Making Connections

Photograph by Alain McLaughlin

Despite significant changes in the way society treats people with disabilities, many still find themselves isolated in their communities, unable to pursue educational opportunities or find jobs.

The Community Technology Foundation of California, in San Francisco, is looking to technology designed specifically for people with disabilities as one way to remedy that problem, and to help disabled people improve their lives by connecting more fully with the world around them.

The foundation awards grants to organizations that help people with disabilities learn how to take advantage of accessibility features that are built into computers’ operating systems and how to use specialized equipment designed for people with disabilities, such as screen magnifiers and text readers.

Among the other projects, the foundation supports a documentary — the working title of the film is Freedom Machines — that shows how people with disabilities are using specially designed technology; and an online database that features “disability-friendly destinations” in California, such as restaurants, stores, and transit systems.

The Community Technology Foundation of California also works to bring the benefits of information technology to poor people, members of minority groups, rural residents, and people who do not speak English. It was created in 1998 by an agreement among nine coalitions that represented 134 civil-rights and disability groups and two telecommunications companies, Pacific Telesis and SBC Communications, that merged to become Pacific Bell.

As part of the companies’ merger plan, Pacific Bell agreed to provide $50-million to the foundation over 10 years. Of the nearly $5-million the foundation awarded in 2002, $807,000 went to disability projects.

Here, clients at Blindness Support Services, in Riverside, Calif., use screen-magnification software in the organization’s computer laboratory.