[Imc-makerspace] Fwd: Raising the Floor Newsletter - Issue 1

Fri Jun 24 08:04:21 CDT 2011

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Raising the Floor Newsletter - Issue 1
Date: 	Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:50:33 -0500
From: 	Contact Manager <info at raisingthefloor.org>
Reply-To: 	Contact Manager <info at raisingthefloor.org>
To: 	Stewart Dickson <sdickson at uiuc.edu>

Raising the Floor Newsletter
Issue 1 - June 2011

Raising the Floor logo

Welcome to the inaugural issue of a new monthly newsletter highlighting 
participants, accomplishments, upcoming events and activities and other 
news related to Raising the Floor. If you do not want to receive this 
newsletter use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.

Raising the Floor (RtF) is an international coalition of individuals and 
organizations working to ensure that the Internet, and everything 
available through it, is accessible to people experiencing accessibility 
barriers due to disability, literacy, or age. Of particular concern are 
people who are underserved or unserved due to the type or combination of 
disabilities they have, the part of the world they live in, or the 
limited resources (financial or program) available to them. A central 
activity of Raising the Floor – International is coordination of an 
emerging consortium to build a Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure 
(GPII). For more information see http://raisingthefloor.org.

  RtF Updates

    RtF at World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum

Axel Leblois, Jutta Treviranus, and Gregg Vanderheiden represented RtF 
at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS.ORG/forum) 
May 16-18 as part of the UNESCO sponsored session. Raising the Floor 
also had an exhibit there to promote links with other international 
programs. A number of new alliances were formed, especially related to 
and involving developing countries. WSIS is a U.N.-organized body whose 
goal is “to achieve a common vision, desire and commitment to build a 
people-centric, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society 
where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information.” 
Organizers of the Forum include ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD, and UNDP.

    Brian Behlendorf Joins Raising the Floor’s Technological Advisory Board

Brian Behlendorf, best known for his lead role in developing the Apache 
web server software, has joined RtF’s Technological Advisory Board. 
Other members are David Boloker (IBM), Vint Cerf (Google), Bill Coleman 
(Alsop Louie Partners, former Sun VP), and Dale Hatfield (former Chief 
Technologist for the FCC). Brian brings his considerable expertise in 
web services and security to the Board along with his special interest 
in privacy and security. Read about all of the Board members at 
http://raisingthefloor.org/about/who.

    New RtF Headquarters

*Raising the Floor – International* has moved into its new headquarters 
in Geneva’s WCC Complex, 150 route de Ferney, between the airport and 
the UN Palace of Nations. The RtF-International headquarters is fully 
accessible, directly on public transportation routes, and has wonderful 
meeting and support facilities. The International Disability Alliance is 
also conveniently located in this complex.

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  Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII)

    CLOUD4All Proposal Selected in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
    Competition

The CLOUD4All proposal submitted by a 31-member consortium of industry, 
academia, and consumer groups was selected by the European Commission as 
part of the latest call under FP7 and is now in the final negotiation 
stage. CLOUD4All, led by Technosite (Project Coordinator) and 
RtF-International (Technical Coordinator), is focused on developing key 
components in the GPII. The proposal, which received the highest score 
in its division, is currently in the budget negotiation phase, but 
funding is expected to be in the 7+ million Euro range plus matching. 
More details will be provided when the budget and work scope are finalized.

    UCP Endorses GPII

United Cerebral Palsy joins those endorsing the GPII initiative. Stephen 
Bennett, UCP’s President and CEO, said, “The GPII offers the promise of 
an interconnected device and application landscape that has 
accessibility within its very bedrock.” We welcome the support of this 
national advocacy group that has achieved so much. We will be working on 
GPII together with UCP, whose Life Labs 
<http://www.ucp.org/about/programs-initiatives/life-labs> center and 
other technology initiatives offer a new way forward to technological 
inclusion.

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  Gathering Needs And Numbers

    GPII at the TDI Conference

Jim Tobias gave an invited plenary presentation on GPII at TDI’s 
biennial conference 
<https://tdiforaccess.org/about_tdi.aspx?key=About%20TDI%28Biennial%20Conference-General%20Announcement%29&select=AboutTDI> 
in Austin, Texas June 2-4, 2011. The Conference Planning Committee was 
excited about GPII’s potential, and asked RtF to provide highlights of 
it to their members at this year’s conference. Of particular interest to 
conference attendees was the role GPII might play in enhancing 
employment of people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and for its 
potential for automatic adjustment of audio to match users and 
environments. Consumers also expressed an interest in being able to rate 
people providing interpretation and to express preferences for 
interpreters by name or technical language expertise. There was also a 
request to find ways for RtF to reach those who do not attend 
conferences, and are not connected to most information sources. For 
those who are not already aware, TDI “is an active national advocacy 
organization focusing its energies and resources to address equal access 
issues in telecommunications and media for four constituencies in 
deafness and hearing loss, specifically people who are deaf, 
hard-of-hearing, late-deafened, or deaf-blind.”

    GPII at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference

RtF has been accepted to present on GPII at June’s American Library 
Association <http://ala.org/> annual conference. We will be meeting with 
librarians there to get a better picture of the challenges they face in 
making their facilities and resources more accessible. What we learn 
from them, we will apply to GPII and other RtF programs. For example, 
one issue we’ve heard about is that librarians cannot install assistive 
technology software on their public access computers because their IT 
departments place security restrictions on all machines on the network. 
How can we work with the IT departments and the network security 
software companies to resolve this problem? Are there network or cloud 
solutions? Will they work with library systems and software?

    Assistive Technology Funding Study

RtF has commissioned a study of US funding sources for assistive 
technology, to understand whether and how those sources could pay for 
network-based assistive technologies supported by GPII. This information 
is important to assistive technology vendors, who need accurate funding 
policy guidance in order to develop their business plans. A researcher 
will be selected this month; the study will begin immediately, and 
results will be published on our website and elsewhere.

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  Spotlight

    Apple Support Communities

Apple has introduced a peer support system called Apple Support 
Communities <https://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa>. You can join a 
community for any product you have, in any use environment (e.g., “iPad 
in the Enterprise”), and ask and answer questions there. This approach 
harvests information from millions of users, evaluates it for accuracy, 
indexes it so it can be found by other users, and offers a friendly, 
clean, accessible interface. Peer support like this is what we have in 
mind for many GPII-based AT products, where users can network with each 
other to exchange tips and tricks.

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  Get Involved

    Newsletter Design Competition

Good at newsletter design? Want to help out? Submit a design for our 
newsletter that is simple, professional, accessible, easy to read, easy 
to skim. You can use this newsletter as a sample – but also suggest or 
include other parts you think useful if you like.

    How To Get Involved

Would you like to become involved in Raising the Floor? Come visit our 
website and let us know how you would like to pitch in. 
<http://raisingthefloor.org/getinvolved>

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Raising the Floor - International
150 route de Ferney
Geneva, 1204
Switzerland
http://RaisingTheFloor.org

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