Lifted By the Cloud

President Obama has repeatedly made clear his commitment to equal opportunity and full inclusion for people with disabilities in all aspects of life, including access to technology. He most recently made this point when he signed into law the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, which provides access to advanced technologies for people with disabilities.

FCC Chairman Genachowski has embraced this commitment wholeheartedly. In addition to leading the charge on implementing the recently passed legislation, in July he established of the Accessibility and Innovation Initiative, as recommended in the FCC's National Broadband Plan. The A&I Initiative promotes collaborative problem solving and uses the tools of public and private sector innovation to address accessibility barriers. As part of this initiative, on October 21 the FCC partnered with the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities at the University of Colorado and Raising the Floor, an international coalition of individuals and organizations who promote Internet accessibility for people with disabilities, to launch "Lifted by the Cloud: Visions of Cloud-Enhanced Accessibility" on GSA's new challenge.gov platform. The challenge solicits short multimedia presentations from the public on their visions of how cloud computing can create new opportunities for people with disabilities. Find out more information about this challenge, which will run until May 1, 2011.


Lifted By the Cloud