Blackboard Accessibility Grant
Ensuring that the world’s most used platform for teaching and learning is accessible to all users is a critical part of Blackboard’s mission to build a better education experience. At the National Federation of the Blind’s 2010 Convention, Blackboard received the third annual
Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award for “groundbreaking work in accessibility.”
In recognition of great contributors such as Dr. Bolotin and the
National Federation of the Blind, Blackboard announced the Blackboard Accessibility Grant, a program to support work enabling education for students with disabilities. Through the Blackboard Accessibility Grant, Blackboard will reinvest the $10,000 Dr. Bolotin award back into the accessible education community, and more than match that amount. Blackboard will contribute five grants in the amount of $5,000 each to individuals, groups, or organizations to fund projects that help further access to education for students with disabilities. Additionally, Blackboard employees will donate their time to provide insight, research, guidance, information, and support to the grant recipients.
Successful submissions for the Blackboard Accessibility Grant will focus on research that drives results that benefit students with disabilities, and will include a plan for working with students with disabilities during the research. Preferred focus is on best practices and interesting use of existing technology that can be reused broadly to benefit a large audience, rather than one specific student. Finally, projects should be designed to complete within 12 months. Submissions will be judged by a combination of the Blackboard Learn organization and industry experts in accessibility and education for disabled students.
The application deadline for this year's grant has passed. The Grant Committee is working through the selection evaluation and will announce award recipients around the end of April/early May. All who submitted proposals will be notified of whether or not their proposal was accepted.
Benefits:
- Get funding to conduct research and work that will better enable students with disabilities to have effective educational experiences.
- Get access to the latest release of Blackboard Learn to explore our award-winning innovations in accessibility.
- Get access to the design and development team at Blackboard to collaborate and discuss your ideas.
- Become a part of a rich, collaborative community of Blackboard users.