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Request from the White House

for

From: Cyndi Rowland
Date: Feb 13, 2009 5:30PM

WebAIM discussion forum followers might be interested in responding to this request, sent today, by Kareem Dale who who was named yesterday to be the Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy. The Obama Administration is taking all disability issues, including digital accessibility issues, seriously. Mr. Dale is a Lawyer from Chicago and he is also blind. (More on Kareem Dale) <http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/02/chicagoan_kareem_dale_tapped_b.html>;

Although his current request is for stories on how persons with disabilities are getting "back to work", I think it wise that as a community we help Mr. Dale figure out how he will organize information quickly. I agree that in the coming years the ability of the disability community to act and react will be tremendous. We all know this means that there will be an important burden on the accessibility of electronic information to get out to, and back from, the disability community. Read a tidbit on the administration's commitment to accessibility <http://www.whitehouse.gov/accessibility/>; (albeit with some accessibility problems - opps)

-----Original Message-----
From: Kareemdale [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 4:11 PM

Subject: personal stories

Please pass the word via list serves and your organization websites, etc.
that I am looking for any person with a disability that has gone back to
work or been rehired as a result of the economic recovery plan. For
example, some company starts hiring again as a result of money they are
going to receive or something like that. The sooner, the better if anyone
exists.

I simply don't have good access to all my contact lists so I need you all to
expand my reach into the various communities. for instance, Howard, Jeff
and Karen, I need you all to forward along to all the major deaf groups,
etc. Andy, perhaps getting something out through JFA or another mechanism.
You get the picture.

This is important and time sensitive. Might as well get use to hearing that
over the next 4 years, but the community needs to be organized and ready to
respond to things like this to help me facilitate full inclusion.
Kareem Dale


--
< <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Cyndi Rowland, Ph.D., Executive Director
WebAIM
Center for Persons with Disabilities (UCEDD)
6800 University Blvd.
Utah State University
Logan, Utah 84322-6800
(435) 797-3381
FAX (435) 797-2044