Sheryl Burgstahler, DO-IT director, celebrates with other U.S. and Indian delegates as wheelchairs are donated to people with disabilities.

International Ties. DO-IT connects with organizations throughout the world that share its goal to increase the success of people with disabilities in postsecondary education and careers, using technology as an empowering tool. Some of the individuals and organizations with whom DO-IT has worked are from Canada, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, and, most recently, India.

In November I traveled to Bangalore, India, to present at the first Indo-U.S. Conference on Information Technology Uses for Children and Adults with Disabilities. The event included people from Indian universities, information technology (IT) companies, IT-developing organizations, professional associations, and family centers, as well as individuals with disabilities. A delegation of twelve people from around the country represented the U.S. I was honored to be selected as one of them.

The event was funded by the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum in New Delhi, India. Lead organizations were PACER Center, USA, a national parent center for families of children and young adults with disabilities, and the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped in India.

I kicked off the conference with a keynote address on access to technology for people with disabilities that was followed with a similar address by Dr. Anapam Basu that focused on developments in India. Other international speakers covered a range of accessible IT topics that included:

• research
• application development
• best uses in education and employment
• access issues affecting people with different types of disabilities
• consumer needs
• government responsibilities

This conference provided a wonderful forum for sharing best practices in both countries and exploring areas for future collaboration. I look forward to future opportunities for DO-IT to increase access to empowering tools for people with disabilities worldwide. The next article shares details of one of our many collaborative activities with Japan.

Recently two of my DO-IT Pals, Chris and Alexandra, and I went to Kyoto, Japan. We didn't spend much time there, about fifteen minutes was all. And, we didn't have to pay for a plane ticket! Thanks to iChat video conference technology, we didn't even need to leave Seattle.

Our itinerary simply required that we show up at the DO-IT Center at 6:00 p.m. (11:00 a.m. in Kyoto) and check in with our guide, DO-IT program coordinator Tami Tidwell. The purpose of our trip was to speak at the Assistive Technology and Augmentative Communication Conference (ATAC) where Dr. Mamoru Iwabuchi, a former University of Washington Visiting Professor and DO-IT partner, was giving a talk to teachers, parents, and service providers in Japan. We talked about college preparation and the role of technology in education. Via video, Dr. Iwabuchi asked us questions such as, "What accommodations do you have at school?" and "What have you learned from DO-IT?" He translated our answers to the polite and attentive audience in Kyoto.

As this was my first time in Japan, I was a little nervous, but I think Dr. Iwabuchi was pleased with our answers to his questions. Once we answered the questions we said "Sayonara!" and our journey ended with the click of a mouse. I didn't even get to try any sushi! Despite this, I want to thank Dr. Iwabuchi for his gracious hospitality during our short stay and sincerely hope that we were able to provide helpful input to the conference attendees in Kyoto.

A group of DMD high school students tour an ambulance at Children's Hospital before meeting up with mentors.

Seventy-five students participated in Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) on October 16, 2006. This event is sponsored by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and DO-IT. As the Washington state coordinator, I support the five other local coordinators in Washington.

The sixty-nine high school and six college DMD students visited employers—Starbucks, Microsoft, Boeing, Albertsons, NOAA, Children's Hospital, and the Federal Aviation Administration and learned about many challenging careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

"Research documents the importance of mentors to young people as they contemplate future careers," says DO-IT director Sheryl Burgstahler. "Mentors help students understand specific information about jobs and also answer questions about disability and accommodations. The face-to-face interactions that occur at DMD complement DO-IT's electronic mentoring community, which is supported by email communication, and are great for both the mentee and the mentor."

We encourage our readers to engage in nationwide DMD activities next fall. Contact me at swb3@u.washington.edu for details.

Developing social skills and relationships in a variety of situations is a big part of self-determination and success. DO-IT Pizza Parties, held each fall and spring, are perfect opportunities to put some of those social skills to work and develop strong and lasting relationships. Through a statewide K-20 telecommunications system, we connect DO-IT Pizza Party participants from several locations throughout the state. Below, DO-IT Scholars, Mentors, and staff share their strategies, perspectives, and experiences.

Bella, a 2005 Scholar, offers advice to those who might be feeling a little nervous about attending. "The way I usually deal with specific social situations in which I am feeling anxiety is by giving myself permission to take a break. I get overwhelmed easily, especially with lots of loud noises and crowds of people. That night at the [fall] pizza party I just went outside the room [to get some space]. [Once in a quieter space] often I'll do counting and breathing, which helps me to calm myself. Once I gather myself together, I can return to the situation in a better frame of mind. Often I'll speak to my aid who is there with me, or sometimes I tell her to go away because I want to work through it alone. It's really important for me to listen to my inner voice when it says it's time for a break. Trusting yourself is essential. It's really important to know that everyone at DO-IT is supportive and understands these types of issues. There is nothing to be afraid of because DO-IT is a really great program."

