Table of contents
1 Ask the expert
2 Business commentary
3 From the soap box
4 The reader’s choice
5 News and views
6 Helpful tips
7 Accessibility news
8 Editorial
9 Letters to the editor
10 Notes
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the following contributors to this month’s STAE issue.
The Sterling Creations accessibility team, the Sterling Creations business team, the Sterling Creations research team, Scott Savoy our managing editor, Christian Robicheau our assistant editor, our readers, and Donna J Jodhan our president.
Donna J Jodhan is the founder and president of Sterling Creations which was founded in 1994. As a blind woman she has had to overcome mountainous challenges in order to get where she is today. She is a very successful business woman, consultant, and author and she continues to help produce daily blogs that contain weekly features on topics of interest and relevance. She is never tired, always willing to help others, and never gives up when it comes to helping others to voice their opinions. As she puts it: "My undying commitment is to ensure that the kids of tomorrow have a more level playing field when it comes to such things as employment opportunities, equal access to the Internet and technology. I think that if I can do my little part to help someone else succeed then in turn they will help others."
We are all very proud to be part of the Sterling Creations team but above all, we are pleased and delighted to have Donna J Jodhan as our leader.
Message from the president
Hello there! I'd like to thank all of our readers for their continuing loyalty and feedback to our magazine. This magazine could not have been possible without the help and support of our staff and our readers. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our teams.
All of our teams work extremely hard to bring you tidbits and articles each month that are interesting, newsworthy, and exciting. We strive to keep you informed of the latest news and breakthroughs in the fields of business, health, and technology as they pertain to persons with special needs and we always appreciate your feedback because it is only through you that we can hope to get better.
We hope you enjoy this month's edition and invite you to contact us if you’d like to obtain a free electronic copy of our latest newsletter.
Ask the expert
iPhones and the Disability Divide
February 2008
By the Sterling Creations accessibility team
Hello there! We often get asked the question: Can blind and visually impaired persons use iPhones? How accessible are iPhones to these types of consumers? We’ll let you be the judge. We have a very interesting article to share with you.
iPhones and the Disability Divide
By Edward J. Heaton
August 2007 Column
In all the hype about Apple's new and revolutionary iPhone, it seems that
one segment of the population has been ignored. As usual, it's persons with
disabilities.
The most revolutionary feature of the iPhone is supposed to be its user
interface, which consists of a touch screen. A touch screen interface does
not allow persons with limited mobility in their hands, or persons who are
blind, to use the iPhone. Early sales estimates say that in the first
weekend of sales (June 29 to July 2), up to 750,000 units were sold. The
effect of the iPhone is not just limited to Apple products. According to
Fortune Magazine's David Kirkpatrick, "every other handheld device maker no
doubt will immediately start trying to imitate [the iPhone's touch screen
interface]."
If this is true, then PWDs will really be in a hole. The debate on whether
iPhones should or should not be accessible has already started on Apple user
websites. There are two schools of thought. The first is that if you are
blind, why would you buy an iPhone? The second is that one cannot determine
who wants to use the technology.
The iPhone was introduced in January by Steve Jobs. In the six months since
then, I have seen no disabled organization, such as the National Association
of the Blind, or any ADA-related group come up with a position on whether or
not the iPhone should be handicapped accessible. Given the other serious
issues facing the disability community, I can certainly understand the
oversight. However, given the early and probably ongoing success of the
iPhone, I think this will become an issue as more companies attempt to
either license or come up with their own version of the Apple technology.
According to "Disability and the Digital Divide", a report released in 2006
by RTC Rural, "[t]he most current data (October 2003) show Internet use by
fewer than 30% of those with disabilities over age 15 while more than 60% of
those with no disability used the Internet at
some location." If people with disabilities are already using the
Internet half as much as people without disabilities, the iPhone will only
continue to swing the pendulum in the wrong direction.
What needs to be done? Organizations, such as National Organization on
Disability, and the American Association of Persons with Disabilities, need
to push for accessibility standards for all devices that will use the iPhone
technology. Currently, in America, there are approximately 30,000 ATMs that
are accessible to people with low vision by the use of a headphone jack.
Perhaps a similar arrangement can be developed for the iPhone. This needs
to be done because of the other feature of the iPhone: that it acts as a
true mobile computer that allows consumers to surf the Web as if they were
at home on their own computer. The digital divide is already wide enough.
We need to ensure that it doesn't become the digital chasm.
Business commentary
Accessibility Is A Right, Not a Charity, Convenience, Luxury or Privilege
February 2008
By the Sterling Creations business team
Hi there! Hope all is well with everyone. This month we’d like to address the issue of accessibility and how it is viewed by others. We know that many governments are really trying to increase the importance of accessibility but it’s really not that easy when many of these governments really don’t put their money where their mouth is.
A prime example is Canada. The Canadian government says one thing and does something entirely different. Canada says that it is all for accessibility but in actuality it is doing everything that it can to prevent special needs Canadians from voicing their opinions when it comes to inaccessible Canadian government websites. The Canadian government has been described as mean spirited and now we’d like to publish an article that we hope will catch their attention. Sorry Canada, we really don’t mean to stick our noses in your business. We’re only trying to help the causes of special needs persons worldwide. Here now is our selection.
Blind Access Journal
Accessibility Is A Right, Not a Charity, Convenience, Luxury or Privilege
By Darrell Shandrow
Blind Access Journal is almost three years old. We will be celebrating our third anniversary of concerted online accessibility evangelism on December 17,2007. Now that we have embarked on our second major CAPTCHA (visual verification) accessibility initiative, I thought it would be a good idea to make the agenda of Blind Access Journal plainly clear to both long time and new readers. The overarching statement we consistently make in the pages of this journal is: "accessibility is a right". Accessibility provides blind and visually impaired people with the opportunity to participate in society on terms of equality with the sighted. Inaccessibility excludes the blind and visually impaired, resulting in exactly the opposite condition. We must have accessibility in the form of "reasonable accomodations" that permit us to participate, in order that we may be afforded the opportunities to live, learn and work in the world around us. Though we greatly appreciate anyone who is willing to work cooperatively with us, we must also keep in mind that full and equal participation of the blind in society ought not, ultimately, be a charity, convenience, luxury or privilege, but rather a human right in just the same way as those earned by women, minorities and other groups of human beings who have found themselves disallowed from full participation in one or more important elements of their society at different times in history.
