“Oracle is committed to creating accessible technologies and products that enhance the overall workplace environment and contribute to the productivity of our employees, our customers, and our customers' customers.”
—Safra Catz, Chief Executive Officer, Oracle
For many reasons—legal, business, and ethical—Oracle recognizes the need for our applications, and our customers' and partners' products built with our tools, to be usable by the disabled community. The Oracle Accessibility Program Office, reporting to the office of the Chief Corporate Architect, is responsible for defining the corporate standards for accessibility, and developing materials to train all employees so that they can successfully create products that meet those standards.
"Oracle's business is information—how to manage it, use it, share it, protect it. Our commitment to create products that simplify, standardize and automate extends to all users, including users who are disabled."
Oracle was a sponsor of the 2021 Annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, hosted by California State University, Northridge, March 2021. Michele Van Doozer of the Oracle Accessibility Program Office co-presented Accessibility Conformance Reports Using the VPAT with IBM and HP. The presentation included introducing the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) Training courses available from Information Technology Industry Council (ITI).
Applications are being accepted for the Oracle and European Disability Forum (EDF) scholarship for students with disabilities studying in the field of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, User Experience, or related fields enrolled at a EU university for the academic year 2020-2021. Deadline to apply is March 6, 2020. The scholarship consists of 6,500€ to be awarded based on a project or research that will be conducted during the academic year. The Scholarship will be awarded primarily based on a project or thesis in which the needs of persons with disabilities in terms of accessibility to ICT (e-Accessibility) are taken into consideration and/or an innovative solution to enhance their access is proposed. The project must be an integral component of the educational program undertaken by the student (e.g. final year assignment or part of their Masters or PhD).
Oracle and the European Disability Forum (EDF) announced Renata Deszo-Dinnyes as the winner of the 2019-2020 edition of the EDF-Oracle e-accessibility scholarship. This 6,500 euros award is to higher education students with disabilities in fields such as computer science, computer engineering, user experience and others. Renata's study focuses on user experience related to digitally manufactured objects, for example using a 3D printer to manufacture a prosthetic based on computer data. Full details of the scholarship and the awarding to Renata Deszo-Dinnyes can be found on Announcement - EDF and Oracle Award Scholarship to Researcher with Disability.
Oracle was an Executive Sponsor of the 2020 Annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, hosted by California State University, Northridge, March 10-13, 2020. Due to travel restrictions Oracle was unable to present at the conference this year. We look forward to the virtual conference next year.