Education

Michael Yudin, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) at the U.S. Department of Education, published a blog post entitled “Technology Gives Students with Disabilities Access to College Courses” about his recent visit to Mission Middle College in Santa Clara, California. During the visit, Mr. Yudin met with a group of Bookshare student members and observed a demonstration of how people use Bookshare.

This blog originally appeared in the Huffington Post and was reposted on Jim Fruchterman’s Beneblog. The Obama Administration is turning its back on people with disabilities–and I’m outraged. I’m an engineer and social entrepreneur, trying to make the world a better place for people with disabilities, and I rarely step into the role of vocal advocate. But when […]

Publishing Perspectives, the prestigious online journal of international publishing news and opinion, featured Benetech’s Bookshare library in a recent story called “Exploring Accessible Publishing for the Print Disabled.” The story also notes that Benetech shepherds forth “a mammoth five year R&D undertaking called DIAGRAM, which aims to educate publishers about how to make content fully accessible for everyone from the very beginning of the process,” and mentions Poet, a web-based, open source image description tool developed by DIAGRAM.

Google’s Official Blog (as well as the online magazine Mobile & Apps) highlighted Web Reader, a new Bookshare reading tool, as part of announcing Google new accessibility features. Those features make it easier for people who are blind or have low vision to use the Google suite of Web apps.

 This week in Geneva is a major meeting on the path to the expected Diplomatic Conference on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired. The goal of the Treaty is to make a copyright exception for the blind and other people with disabilities that stop them from reading print, and to make import and export of […]