We would like to acknowledge the following contributors to this month's STAE issue.
The Sterling Creations accessibility team, Jeff N Marquis and Kerry J Harrison who are our resident business consultants, Scott Savoy our managing editor, Christian Robicheau our assistant editor, and Donna J Jodhan our president.
We are especially delighted to have both Jeff N Marquis and Kerry J Harrison as part of our magazine staff and as our resident business experts because of their in depth knowledge and expertise as special needs business consultants.Both Jeff and Kerry have written many articles and they released their last hot selling book called "Untapped Wealth Discovered."This book was released in mid August 2005 and it has already begun to fulfill promises of being dynamite, explosive, and seismic and we are very sure that many of you will find it extremely valuable, useful and informative.Both the U.S and British governments have already given their blessing to this book and several business experts have also jumped on the band wagon.Marquis and Harrison are off to a flying start.
We believe in this book because it is unique in that it can help you to get back on your feet if you suddenly find yourself without a job, if you are looking for ways to put money away for your kids' education, or if you need extra income to help you live more comfortably.The beauty about this book is that it is based solely on realities and logic and not on those fool hardy get rich quick schemes and false and empty promises.
Here are just a few quotes from some U.S government officials and experts to peak your interest.
"Block buster material.This book has the potential to change the way we reduce our costs, increase our revenues, expand our customer base, and stay ahead of our competition."
"If you are looking for safe ways to protect the future of you and your kids then you should pick up a copy of Untapped Wealth Discovered."
"Marquis and Harrison have affectively provided their readers with logical and common sense ways to generate and create business ideas that will work because they are based on markets that exist.Moreover these markets are going to be around for a very long time to come."
"This book is meant to help the little guy.It's a book for almost everyone.The woman, the entrepreneur, the small business owner, and even the retiree and the college student."
"If you want to avoid those get rich quick schemes and keep your money safe then Untapped Wealth Discovered is an absolute must read for you."
Here is what some readers have to say about "Untapped Wealth Discovered."
From Kelly Strasberg vice president of a mid sized computer company in San Francisco:
"As a woman I am really impressed to see that these authors truly understand our plight in the business world. They acknowledge that there is indeed a glass ceiling for women and they show us how to deal with it in a positive way."
From Mark Gregory a foreman who unexpectedly lost his job at a GM plant in Michigan in 2005:
"It's so hard to know what to do when you suddenly find yourself without a job but this book has helped me to deal with things and turn my life around in a very quick time. I'm back on
my feet and making very good money.Enough to be the bread winner once more."
From Rick Stone a small business owner in Washington DC:
"This is the first book that I've come across where the authors don't even mention a single thing about getting rich quickly.Instead, they talk about ways to take advantage of niche markets, lucrative opportunities, and rising demand."
From Melissa Goldatt a stay at home mom in Baltimore Maryland:
"I like this book because it presents fresh new approaches to creating your own employment.It also helps you to evaluate yourself and that's important to mebecause I am seriously thinking of getting into some kind of business to earn some extra income to help out around the house and I don't want to do something new without first examining all of my options."
From Chris Farrell a retired banker in New York:
"I wasn't sure what I would be reading when I bought a copy of this book but I'm sure glad that I did.If anyone is seriously looking to develop a business then this is the book for you.Marquis and Harrison have truly captured the essence of some very important trends and they talk about using these trends to build safe and sound businesses.Something that most of my colleagues should be thinking of before they retire."
From Laura Peterson a professor in business studies in London England:
"I'm glad to see that someone is finally paying attention to women in the business world.After reading this book I am convinced that women can have more than a better chance of being successful in their own businesses."
From Pierre LaPage a recent graduate in Montreal Canada:
"I was just browsing Amazon when I came across "Untapped Wealth Discovered" and the cover looked interesting enough so I bought it because it did not cost too much.It's cool!It has some very interesting techniques.It does not BS you into false hope and the authors don't try to fool you with big terms and cute phrases.No smoke screens here."
The second edition of "Untapped Wealth Discovered" was released on April 28 and the excitement is already building at break neck speed as these two authors have already been booked solid for the next year in promotional appearances across North America, Britain, and Europe.
The second edition comes as a result of tremendous demand from both readers and clients as well as from the American, British, and Canadian governments.The first edition sold over 50,000 copies in just six months and the experts are openly predicting that the second edition will probably sell well over a quarter million copies within the first year.
Mr. Marquis is a motivational speaker and a highly paid consultant to both the U.S and British governments.He has over 20 years of special needs business consulting and is absolutely delighted to be co-authoring "Untapped Wealth Discovered" with Ms Harrison.His time is filled with speaking engagements, consulting, and traveling around the world to help set up new ventures.
Ms Harrison also has over 20 years in the special needs business-consulting field and her expertise is constantly in demand and among other things she works as a consultant to the U.S government, she is a motivational speaker, and she finds time to work on other projects for large corporate clients, small businesses, and even entrepreneurs.
These two are indeed an unbeatable combination and if you'd like them to help you keep up to date with up to the minute news then you should visit www.untappedwealth.com and check out the business desk.There you will find daily postings by Jeff, Kerry, and their fellow consultants and you can view all of this at no charge.
If you are looking for easy ways to keep abreast with news flashes, news from off the wires, and important developments and trends in the business world then the business desk is definitely for you.