The concept of charity revolves around the ability and willingness of people who have something (clothing, food, shelter) to share that wealth with those less fortunate. Rescue Missions, soup kitchens and other efforts to feed and shelter the homeless population are excellent examples of wonderful charities. In many cases, these organizations simply hand out food to the people who are eligible for their services. We also have non-profit, "charitable" organizations within the blind community that provide us with opportunities we would not otherwise be granted from companies in the business sector. Benetech and The Seeing Eye are excellent examples of two such organizations. Benetech now provides over 35,000 scanned electronic books to its subscribers, increasing their opportunities to read for entertainment and educational purposes. The Seeing Eye provides trained guide dogs to blind and visually impaired people to increase our ability to safely move through the world around us. Organizations like Benetech, The Seeing Eye and many others are charities in that they are non-profit, tax exempt entities with a mission to provide services not otherwise available to a minority population. In this sense, the concept of charity is quite positive. Unfortunately, there's another side to the concept of charity that is not so great with respect to accessibility issues.
In the old days, perhaps as recently as the 1960's here in the United States and today in other parts of the world, blind beggars would stand on street corners handing out pencils and accepting coins from passers by dropped into a can or cap. In the modern world, most blind people receive monthly checks, such as those from Social Security here in the United States, as a replacement to begging. In both cases, begging and Social Security checks simply represent a way for society to show charity toward a group of people deemed too needy to effectively care for themselves. Since the blind endure an approximate 75 percent unemployment rate, the continuation of this charity remains absolutely critical. Unfortunately, there is a dirty little secret to this form of charity. The concept involves the assumption that these poor, pitiful handicapped people should be grateful for whatever they get and should thus take their charity and leave everyone else alone. People harboring such attitudes tend to feel, whether consciously or not, that whatever small measures they take to help us should be good enough. Any indication on our part that their actions may not be sufficiently helpful is written off as whining and complaining and met either with silence or, when we are lucky, with a statement of this attitude. They resent any insistance that a better job be done to work with us for a more positive result. Karen and I call this a settle-for-less attitude, for lack of a better label. This settle-for-less attitude is deeply and profoundly offensive to those of us who simply feel we must be granted the same opportunities as people without disabilities.
Unfortunately, many government agencies, businesses and even some non-profit organizations continue to take this settle-for-less attitude with us. For example, paratransit providers like East Valley Dial-A-Ride here in Arizona often take the attitude that "we're doing the best we can" while refusing to hold themselves accountable for errors, act professionally with their customers or listen to constructive input from the community. This same attitude and approach to challenges is often clearly evident in the people working for the Social Security Administration, Vocational Rehabilitation and many other agencies and organizations with a mission to help people with disabilities. While people with disabilities are required to follow the provider's policies to the letter as a condition of receiving the help they need, the provider feels free to violate their stated responsibilities, often without as much as a sincere apology and explanation of the actions that will be taken to insure the violation is not repeated in the future. The settle-for-less attitude is even clearly evident on the Internet.
Many web sites now feature a CAPTCHA (also known as visual verification) during the registration process or even as a condition of completing business transactions. The CAPTCHAs are designed to make abuse of the web site virtually impossible for scripts and other automated computer programs, requiring that a real human being be present to pass the test. The customer or user is asked to look at a picture of a string of distorted characters and enter them correctly into an edit box in order to be permitted passage to the promised land they seek. Some web companies, such as America Online, Google and PRWeb offer an audio playback of the characters as an alternative for the blind, visually impaired or even sighted users who simply need a different way to pass the CAPTCHA test. The job of implementing audio CAPTCHA on any given web site has become much easier over the past year. For example, the FormShield CAPTCHA tool for the Microsoft .Net platform provides quite an effective audio and visual verification scheme. Another example is the free ReCAPTCHA service that provides audio and visual CAPTCHAs that also serve to assist in the process of the optical character recognition of books from print into digital formats. There is even an example of a text-based CAPTCHA, WP-Gatekeeper that permits readers of WordPress blogs to post their comments after answering a basic, text-based challenge question. Though the audio CAPTCHA continues to exclude some users, such as the deaf-blind, it represents the current technological state-of-the-art, and there's absolutely no excuse at this point for any web site to be using a CAPTCHA without at least an audio playback as a reasonable accomodation for the blind and visually impaired. Concerted research and development must continue in order to ultimately devise and implement solutions that can tell computers and humans apart in a method that is non-censory, so that all human beings will be able to pass such tests and access online resources.
Unfortunately, there still exist many companies and organizations on the web that insist on the settle-for-less attitude. Two examples are Yahoo! and Western Oregon University. Yahoo! invites the blind person to complete a separate form and wait for a human to call back in order to complete the action protected by the CAPTCHA, while WOU invites blind students to contact a telephone number that is supposedly staffed 24x7 in order to receive assistance. A student at Western Oregon University has told me that the results of their CAPTCHA accomodation have been less than acceptable. Many blind Yahoo! users tell us that, after completing the form as requested, the promised callback from Yahoo! personnel simply never comes, even after numerous attempts to request help. A petition has recently been initiated asking Yahoo! to add an audio alternative to their CAPTCHA. Western Oregon University, Yahoo! and all other web site operators that either provide no accomodation at all to their CAPTCHA or provide a manual process requiring human intervention are examples of those who seem to believe in the settle-for-less attitude. When no accomodation is offered, a blind person must rely on the help of a sighted individual, who may not be available for hours or even days. Many manual intervention approaches tend to result in no follow up at all or the follow up comes hours to days after the request for help is made by the blind person. In both cases, either no access is provided at all or the access is vastly inferior to that granted sighted users, who are allowed instant gratification as soon as they are able to pass the visual verification process. Some in the blind community, myself included, feel that the current state of affairs with inaccessible CAPTCHA is tantamount to the segregation experienced by African-Americans before the mid to late 1960's.
