Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Disaboom interviews Marlee Matlin

Disaboom, the social networking and news site for people with disabilities launched in 2007, posted a Q&A with Marlee Matlin on its site, which discussed her work on "Dancing with the Stars."

Disaboom as a marketing concept was profiled in The New York Times last fall after its Oct. 1 launch. Disaboom was founded by J. Glen House, a doctor who is a quadriplegic as a result of a skiing accident at 20.

In addition to social networking, it has disability oriented news, career advice, dating resources and travel tips for people with disabilities. Disaboom created some controversy when it started because aspects of the Web site were incompatible with screen readers that many blind people use. "The site incorporates Flash animation and, it does not appear that they have taken the steps to make their Flash content accessible," Ron Graham's Access Ability blog wrote last October. "To me, this is a glaring oversight when you are directing your site towards people with disabilities."

But according to Graham, Disaboom worked to resolve these access issues quickly.