News

A five-year, $4.75 million Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center grant was awarded to the UW-Madison’s Trace Center by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education. This funding will continue the Center’s broad program of research and development focused on improving accessibility of information technologies and electronic products. The work funded by […]

On April 30, 2008, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. This is an important milestone, indicating that there is now a broad consensus in the WCAG Working Group and among public reviewers on the technical content. “The community is eager for WCAG […]

Real-time text capability has been added to the latest release of the popular AOL Instant Messaging, allowing users to see each other’s text live as it is typed. This option, included in AIM 6.8, resulted from collaboration between AOL and the RERC on Telecommunications Access – a partnership of the Trace Center and Gallaudet University’s […]

On April 3, 2008, the Telecommunications and Electronic & Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) issued its final report to the U.S. Access Board. Trace Center Director Gregg Vanderheiden served as a member of the TEITAC, co-chairing the Subcommittee on General Interface Accessibility. The Trace Center contributed technical expertise and participated on six of the nine […]

The national bodies of ISO/IEC JTC1 voted in January 2008 to adopt international standards for universal remote console technology. The standards have been published as ISO/IEC 24752, and are now available for purchase (link is external). This is a key step towards enabling the use of URC technology with mainstream consumer electronics, which is a […]

A second Last Call Working Draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) and updated working drafts of Understanding WCAG 2.0 and Techniques for WCAG 2.0 were released by the W3C for broad community review and comment. WCAG 2.0 addresses accessibility of web content for people with disabilities. It will apply to a wider […]

The Trace Center’s work on pluggable remote control user interfaces through the Universal Remote Console (URC) framework has resulted in a new series of demo applications. Short videos are now available to demonstrate how each application could be used to remotely control a home entertainment center with digital media such as music, video and photos. […]

Major electronics retailer RadioShack has agreed to bring its website into compliance with WCAG 1.0, priorities 1 and 2, by the end of 2007. By the end of September 2007, a new point-of-sale payment device with tactile keypads will be installed in every RadioShack store. The Trace Center contributed to making this possible through its […]

An updated working draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), addressing the accessibility of Web content for people with disabilities, was published on May 17, 2007. An overview of WCAG 2.0 provides links to a the WCAG Quick Reference document, as well as a high-level summary, WCAG 2 FAQ, the working draft, and […]

The Future of Disability in America concludes that immediate action is essential for the nation to avoid harm and to help people with disabilities lead independent and productive lives. The report, developed by a committee of 14 experts including Trace Center Director Gregg Vanderheiden, contains chapters on definition and disability monitoring, disability trends, health care […]

The 22nd Annual International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities (link is external), was held in Los Angeles from March 21-24, 2007. Trace’s exhibit (booth #345 at the Marriott) featured a “test drive” of the first phase of our website redesign, as well as other demonstrations and information. Gregg Vanderheiden presented Thursday, March 22 […]

Eight of the accessibility features included in Windows Vista were originally developed by the Trace Center. MouseKeys, StickyKeys, FilterKeys (RepeatKeys, SlowKeys, BounceKeys), ToggleKeys, SoundSentry (renamed “Visual Notifications”), and ShowSounds (enhanced and renamed “Captions”) originated at the Trace Center, and have been included by Microsoft in all of its operating system releases since Windows 95. In […]

Graduate student Elizabeth Felton’s study exploring the control of a computer cursor using only brain signals was featured on a recent local news broadcast. These experiments are being conducted at the Trace Center, funded in part by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Felton is pursuing an MD-PhD under the direction of Biomedical […]

  This new resource provides a glimpse into the future of information and communications technologies (ICT). The images and references in this overview provide a sense of how future technology could impact disability access research, development, and policy. Instead of creating a compendium of the latest technology advances, Trace staff selected items for inclusion in […]

Trace Center Director Gregg Vanderheiden contributed to a lively panel discussion at last week’s International Consumer Electronics Show. Possible solutions were presented to the problem of consumer devices that are too difficult for consumers to understand and use. Some of the most promising strategies include those developed as part of Trace’s work on universal remote […]