Publications & Newsletters
- Technology and Disability Policy Highlights reports on national and local public policy events and recent wireless technological advances and political activities; and tracks emerging issues of interest to individuals with disabilities and their families. The publication's focus is termed "cross-disability" and should not be viewed as comprehensive. Technology and Disability Policy Highlights is published ten times a year with combined issues December/January and July/August by the Wireless RERC. The Wireless RERC is a research center focusing on promoting universal access to wireless technologies and explores their innovative applications in addressing the needs of people with disabilities.
Current Newsletter - Telecom/IT Policy Highlights presents legislative, regulatory, legal, and other items of interest pertinent to information, telecommunications, and related technology policy and research.
Current Newsletter - Workplace Accommodations Policy Highlights is a bi-monthly newsletter produced for the purpose of identifying policy, regulatory framework and market factors that can be useful in reducing barriers to integrating people with disabilities into the workforce. These bi-monthly highlights support the Workplace RERC’s other research efforts and provide people with disabilities and industry with a centralized source of information supportive of the principles of the ADA and other regulations whose intent is to promote fairness and equity for people with disabilities.
Current Newsletter
- Report of the Subcommittee on New Technology
The focus of this report is on potential investments in new telecommunications technologies by the City of Atlanta, Georgia. In March 2004, the Atlanta City Council passed a resolution creating a Telecommunications Policy Advisory Committee (TelePAC) with the purpose of “reviewing City policy so as to advise the Mayor and City Council on maximizing the use of telecommunication technology and programs so as to benefit the public’s health, safety, and welfare.” Part of TelePAC’s mission is to advise City policy “regarding the deployment of new technologies within the city that would maximize the availability of telecommunications services.” This report broadly examines potential investments in new technologies that the City of Atlanta could make, compares alternative policy options, and makes recommendations for changes in the City’s telecommunications policies.
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The Virtual Workspace: Telework, Disabilities and Public Policy
Although policymakers are beginning to recognize that the use of ICTs can be used to help create reasonable workplace accommodation for people with disabilities, focused, comprehensive programs targeted at advancing these applications of ICT have yet to be developed. This paper provides an overview and a philosophical comparison of both the U.S. and European policies on telework for people with disabilities.
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Virtual Exclusion and Telework: The Double-edged Sword of Technocentric Workplace Accommodation Policy
Workplaces are complex social communities, in which social capital plays no small part (Burt 1995, Wellman, et. al, 1996). The productive and efficacious achievement of tasks (that is "doing work") frequently requires the flow of information and interactive engagement with coworkers. Given the current level of technology this could be somewhat problematic in a virtual work (teleworking) environment. From a policy standpoint, this leads to the question of "how can we design policy to facilitate the integration of people with disabilities into the workplace in such a way as to optimize their interactions with other workers?"
PowerPoint Format | PDF Format
- Getting Out the Vote:
Assessing Technological, Social and Process Barriers to (e)Voting for People with Disabilities
This paper presents some of the preliminary findings of a pilot survey of voter satisfaction with the voting process, using manual and electronic voting and including voters with and without disabilities, to help assess and identify potential issues, barriers and opportunities that may impede the voting process for people with disabilities.