A convenience or luxury item is clearly defined as something that is nice to have but is not required in order to fill basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. For most people in society, the acquisition of those basics ultimately requires gainful, paid employment. Most jobs now require the employee to use a computer and other electronic office equipment. If an employee is unable to use one or more critical job-related computer programs, they are unable to be considered as candidates for the position or may lose their existing employment. This happens to blind people on a regular basis. It would have happened to me in February of 2006, had I not put my foot down and absolutely insisted on a better outcome. We are regularly receiving testimonials from others experiencing situations where their employment is in jeopardy simply due to a lack of cooperation on the part of software developers to make reasonable accomodations that would allow their software to function with screen readers and other assistive technology. These accessibility issues are further frustrated by the fact that most of the currently entrenched screen reader manufacturers refuse to innovate in ways that would increase the usability of those applications that have already been identified as inaccessible. It is absolutely critical that all assistive technology companies focus on innovation and stop engaging in destructive, unproductive, wasteful efforts such as filing lawsuits and other similar anti-competitive moves.
In addition to technology access concerns, transportation is an issue for many blind and visually impaired individuals. Most sighted people drive themselves to work, while a small percentage of the sighted ride the bus, subway or some similar form of public transportation. While most blind people are able to safely utilize buses or subways, many are not for various reasons. Those who can't take advantage of the regular public transportation system in a city may rely on a paratransit service such as Dial-A-Ride. When a paratransit service causes their customer to be late to their job due to an issue outside the customer's control, the employee may be written up and, ultimately, may lose their job altogether, even after successfully working around the technology access challenges. Such scenarios are, of course, also quite inexcusable.
Accessibility is not a convenience or luxury item! We must have equal accessibility to information and transportation in order to educate ourselves and acquire gainful, paid employment. It is just that simple and obvious. Consideration of accessibility as a convenience or luxury item is another component of the settle-for-less attitude demonstrated all too often by the agencies, assistive technology companies and organizations with a stated mission to help us, Federal, state and local government agencies charged with the duty to serve all citizens, the developers of mainstream products and services and even most blind people who are willing to accept inaccessibility without insisting on something better. When we encounter a case of inaccessibility that holds us back, we must start by politely asking for positive change, but we must also be willing to insist on the right thing being done and, even, demand equal accessibility when necessary. In most cases, sadly, accessibility is going to continue under the settle-for-less banner unless we, the blind and visually impaired community negatively impacted by the lack of equal opportunity caused by inaccessibility, stand up and take action!
Although most sighted people in modern times would probably consider it a right, the ability to drive an automobile is actually an excellent example of a privilege. The driver must pass a test showing basic competencies, acquire a driver's license and purchase the vehicle along with auto insurance, fuel and maintenance. Only after that do all the components exist for driving. Driving most certainly requires either gainful employment, retirement income in the case of senior citizens or some other substantial form of financial support. You do not have a legal right to drive a car. If you are willing to use public transportation or walk, you do not need to drive in order to meet your basic food, clothing and shelter needs. You can acquire most forms of education or employmehnt without independent use of a vehicle. The case is similar with luxury items, such as cable television or the ability to eat dinner out at a nice restaurant once in awhile. Of course, when accessibility allows blind people to acquire paid work, we are sometimes afforded these luxuries equivalent to similar opportunities afforded the sighted.
Accessibility is clearly not a luxury item or a privilege. Equal access places us on a level playing field with our sighted peers, so that we may equally participate with them in society for the purpose of meeting our basic needs as well as acquiring conveniences and luxury items when available resources allow. We are not able to meet those basic needs, much less acquire conveniences and luxury items, without the accessibility afforded by reasonable accomodations. No accomodation at all is never reasonable. Sighted people employed by or in leadership positions at agencies, companies, government institutions or organizations ought to be empathetic, understanding how they might like to be accomodated if they or a close friend or relative were blind or visually impaired. Blind people must learn to become better, more persistent advocates for themselves as well as evangelists for the good message of equal accessibility. Accessibility is simply the ethical, moral, and sometimes legal, right thing to do! I can imagine the great things that could happen if an increasing number of blind and visually impaired people would simply take more actions to convince, insist and, sometimes, demand more sighted people to become empathetic or, at least, do the right thing as a result of relentless pressure applied in the right amounts and circumstances. I believe the "if you build it, they will come" approach to accessibility evangelism can work if we, as a blind community, work much harder than we are now on both an individual and organizational level to communicate with the assistive technology companies and the developers of mainstream technology, reminding them of our needs and our constant insistance on having them met effectively. Remember, my blind brothers and sisters, most sighted people still don't even know that we are able to use computers!
Accessibility Is A Right, Not a Charity, Convenience, Luxury or Privilege
By Darrell Shandrow
Blind Access Journal is almost three years old. We will be celebrating our third anniversary of concerted online accessibility evangelism on December 17,2007. Now that we have embarked on our second major CAPTCHA (visual verification) accessibility initiative, I thought it would be a good idea to make the agenda of Blind Access Journal plainly clear to both long time and new readers. The overarching statement we consistently make in the pages of this journal is: "accessibility is a right". Accessibility provides blind and visually impaired people with the opportunity to participate in society on terms of equality with the sighted. Inaccessibility excludes the blind and visually impaired, resulting in exactly the opposite condition. We must have accessibility in the form of "reasonable accomodations" that permit us to participate, in order that we may be afforded the opportunities to live, learn and work in the world around us. Though we greatly appreciate anyone who is willing to work cooperatively with us, we must also keep in mind that full and equal participation of the blind in society ought not, ultimately, be a charity, convenience, luxury or privilege, but rather a human right in just the same way as those earned by women, minorities and other groups of human beings who have found themselves disallowed from full participation in one or more important elements of their society at different times in history.
The concept of charity revolves around the ability and willingness of people who have something (clothing, food, shelter) to share that wealth with those less fortunate. Rescue Missions, soup kitchens and other efforts to feed and shelter the homeless population are excellent examples of wonderful charities. In many cases, these organizations simply hand out food to the people who are eligible for their services. We also have non-profit, "charitable" organizations within the blind community that provide us with opportunities we would not otherwise be granted from companies in the business sector. Benetech and The Seeing Eye are excellent examples of two such organizations. Benetech now provides over 35,000 scanned electronic books to its subscribers, increasing their opportunities to read for entertainment and educational purposes. The Seeing Eye provides trained guide dogs to blind and visually impaired people to increase our ability to safely move through the world around us. Organizations like Benetech, The Seeing Eye and many others are charities in that they are non-profit, tax exempt entities with a mission to provide services not otherwise available to a minority population. In this sense, the concept of charity is quite positive. Unfortunately, there's another side to the concept of charity that is not so great with respect to accessibility issues.
