Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and Accessibility
Accessibility Webcast for Broadband-Grant Applicants
Are you interested in the federal government's plans to expand access to broadband technologies throughout the United States? Are you applying for Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) or Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) funds to help build this important public infrastructure and/or related services?
If so, you should know that numerous disability-access related federal laws, regulations, and technical standards apply to broadband technologies and services (see Recovery Requires Accessibility and The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the ADA).
The BTOP Grant Guidelines and Applications distributed at regional workshops during the week of July 6, 2009, include the following criterion for one of the grant programs — the Public Computing Centers Program:
"14. Accessibility. Please describe the ways in which your center(s) will be accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities.
Public computer centers funded by BTOP should be accessible (physically, technologically, and culturally) to people with disabilities, such as limited mobility, vision, or hearing..."
Inclusive Technologies and WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) have put together a collaborative team to help applicants for these funds assure that their project outcomes will be accessible to people with disabilities. Both organizations are recognized as expert leaders in the field of accessible information and communications technologies, and participated in the development of federal accessibility requirements and early meetings with NTIA and the White House on assuring full inclusion in the outcomes of broadband grant-funded projects.
We are offering a free, accessible online workshop on July 29, 2009 from 2:00-3:00pm (ET) to help BTOP/BIP applicants understand their obligations to assure that project outcomes will be accessible to people with disabilities, and the competitive advantage accessibility will add to your proposal. This 60-minute session will cover:
- accessibility laws and regulations;
- common accessibility barriers and solutions in broadband technologies;
- where and how accessibility fits in the BTOP and BIP programs.
You can register on-line for this accessibility Webcast, hosted by our partner LearningTimes. To get more information about accessibility in the BTOP and BIP programs, please contact us at btopaccess@wgbh.org, or visit NCAM's BTOP Web site.
Webcast Presenters
Larry Goldberg, director of the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Shapiro National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH, advises government agencies and media and technology companies on access issues. He directs WGBH's media access activities which include the development of television, Web, movie theater and museum captioning and video description and numerous media and technology access R&D innovations. He was a member of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Technological Advisory Council and Consumer Advisory Committee, and currently serves on the FCC's working group on DTV closed captioning and video description. Larry also served on the U.S. Access Board's Advisory Committees that established and updated rules (Section 508) for federal IT accessibility. He testified in May 2008 before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on the "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act."
Jim Tobias, president of Inclusive Technologies, has worked in the field of technology and disability for 25 years. He worked for ten years at Bell Labs and Bellcore, providing telecommunications and disability consulting for Bell companies and other telecommunications and information industry clients. In addition, he specializes in market research and analysis and technology policy in the public and private sectors. He recently co-chaired the U.S. Access Board's Advisory Committee that updated rules for federal agency accessibility.
