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There is an international push for web professionals to incorporate the needs of people with a disability into their practice. Media Access Australia launched Access iQ™ in July to equip them with the knowledge, skills and connections necessary to help create a web without limits.

When Hurricane Sandy bore down on the USA’s east coast, people turned to social media such as Twitter for the latest information. Sadly, due to the lack of social media accessibility, many couldn’t make use of these potentially life-saving tools. To rectify this, volunteers have come together to create the Emergency 2.0 Wiki Accessibility Toolkit.

Our annual cap that! campaign asking teachers nationwide to turn on captions for literacy and inclusion for all students this year recruited almost 400 teachers committed to using captions in their schools.

Telstra and non-profit organisation Able Australia have joined together in a program to help increase access to technology for Australians who are deafblind.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released a draft of the new standard covering caption quality on free-to-air and subscription television.

As social media continues to dominate what people do online, a new digital divide is opening up between those who use social media and those excluded from them by their inaccessibility. To help remedy this, we published sociABILITY: Social media for people with a disability in March.

As 2012 winds to a close, we take a look at the twelve biggest events impacting on access to media for people with a disability. Possibly the biggest of all was the first broadcast of audio description (AD) on Australian TV as the ABC performed its 13-week trial.

A navigation app for Apple iOS devices called Walk Dublin will help to increase the mobility of blind and vision impaired users by providing walking directions to cultural landmarks in the Republic of Ireland Capital. Launched this week by the Dublin City Council, the app was developed in consultation with the National Council for the Blind.

Microsoft's Surface tablet has promised to deliver the best of both worlds: an easy-to-use tablet for games and entertainment but also a serious productivity device that has a detachable keyboard, trackpad and Office software. Our interest though lies in its accessibility – is it a worthy purchase for people with disabilities?  Dr Scott Hollier road tested the Surface tablet to find out how it fares for accessibility.