering to share announcements, links to research and technology articles, plus to chit-chat with the Twitter community. The blog will be more expansive & detailed naturally, given that Twitter micro-blogs are limited to 140 characters. <grin>

Winners chosen for Imagine Cup Accessibility!

AnnuskaP — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:25:00 GMT

The Awards ceremony was yesterday, and all the student winners were announced! The onsite 24-hour Interface Design Accessibility winners were Team JivAd, from France. Throughout their analysis of the design problem and their proposed design solution, they thoughtfully incorporated accessibility requirements. They highlighted aspects of their design that would make it easier for people to use. When more information about the design problem and their solution is published, I will post a link.

Also, WebAnywhere was announced as the winner of an online Imagine Cup competition, Accessible Technology Exceptional Achievement award. WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader that can be used by people on any computer, like public computers.

More information can be found at:

http://imaginecup.com/About/News.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/jun08/06-18imagineaccess.mspx

Congratulations to the winning teams, and to all the teams that participated in the Interface Design Challenge. It was a pleasure being the Accessibility captain and watching your creativity shine through.

Accessibility design competition is underway

AnnuskaP — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:50:00 GMT

The Imagine Cup kicked off this week! There are a ton of events happening, with students and judges engaged on in their compeitions. For Accessibility, there was a 24-hour competition, as part of the Interface Design competition. There are 6 teams competiting, from France, Canada, U.S., and China. Surya Vanka is the Interface Design captain, and I'm the Accessibility captain. We'll be posting an interview with Surya once we have a chance to do the final productions steps.

For the 24-hour competition, the students were challenged to re-design a hypothetical mobile and web system. The room was full of anticipation when we handed over the problem statement. It was exciting to see the teams begin brainstorming and wrapping their heads around the problem parameters. Today, they presented their solutions and we were impressed with their talent. We announce the winner tomorrow, so I'll be able to blog more about the design problem and solution ideas after that.

If you want to find out more about the Imagine Cup overall, the main blog is at http://imaginecupfinalsinparis.spaces.live.com/default.aspx. Bonjour!

Inspiration from CSUN's 23rd Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities

AnnuskaP — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:50:00 GMT

We recently participated (and helped sponsor) the fabulous, annual Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities, which is commonly referred to by its hosting university, CSUN. It was a whirl-wind of keynote speeches, presentations on best practices in academia and industry, and networking events. Microsoft's presentations ranged from announcing test tools for assessing the programmatic accessibility of applications, our participation in the industry's Online Media Captioning effort, and collaborations in the area of desiging for the Aging demographic. We had the chance to talk with people during our networking events, where we covered a wide-range of topics, from the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance to the Microsoft Office Save As Daisy add-in. It was great to connect with educators, end-users, and industry partners to bring them up-to-date on our accessibility efforts. And to talk about what they are currently exploring, as well.

What I find most inspiring about CSUN is walking the exhibit hall where teachers, parents, and industry members get to try out new assistive technology applications and hardware. The exhibit halls are buzzing with people searching out solutions and making new connections. I always come away with a sense of what the industry has accomplished, and how much potential there is to make more advancements.

University Students: enter the Imagine Cup Accessible Technology contest (open until 5/2/08)

AnnuskaP — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:35:00 GMT

Do you have aspirations to showcase your design skills and creativity? The Microsoft Imagine Cup is a great opportunity to do so! The Cup is for university students around the world. There are various contest categories, such as software, gaming, embedded, and my favorite, Interface Design. Why is it my favorite, you ask? Well, because the Interface Design category includes an Accessible Technology Award!

To enter the Accessible Technology contest, your entry has to clearly articulate and solve a real-world, accessibility scenario. An accessibility scenario woulld improve technology access for people with physical and cognitive disabilities, and for people who face temporary difficulties. An example of temporary situation is someone working in a loud factory and therefore, cannot hear their computer sounds. Another user group to consider is people who are aging and dealing with age-related functional limitations.

Another criteria for the Accessible Technology contest is to show how accessible technologies enable your solution. The range of accessible technologies is quite deep with a lot of platform capabilities. For example, the UI Automation APIs enable programmatic access to the operating system and applications. It is used to "drive" the user interface, on behalf of the user. Another example is the speech technologies, used for text-to-speech output and voice recognition.

So, we encourage you to form a team and participate in the Imagine Cup! For full entry criteria and other details, visit the Imagine Cup Accessible Technology site.