IBM Equips Computer Science Students With Skills to Make Software More Accessible to Disabled Users

IBM Equips Computer Science Students With Skills to Make Software More Accessible to Disabled Users

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a program to equip computer science majors at colleges and universities with the technical skills to develop or adapt computer programs for people with disabilities, the maturing population, and non-native language speakers, so that they can more easily access, navigate and use the Web and electronic office documents.

Just in time for the fall semester, IBM is posting a Web-based, lecture available for viewing anytime (ibm.com/university/skills/accessibility) that teaches programming techniques to make electronic documents and the Web more accessible to all users. The lecture also discusses and illustrates the importance of developing software and Web applications that are accessible to all. Professors who lead computer science courses can easily incorporate the material into their curriculum.

As part of the program, IBM is also launching a contest that challenges students to propose and design open source software for people with disabilities. To qualify, their entries must be based on a new international standard, called the OpenDocument Format (ODF). Familiarity with ODF will be increasingly important, as the format will be required by 50 percent of governments and 20 percent of commercial organizations by 2010, according to the Gartner. More information on the contest can be found at ibm.com/able/contest/.

“While there are many courses on programming skills, few, if any, lectures are devoted to encouraging students to consider the needs of computer users with sight, hearing or mobility disabilities when they write software code,” said Dr. Wayne Dick, Chair of the Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of California State University at Long Beach. “IBM’s considerable expertise in assistive technologies will help computer sciences majors differentiate themselves in the job market, and give the students the satisfaction of helping others and solving challenges. The skills also make good business sense, given the size of the disabled community.”

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