The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. To mark this celebration, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is partnering with the White House and the Ad Council to run a series of TV and radio public service announcements (PSAs) featuring President Obama and highlighting Disability.gov.
Disability.gov provides comprehensive information about disability-related programs, services, laws and benefits. The Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and Development InfoStructure, Inc. (Devis) manage the web portal in collaboration with 21 federal partner agencies. Americans with disabilities, their families, veterans, employers, caregivers and others connect to 20,000 national, state and local resources that support the independence, inclusion and full participation of people with disabilities. Devis designed, built and maintains Disability.gov and ensures that all new features meet and exceed the standards set forth in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
As a champion of open source technology and "usable accessibility", Devis works hard with existing open source plug-in libraries to implement accessible controls and displays. Historically, using an embedded YouTube player did not meet basic accessibility criteria for screen readers and other assistive devices. Devis created descriptive controls that ensure that the embedded YouTube video running the PSA on Disability.gov was accessible to those with disabilities and contributed the changes back to the open source project. As a result, this PSA celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ADA is one of the first times that the federal government showcased an accessible YouTube video. "Devis is proud of its long term support of the Office of Disability Employment Policy and Disability.gov. We look forward to continuing to provide thought leadership and subject matter expertise in the area of Section 508 and pushing the limits of usable accessibility on the web" - Cristina Mossi, Devis CEO.
For more information about ADA anniversary events or to see the PSA, please visit: www.disability.gov