In the old days, perhaps as recently as the 1960's here in the United States and today in other parts of the world, blind beggars would stand on street corners handing out pencils and accepting coins from passers by dropped into a can or cap. In the modern world, most blind people receive monthly checks, such as those from Social Security here in the United States, as a replacement to begging. In both cases, begging and Social Security checks simply represent a way for society to show charity toward a group of people deemed too needy to effectively care for themselves. Since the blind endure an approximate 75 percent unemployment rate, the continuation of this charity remains absolutely critical. Unfortunately, there is a dirty little secret to this form of charity. The concept involves the assumption that these poor, pitiful handicapped people should be grateful for whatever they get and should thus take their charity and leave everyone else alone. People harboring such attitudes tend to feel, whether consciously or not, that whatever small measures they take to help us should be good enough. Any indication on our part that their actions may not be sufficiently helpful is written off as whining and complaining and met either with silence or, when we are lucky, with a statement of this attitude. They resent any insistance that a better job be done to work with us for a more positive result. Karen and I call this a settle-for-less attitude, for lack of a better label. This settle-for-less attitude is deeply and profoundly offensive to those of us who simply feel we must be granted the same opportunities as people without disabilities.
Unfortunately, many government agencies, businesses and even some non-profit organizations continue to take this settle-for-less attitude with us. For example, paratransit providers like East Valley Dial-A-Ride here in Arizona often take the attitude that "we're doing the best we can" while refusing to hold themselves accountable for errors, act professionally with their customers or listen to constructive input from the community. This same attitude and approach to challenges is often clearly evident in the people working for the Social Security Administration, Vocational Rehabilitation and many other agencies and organizations with a mission to help people with disabilities. While people with disabilities are required to follow the provider's policies to the letter as a condition of receiving the help they need, the provider feels free to violate their stated responsibilities, often without as much as a sincere apology and explanation of the actions that will be taken to insure the violation is not repeated in the future. The settle-for-less attitude is even clearly evident on the Internet.
Many web sites now feature a CAPTCHA (also known as visual verification) during the registration process or even as a condition of completing business transactions. The CAPTCHAs are designed to make abuse of the web site virtually impossible for scripts and other automated computer programs, requiring that a real human being be present to pass the test. The customer or user is asked to look at a picture of a string of distorted characters and enter them correctly into an edit box in order to be permitted passage to the promised land they seek. Some web companies, such as America Online, Google and PRWeb offer an audio playback of the characters as an alternative for the blind, visually impaired or even sighted users who simply need a different way to pass the CAPTCHA test. The job of implementing audio CAPTCHA on any given web site has become much easier over the past year. For example, the FormShield CAPTCHA tool for the Microsoft .Net platform provides quite an effective audio and visual verification scheme. Another example is the free ReCAPTCHA service that provides audio and visual CAPTCHAs that also serve to assist in the process of the optical character recognition of books from print into digital formats. There is even an example of a text-based CAPTCHA, WP-Gatekeeper that permits readers of WordPress blogs to post their comments after answering a basic, text-based challenge question. Though the audio CAPTCHA continues to exclude some users, such as the deaf-blind, it represents the current technological state-of-the-art, and there's absolutely no excuse at this point for any web site to be using a CAPTCHA without at least an audio playback as a reasonable accomodation for the blind and visually impaired. Concerted research and development must continue in order to ultimately devise and implement solutions that can tell computers and humans apart in a method that is non-censory, so that all human beings will be able to pass such tests and access online resources.
Unfortunately, there still exist many companies and organizations on the web that insist on the settle-for-less attitude. Two examples are Yahoo! and Western Oregon University. Yahoo! invites the blind person to complete a separate form and wait for a human to call back in order to complete the action protected by the CAPTCHA, while WOU invites blind students to contact a telephone number that is supposedly staffed 24x7 in order to receive assistance. A student at Western Oregon University has told me that the results of their CAPTCHA accomodation have been less than acceptable. Many blind Yahoo! users tell us that, after completing the form as requested, the promised callback from Yahoo! personnel simply never comes, even after numerous attempts to request help. A petition has recently been initiated asking Yahoo! to add an audio alternative to their CAPTCHA. Western Oregon University, Yahoo! and all other web site operators that either provide no accomodation at all to their CAPTCHA or provide a manual process requiring human intervention are examples of those who seem to believe in the settle-for-less attitude. When no accomodation is offered, a blind person must rely on the help of a sighted individual, who may not be available for hours or even days. Many manual intervention approaches tend to result in no follow up at all or the follow up comes hours to days after the request for help is made by the blind person. In both cases, either no access is provided at all or the access is vastly inferior to that granted sighted users, who are allowed instant gratification as soon as they are able to pass the visual verification process. Some in the blind community, myself included, feel that the current state of affairs with inaccessible CAPTCHA is tantamount to the segregation experienced by African-Americans before the mid to late 1960's.
A convenience or luxury item is clearly defined as something that is nice to have but is not required in order to fill basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. For most people in society, the acquisition of those basics ultimately requires gainful, paid employment. Most jobs now require the employee to use a computer and other electronic office equipment. If an employee is unable to use one or more critical job-related computer programs, they are unable to be considered as candidates for the position or may lose their existing employment. This happens to blind people on a regular basis. It would have happened to me in February of 2006, had I not put my foot down and absolutely insisted on a better outcome. We are regularly receiving testimonials from others experiencing situations where their employment is in jeopardy simply due to a lack of cooperation on the part of software developers to make reasonable accomodations that would allow their software to function with screen readers and other assistive technology. These accessibility issues are further frustrated by the fact that most of the currently entrenched screen reader manufacturers refuse to innovate in ways that would increase the usability of those applications that have already been identified as inaccessible. It is absolutely critical that all assistive technology companies focus on innovation and stop engaging in destructive, unproductive, wasteful efforts such as filing lawsuits and other similar anti-competitive moves.
