AT508.com's 2nd National Town Meeting To Rescue Section 508 Webcast - Noted Panelists Convene Disability Community On-line, this Time with Webcast Participation of Federal Government as Debate over Section 508 Implementation Grows

On June 20, Internet TV Channel and leading assistive technology portal AT508.com, an affiliate on the TVWorldwide.com network, offered a free live video webcast of the National Town Meeting to Rescue Section 508, on-line at www.AT508.com. Since that time the response to this event has been overwhelming, according to webcast organizers, who are convinced they have hit a nerve on a very important issue and have planned a second webcast town meeting that will feature the participation of a federal representative from the GSA. The first town meeting featured prominent expert panelists from the community of those people with disabilities, renowned disability columnist John Williams of AT508.com and Mike Paciello, President of The Paciello Group (TPG), a leading international authority on Internet and software accessibility as the webcast elicited numerous e-mail responses from on-line participants, many of which are featured on AT508.com at http://www.at508.com /section508_emails.cfm. For the second webcast, Andy Imparato of the AAPD and Ms. Maxine Hill of GSA will join Mr. Williams and Mr. Paciello.

“Our goal with this town meeting webcast process is to generate mainstream awareness of the inherent weaknesses in the federal government’s implementation of the important Section 508 legislation and I’m excited about the response we’ve received,” stated Mr. Paciello. “Its clear there is a key flaw in the effective enforcement of Section 508 that involves a consistent and reliable set of usability, quality assurance, and certification measures that ensure E&IT product accessibility, thus federal agencies don’t comply and vendors are given mixed messages about what is or isn't accessible. This second town meeting will feature government participation as we come up with real proposals for Section 508 enforcement and federal agency oversight.”

”As controversial as it may seem, I think the ‘Accessibility Czar’ concept that came out of this webcast is a good idea,“ remarked Mr. Williams. “There over 56 million Americans with disabilities and its time that the federal government enforcement of disability legislation is granted the same dedication of resources as other ongoing federal efforts such as the war on drugs.”

“During and after the first webcast we saw on-line democracy in action.,” commented Dave Gardy, CEO of TVWorldwide. “Individuals with disabilities are a very close-knit community and we’ve found through the rapid growth of AT508.com, that the web is a strong enabling factor for this demographic so we expect an even bigger crowd for this second webcast.”

The meeting will be webcast with open captioning of the streaming video, or “webcaptingsm”, developed by TVWorldwide.com to assist federal agency clients in complying with Section 508. Visitors to the live webcast town meeting will be able to post questions to panelists and participate in Q&A via e-mail, providing a fully interactive forum for sharing of information.

The event will be webcast live and archived for viewing at TVWorldwide.com and www.AT508.com. Participants should have the free Real Video Player installed prior to the event and should log on by 3:15 PM ET on Wednesday, July 30.

About AT508.com
TVWorldwide’s AT508.com Internet TV channel was launched in October at the World Congress on Disabilities in Orlando, Fla, featuring world-renowned disability columnist John Williams covering the latest in assistive technology and Section 508 news and since then has webcast the TASH, ATIA, CSUN and CEC events for the community of people with disabilities. AT508.com features articles and videos on the latest in assistive technology products, services and issues and during trade show events, highlights keynotes, presentations and interviews with exhibitors and speakers. AT508.com events are webcast live and archived in fully accessible format using the captioned video streaming of TVWorldwide.com’s “webcaptingsm” process. AT508.com sponsors include The Paciello Group, Keybowl, HP, Kurzweil Educatonal Systems, Corda, Deque, Audio Eye, Sighted Electronics Freedom Vision and Vcom3D.

About The Paciello Group (TPG)
Founded by Mike Paciello, TPG is an international leader in Accessibility Consulting and Engineering. TPG is dedicated to helping corporations, government agencies and educational institutions make their IT resources accessible to all people, including those with disabilities. They offer professional consulting, technology solutions and monthly monitoring services to ensure that clients reach and maintain the ongoing accessibility of their digital assets. Further information on The Paciello Group can be found online at www.paciellogroup.com.

About TVWorldwide.com
As a leading global Internet broadcasting and streaming media company, TVWorldwide.com is developing a network of video channels that is an affiliation of community-based Internet television stations, each underwritten by a strategic partner, "aimcastingsm" to targeted demographic audiences worldwide. TVWorldwide.com works with strategic partners to develop the latest in live and archived state-of-the art video streaming content applications. . TVWorldwide.com was recently named one of the streaming video industry’s “Hottest Streaming Companies” by Streaming Magazine, www.streamingmagazine.com, and CEO Dave Gardy was honored by the magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Streaming Media.