Charity, a DO-IT Mentor, has a very different experience to share, "Pizza Parties for me are like going home for Christmas (but without all the turmoil). I am such an extrovert that meeting new people is a battery-recharging experience."

According to Ben, "Attending a DO-IT Pizza Party is always a rewarding experience for us as student staff in the DO-IT office. The event gives us a chance to connect new faces with names and have face-to-face interactions that are not possible from behind a phone. There are always new people to meet, familiar faces to reconnect with, and interesting facts to discover. This past Pizza Party, I was amazed by 2006 Scholar Taylor who blew my mind with his uncanny knowledge of geography! The Pizza Party is a great opportunity for us to transcend our office roles and create relationships with our student peers in the DO-IT program. There is a community atmosphere which makes this an event every staff member, parent, Scholar, or friend can benefit from attending."

As a staff member, I look forward to the Pizza Party for weeks. I enjoy receiving the RSVPs and getting the DO-IT office ready for the fifty-plus visitors. Seeing Scholars from 1993-present is fantastic. When there is a table of people playing a game, a bunch of people hanging out chatting, a few people signing paperwork, and parents together connecting, I know it is a successful night.

DO-IT Scholar, Maria

Hi, my name is Maria and I'm a Phase II DO-IT Scholar. I live in Bellevue, WA where I am a junior at Interlake High School. My favorite subjects are physics and history. Last summer I went to an all-girls leadership school for three weeks. I got to kayak at night and saw a double sunset and an otter. I also learned more about the environment and saw people with different disabilities rafting and kayaking, which was really cool. This summer I am going to a six-week leadership program and will have to defer my second year of Summer Study until 2008. I will miss seeing everyone but plan to keep in touch through our email listserv and the DO-IT Pizza Parties.

In my spare time I like to read, listen to all kinds of music, and play sports (but not just watch them). I would love to race kayaks or race skulls in the future. I am interested in careers as a civil rights lawyer, a historian, an expedition guide, or a detective. DO-IT has given me a chance to know my disability and other people's disabilities better, which will help me become a stronger advocate for myself and for others.

Portrait of Ashley

Hi, my name is Ashley Ingersoll. I'm currently a senior at the University of Washington (UW). I will be taking time off to spend one year in Hawaii and then return to the UW to graduate in 2009. My double major in communications and social science has kept me really busy.

I've been working at DO-IT since 2003, as both a student staff person and currently as a program assistant. Most of my work at DO-IT is "behind the scenes." I organize conferences, help with events, and assist the program staff in many ways. This work entails sending a lot of email messages and spending a good deal of time attending meetings and working at the computer.

In my spare time, I enjoy playing soccer, hanging out with my friends and family, kickboxing, traveling, and cooking... all right, and the occasional episode (or season) of Lost and Survivor.

Google's T.V. Raman, at DO-IT's capacity-building institute on web accessibility, accompanied by his service dog Hubble, prepares for his keynote address.

From November 29 to December 1, DO-IT hosted a Web Accessibility Capacity Building Institute (CBI) in downtown Seattle. The purpose of the CBI was to identify accessibility problems and solutions related to emerging web applications and the technologies used to create them. Technologies such as AJAX and Adobe Flash are becoming more common on the web for creating engaging, interactive web applications. Unfortunately, these applications present barriers to some users, especially people using assistive technologies such as screen readers, screen magnification, and speech recognition software.

Institutions of higher education are exploring and beginning to utilize rich media technologies to improve functionality and usability of both academic and administrative web services, but by doing so they may risk excluding students and employees with disabilities from the content presented.

Participants at the CBI included representatives from the World Wide Consortium (W3C), IBM, Google, Yahoo!, Adobe, and GW Micro, as well as twenty-seven web managers and programmers from eleven colleges and universities. Participants spent three days exploring problems and solutions through presentations, panels, interactive problem solving sessions, and extensive group discussion. CBI Proceedings are available at www.washington.edu/doit/cbi/webaccess/proceedings.html.

The CBI was funded by DO-IT's Northwest Alliance for Access to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (AccessSTEM), which is funded by the National Science Foundation (cooperative agreement #HRD-0227995). AccessSTEM serves to increase the successful participation of people with disabilities in STEM careers.

