This week marks the 15th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark U.S. civil-rights law that protects people with disabilities from discrimination, ensures them equal access to public transportation and public buildings, and requires employers to provide a “reasonable level of accommodation” to help them do their jobs. In today’s knowledge economy, reasonable accommodation often includes accessible and assistive technologies that make it easier, and in some cases possible, for people with disabilities to use computers and to customize their work environments.
Even before passage of the ADA, Microsoft had started to develop software that was designed to empower people with disabilities. For nearly 20 years, Microsoft has been committed to increasing the accessibility of its own products while providing a platform that enables other developers to create assistive software and devices that are compatible with Microsoft Windows operating systems and other Microsoft products.
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