Under the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill (H.R. 5441) signed by President Bush on October 4, 2006, NCD was assigned key responsibilities for disability-related issues in homeland security.
NCD also conducted a panel discussion on accessibility and universal design on November 29. Speakers included Marylyn Howe, NCD board member and moderator; Deborah Buck, Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs; Larry Goldberg, The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH; Judy Brewer, World Wide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Initiative; and Valerie Fletcher, Adaptive Environments.
In 2004, the National Council on Disability published Design for Inclusion: Creating a New Marketplace (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2004/online_newmarketplace.htm), a report demonstrating how an accessible society can be accomplished through Universal Design. Universal design is a process to ensure that the built environment, including electronic and information technology, is inclusive, accessible, and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Incorporating universal design processes is one solution to accommodating people with disabilities that also improves the usability of the products for the rest of the population.
On November 30, NCD conducted a session on youth transition. Speakers included Julia Landau, senior attorney, Massachusetts Advocates for Children, and Dr. William Kiernan, director, and Debra Hart, staff, Institute for Community Inclusion, University of Massachusetts at Boston.
Later that day, NCD heard from Shelley Carson, Ph.D., representing the Veterans Administration, Department of Defense Post-Deployment Program.
On December 1, NCD Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) members Amy Doherty
and Matt Cavedon both addressed NCD, presenting an update on
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