Cisco builds products and services for all our customers and is committed to maintaining sustainable business practices in the areas of product accessibility and the supply chain.

In 2004 Cisco launched the Accessibility Initiative to help ensure that our products—as well as our facilities, Websites, and documentation—can be easily accessed by users with disabilities. The initiative calls for:

• Staff training to increase awareness and tools to help employees design, manufacture, market, and deliver accessible products and related materials
• Policy and engineering guidelines to evaluate the accessibility, usability, and compatibility of equipment and services
• Design principles that incorporate accessibility and usability throughout product development
• Product trials and evaluations that involve people with disabilities
• Support of and contributions to industry standards and guidelines for accessibility

Reporting to Cisco’s Corporate Compliance group, the Cisco Accessibility Team monitors ongoing compliance with Cisco accessibility standards and worldwide regulations. During FY07 the team implemented the Accessibility Initiative across all Cisco business units. The Accessibility Initiative has also been incorporated into the work of Cisco’s IT department, which will integrate accessibility features in the development and procurement of software.

The timeline below shows how the Accessibility Initiative has progressed since its inception.

Accessibility Partners

Cisco works with the following vendors to improve accessibility and usability in our products:

• In partnership with Tenacity, Inc., we released Access A Phone, an innovative software product for the Cisco Unified IP Phone 7900 Series. Access A Phone allows users to operate the phone from their PC keyboards and enables text-to-speech for caller ID, calls on hold, voicemail notification, and missed, received, and placed calls. The product is also compatible with leading speech-recognition software that lets dexterity-impaired people control the phone with vocal commands.
• Working with NXI Communications, we are developing solutions that connect Cisco Unified Communications Manager to the NXI Server, enabling features such as chat messaging that serve the hearing-impaired community.
• ARC Solutions’ attendant console assists visually impaired users by supporting the Job Access with Speech (JAWS) screen reader, which provides access to information displayed on the screen using text-to-speech or a Braille display.

Meeting and Setting Standards

Cisco participates actively in committees devoted to setting accessibility standards within the International Telecommunications Union, the Internet Engineering Task Force, and the Telecommunications Industry Association. We require that our equipment comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 255 of the U.S. Telecommunications Act, and the U.K. Disability Discrimination Act. Our products also conform to Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and similar legislation, and we are participating in efforts to help the United States Access Board rewrite and update the Section 508 requirements.

Internally, Cisco’s employee intranet complies with the Web Accessibility Initiative, an independent consortium working with organizations worldwide to develop strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with special needs.

Cisco Accessibility Academy

The Cisco Accessibility Academy is a comprehensive training program devoted to teaching employees how to design more accessible products. To date, the academy has provided training to 5785 employees, and we have expanded the curriculum to offer five Web-based courses led by instructors.

Future Accessibility Plans

For FY08 our goals are to:

• Complete training across the internal IT, customer service, and human resources teams
• Extend the Accessibility Initiative to our largest acquisitions and subsidiaries, including Linksys, Scientific Atlanta, and WebEx
• Complete the curriculum for a Designing and Developing Accessible Flash Modules course