In addition to technology access concerns, transportation is an issue for many blind and visually impaired individuals. Most sighted people drive themselves to work, while a small percentage of the sighted ride the bus, subway or some similar form of public transportation. While most blind people are able to safely utilize buses or subways, many are not for various reasons. Those who can't take advantage of the regular public transportation system in a city may rely on a paratransit service such as Dial-A-Ride. When a paratransit service causes their customer to be late to their job due to an issue outside the customer's control, the employee may be written up and, ultimately, may lose their job altogether, even after successfully working around the technology access challenges. Such scenarios are, of course, also quite inexcusable.
Accessibility is not a convenience or luxury item! We must have equal accessibility to information and transportation in order to educate ourselves and acquire gainful, paid employment. It is just that simple and obvious. Consideration of accessibility as a convenience or luxury item is another component of the settle-for-less attitude demonstrated all too often by the agencies, assistive technology companies and organizations with a stated mission to help us, Federal, state and local government agencies charged with the duty to serve all citizens, the developers of mainstream products and services and even most blind people who are willing to accept inaccessibility without insisting on something better. When we encounter a case of inaccessibility that holds us back, we must start by politely asking for positive change, but we must also be willing to insist on the right thing being done and, even, demand equal accessibility when necessary. In most cases, sadly, accessibility is going to continue under the settle-for-less banner unless we, the blind and visually impaired community negatively impacted by the lack of equal opportunity caused by inaccessibility, stand up and take action!
Although most sighted people in modern times would probably consider it a right, the ability to drive an automobile is actually an excellent example of a privilege. The driver must pass a test showing basic competencies, acquire a driver's license and purchase the vehicle along with auto insurance, fuel and maintenance. Only after that do all the components exist for driving. Driving most certainly requires either gainful employment, retirement income in the case of senior citizens or some other substantial form of financial support. You do not have a legal right to drive a car. If you are willing to use public transportation or walk, you do not need to drive in order to meet your basic food, clothing and shelter needs. You can acquire most forms of education or employmehnt without independent use of a vehicle. The case is similar with luxury items, such as cable television or the ability to eat dinner out at a nice restaurant once in awhile. Of course, when accessibility allows blind people to acquire paid work, we are sometimes afforded these luxuries equivalent to similar opportunities afforded the sighted.
Accessibility is clearly not a luxury item or a privilege. Equal access places us on a level playing field with our sighted peers, so that we may equally participate with them in society for the purpose of meeting our basic needs as well as acquiring conveniences and luxury items when available resources allow. We are not able to meet those basic needs, much less acquire conveniences and luxury items, without the accessibility afforded by reasonable accomodations. No accomodation at all is never reasonable. Sighted people employed by or in leadership positions at agencies, companies, government institutions or organizations ought to be empathetic, understanding how they might like to be accomodated if they or a close friend or relative were blind or visually impaired. Blind people must learn to become better, more persistent advocates for themselves as well as evangelists for the good message of equal accessibility. Accessibility is simply the ethical, moral, and sometimes legal, right thing to do! I can imagine the great things that could happen if an increasing number of blind and visually impaired people would simply take more actions to convince, insist and, sometimes, demand more sighted people to become empathetic or, at least, do the right thing as a result of relentless pressure applied in the right amounts and circumstances. I believe the "if you build it, they will come" approach to accessibility evangelism can work if we, as a blind community, work much harder than we are now on both an individual and organizational level to communicate with the assistive technology companies and the developers of mainstream technology, reminding them of our needs and our constant insistance on having them met effectively. Remember, my blind brothers and sisters, most sighted people still don't even know that we are able to use computers!
Net becoming more accessible to vision impaired
February 2008
By Scott Savoy
Hey there! I’m going to follow Jeff and Kerry’s trend here by publishing an article that gives the view that the Internet is becoming more accessible to the visually impaired. Some experts may disagree but I’ll chicken out and let you be the expert.
'Net becoming more accessible to vision-impaired.
By Jeffrey Pieters
Post-Bulletin - Rochester,MN,USA
Dale Davis, a Rochester Community and Technical College student pursuing a degree in information technology, began losing his sight from retinitis pigmentosa about 15 years ago, but the effects became serious in only about the last 10 years.
He remembers what it was like to surf the Web sighted and says JAWS, special reading software whose title stands for "Job Access With Speech," while nice, cannot compare.
"Nothing's ever as positive or as competent as our vision," he said. "You do have to find a roundabout way to take a Web page, to understand just how it works. Trying to find exactly what you're looking for is sometimes hard with vision impairment."
For one thing, the software can't skim information, he said. One has to listen to the computer's reading voice from start to finish.
Still, there are things a blind computer user can learn to make them the equal to -- if not superior of -- the sighted mouse-clicker, says Ken Trebelhorn, a Rochester-based technology instructor specializing in blind issues. His home business is called Low Vision Technologies of Minnesota.
"I could guarantee you that you could whip out an e-mail faster than you could before," he said. "Because it's all on the keyboard. Everything is done on the keyboard. There's no need to pick up the mouse and try to figure out where to point the thing."
Composing an e-mail, though, is a fairly standardized task. Navigating the Web, where every page can be designed differently, is something altogether different.
There is, however, a set of national standards for Web design, said Adam Starkey, the city's Webmaster. Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act prescribe accessibility standards for Web design, and Rochester keeps its pages in compliance with those, Starkey said. They're specially checked twice a year, he said.
None of it is a legal requirement -- at least not yet -- but "we just figured it's probably the best practice to make sure we are compliant," Starkey said.
Prior to joining the Rochester staff 2 1/2 years ago, Starkey was a professional Web designer in the Twin Cities. He doesn't recall accessibility issues being a common subject for discussion then.
"It's certainly becoming more of an (industry) issue," he said. "It's just a best practice for any government site. ... A lot of the larger (commercial sites) try to be compliant."
Starkey noted that Target.com was the subject of a class-action suit, filed by blind users alleging discrimination over accessibility to Target's Web site.
"It can lead to lawsuits if your site isn't (accessible)," he said.
So, how many Web sites are acceptably accessible?
