[Athen] Social media and Disability

[Laurie Vasquez]

FYI -

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy and
the National Council on Disability invite the public to participate in a
virtual town hall dialogue, "Advancing Accessibility and Inclusion in
Social Media - The User Experience," which will examine the accessibility
barriers of social media for individuals with disabilities, including
jobseekers and workers.

This crowdsourcing event will take place from Monday, March 17, to Friday,
April 4, and it will be the first in a series of three social media
accessibility online events taking place over the next three months.

"Social media is transforming how we engage with customers, employees,
jobseekers and other stakeholders," said Kathy Martinez, assistant
secretary of labor for disability employment policy. "But when social media
is inaccessible to people with disabilities, it excludes a sizeable segment
of our population. This online dialogue will help us pinpoint social media
accessibility barriers, and discover new solutions for ensuring these
digital services can be used and optimized by everyone."

"The National Council on Disability is privileged to co-host this online
dialogue with ODEP as part of an ongoing collaboration between federal
agencies and private-sector companies invested in the social media space,"
said Janni Lehrer-Stein, chairperson of access and integration for NCD. "We
anticipate that this online discussion will present new and exciting
opportunities for Americans with disabilities and people around the world.
Social media opens up a new marketplace of ideas and access for everyone,
including people with disabilities, adding value and providing new
opportunities through inclusive engagement in the virtual world."

The conversation will explore the value of social media in the lives of
people with disabilities, particularly around work, and identify
accessibility issues and creative approaches to making social media tools
more accessible and usable. Participants will be able to discuss their
social media experiences and submit ideas, comments and vote on potential
solutions. The information gathered from this dialogue will then help NCD
and ODEP further collaborate with the social media industry to implement
solutions.

The national dialogue is being coordinated under ODEP's ePolicyWorks
initiative.

To register, visit:
http://NCD-ODEP.SocialMedia.ePolicyWorks.org<http://ncd-odep.socialmedia.epolicyworks.org/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20140314/568b9ea1/attachment.html>