December 13-14, 2010 George Washington University Marvin Center 800 21st St. Washington D.C. §508 Listening Session |
This year’s Interagency Disability Educational Awareness Showcase (IDEAS), the federal government’s premier conference on Section 508 compliance and accessible workplace technology, will be held December 13 and 14 at George Washington University's Marvin Center in Washington, D.C. The conference, which is sponsored by the General Services Administration (GSA) with support from the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, will feature sessions on the President’s Executive Order to increase the hiring of people with disabilities, agency compliance with Section 508, streamlining procurement, policy updates from lead 508 agencies, technology innovations, and other topics.
The agenda also includes a public listening session on ways to improve access to information technology in the Federal sector on December 14 from 2:00 to 5:00. This is the second in a series of such forums organized by the Federal CIO Council in collaboration with the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, GSA, and the Access Board, to engage citizens and employees in expressing concerns and proposing ideas on ways to improve access and compliance with Section 508 as part of a new administration initiative. Specifically, input is sought on how the federal government can use technology in new and better ways and influence technology accessibility, what technology can do to improve access and opportunities for people with disabilities and enhance their interaction with the federal government, emerging technologies and access barriers, and other topics. Representatives from the Access Board, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and AbilityOne will conduct the session. An earlier session organized by the Board took place in Chicago in September.
Members of the public are invited to attend the session to offer their ideas for improving IT accessibility or to share access concerns. Feedback from this session and future ones will be shared with responsible agencies to implement improvements. For more information, visit the IDEAS website. Those who wish to provide comments at the listening session can sign-up in advance by contacting Emily Koo at (410) 965-4472 or innovative.accessibility@ssa.gov.
