VAR handle: Applied Technology Inc.
Hails from: Davis, Calif.
Born-on date: 1993
Top dog: Donald Parks, president and CEO
Raison d'tre: Public-sector IT services with a special focus on handicapped-accessible technology
Getting it done: Parks, a visually impaired Air Force veteran, has built a successful practice knowing everything there is to know about the government's mandates for accessible technology. In addition to his work with Applied, Parks is president of the CSUS Organization of Applied Information Technology, for which he testifies before the California legislature on issues such as video display terminal safety. He has also served as chief of recruiter for California's Department of Mental Health Special Employment Unit, where he helped employ blind computer programmers.
In particular, Parks is an expert on Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, which requires public-sector IT to always buy the most accessible, handicapped-friendly products available. Applied just scored a three-year deal to improved Web accessibility for the disabled across California's state university system. And with a newly announced federal effort to award a minimum of 3 percent of its contracts to disabled vet businesses, he and the 900 or so SDVOBs in California have ample work.
"The law is very powerful, and we have all the work we can handle trying to provide complaint technology," says Parks. "A lot of it is leveraging our experience and expertise and bringing it to vendors and agencies that still don't understand their responsibilities. Even when they think they know, they don't know."
Parks says the opportunities won't be limited to the public sector, either.
"One in six people aged 45 and older can't read newsprint, even with glasses," he says. "That means a wealth of opportunity for businesses like mine going forward."
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