2020 was a year of unprecedented challenges with both new and heightened obstacles facing our communities on a global and local level. With hope for a brighter future, we reflect on the ideas from 2020 that we want to celebrate and carry with us as we enter 2021.
Twenty years ago, with some seed money from his last startup and a vision to change the world, Jim Fruchterman founded Benetech, a nonprofit dedicated to building tech that serves all of humanity. Today, Benetech continues to build on the founding vision, expanding our impact to empower communities across the globe with software for social good.
Global Certified Accessible ensures students unable to read standard print due to blindness, low vision, dyslexia, or a physical disability have equal access to the same content as their peers. The program has a global footprint in order to serve students around the world. Benetech developed the certification standards and serves as the lead certification provider for North America. Dedicon provides certification for mainland Europe, Royal National Institute of Blind People for the United Kingdom, and Vision Australia for Australasia.
Digital content is on the rise in classrooms across the country. Much of this content comes in the form of ebooks. Unfortunately, not all ebooks are accessible to students unable to read standard print due to low vision, blindness, or dyslexia. Procurement staff—either at the state or school-district level—must know what to look for in order to identify and procure content that works for all students.
“There are millions of people in the United States who struggle to access the services that can help them most,” said Anh Bui, vice president, Benetech. “Data about those services is locked in fragmented and redundant silos across thousands of human services organizations and referral providers. These costly and ineffective data silos make it difficult for service providers to connect clients with the services they need. Benetech’s new data platform approach is designed to break down these data silos.”