January 10-12, 2007—Thirty leaders of National Science Foundation (NSF) projects that promote the participation of women, ethnic/racial minorities, and people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) gathered in Seattle for the AccessSTEM Capacity Building Institute (CBI). This CBI provided a forum for comparing recruitment and access challenges, sharing successful practices, developing collaborations, and otherwise increasing the capacity of all NSF-funded projects to serve individuals with disabilities. The ultimate goal of the CBI was to increase the participation of individuals with disabilities in programs that support STEM participation of other underrepresented groups.

Presentation and discussion topics included barriers encountered by individuals with disabilities (e.g., access to science labs, field trips, technology, information resources); successful strategies for recruiting and retaining individuals with disabilities into STEM fields; how projects that support other underrepresented groups can work to recruit and support individuals with disabilities to maximize outcomes; and how all STEM programs can be made more inclusive of individuals with disabilities by applying universal design principles and offering accommodations. The outcomes of these discussions are published as part of the AccessSTEM CBI Proceedings at www.washington.edu/doit/cbi/bpstem.

Each year, the U.S. Department of Labor creates a student database through a federal project called the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP). The WRP database lists college students with disabilities along with their major, their skills, and the places in the country where they want to do internships or accept permanent positions.

"It's a chance for students to get their information into the hands of employers who want to hire them," explained this year's Seattle recruiter Jerry McGaughran. On the University of Washington (UW) campus in Seattle, Jerry met with eighteen students to hear about their academic experiences, skills, and employment goals. The student information gathered during the interviews is made available to employers in the public and private sectors. Each database remains active for one year. During that time, employers contact students directly to invite them to apply for open positions.

"It's fun to participate in a national program," explained one student. "Maybe I'll get an offer here in Seattle, or maybe I'll decide to go somewhere cool like Washington, D.C. I'm not sure. Either way, it was good practice to prepare for a real interview and meet with a recruiter! Next time I do an interview, I'll be more confident."

Find more information about the WRP, at www.dol.gov/odep/pubs/brochures/wrp1.html.

Seattle's annual ACCESS Job Fair for individuals with disabilities was held on March 7 at the Seattle Center. The event was co-sponsored by DO-IT and other businesses and community partners, including REI, Safeco, Safeway, Starbucks, the Aven Foundation, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind.

"At DO-IT, we understand the high value of a job fair designed specifically for job seekers with disabilities," explains DO-IT Program Manager Michael Richardson. "Our staff hosted a display of assistive technology, an exhibit of pictures and publications, and a workshop for about twenty-five high school students with disabilities."

High school students heard a presentation about job seeking skills and learned ways to take advantage of a job fair. They also played a "Job Seeker" trivia game for prizes and ate pizza for lunch. As students navigated the job fair, they collected company information and job application forms and dropped off resumes. When asked what they learned, students said:

• "You should always have a few resumes when you go to a job fair."
• "Want ads are NOT the best way to get jobs. You have to network."
• "You need to spend time preparing for an interview—practice ahead of time!"
• "It's always good to find out about different accommodations."
• "At an interview, dress nicely and shake hands at the end when you say 'thank you.'"
• "Honesty is a big key to a successful interview."
• "After an interview, follow up with the person."

The goal of The Alliance for Access to Computing Careers (AccessComputing) is to increase the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields. AccessComputing collaborators apply proven practices to:

• increase the number of students with disabilities successfully pursuing education and careers in computing fields
• increase the capacity of postsecondary computing departments to fully include students with disabilities in computing courses and programs
• create a nationwide resource to help computing educators and employers, professional organizations, and other stakeholders develop more inclusive programs and share effective practices

During the first year of AccessComputing:

• Fifteen people joined the Advisory Board and attended meetings to address challenges of increasing the representation of people with disabilities in computing academics and careers. Many board members are computing professionals themselves, from companies that include Google, Microsoft, IBM, Cray Corporation, and View Plus Technologies.
• One hundred and sixteen educators, employers, and other stakeholders joined AccessComputing Communities of Practice (CoPs) to share perspectives and expertise and identify practices that promote the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields.
• One hundred and forty-seven students with disabilities attended seven events supported by AccessComputing funds. In these activities, participants learned about careers in computing and college transition issues; practiced self-advocacy skills; explored options for internships and jobs after college; took computing-related field trips; met computing professionals; learned about resources; interacted with peers and mentors; and/or were invited to participate in Alliance e-mentoring communities, internships, and other activities.
• Thirty high school, college, and graduate students with disabilities joined the AccessComputing Team, an online mentoring community. Mentors also participated in twenty computing internships as part of AccessComputing.

AccessComputing is led by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and DO-IT at the University of Washington. It is funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the Broadening Participation in Computing program of the Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (grant #CNS-0540615).

