Accessibility Forum Event

Cross posted to Education and Outreach and Guidelines Group. Please do not
reply all.

Here is the announcement for the Accessibility Forum Event on Section 508,
Live Friday, May 11 . Huge Government, Industry Participation Expected in
Accessible Interactive Webcast, Friday, May 11, 9-12 AM EST at
www.abletv.net . THIS IS A LIVE WEB CAST!

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE

<Start Press Release>
TVWorldwide.com's AbleTV Channel to Webcast GSA's Accessibility Forum Event
on Section 508, Live, Friday, May 11 Huge Government, Industry Participation
Expected in Accessible Interactive Webcast, Friday, May 11, 9-12 AM EST at
www.abletv.net <http://www.abletv.net> on the TVWorldwide.com Network 

For Immediate Release Tuesday, May 8, 2001
Contact: info@tvworldwide.com <mailto:info@tvworldwide.com>              
TV Worldwide.com, Inc.            
www.tvworldwide.com              
(703) 961-9250                           

Jeff Pledger 
able@abletv.net
www.abletv.net
(301) 890-5944
(703) 598-2253


Chantilly, Va. - TVWorldwide.com, Inc. announced today that AbleTV.net, the
web-based TV channel for the disabled on the TVWorldwide.com network, will
provide live interactive and accessible webcast coverage of the Government
Sevices Administration's Accessibility Forum, Friday May 12 from 9-12 AM
from Gallaudet University's Kellogg Conference Center in Washington D.C. The
event, sponsored by GSA's Center for Information Technology Accommodation
(CITA) is an industry, user, and government partnership aimed at developing
effective and broadly accepted metrics and methods to assess Electronics and
Information Technology (E&IT) product accessibility for people with
disabilities, as defined by Public Law 105-220, Section 508. The free
webcast will feature AbleTV.net's live captioned video streaming or
webcaptings process to assist on-line participants with disabilities and
serve AbleTV's growing audience. This AbleTV webcast is sponsored by
TVWorldwide.com and its strategic partners, Booz Allen and Hamilton and Post
Newsweek Tech Media Group. 

We're excited about the prospect of offering this important GSA event for
accessible on-line participation worldwide, stated Dave Gardy, Chairman and
CEO of TVWorldwide.com.  AbleTV is renowned for its webcasts addressing
issues important to the community of those people with disabilities and we
welcome everyone tuning in worldwide.

The mission of the Accessibility Forum is to provide government agencies and
vendors of E&IT and Assistive Technology with effective and broadly accepted
metrics and methods to assess whether E&IT products comply with Section 508
accessibility standards. The Accessibility Forum seeks industry leadership
and user involvement in development of these accessibility assessment
metrics and methods. The Accessibility Forum will also provide the
infrastructure for continuing collaboration and dialogue between users and
vendors. It should also provide a means for vendors to gain insight into
accessibility needs that could be addressed in future products.

The webcast will be directed by Jeff Pledger, President of AbleTV.net, who
lost his sight 17 years ago due to illness.  We are pleased to provide
captioned streaming for this live event webcast with TVWorldwide.com,
remarked Pledger. GSA is fulfilling its commitment to make government and
industry aware of Section 508 issues to level the E&IT playing field for
people with disabilities.
 
The program will be archived with the captioning for later viewing after the
webcast at  www.abletv.net <http://www.abletv.net> and on TVWorldwide.com's
federal education channel, Fed EdTV at www.fededtv.com
<http://www.fededtv.com>.  Participants should have the free Real Player
installed prior to the event. Questions can be directed to
info@tvworldwide.com before and during the event and direct phone
communication to the TVWorldwide.com webcast staff at (703- 961-9250, ext.
223.)

About TVWorldwide.com and AbleTV.net
In addition to being a video streaming service provider,  TVWorldwide.com
is building a network of community-based Internet TV channels, each
underwritten by a strategic partner, aimcasting to targeted B2B and special
interest audiences worldwide. TVWorldwide.com has worked with one of its
first aimcast channels, AbleTV.net, to pioneer live and archived video
streaming with open captioning to aid web site accessibility for the
disabled. With this advance, AbleTV.net has received charter sponsorship
from Microsoft Corporation, Sun Microsystems and NCR.