AIR-Austin 2006  Accessibility Internet Rally

Knowbility Invites Web Professionals to Compete at AIR-Austin 2006

Web designers and developers will compete to create accessible websites for nonprofits

(Austin, TX) – July 19, 2006 – Knowbility, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to help ensure that children and adults with disabilities have accessible technology, has extended an open invitation to Central Texas web professionals to showcase their talent and skills at the organization’s 9th annual award-winning Accessibility Internet Rally for Austin (AIR-Austin) scheduled for October 21, 2006 at New Horizons Learning Center.

AIR-Austin is held in Austin, TX for one day each year and matches teams of web designers and developers with non-profit organizations to develop new websites or enhance the existing websites to make them more accessible for people with disabilities. Last year, in one day of competition, more than 150 professionals teamed up to create more than 25 accessible websites for local Austin nonprofit organizations, including websites for: All Blind Children of Texas, Children\'s Advocacy Centers of Texas, Girl Scouts Lone Star Council, Cancervivor, Camp Fire USA Balcones Council, Paso Adelente (NYOS Charter School) and KMFA, among others.

The AIR-Austin competition will provide web professionals with the opportunity to network among peers, challenge and strengthen their skills, and ultimately provide an improved website for a nonprofit organization serving the needs of disabled members of the Central Texas community.

Attendees to AIR-Austin 2006 will:

• Learn tools, techniques and standards that make online information available to everyone
• Learn how to make websites compliant to meet emerging government mandates  
• Have the opportunity to take advanced classes available on JavaScript and CSS

Receive recognition in the AIR-Austin print publication distributed during the event

Individuals can find more information about AIR-Austin at http://www.knowbility.org/AIR-Austin/, and register online to attend at http://www.knowbility.org/air-austin/?content=registerTeam. The deadline to register is September 15, 2006.

Knowbility began AIR-Austin in 1998 in an effort to bring awareness for the need to make websites accessible, and educate web professionals on how to make accessible websites. Knowbility now also conducts AIR competitions in San Antonio, Houston and Boston. 

“The result of the AIR programs is that countless people with disabilities can now access information and better use the Internet as a tool for gaining knowledge, economic power and exploring job possibilities,” said Sharron Rush, Executive Director of Knowbility. “This year we invite our region’s most talented web professionals to strengthen their skills in web accessibility, and participate in AIR-Austin 2006 to show our community how accessible websites benefit nonprofit groups and the many disabled and non-disabled individuals they serve.”

About Knowbility

Knowbility (www.knowbility.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1999 to help ensure that children and adults with disabilities have accessible technology to actively participate as producers and consumers in the information marketplace. Knowbility provides programs and services that directly help the blind visualize the world around them, help the deaf communicate with the hearing world, and help those with mobility impairments “travel” via the Internet.