March 28, 2011

Mr. Eric Schmidt
Chairman of the Board & CEO
Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, California  94043

Dear Mr. Schmidt,

The State University of New York (SUNY) is committed to making the highest quality technology available to each of the 467,000 students and more than 88,000 faculty members on the 64 campuses across our statewide university system. Among these constituencies are tens of thousands of blind and otherwise disabled students who are part of our large higher education enrollment today. SUNY strives to provide members of our community with the finest educational opportunities available and is committed to complying with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In 2010 SUNY entered into an agreement that would allow any of our campuses to utilize Google’s Apps for Education service. For the most part, we have been happy with this technology, but it has recently come to our attention that some of our visually impaired students and faculty may have difficulty using the service. This concerns SUNY greatly because we desire to offer technology that is fully accessible to all of our students and faculty in order to fulfill our mission to provide the people of New York with educational services of the highest quality and with the broadest possible access.

I urge Google to immediately take steps to enhance the accessibility of its products to the blind and others with disabilities. Technology should make their educational experience more accessible, not less so. Thank you for your efforts. 

Sincerely,



Nancy L. Zimpher
Chancellor


cc:	Mr. David C. Drummond, Sr. Vice President, Corporate Development &
   Chief Legal Officer
       Dr. Alan Eustace, Sr. Vice President, Engineering and Research
       SUNY Disability Services Council
     	Mr. William Howard, Esq., SUNY General Counsel 
    	Dr. Edward Engelbride, Associate Provost