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Assistive technology interest growing among govt., vendors

Commerce Dept. Undersecretary for Technology Phil Bond a few weeks
ago announced eight steps the Dept. is planning in order to implement
the  Bush Administration's New Freedom Initiative. U.S. assistive
technology manufacturers "stand to benefit greatly from the
demographic shifts that are occurring in the United States, Europe,
Asia, and elsewhere," said Bond in a prepared statement released July
26, " but only if they can operate efficiently, field superior
products ahead of competitors, and overcome corporate, institutional,
and market barriers." The steps announced by the Dept. were an
effort, he said, "to maintain AT market share domestically, to expand
sales of American-made assistive technology products in markets
overseas, to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into AT products,
and to penetrate the underserved and sometimes unserved market base
of Americans with disabilities."

A Dept. of Commerce report dealing with these steps, "Technology
Assessment of the U.S. Assistive Technology Industry" can be found
online at
http://www.bis.doc.gov/defenseindustrialbaseprograms/OSIES/DefMarketResearch
Rpts/assisttechrept/index.htm
(note: be sure the URL is all on one line, with no breaks).

A free online service that connects people with disabilities to
assistive technology vendors is already drawing 5,000 visitors a
week. The Alliance for Technology Access's website "The Hub" -- at
http://www.ATAccess.org/hub -- bills itself as "a central exchange
for people, both sellers and users of technology tools, to interact
and exchange information."  Vendors include Microsoft, Apple Computer
and Sun Microsystems.

According to Gary Moulton, Product Manager in Microsoft's
Accessibility Technology Group Product Manager Gary Moulton, The Hub
allows potential customers to "get the information they need on
hundreds of assistive technologies that they can use to be more
independent at home, at work, at school and at play."

More about the New Freedom Initiative at
http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/programs-policy/newfreedom0201.htm
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attention on disability and independent living issues. The Center is
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