The Chairman's Award and An Online Problem-Solving Commons

This is the second in a series of posts seeking public input on the new Accessibility and Innovation Forum ("A&I Forum" or "Forum") that we will be launching in July.

One recommendation in the National Broadband Plan is to establish a Chairman's Award for Accessibility and Innovation to recognize innovations "that have made the greatest contribution to advancing broadband accessibility." We seek your input on the best way to structure such an award. One possibility is to set up the award so that the first part of the awards cycle is focused on identifying and prioritizing problems to be solved. For this part of the cycle (perhaps with a deadline of December 1, 2010), the Commission would solicit submissions from people with disabilities, students (including those work in legal clinics and technology programs, as well as college and high school students), grassroots advocates, researchers, and others to identify barriers to technology faced by people with disabilities. We would encourage presentations through on-line videos, blog posts, or other means and would be particularly interested in presentations that would help educate and inspire those who have not been widely exposed to accessibility issues. We would expect such presentations to highlight technology barriers faced by people with disabilities and applications needed to make technology more usable or relevant.