Anyone out there that teaches or works with undergrad CS and MIS 
students? This is something that might be of interest to them. It's 
definitely a great step in the Universal Design direction.

nick
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IBM Accessibility ODF Coding Challenge 2006

It's a contest for undergraduates, in which they learn about accessibility,
then either:

(a) develop extensible accessibility validation tool for word processing
documents created in Open Document Format (the emerging XML standard
document format for saving and exchanging office documents); or

(b) develop anything at all that addresses the theme of the competition
("practical applications that can seriously impact people's lives")

There's more info here:
http://www-306.ibm.com/able/contest/

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Want to change the world? Start with the code.

College is about finding the intersection between your dreams and making 
a difference. It's a chance to turn the things you're passionate about 
into practical applications that can seriously impact people's lives. 
This fall, IBM is searching for innovative student developers willing to 
put their coding skills to the test to potentially change the way people 
use and interact with technology.

The IBM Accessibility ODF Coding Challenge 2006 is an opportunity to 
showcase your own unique brand of creative genius. Get some excellent 
experience. Score some cool prizes. And maybe use what interests you 
most—technology—to improve the IT experience of a wide range of users, 
including people with disabilities, older users, and users who speak 
another language.

The contest is divided into two phases and will require you to do a 
little homework on open standards, open source, and accessibility. But 
if you're willing to put in the time, you could end up with a Lenovo 
ThinkPad or an Apple iPod Nano for your efforts.