"I would say somewhere between 70 and 80 percent," Davis said. "Most of them are pretty good."
Seeing a world with sound
February 2008
Contributed by Angela Fargo of London England
Hi out there! This month I’ve chosen an article that I can closely relate to. The young lady in this article reminds me very much of myself and it’s how I go about my life. Hope you enjoy my choice.
Seeing a world with sound
By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter
Gulf News - Dubai,United Arab Emirates
Dubai: Imagine a world with no colour, a personal world with no boundaries,
a world without any visual inputs.
One such world belongs to Dana Nashwati, a 20- year-old who lost her sight
at the age of 13 after a severe bout of flu, which affected the nerves
around her eyes. She can still see a blur of colours and shapes in her
dreams, although it is now gradually turning into only shades and sounds.
She can still visualise things by learning to identify the characteristics
of an object. "I still use colours to identify people I haven't seen before
losing my eyesight. I visualise individuals by giving them a colour by the
sound of their voice," said Nashwati.
She tries to help visually-impaired people to learn how to match colours to
sounds. She is surrounded by her friends from the Blind Association, who
occasionally escape busy schedules to enjoy a day with nature and good
company.
Among the group is Khalfan Bin Daher, who was demonstrating his knowledge of
guessing people's age and skin colour by feeling their hands. In a few
minutes he was able to correctly guess the age of the person next to him. "I
don't know how people look like, but through the sense of touch I can find
out about the person's age and skin colour," said the 18-year-old.
"I can see light when it directly hits my eyes. That's the only thing I can
'see', but I would love to learn how to match colours. I would like to know
if red goes well with blue," he said.
He explained that he sees things the way his imagination visualises it. "My
dreams are usually shapeless and colourless. But then reality will always be
defined by perception," he said.
Composing music
Ahmad Al Jafli, 20, enjoys listening and composing music. The media
communications student and radio presenter said he can recognise the mood of
a person by carefully listening to every unconscious movement and sound.
"People can control their expressions, but they are usually unconscious of
certain movements due to discomfort, happiness," he said.
Nashwati points out that people are increasingly taught to be
visually-driven. "This undermines the significance of their other senses,"
she said.
Mona and Sharifa Al Hashemi, they visualise objects by the sound they make.
"I identify objects by listening to the sound they create. I dream with
sounds," said Mona.
All the group members were born visually impaired except for Nashwati.
"Losing your eyesight is obviously difficult, but your visual impairment is
not always a restriction. The visual element can be deceptive at times. I
learned to understand matters and people better because I take the time to
listen to their views ... you learn the art of listening," she said.
The groups of friends feel the country needs more awareness about the needs
and wants of visually impaired people. Most shopping malls and buildings are
not accessible for the visually impaired, they said.
"We still have to depend on someone to get from one place to another. We all
want our independence. We always try to challenge ourselves ... but we need
the resources and means," Bin Daher said.
Start wearing sun glasses early and they may help to preserve your sight in later life
February 2008
By Christian Robicheau
Hello! This month I’ve chosen an article that may come in handy for many. It opened my eyes.
Start wearing sunglasses early, and they may help to preserve your sight in later life.
By Jeremy Laurance
Independent - London,England,UK
For decades, doctors have warned about the dangers of going out in the sun. Slap on a hat, slip on a shirt and slop on the suncream to protect your skin from harmful rays and avoid getting cancer, they say.
But what about the eyes? If sunlight burns skin, what does it do to the cornea, lens and retina? Most people wear sunglasses for comfort or to look cool. But perhaps there is a more pressing reason - to save our sight.
Should the advice be; wear shades or risk going blind? One of the world's best-known scientists, James Watson, a Nobel prizewinner and the discoverer of the DNA double helix, seems to think that is exactly what the risk is.
At the opening of the Wellcome Medical Museum in London last month, he was extolling the benefits of genetic research. In May, he became the first person to be presented with his entire DNA sequence on a disc, potentially allowing him to identify genetic defects that could put him at risk of disease.
Asked if there were any downsides to such research - something he is notably reluctant to admit - he had his answer ready. Analysis of his genome might have revealed a vulnerability to, say, macular degeneration, which is the most common cause of blindness.
"I could have seen the [gene] sequence when I was in my fifties and worn dark glasses for the rest of my life. But I am now 79, and I don't have macular degeneration. So it would have been unnecessary - based on incomplete information," he said.
It was a deliberately frivolous point, intended to suggest that the worst the new genetics could foist upon us was the inconvenience of wearing dark glasses. But the assumption that lay behind it was that dark glasses can protect eyes from premature ageing, in the same way that suncream can protect the skin. They may even, Watson implied, prevent vulnerable people from losing their sight.
The facts about blindness are chilling. By the age of 80, more than half of Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery. A cataract occurs when the lens in the eye becomes cloudy, blurring the vision. Treatment is by surgery, to replace the lens with an artificial one made from plastic.
Age-related macular degeneration affects about 500,000 people in the UK. It occurs when cells in the centre of the retina at the back of the eye become damaged. Symptoms are the loss of central vision and visual distortion. Both conditions are most common in the elderly - and as we live longer, the numbers affected are growing. The eyes, in common with other organs, need protection if they are to last. Some eye specialists say that protecting the eyes of children is the most effective way to prolong 20-20 vision into old age.
Ian Anderson, an optometrist and the chairman of the Eyecare Trust, a charity devoted to promoting eye health, said: "Your eyes can be damaged by ultraviolet light. There are two types in sunlight - UVA and UVB. UVA sunlight penetrates quite deeply and can damage the lens and the retina. People should be aware that they need to wear dark glasses and do more to protect their eyes."
People who have fair skin are at greatest risk. They have less pigment and their eyes are thus most vulnerable to UV light, while dark-skinned people are better protected.
But it is a myth that blue-eyed people are more sensitive to light and therefore more vulnerable to eye damage. The iris is almost opaque, although there are differences in the amount of pigment in the retina, Anderson said.
Children are worse off because their eyes are young and the lens and vitreous - the fluid behind the lens - are clearer, so the light goes straight through and goes on to hit the retina.
