AOL Introduces Blog Targeting People with Disabilities

In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, AOL has introduced a new AOL Ability blog site and forum dedicated to people with disabilities, and their families, friends and colleagues.
 
Designed to provide focused content for people with disabilities and to heighten disability awareness with mainstream audiences, the AOL Ability blog will have relevant news, stories and information in the key areas of employment, entertainment, family, health and technology.  AOL is partnering with The Paciello Group and recruiting bloggers from the disability community to provide the majority of content in these areas. By reengineering corporate software, TPG is focused on results to support technology vendors, government agencies, e-commerce corporations, and educational institutions to build community, foster interaction through social networking and deliver accessible communication services  to make their technology equally accessible to all people with (and without) disabilities.
 
The site incorporates specific features to increase accessibility among users with disabilities and functional limitations including the ability to select a high contrast view (yellow text on a black background) and increase fonts to a larger text size for blind and low vision users.
 
"Our goal with the AOL Ability blog is to provide a unique venue where people with disabilities, family members, friends and the general audience can come together to share information, access resources and view disability in a positive light," says Tom Wlodkowski, AOL's director of accessibility.
  
"The goal shared by TPG and AOL to provide a dynamic “port-of-entry” into the world of blogging for people with disabilities of all ages is the cornerstone of the AOL Ability concept,” said Mike Paciello, founder and principal of The Paciello Group (TPG).
 
The AOL Ability blog also provides links to other resources on the AOL network that offer additional features for people with disabilities, including direct access to free, daily CNN videos with closed captions from the AOL Video portal to enhance the online media experience for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
 
As the AOL Ability virtual community grows and evolves, so will the Web site with more features that are important and impactful to those with disabilities.
 
The AOL Ability blog is an extension of AOL's Accessibility Policy, a company wide priority that aims to address and meet the technology needs of people with disabilities.