NEWS Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D. C. 20554 This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974). News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: JUNE 9, 2014 Michael Snyder at (202) 418-0997 E-mail: Michael.Snyder@fcc.gov FCC CHAIRMAN WHEELER HONORS INNOVATORS IN ACCESSIBILITY COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY WITH ANNUAL AWARDS Award-Winning Technology Displayed at M-Enabling Summit Washington, D.C. – FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler today announced winners of the third annual Awards for Advancement in Accessibility (Chairman's AAA), which honors innovators who develop communications technology for people with disabilities. The Chairman presented the awards at a ceremony on June 9, 2014 at the M-Enabling Summit at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Va., where the award- winning technology was displayed. The Chairman’s AAA, a project of the FCC’s Accessibility and Innovation Initiative (A&I Initiative), recognizes outstanding private and public sector ventures in communications technology accessibility and innovation. The Chairman’s AAA is part of the A&I Initiative’s goal to facilitate ongoing exchanges among industry, assistive technology companies, app developers, government representatives and consumers to share best practices and solutions for accessible communications technologies. “The potential of broadband-enabled technology to improve the lives of Americans living with disabilities is almost limitless – but only if that technology is accessible,” said Chairman Wheeler. “I’m glad that these awards can help spark the development of new and creative technologies that furthers the important goal of making communications accessible for all Americans.” Winners were chosen for seven categories: Advanced Communication Services (ACS), Employment Opportunities, Closed Captions, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Mobile Web Browsers, Social Media and Video Description. Winners of 2014 Chairman’s AAA Advanced Communication Services (ACS) Braille Plus 18 Braille Plus 18, developed by the American Printing House for the Blind, is a portable tablet/communication device with an 18-cell Braille display that is the world’s first Android device designed specifically for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Closed Captions Adobe Primetime Adobe Primetime, developed by Adobe Systems, is a set of tools for online video distribution, playback, and analysis that are used to support the provision of closed captions on multiple online platforms and devices, including TVs, PCs, set top boxes, tablets, phones and other video devices and players. Employment Opportunities Texas Multi-Agency Office 2010 Training Collaboration "Creating Accessible Microsoft Office 2010 Documents," developed by the Texas Multi-Agency Office 2010 Training Collaboration, and hosted by the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities, is a free, Web-based set of accessible training modules offering step-by-step instructions for creating captioned videos, MP-3 voice recordings and transcripts in Word and PDF formats. The collaborative effort takes advantage of social media and low-cost technology to teach accessible design of popular electronic document formats in the workplace. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Game Accessibility Guidelines Game Accessibility Guidelines is a straightforward developer-friendly set of free guidelines to foster access by people with disabilities across the full spectrum of gaming products and ensure the quality-of-life benefits of interactive entertainment are open to as wide a range of people as possible. The guidelines have a strong emphasis on intellectual and learning disabilities, including techniques for enhancing in-game communication ranging from dyslexia-friendly typography to symbol based chat and visual map-based messaging. Mobile Web Browsers Capti Narrator Capti Narrator, developed by Charmtech Labs LLC, simplifies mobile Web browsing and makes iOS devices more accessible by enabling people with disabilities to listen to news, e-books and other documents anywhere and at any time. Social Media EasyChirp Easy Chirp, developed by Dennis Lembree, is a free Web app that facilitates communicating via Twitter and is optimized for users with disabilities. Optimization examples include: proper coding for screen reader use by people who are blind, high contrast; large text and zoom support for people with low vision; and other aspects to better enable access by people with motor and cognitive disabilities. Most recently, Easy Chirp added a feature which provides a method to tweet an image with alternative text. Video Description YouDescribe and the Descriptive Video Exchange (DVX) YouDescribe, developed by the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, is a website and application protocol interface (API) for creating and playing crowd-sourced, synchronized video descriptions of YouTube videos. For more information on the M-Enabling Summit, please visit www.m-enabling.com. For more information about the FCC, visit FCC.gov. --FCC--