The 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was celebrated this summer with events throughout the United States. The ADA is federal legislation designed to prevent discrimination and enable individuals with disabilities to full participate in society. President Barak Obama was one of many officials issuing proclamations in celebration of the act’s anniversary.
In conjunction with the 19th anniversary, the U.S. Department of Labor announced it renamed and relaunched the Web site DisabilityInfo.gov as Disability.gov
The redesigned site offers comprehensive information about programs and services to serve the more than 50 million Americans who have disabilities. The new Web site combines information from 22 federal agencies. It will be managed by the Department of Labor. The redesign has produced a more interactive Web site, drawing on new tools from social media to encourage user feedback. It also includes
new ways to organize, share and receive information. Visitors can now sign up for personalized news and updates, participate in online discussion and suggest resources. There is a Twitter feed, a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed, a blog, social book marking and user-friendly ways to get answers to questions.
The site is organized into 10 areas: benefits, civil rights, community life, education, emergency preparedness, employment, health, housing, technology and transportation. It also includes thousands of links to government sites, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and state and local government sites.
“Far more than just a directory of federal resources, Disability.gov is a meeting ground for Americans to learn, respond and communicate about a wealth of critically important disability-related topics,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “The new site has been vastly enhanced to provide more information in as efficient and interactive a setting as possible.”