New assistive app challenge

17 June 2012

Roberta: A challenge announced last week by the Department of Labour’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, ODEP, could see a suite of apps developed to help boost employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Clarizza Fernandez from Media Access Australia is here to tell us all about it. Hello Clarizza.

Clarizza: Hi Roberta.

Roberta: Now tell us about the Disability Employment App Challenge in the US perhaps.

Clarizza: So this is being run by the US Government Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy to promote the employment of people with a disability. They are asking individuals and organisations to get creative and use information, tools, resources, and employment data available to them to develop or build tools that will help promote employment for people with a disability.

 It’s an app challenge, so the apps they are looking for should promote recruitment and job training and skill building, for example. They should also be accessible, so the apps should work with assistive technologies like a screen reader which comes inbuilt in many mobile devices.

Roberta: Clarizza, how is this significant for people with a disability?

Clarizza: This is significant for people with a disability because it promotes their inclusion in the workforce. In the US there’s currently 20.3% labour force participation from people with a disability compared to 69.1% for non-disabled peers. And with the continued popularity of the apps and mobile devices it could help people with a disability to feel included. There’s so many Smartphones and mobile devices that have accessible tools, and they’re used by many in the disability community. So, if for example, an app is developed that works with the assistive tool with the mobile devices, then many can enjoy the benefits, including deaf or hearing impaired, and blind or vision impaired users.

Roberta: Have there been similar challenges in Australia?

Clarizza: The Telstra Innovation Challenge looks at projects that benefit Australian consumers and businesses. Last year the winning product of the challenge was the Silent Tweets app; this is an excellent app because it allows any audible public service announcements or alerts to be converted into visual or text format. So for example, train announcements; if a deaf person has the app installed on their Smartphone they can be alerted to any train delays or timetable changes to their phone, which will then vibrate and send the text notification to them.

Roberta: The Australian government has also made a commitment to making their online services more accessible, haven’t they?

Clarizza: Yes, that is being manifested in the National Transition Strategy which was announced in 2010 and has kept many government departments busy. So what that means is that all government departments must have a website that complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at A Level by the end of this year, and AA Level by the end of 2014.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are a series of sets of criteria and techniques which helps make the website accessible to people who may have a disability or use assistive technology to browse the web. One simple example is colour contrast; the guidelines are there to help web developers create websites that are set to the right colour contrast so that people who are colour blind are able to access the website. There’s lots the developers can do in this area, and making the web accessible by following the guidelines is actually beneficial to everyone, not just people with a disability.

Roberta: Can we expect more challenges like this once the National Transition Strategy is in place?

Clarizza: It will definitely spur on some challenges and changes the way developers and organisations build their online services. Once the National Transition Strategy is in place many more websites will be accessible, and if that’s the case, more people can participate online and as you know, the internet is such a big part of everyone’s lives, so web accessibility should be a top priority.

Roberta: It certainly should. Well, there’s a lot of work ahead, isn’t there?

Clarizza: Yes, there is.

Roberta: Well thank you Clarizza, for all of that today, and I will be talking more about this soon. You can find out more about developments like this at the Media Access Australia website, that’s mediaaccess.org.au, or you can phone 02 9212 6242, or if you like to email, mediaaccess.org.au for more details.

I’ve been speaking with Clarizza Fernandez from Media Access Australia, and Media Access Australia are supporters of this program.