"Children need sunglasses, but parents need to be careful that they are not toys with tinted lenses. That causes the iris to open and let more light through. Parents need to be very careful to buy sunglasses with the right CE marking to show that they filter out UV light. It is more important to wear sunglasses when young to protect the eyes."
In older people, as the lens of the eye ages, it creates more glare. "It becomes like a frosted window - this is called 'veiling glare'. A lot of older people have incredible problems driving when the sun is low or it is reflecting off wet roads," Anderson says.
If sunglasses are necessary to protect the eyes from damage, why are they not the subject of health promotion campaigns? The answer, according to Andrew Lotery, professor of ophthalmology and a specialist in macular degeneration at Southampton University, is that the case for shades is unproven.
"It has been a hypothesis for decades [that exposure to sunlight damages the eye]. There have been large-scale epidemiological studies; for example, of fishermen who are exposed to a lot of light reflected off the sea. There is no evidence of an increase in macular degeneration. That link has been looked for, but it has not been found."
Some experts say that blue light is more damaging to eyes, but this too has not been proved, Lotery says. "One concern was that when cataracts were removed, the blue light filters present in the natural lens were removed also. Now, all replacement lenses have blue light filters," he says.
For certain people with rare eye conditions, such as retinitis pigmentosa (an inherited condition that causes degeneration of the retina), excess light can be damaging. "I advise these patients to avoid sunlight and wear dark glasses," Lotery says.
A juvenile form of macular degeneration called Stargardt's disease, which affects one in 10,000 children, is also affected by light. Experiments in mice show that they are protected when raised in the dark. Lotery says: "Most ophthalmologists would recommend sunglasses for this group." But he's sceptical about suggestions that we all need protection: "I don't think, for the general population, that the evidence is there."
February 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Hola out there! Hope everyone is having a great winter! Here are our tips for February.
Helpful tips for February:
Here is part two to our most popular pet peeves in the workplace. We gave you the first five last month.
6 A person using your phone without your permission.
7 A person with an irritating cough.
8 A person leaning over the wall of your cubicle to chat.
9 A person talking too loudly in their cubicle.
10 A person wearing strong perfume.
Would you like to know a bit about the mental condition known as SAD?
Sad stands for seasonal adjustment depression.
Millions of persons suffer with it.
It's a type of depression caused by the change in seasons.
It strikes mainly in the winter months.
There are light boxes that you can buy that emit light in your house.
Some tidbits about the value of eating the skins of certain fruits?
Yes indeed! The doctors say that the skins of apples and peaches are very nutritious for you.
So, don't peal them off before you eat them.
This box is extremely affective.
What's this about the fridge beating up on your baked goods?
Yes! If you put your baked goods in the fridge, and don't seal them properly, they will dehydrate.
So, when placing them in your fridge the next time, make sure that they are well sealed.
What's to know about the value of honey?
According to a recent study, honey is just as good as cough medicine when it comes to your kids.
Give the little one with a cold a teaspoon of honey before bedtime.
However, honey is not very good for those under the age of one.
Would you like to know some helpful tips about berries?
If they're frozen they don't float when placed in water.
Fresh berries on the other hand float when placed in water.
What's the difference between salted and unsalted butter?
Salted butter contains more water than unsalted butter.
What's the difference between brown eggs and white eggs?
Brown eggs are laid by brown hens.
White eggs are laid by white hens.
Brown hens can only lay brown eggs.
White hens can only lay white eggs.
Brown hens require more nutritious foods than their white counterparts.
Having difficulty cutting your cake into even slices?
Here's a tip for you.
First, wash your cake slicer in warm water.
Next dry it very dry with a kitchen towel.
Now you're ready to slice your cake and you should not have any difficulty.
What are the differences between an allergic reaction and an intolerance?
An intolerance brings great discomfort.
An allergy can be fatal.
What happens if you cut your meat while it's still too hot?
First, you lose all the juices.
Second, your meat will dry out.
Accessibility news
Open skies
February 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Hey again! We’re back again and we’re publishing this article for all you travel buffs. Enjoy!
OPEN SKIES WITH..
Traveleyes
Latest news 12/07/07
Traveleyes, the world's first air tour operator company to specialise in the
needs of blind and sighted world travellers, recently announced a number of
new developments in line with their trail-blazing policy promising 'no
limits in world travel for blind and sighted people'. Their high quality
range of individually packaged holidays centres upon cultural exploration
and savouring the distinctive multi-sensory features of each world
destination.
Recently announced new ventures include eight days visiting cultural and
picturesque cities of Canada, savouring the unique atmosphere, aromas and
tastes of rural Tuscany and an exploration of the sleepy white villages,
great cities and rolling hills of Andalucia. The Traveleyes Travellers this
year have enjoyed a range of attractive, 'hand-made' holidays to such
destinations as Cuba, Crete, Gran Canaria and the Italian city of Sorrento.
Traveleyes take equally balanced groups of blind and sighted travellers to
select destinations and the emphasis is always upon unique and memorable
shared experience. Sighted travellers come from all walks of life, and with
Traveleyes they have the opportunity to explore the world at subsidised
rates. The Traveleyes system builds confidence and provides new scope for
all involved. Blind and sighted travellers alike are empowered to venture
beyond boundaries, defy restrictions and grasp a real sense of independence
and fulfillment.
A recent characteristically 'Traveleyes' escapade occurred when the intrepid
band of fourteen (blind and sighted) happened upon a remote primary school
in the foothills of Morocco's Atlas Mountains. The energetic welcome they
received from the excited children and their teachers inspired the
Traveleyes group to organize a spontaneous 'whip-round' and to return to the
school the next day with the local equivalent of a year's supply of new
exercise books and educational equipment purchased in a nearby town. The
delight on the faces of the children and teachers confirmed their joy at the
unexpected visit.
Among their range of unique services, Traveleyes exclusively offer the
world's first electronic versions of the famous 'Lonely Planet' travel
guides, which are specifically formatted for use by visually impaired
people. The newly-informed blind traveller, coupled with the vision of the
sighted traveller, makes for an unbeatable partnership.
The company's charismatic founder and director, Amar Latif (32) is blind,
but seems never to have allowed this fact to prevent him leading groups of
travellers on expeditions across the world.
