Awards for Advancement in Accessibility Ceremony at M-Enabling Summit

The FCC will host a ceremony for the winners of the fourth annual Chairman's Awards for Advancements in Accessibility (Chairman's AAA) during the M-Enabling Summit at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel in Arlington, Va.  Award recipients will be recognized for the innovative achievements of their work in communications benefiting people with disabilities. This year's awards will be presented by Karen Peltz Strauss, the Consumer and Governmental Bureau's Deputy Chief who oversees the Disability Rights Office.

The Chairman's AAA, a project of the FCC's Accessibility and Innovation 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. 

Awards this year will be given in the following categories:

• Augmented Reality –Access for persons with disabilities to technology that provides a live view of a physical environment in which elements are supplemented by computer-generated output such as sound, video, graphics, text, or GPS data. For example, a mobile app might automatically display a restaurant menu as one travels by it.
• CAPTCHA Alternatives – Accessible options for persons with visual or cognitive disabilities who have difficulty using Completely Automated Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart, which protects websites against bots by generating tests that, for example, require a user to type characters shown in an image.
• Internet of Things – Innovations in applications that improve accessibility to the growing number of Internet-connected devices, such as home appliances.
• Real-Time Text – Integrated applications that allow text message characters to be read before a message is complete, which is especially helpful for people with hearing and speech disabilities during emergencies.
• Teleconferencing/Direct Communication – Innovations in interoperable teleconferencing focused on improving direct communication for individuals who rely on sign language to reduce reliance on telecommunications relay services.
• Video Description – Technologies designed to facilitate access to video description, narrative statements inserted within the natural pauses in a video program's dialogue enabling people who are blind or visually impaired to understand key program elements that are only conveyed visually.
• Miscellaneous –Accessible communication or video programming solutions that do not fit into one of the previous categories.

The awards ceremony is free and open to the public.  Preregistration is required to attend. To preregister, send an e-mail to ChairmansAAA@fcc.gov and sign up for expo-only access at the M-Enabling Summit.  

For more information on the M-Enabling Summit and to register for the Expo: http://m-enabling.com/expoonlyreg.html