For more information about AccessComputing consult www.washington.edu/accesscomputing. Direct questions to accesscomp@u.washington.edu.

Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing (ADHHC), a project of The Alliance for Access to Computing Careers (AccessComputing), serves to increase the participation of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing in computing fields.

ADHHC will host the 2007 Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing from June 17 to August 17 on the UW Seattle campus. This program is for students with skills in math or science who may be considering computing as a major. Students at the Summer Academy will:

• take UW credit courses, such as those in programming, data structures, and calculus
• conduct a special group project in computer animation and robotics
• tour industry giants in the Seattle area, such as Microsoft, Google, and Adobe
• engage in meeting and mentoring with successful deaf and hard of hearing role models in the computing field

Find more information on ADHHC at www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/dhh.

Two modes of using the Internet that have gained in popularity of late are RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) and Podcasting. Each of these technologies allows a user to subscribe to content on the web and have it delivered to their home computer to access later at a convenient time. This type of application is called "content on demand."

RSS

The use of the word "subscription" may confuse new users into thinking that they have to pay for the content. These feeds are free.

The software you use to subscribe to a particular RSS feed queries the remote site and acquires new content. Most of the newest web browsers, such as Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari on Apple's OS X machines, are capable of acquiring RSS feed content. An orange square logo with two concentric white arches is used in icons to represent an RSS feed. While using a supported browser you can add RSS-available content to your list of subscriber feeds.

Let's say you regularly read the "Listening Post" column on the www.wired.com website and would like to have it readily available when you use your Firefox web browser. Within Firefox, surf to that website and then navigate to the column. Once on that page, look for the orange XML icon in the left side of the page. When you select that link, a pop-up window will allow you to add a "Live Bookmark." Once subscribed, you will have a new link available in Firefox's bookmarks toolbar (you may need to go into the View menu and select the Bookmarks toolbar to make this option visible). Selecting this bookmark toolbar link will bring up a drop-down menu of all the RSS feeds you have downloaded so far, with one drop-down list per RSS subscription. When you pick one from the list, you will be directed to that web page.

Podcasts

While RSS feeds give you immediate access to newly written content, podcasts give you access to newly created audio and video content on demand. This could be a professor's lecture, or someone's review of the latest compact discs out this month that contained clips of songs and the host's comments about them.

To acquire new content, download the podcast to your computer from a remote host and either listen to it on your machine, portable mp3 player, or media-capable cell phone at your preferred time. Some computer media player applications allow you to subscribe to a podcast and look for new podcasts by the same source on the interval that you select for acquiring new content.

There are stand-alone programs—called aggregators—that will seek new content and download it to your preferred audio application. Applications like Apple's iTunes can acquire new podcast content when it becomes available, play it back on a computer, or allow that content to be transferred to an iPod. Other applications are capable of the same podcast subscription automation for later listening.

If you create your own podcast, make sure you have permission to replay copyrighted material—in other words, use "podsafe content." For more on podcasting visit the following website:

https://rss.com

A DO-IT Mentor recently posed the following question within our Internet discussion forum. I will share some of the responses so that you can get the flavor of the many rich conversations the DO-IT community has online. Some comments have been modified to improve clarity.

An engineer with the Boeing Payloads Concept Center is part of a small team of people working on a project to apply elements of Universal Design into the interior of the aircraft. She is seeking your input to identify what needs to change in the airplane to better accommodate people. Suggestions can pertain to seating, access to light/air controls, etc. I will be gathering your ideas and forwarding them to her. Suggest ideas related to your own disability, but also think about ideas that can benefit everyone. I already know what I want to say—caption the in-flight movies!

Summary

From this conversation here is a list of some of the suggestions the DO-IT community recommends that airlines consider to make all passengers, including those with disabilities, feel welcome and make the environment usable by everyone:

• captions on video presentations
• conveniently located sections where seats can be removed and wheelchairs can be tied down
• non-stick material on trays
• wider aisles
• aisle seat arm rests that can be moved up
• larger bathrooms
• different tone levels indicating when the fasten seatbelt signs go on and off
• Braille labels on call buttons
• sign language interpreters

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DO-IT News is published at the University of Washington with input from DO-IT staff, Pals, Scholars, Ambassadors, and Mentors. DO-IT is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the State of Washington.

DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) serves to increase the successful participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs such as those in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology. Primary funding for DO-IT is provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Education. DO-IT is a collaboration of UW Information Technology and the Colleges of Engineering and Education at the University of Washington.

To order free publications or newsletters use the DO-IT Publications Order Form; to order videos and training materials use the Videos, Books and Comprehensive Training Materials Order Form.

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Founder and Director: Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D.

DO-IT Funding and Partners