He holds the accolade: 'Outstanding Young Business Entrepreneur of the
World', presented by the Chamber of Commerce International (JCI), an honour
he shares with some illustrious former winners, who include US Presidents
John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, and, interestingly, Easy Jet founder,
Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Amar was seen by millions in the BBC2 TV series, "Beyond Boundaries", a
ground-breaking jungle endurance expedition across Central America by
individuals of various disabilities. The series was shown worldwide.
Amar's other media interests have seen recent expansion. He has recently
directed a television documentary for Channel 4, which was broadcast on
April 15th 2007. The programme looked into the motivation and the experience
of visually impaired people who undertake world travel in pursuit of
cultural and aesthetic experiences. In addition, he continues with a regular
programme of inspirational public speaking appearances, addressing major
corporations and charities on a range of themes.
Traveleyes has gained as many keen repeat-customers among their sighted
travellers as they have among those who are blind. The aim of the enterprise
has always been to enable people with a visual disability to enjoy the same
independence, choice of destination and freedom to book on impulse that has
always been the prerogative of sighted people. Previously, blind travellers
had to suffer the dual impediments of having to tag along with family
holidays, and also of being regarded by some travel companies and airlines
as 'special cases, presenting problems'. Amar Latif clearly enjoys
reassuring all-comers that: "at Traveleyes, to be blind is normal.. and
we're also very happy to cater for the needs of sighted people".
Latif, despite enduring teenage onset of 95% sight loss due to a presently
incurable eye condition, has risen from comparatively humble Glaswegian
roots, to a broad range of achievements, including experience as an actor, a
professional singer/guitarist, and a business career which saw him rise to
Head of ICT Finance at BT. Here he had responsibility for multi millions of
pounds worth of business.
In recent months, a steadily growing list of honours has included this
Strathclyde mathematics graduate being invited back to his old university to
receive the award 'Alumnus of the Year, 2006'. In a dynamic and
inspirational speech to graduates, their families and the assembled academic
body, Amar referred to the world as a place "where the sky is high, and the
horizon continually beckons to us." He went on to urge graduates to "Get out
there..and greet that world with heart and with outstretched arms... learn
its languages, unlock its codes, uncover its secrets, set your aim for the
sky.... and hold on tight!".
Living up to its slogan: 'Open Skies with Traveleyes', this young and
vibrant company proudly continues to feature 'the blind' leading both the
blind and the sighted! This is a rare and dynamic example of 'equal access
for the disabled' being achieved in style by positive self-determination
rather than being governmentally imposed by albeit well-intentioned quota
systems.
Blind and sighted travellers with a thirst to see more of the world can
contact 'Traveleyes' for information. Call 08709 220221 or visit http://www.traveleyes.co.uk/
Editorial
Home businesses can be a blessing
February 2008
By Donna J Jodhan
Home businesses can be a blessing
Many people scoff at the idea of creating and developing a home business. Up till a few years ago, society did not think much of the home business venture. They felt that it would probably fail before it even got off the ground and there were other comments like:
A home business does not really mean that you are working at a real job.
A home business would mean that you spend too much time at home and not enough time communicating with others.
A home business is not as meaningful as working for a real company.
This way of thinking has been changing quite drastically for at least the past decade and now more than ever, more and more persons are going into their own home businesses. There are a few driving forces behind this drastic change and I'd like to look at these.
First, the stress factor. In a recent survey published in the United States, it was revealed that over 85% of respondents attributed their stress to many of the following factors:
Having to deal with traffic jams. Many of those surveyed complained that they were often stressed out because of having to spend so much time in traffic snarls.
Having to spend too much time at the office and not enough time at home.
Having to deal with supervisors who did not appreciate the time and effort that they were putting in at the office.
Not much hope for career advancement.
Having to deal with cramped office space and other co-workers.
Second, the advent of the Internet. The Internet has literally opened up millions of opportunities for persons to be abele to work from home. Anyone choosing to start their own home business can now use the Internet to do such things as:
Market and advertise their products and services.
Buy and sell their products and services.
Send and receive information.
Send and receive tasks to be carried out.
The Internet has made it possible for home businesses to be flexible when it comes to work schedules and in addition, it is so much easier for persons to keep in touch with their clients more easily and efficiently.
In the opinion of many experts, it is becoming easier to open a home business. The benefits to doing so are looking more and more enticing to those contemplating it. The idea of being able to spend more time at home with the family, avoiding those long hours in traffic snarls or just traveling to and from the office, the thought of becoming one's own boss, and the ability to make one's own schedule and work at one's own pace, all of these advantages are making the home business venture more exciting, interesting, and above all, more beneficial.
Letters to the editor
February 2008
From the desk of the editor
Hi there! Here are this month’s contributions.
From Jane Chasser of Stockholm Sweden:
I am glad to see that your company has an online magazine. I like it much and would like to visit Canada and America one day soon.
From Sean O'Keri of Dublin Ireland:
Top of the day to you across the pond! I am encouraged by Donna's editorials. She shows her expertise and her staff produces a well written and well balanced magazine. Keep going!
From Kevin Kennedy of Boston:
Donna, your December editorial was very moving and I really hope that you continue to get your messages out there. I also liked your choice of articles for last month. The one about the blind entrepreneur.
From Ryan Clark of San Mateo California:
It would be nice of this magazine to find some articles on blind sports to share with its readers. Blind people do play sports you know! This magazine is good but a bit too serious for me.
From Jan Holt of Toronto Canada:
Well, Donna, some nice editorials but how about challenging the CNIB re its present attitude towards us blind people living in Canada? Hope you're not scared to do so!
From Darius Scott of Michigan:
That baggage pin device can help lots of people traveling. Not just for blind folks but for everyone! We need more products like these.
To submit your comments please send your email to info@sterlingcreations.ca. All submissions are screened to ensure appropriate language is used.
Notes
If you would like to contribute an article to our magazine then please contact us at:
Tel (416) 491-7711
Email info@sterlingcreations.ca
Check out our online magazine page at www.sterlingcreations.ca/magazine.html for our rates.
Comments to the editor can be submitted free of charge.
All submissions are reviewed and you will be notified if yours is chosen. If your submission is chosen for “the reader’s choice” section of our magazine we will print it at no cost.
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