Secure Funding for Accessibility Technology

Secure Funding for Accessibility Technology in Higher Education

How to Secure Funding for Accessibility Technology & Programs

One of the biggest challenges to providing accessible technology at universities is allocating a budget. Luckily, there are various grants and funding opportunities you can use to secure funding for accessibility technology.

Finding Opportunities

Secure Funding for Accessibility Technology
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One important method for funding is in your own backyard. Seek local community support for your accessibility programs; foundations, corporations and individual donors can all participate in lessening the financial burden.  

There are also government and other associations that are willing to help. For a complete guide to finding and applying for grants and scholarships, download the Updated 2017-2018 Grants and Funding Resource.

Spotlight on Video Captions

Educators are required by federal laws to caption all educational video to provide equal access for students with disabilities. With recent lawsuits in the news against UC Berkeley and Harvard and MIT for failing to provide captions on educational video, the pressure has multiplied on budget constrained educators.

The good news is that there are multiple benefits to utilizing captions in the learning environment, including improved learning outcomes.

A randomized controlled trial examined the impacts of captions on the reading comprehension skills of secondary school students in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Students using captioned media scored significantly higher than students in the comparison condition. In another study, Neilsen and PlanetRead research indicates that the use of Subtitles on TV doubled the number of functional early-age readers.

More Funding Resources:

  1. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
  2. The Federal Register for Educational Technology Materials
  3. National Association of the Deaf
  4. National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
  5. Distance Education Captioning and Transcription Grant

Accessibility Laws and Links:

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Nicole E. Flynn, CMO and Privacy Officer at cielo24, with a strong focus on human-in-the-loop (HITL) AI systems, digital accessibility, and data privacy. She leads cross-functional teams and chairs the company’s Accessibility and Privacy Committees, ensuring that innovation is both ethical and compliant. Nicole is dedicated to making advanced technologies practical and responsible, improving communication, safeguarding user trust, and driving sustainable growth.

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