American Foundation for the Blind And Interliant Announce Alliance;
Interliant Contracted to Revolutionize Online Experience for Visually
Impaired Individuals
Updated 12:20 PM ET May 23, 2000 PURCHASE, N.Y. (BUSINESS WIRE) -
Interliant, Inc. (NASDAQ:INIT), the leading global Application Service
Provider (ASP), announced today that it has formed an alliance with
the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) that will have a major
impact on the accessibility of Internet information and services for
people who are blind or visually impaired.
To launch the alliance, Interliant has been contracted to transform
the AFB Web site into an online resource center for visually impaired
individuals worldwide, including approximately 10 million individuals
in the U.S., their family and friends, the thousands of organizations
and professionals who serve them, and the writers, researchers, and
legislators who are interested in this population.
"If Helen Keller were alive today, I expect that the World Wide Web
would be as accessible as libraries and public buildings," said Carl
Augusto, chief executive officer of AFB. "The online community that we
are building with Interliant will bring Keller's vision of a
barrier-free world for blind or visually impaired people into the 21st
century - an ideal to which AFB has been committed to since we began
working for visually impaired Americans nearly 80 years ago. The
community will provide direct access to the unique body of knowledge
that AFB has accumulated, including comprehensive information on
services available to blind or visually impaired individuals in the
United States and Canada."
"Just as Interliant is revolutionizing the way organizations access
application solutions, this joint project with AFB will revolutionize
Internet access for blind or visually impaired individuals," said
Leonard J. Fassler, co-chairman of Interliant. "Interliant truly
believes in AFB's mission, and we are committed to helping AFB develop
a community to provide equal access to the wealth of information that
the Internet delivers. We believe that accessibility and appeal to
sighted individuals can go hand-in-hand."
Fassler also serves as co-chair of AFB's 2000 Helen Keller Achievement
Awards dinner, which is being held this evening (May 23) in New York
City.
Although blind or visually impaired people today can access the
Internet through the use of a Web browser, adaptive equipment, and/or
synthetic speech software, common web site design often generates
unreliable results. The online community under development will
provide an accessible Web environment in which these tools can be used
to navigate through a virtual clearinghouse of information.
In addition, the community will include an accessible storefront.
There will also be a community center where members can collaborate
with each other, exchanging information, and reviewing event
announcements and job opportunities.
Because the community will feature graphics designed to appeal to
sighted users, it will illustrate that visual aesthetics need not be
compromised if a Web site is made accessible to the visually impaired.
Interliant and AFB anticipate that the community will go live this
summer.
"We will combine Interliant's technical skills with AFB's subject
matter expertise to level the playing field for blind and visually
impaired Internet users," said David O'Neill, Interliant's senior
director of consulting and professional services.
O'Neill, whose experience in developing accessible technology
solutions spans more than 10 years, will oversee the development of
the AFB community with a team of sighted and visually impaired
professionals.
"This is the first of many services that Interliant will be able to
provide to AFB," O'Neill added. "Our ability to furnish AFB with
everything from business process modeling to applications development
and hosting underscores the value that an ASP total solution brings to
a company or organization. We manage the technology completely so that
AFB can focus on its core mission."
The American Foundation for the Blind - the organization to which
Helen Keller devoted more than 40 years of her life - is a national
nonprofit whose mission is to eliminate the inequities faced by the
ten million Americans who are blind or visually impaired.
Headquartered in New York City, AFB maintains offices in Atlanta,
Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco, and a governmental relations
office in Washington, D.C.
About Interliant, Inc.
Interliant, Inc. (NASDAQ:INIT) is a leading application service
provider (ASP) and pioneer in the ASP market. Interliant's offerings
include messaging and knowledge management, security, e-commerce,
customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning,
distributed learning, Web-site hosting and Web-based rental
applications via AppsOnline.com.
Interliant, headquartered in Purchase, N.Y., maintains strategic
alliances with the world's leading software, networking, and hardware
manufacturers including Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL), IBM
(NYSE:IBM), Lotus Development Corp., Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), BMC
Software (NASDAQ:BMCS), and Network Solutions (NASDAQ:NSOL). For more
information, please visit the Interliant Web site, www.interliant.com.
Interliant is a registered trademark of Interliant, Inc. All other
trademarks are the properties of their respective companies.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained herein that
are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be
forward-looking statements.
Actual results and the timing of certain events may differ
significantly from the results anticipated or discussed in the
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based
largely on the Company's current expectations and are subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties.
In addition to this press release, other important factors to consider
in evaluating the forward-looking statements include, without
limitation, the Company's Form 10-K filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission ('SEC") on March 29, 2000, and the Company's
registration statement on Form S-1, filed with the SEC on May 16, 2000
and in other reports of the Company filed from time to time with the
SEC.
In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance
that the forward-looking statements contained herein will in fact be
realized and the Company assumes no obligation to update this
information.
Contact: Interliant, Inc., Purchase Media and Industry Analyst
Contact: Rosanne Desmone, 703/762-1759 [log in to unmask] or
Investor Contact: Beth O'Byrne, 914/640-9000 [log in to unmask]
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