Raising the Floor News
Real-time Crowd-sourced Captions for US Presidential Speech
The 2012 State of the Union address by President Obama marked a cloud-based innovation -- real-time captioning provided by multiple contributors. A GPII partner, Universal Subtitles, set up the tools for this event, which won high marks from viewers. In addition to the English version, dozens of other languages are now available, through the same crowd-sourcing method.
Startup ifttt Offers Innovative, Simple Web Scripting
"If This Then That" is the name of a popular new mashup platform. Take a trigger from any service (a new tweet, an incoming tagged Gmail, a call to your phone) and connect it to an action you want to perform, such as notification or re-routing. For accessibility, imagine being able to take a web page and re-format it for better readability, or translate the text of a specific email into speech. They've got connections to about 50 such services, and no coding skills are required.
FCC Examines Broadband Adoption by People with Disabilities
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hosted a meeting on December 7, 2011, to begin a year-long study of broadband adoption and usage by people with disabilities. The Global Initiative on Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict) and the Digital Inclusion Forum invited speakers and experts to examine why the broadband adoption rate is lower for people with disabilities -- in some cases only half that of non-disabled consumers -- and what can be done to increase it.
Crowd-sourced Accessibility App Wins Award
Access Together, a mobile app for sharing information about accessible businesses and locations, has won a $1000 prize in the Apps for Communities Challenge, sponsored by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the Knight Foundation. Access Together is just getting started, and will include information about architectural inclusion, age-friendly locations, and access to information for people with hearing or vision loss.
US Government Will Extend Accessibility Requirements to Contractors
In an effort to improve the rate of employment of people with disabilities, the US Department of Labor has strengthened the requirements for hiring and accommodating disabled workers at the tens of thousands of firms that act as federal contractors. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Section 503 issued last week sets a goal of 7% of the contractor workforce, and requires a documented process for accessible workplaces.
US Government Evaluates Cloud Computing Roadmap
The US Department of Commerce's National Institute on Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a draft of a Cloud Computing Roadmap. The Roadmap will establish plans for how the federal government will adopt and manage all aspects of cloud computing, such as standards, portability, security, and interoperability.
US Moves to Support Wider Broadband Adoption
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to create a new public fund to support broadband rollout and subsidize service for low income and/or disabled Americans. The move converts the FCC's Universal Service Fund into the Connect America Fund. Approximately $4.5 billion will be used to underwrite network extension and customer subsidies. In addition, the Fund will support digital literacy classes nationwide at public access points such as libraries.
G3ict Sponsors Two Accessibility Events
The Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict) is leading 2 important accessibility events in Washington, DC. Raising the Floor will be represented at both.
Honduran Teen Develops Low-Cost Eye Gaze Tracker
Luis Cruz, an 18-year-old Honduran, has developed a device that tracks eye gaze, allowing the user to control a computer and enter text just by looking in different directions. The prototype is open source, and may sell for as little as $300. Current eye gaze products cost as much as $10,000, putting them out of range for all but the wealthiest. As we say, lowering the price is raising the floor!
Kits may be available as soon as February 2012, and the software is free.
Universal Subtitles Honored at Tech Awards
Universal Subtitles, one of our partner organizations, was honored as a Laureate at the recent Tech Awards. Universal Subtitles' volunteer-based, crowd-sourced captioning/subtitling technology has already processed 25,000 online videos in just 9 months, and its usage continues to grow dramatically. They were one of only 3 programs honored in the Equality category.
