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First free practical guide to NVDA screen reader released

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Media Access Australia has released the first free training resource for the NVDA screen reader: a ‘wikispace’ that provides a step-by-step guide to installing and using the free assistive technology.

The NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It communicates the contents of a computer screen via synthetic speech and Braille, enabling people who are blind or vision impaired to perform computer tasks such as searching the internet and writing documents.

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Access to telecommunications review launched

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The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has launched an inquiry into access to telecommunications services which include telephones, the National Relay Service (NRS), mobile devices and the Internet. 

The Terms of Reference to the ‘Review of access to telecommunications by people with disability, older Australians and people experiencing illness’ is now open for comment from individuals, consumers, and representatives until 19th August 2011.

The review aims to explore, in relation to people needing assistance to access telecommunication services:

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US delays web access requirements

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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has delayed the introduction of formal web access requirements for commercial and public organisations until at least 2013.

The DOJ has advised that it will not publish a ‘Notice of Proposed Rule Making’ (NPRM) relating to web access obligations until December 2012. An NPRM is the final step in the process of regulation formulation before a rule is actually created, meaning that formal regulations are unlikely until the following year at least.

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Australian university adopts Google Apps for Education with known accessibility issues

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Australia’s RMIT University may be excluding students with disabilities after all of its 74,000 student email accounts were moved to Google Apps for Education.

Google Apps for Education is a suite of hosted email and collaboration applications, such as Google Mail (Gmail), Google Documents and Google Calendar, that are available to schools and universities free of charge.

Brian Clark, Executive Director of Information Technology Services at RMIT, is also expecting students to use the collaborative applications in the suite.

“There’s a range of collaborative features built into Google Apps’ technology that will allow students to collaborate on assignments,” said Clark.


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