WEB SITE FOR THE BLIND - Working with the American Federation for the Blind (AFB), ASP Interliant has created a rich Web site that will make eCommerce accessible to the blind and visually impaired. The site uses technology that can "read" graphics, as well as other tools. The site should create a community for the blind, their care givers, and service providers and should also offer products that can be purchased. Interliant attached links to the site's graphics to enable a screen reader to read the graphics as though they were text. The site also has a color-change option for people with low vision. Screen readers can translate online text into Braille or a synthetic voice but cannot handle the graphics that eCommerce sites frequently use to sell products or link to other applications. The AFB site is a prototype for public-service, nonprofit and commercial sites and could become a host site for agencies and schools unable to afford their own sites. (Computer Reseller News, 12 Feb 01)

REPORT CLAIMS DIGITAL DIVIDE MAY BE SHRINKING - A recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report claims that the US digital divide may be shrinking. While it found that Internet access was more prevalent among whites than minorities and that those who use the Internet are better educated with greater income than the average U.S. citizen, it felt that socioeconomic and geographic differences in use of the Internet are not surprising and may not be long lasting." Internet use among women and rural citizens is rising. However, the report also found a widening gap between those who have high-speed, or broadband Internet access and those who do not. 52% of those surveyed said they could get broadband access if they wanted, but only 12% actually have it. Others found the cost of broadband - at three times higher than dial-up - too high. (Reuters, 22 Feb 01)

PROGRAMS TO HELP CLOSE 'DIGITAL DIVIDE' MAY BE CUT BACK - The proposed Department of Commerce budget for next fiscal year would reduce outlays for the Technology Opportunity Program from $42.5 million to $15 million. In the past, grants from the program have helped schools such as the Maya Angelou Public Charter School afford computers. Observers say cuts to the program, which enjoyed strong support from former President Bill Clinton as well as many tech executives, would send another sign that the Bush administration is not as concerned with the "digital divide," the gap in technology ownership and access between those who are middle-class or rich and those who are poor or who live in rural areas. Although President Bush has said government can play a role in narrowing gaps in technology access, the proposed cuts, along with recent comments by the new FCC Chairman Michael Powell - who compared the digital divide to "a Mercedes divide - I'd like to have one, I can't afford one" - hint that the government may take a less proactive role in closing the digital divide. A Commerce Department spokesperson had no comment on the cuts to the Technology Opportunity Program but said cuts have yet to be finalized. (Wall Street Journal, 16 Feb 01 - Edupage 16 Feb 01)

LAAP AWARD OF $1.8 MILLION FOR OPEN ACCESS STANDARDS - The Department of Education's recent LAAP award of $1.8 million to the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), will help meet the ongoing accessibility challenge by supporting the Specifications for Accessible Learning Technologies (SALT) public/private partnership for open access standards. WGBH and IMS Global Learning Consortium will establish an industry-led Working Group on Accessibility to identify features needed to make online learning accessible, and to specify the resources and technologies needed to implement solutions. Initial partners include Blackboard, Inc., Educational Testing Service (ETS), Microsoft Corporation, Pearson Education, Sun Microsystems, PeopleSoft, Saba Software and the United Kingdom's Open University. For the complete story see the IMS Global Learning Consortium website at CLICK: http://www.imsproject.org/pressrelease/pr010116.html

COLLEGES FOCUS ON MAKING WEB SITES WORK FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES - The past three years have seen several government mandates seeking to improve the accessibility of college computer hardware and Web sites for people with disabilities. In 1998, the federal government invoked the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to require 11 community colleges in California to provide information in both electronic and traditional print format to students who have disabilities. A new federal regulation pertaining to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is pending as the Bush administration reviews all new regulations enacted in the final months of the Clinton presidency. The regulation is meant to bring federal agencies into compliance with the ADA but also applies to state higher-education institutions. College officials say the issue cannot be ignored as more and more professors use the Internet and other multimedia tools as an integral part of their courses and the institutions themselves make the Web an indispensable part of recruitment and administrative activities. However, many of the new features are often difficult for those with visual or hearing impairments to access. (Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 26 Jan 01 - Edupage 2 Feb 01)