BTAT's Accessible Technology Charter was formally launched at the Employers' Forum on Disability's 20th anniversary celebration on 24 November at London’s Intercontinental Hotel Park Lane.
Taking the opportunity to showcase the past, present and future of EFD with over three hundred guests, BTAT invited a number of exhibitors to show off their advances in the world of accessible technology. Microlink demonstrated their software supporting users with dyslexia, SignVideo with their video relay service, Nomensa and their accessible websites, SpecialEffect with gaze-recognition gaming, Hassell Inclusion repurposing a Microsoft Kinect to allow users to interact with simple sign language and Bee Communications and their remote captioning services.
The Accessible Technology Charter has been drafted by senior IT executives and BTAT members, and will make it easier to access the talent and the spending power of the one billion people worldwide who have a disability. BTAT members aim to transform the global ICT market so that it liberates the potential of technology to enable everyone to contribute to the global economy. It should also become increasingly difficult for corporations and individuals alike to buy inaccessible or unusable technology in the first place.
Seventeen thought-leading blue-chip corporations and government departments have signed the Charter at launch – Accenture, Alexander Mann, Barclays, BSkyB, BT, Bupa, Cisco Systems, the Department of Work and Pensions, Ernst & Young, Fujitsu, GlaxoSmithKline, HM Revenue and Customs, Lloyds Banking Group, Microlink, Microsoft, Oracle and Sainsburys, demonstrating their commitment to accessible ICT. Now the Charter itself, along with information as to how you can also become a signatory, can be found at www.btat.org/charter.