News

University of Washington to establish IT access center

February 28, 2002

SEATTLE - Making information technology accessible to those with disabilities will be the focus of a new technology center being established by the University of Washington.

UW has been awarded a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to create a National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education. UW's center for technology and disability studies and center on human development and disability are partners in the center, along with Equal Access to Software and Information, the Washington Education Association, and Microsoft Corp.

The center, to be called AccessIT, will focus on making technology used by students and employees in education settings more accessible, including computers, the Internet, copy machines, printers and kiosks.

"As far as we have come with advances in computing, Internet access, telecommunications and other forms of information technology, these advances are not available to everyone, particularly people with disabilities who may be unable to read or see displayed information, hear or respond to spoken prompts, or use such devices as a keyboard of computer mouse," Dr. Kurt L. Johnson, center administrator, said in a news release.