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Industry Alliance Aims to Increase Accessibility, Interoperability and Innovation
Leading technology companies join forces to improve access to technology.
WASHINGTON , DC – December 10, 2007 – A coalition of leading
information and
assistive technology
companies today
announced the formation
of the Accessibility
Interoperability
Alliance (AIA), an
engineering working
group dedicated to
enabling developers to
more easily create
accessible software,
hardware and Web
products. Those
solutions will reduce
barriers to information
and communication
technologies that
currently exist for
people with disabilities
in today’s increasingly
digital world. AIA
members will collaborate
on specific engineering
projects intended to
increase
interoperability between
existing technologies,
and will design new
technologies or
solutions to resolve
many of the
long-standing challenges
associated with
developing accessible
products. The group’s
results are expected to
yield improved developer
guidelines, tools and
technologies; lower
development costs; and
increase accessibility
innovation throughout
the industry.
The founding members
of the AIA have selected
four projects to begin
their work:
“Today, developers
must work across
divergent platforms,
application environments
and hardware models to
create accessible
technology for customers
with disabilities,” said
Rob Sinclair, director
of the Accessibility
Business Unit at
Microsoft. “The AIA is
an opportunity for the
entire industry to come
together to reduce the
cost and complexity of
accessibility, increase
customer satisfaction,
foster inclusive
innovation, and
reinforce a sustainable
ecosystem of accessible
technology products.”
Improving Accessibility
Through Industry
Collaboration
Currently, there is
no single accessibility
development model that
information technology
developers can use to
ensure their
applications will work
with virtually any
assistive technology
(AT), or that AT
developers can use to
make sure their products
work with a wide variety
of applications.
Instead, many
accessibility models and
technologies are
required to deliver a
complete solution, and
those investments often
apply only to a small
number of products. As a
result, people with
disabilities who use AT
devices — such as screen
readers for people who
are blind — are
sometimes unable to
access information on
certain Web sites or
applications and may be
forced to wait for
upgrades before they can
use the latest software.
Although customers
and developers would see
significant value in
having the consistent
implementation of a
single accessibility
model across all IT
products, AT devices and
Web sites, the millions
of Web pages and
thousands of software
applications already on
the market would have to
be modified to benefit
from that single model,
creating additional
economic and technology
challenges. Therefore,
the AIA is embarking on
a mission to build
bridges between current
technologies, enabling
them to interoperate
with each other while
also beginning the
longer-term work of
eventually bringing them
together into a single
solution suitable for
the entire industry.
“Many companies
invest heavily to create
technology products that
are accessible,” said
Andrew Kirkpatrick,
senior product manager
for accessibility at
Adobe Systems Inc. “By
combining expertise in
information technology,
assistive technologies
and Web content, the AIA
provides an opportunity
for the industry to
harmonize accessibility
APIs to make it easier
for all companies to
deliver more accessible
products and to make
achieving accessibility
on multiple platforms
attainable.”
AT
Innovation and
Interoperability Expands
Markets, Benefits
Customers
Reducing barriers to
accessibility
development and
improving
interoperability among
current and future
technologies is also
expected to create
broader markets and new
opportunities for many
companies. Although the
advantages of reducing
barriers to accessible
development are
significant for
technology companies,
customers will benefit
most from increased
interoperability between
products and innovation
in the marketplace.
“Accessible
technology is going
mainstream as more and
more people, with and
without disabilities,
begin to discover the
many ways it can improve
their quality of life,”
said Claudio Giugliemma,
CEO of QualiLife, an
assistive technology
company based in
Switzerland. “Because of
the work AIA will do to
improve interoperability
and to foster
collaboration and
innovation across the
industry, more people,
especially those with
disabilities, will be
able to use technology
products to help with
healthcare, aging in
place and other
important life issues.”
Founding members of
AIA include information
technology companies
such as Adobe, BayFirst
Solutions LLC, Microsoft
and Novell Inc.;
hardware companies such
as HP; and assistive
technology companies
such as Claro Software
Ltd., Dolphin Computer
Access,
GW Micro Inc.,
HiSoftware Inc.,
Madentec Inc., Texthelp
Systems Inc. and
QualiLife. Leading
nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) may
also participate and
share their expertise on
these and future AIA
projects. More
information about the
AIA can be found at
http://www.AccessInteropAlliance.org.
Founded in 1975,
Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”) is the worldwide
leader in software,
services and solutions
that help people and
businesses realize their
full potential.
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