National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: High Tech and Sciences
Knowbility and Powershift Group: Accessibility
Internet Rally (A.I.R. Austin)
The
Challenge:
To introduce high-tech companies to the potential of employees with disabilities, and to meet the need of Austin IT firms for qualified workers.
The
Solution:
Organize an industry-wide rally at which Internet companies can learn about technologies that make the high-tech field accessible to people with disabilities, and can offer internships to youth with disabilities.
The
Partners:
Knowbility is a national non-profit organization providing educational and employment opportunities in information technology to people with disabilities.
Powershift Group is a technology venture developer building sustainable companies by providing management involvement and expertise, financing, and a global network of resources.
The
Story:
Joshua and Amanda, two 18-year-old visually-impaired students, worked together as an Internet research team and were looking for experience in Austin's high-tech industry. However, despite their Internet aptitude, both had difficulty finding the internships they wanted. They needed a foot in the door, and this opportunity came to them in the form of the Accessibility Internet Rally (A.I.R. Austin).
Powershift Group, Austin-based high-tech companies, and Knowbility staged the first Accessibility Internet Rally in 1998 so that high-tech companies could both learn about making the Internet accessible to people with disabilities and widen their employee pool to include people with disabilities. The rally gave Web designers and local high-tech firms a half-day of training on Internet accessibility techniques. Teams of company personnel, non-profit staff, and volunteers competed to design accessible Web sites, developing 22 new accessible Web sites in one day.
However, for Joshua and Amanda, the most important outcome of A.I.R. Austin was the connections they made. Joshua landed an internship at Networker.com, where he conducted research on the Internet and entered data into an informational request and referral database. He is now pursuing a bachelor's degree. Amanda obtained an internship at the Technology Center of a non-profit organization called Girlstart, where she conducts internet research and writes reports to promote the importance of high-tech skills to middle school girls.
In general, Powershift executives were so impressed by what they saw at A.I.R. Austin that they pledged to help place more young people with disabilities in high-tech jobs in future years. In the summer of 2000, Knowbility placed teens with disabilities in jobs at high-tech companies including Powershift, Bazzirk, and National Instruments.
After the success of A.I.R. Austin and the tremendous impact it had on the lives of young people with disabilities, Knowbility is planning similar accessibility rallies in Dallas and Denver.
The event, which cost approximately $30,000, included corporate sponsors Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, IBM, Applied Materials, Gray, Cary, Ware, and Freidenrich, and Infotec.
A Model of
Innovation:
The high-tech industry is desperate for skilled employees, and this program taps into an under-used pool of workers. A.I.R. Austin succeeds in educating IT firms in how technology development has made it possible for people with disabilities to work in the high-tech field, creating opportunity for youth with disabilities who dream of pursuing IT careers.
Contacts:
Steve Guengerich (Member, Knowbility Board of
Directors)
Agillion, Inc. (an affiliate of Powershift Group)
Vice
President, Strategic Partnerships
7600 B. North Capital of Texas Highway,
Suite 220
Austin, TX 78731
512-682-8134 (p)
512-306-7331 (f)
sguemgerich@agillion.com
Sharron Rush
Executive Director
Knowbility
P.O.
Box 684671
Austin, TX 78768
512-637-7172 (p)
Highlight
quote:
"As co-chair of the President's Task Force on the
Employment of Adults with Disabilities, I understand how important technology
is to people with disabilities. Technology not only makes their lives better,
it offers tremendous opportunities for them to succeed in the workplace. Adults
with disabilities are a wonderful source for closing the skills gap."
-U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman
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