More and more entertainment companies are committing to consider actors/actresses with disabilities in their movies. A recent report shows that 3.5% of regularly appearing actors in scripted tv shows this season have disabilities--that's a record high. 

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The saying, "Nothing About Us Without Us"  has been used in the disability community for many years. It simply means that no decisions should be made regarding people with disabilities without their input. However, when it comes to research, people with disabilities often are still excluded. The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) has teamed up with the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) in supporting the All of Us Research Program. This nationwide program is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and aims to increase the participation of historically underrepresented communities in medical research.

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The Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, a part of the College of Design at Georgia Tech, has partnered with the CDC to ensure that important information about the virus is accessible for all people. They have adapted many documents and of the CDC ' S guidance.. 

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The new president administration is prioritizing accessibility in the White House. The White House website is going to be fully accessible for everyone. The Administration is actively seeking feedback on how to improve website accessibility. The White House is also providing an American Sign interpreters at the daily press briefings. 

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According to the January Jobs Report, the pandemic continues to slow employment for people with disabilities. The hope is that with the availability of vaccines increase, employment opportunities for people with disabilities will also increase. 

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The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) has published a First Public Working Draft of W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0.

WCAG and supporting materials explain how to make web content, apps, and tools more accessible to people with disabilities. W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3 has several differences from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.

WCAG 3 is intended to be easier to understand and more flexible than WCAG 2. The flexibility is to address different types of web content, apps, and tools — as well as organizations and people with disabilities. The goals for WCAG 3 are introduced in the Requirements for WCAG 3.0 First Public Working Draft. WCAG 3 proposes a different name, scope, structure, and conformance model.

To review and provide feedback, please start by reading the WCAG 3 Introduction first to get important background on WCAG 3 development, review guidance, and timeline.

They are seeking input from evaluators, developers, designers, project managers, policy makers, people with disabilities, and others — particularly on the structure and the draft conformance model. Additional review guidance is in the blog post WCAG 3 FPWD Published.

Please submit comments by February 26, 2021.

ACL's National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has opened two new funding opportunities for Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) on Employment of Individuals with Disabilities.

The purpose of the DRRP program is to plan and conduct research, demonstration projects, training, and related activities (including international activities) to develop methods, procedures, and rehabilitation technology that maximize the full inclusion and integration into society, employment, independent living, family support, and economic and social self-sufficiency of individuals with disabilities.

NIDILRR plans to make two field-initiated DRRP awards in the employment domain. NIDILRR's two awards under this grant competition may include research projects, development projects, or both, depending on the ranking of applications provided by the peer review panel.

Employment of Individuals with Disabilities (Research): Under this particular DRRP priority, applicants must propose a research project that is aimed at improving the employment outcomes of individuals with disabilities. In carrying out a research project under this program, a grantee must identify one or more hypotheses or research questions and, based on the hypotheses or research questions identified, perform an intensive, systematic study directed toward producing (1) new or full scientific knowledge, or (2) understanding of the subject or problem studied. 

View more details and application instructions.

Please visit the link above for more details about the grant opportunity and application process. This grant opportunity closes on March 29, 2021.

Employment of Individuals with Disabilities (Development): Under this particular DRRP priority, applicants must propose a development project that is aimed at improving the employment outcomes of individuals with disabilities. In carrying out a development activity under this program, a grantee must use knowledge and understanding gained from research to create materials, devices, systems, methods, measures, techniques, tools, prototypes, processes, or intervention protocols that are beneficial to the target population.

View more details and application instructions.

Please visit the link above for more details about the grant opportunity and application process. This grant opportunity closes on March 29, 2021.

National Disability Institute (NDI), which manages the ABLE National Resource Center (ABLE NRC), offers a 15-point agenda to advance economic recovery and resilience for people with disabilities who represent a most vulnerable population too often ignored in plans for the economic recovery for our nation.

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