Hello!This month we'd like to focus on an article that discusses alternative versus accessible text in light of a recent amendment to the Section 508 legislation.There are so many people who feel or believe that it is a burden and even loss of revenue whenever the term accessible text is brought up but our belief is that accessible text is a very necessary thing if we expect to reach as many persons as possible be they a special needs person or a mainstream user.We hope that this article clarifies a few things for you.
Is it Alternative Text OR Accessible Text? asks AccessCrafters
Edited by Carly Zander
Send2press Newswire, March 07, 2006
BELLINGHAM, WA (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Recently the Federal Government
passed amendments to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, requiring that
information be made available for people with disabilities, reports
AccessCrafters. Although compliance is seen as a burden, the adherence does
have cost savings, benefits and solutions for the entire population!
Several states' departments of education are calling for accessibility of
text books for those with print disabilities. This access should be in a
form that fits each individual student's disability*. Braille and audio for
the blind, large type for visually impaired, bimodal fashion, - audio and
visual for the learning disabled. However the school text book publishers
offer a one-size-fits-all alternative text remedy.
This alternative text, although may help some students does not go far
enough..
The Center for Accessible Publishing, an association of college students,
states "We are an advocacy organization for non-print readers. We are
students with print disabilities and we are sick of relying on the resource
room, sick of publishers who do not understand our needs."
The American Association of Publishers answers with
"(Textbook Publishers are) Providing the electronic files needed by State
educational agencies to facilitate the conversion of textbooks and other
print instructional materials into accessible specialized formats for timely
use by elementary and secondary school students and teachers."
Clearly stating that they provide electronic files needing conversion...not
accessible files.
Pacific Lutheran University needed 160 titles in accessible formats, they
applied to the publishers and received only 9 titles in a electronic format
and all 9 were rejected as being non accessible.
"Conclusions suggest that aggregator databases do not follow the
accessibility guidelines and consequently are not supplying accessible
products." Library Hi-Tech Journal
*Accessible Text, as outlined in Universal Design for Learning
http://www.cast.org/research/udl/
Matches the accessibility to the need,
Multiple means of representation, to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge,
Multiple means of expression, to provide learners alternatives for
demonstrating what they know,
Multiple means of engagement, to tap into learners' interests, offer
appropriate challenges, and increase motivation
AccessCrafters has several solutions for the supply of accessible product
for the print disabled:
Purchasable scanning and software packages (BookCrafter) for in-house
production...or
The services to convert books, printed or digital for accessibility.
AccessCrafters also serves governments and businesses needing to comply with
Section 508 and the other disability laws.
"Saved 40 hours of scanning and $900 of audio recording in (just) 3 days
converting five books." Western Washington University
"previously wasted $300,000.00 to do what 2 BookCrafters did in 90 days."
Los Angeles Police Department.
To enquire about the converting services or purchasing equipment for
conversion, contact the company at 360 647-3404 or info@colligo.us
AccessCrafters is a strategic partner of Colligo Corporation.
For information about the organization(s) mentioned in the above news
article, please contact the company(s) directly and not this website.
Send2Press.com (this site) does not sell or offer the products or services
Hello there!This month we'd like to offer you some useful information on the G7 and to tell you which of the G7 is the cheapest to do business with.For those of you who are not sure who or what the G7 is we'd like to summarize.
The G7 is the name that has been given to the top seven richest countries in the world and they include:The United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Italy, and Germany.Each year this group of the wealthiest meet in a different member country to discuss the most important and crucial economic and political issues of the day and according to KPMG the cheapest country of this group where one can conduct business is Canada.The cheapest city is Montreal followed by Atlanta, Toronto, and Tampa.
Here are some useful stats for you to consider when making your next business decision.In 2004 it was estimated that doing business in Canada was 9% cheaper than doing business in America and this was mainly due to a Canadian dollar that was trading at 75 cents to the American dollar.However, with a rapidly rising Canadian dollar and a falling American dollar the gap of doing business in both countries has fallen from 9% to about 5%.This being said the corporate tax structure in Canada is more conducive to business investment.The Canadian deficit is well under control and for the past five years plus Canada has been running surpluses thanks to clever financial management but the U.S is still running heavy deficits.
Canada is presently being governed by a Conservative minority government but the experts are not expecting this to greatly affect this country's position as one of the best countries in which to do business.So there you have it.If you're looking for a country with a healthy business climate then you may want to consider the country with the Maple Leaf flag.
From the soap box
Changes looming in the health industry
By Scott Savoy
Hello! This month IÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂd like to touch on the health industry and to share some very interesting stats with you.I came across these while doing some other research on the Internet and I was quite surprised when I found them.
Did you know that in 1969 our medical classes were only made up of about 14% of women?However in 2004 this stat had increased drastically to about 61%?It seems as that more men are choosing to leave the medical field and enter the business field and in like manner more women are choosing to vacate the business schools in favor of the medical schools.For as of 2004 it was estimated that MBA classes were only made up of about 25% of women.
If this trend continues we won't probably see the change till about 2010 when our female graduates start practicing in the medical field.This may signal a change in the medical field whereby we may be in for a more gentle and compassionate type of physician and specialist.Whereas in the past whenever we paid a visit to our family physician or visited a specialist we would have to interact with a male medical professional, in a few years time we may have to start getting used to seeing more female doctors at our service.
I know that many women may be happy to see this and I for one would be very happy to see it as well but then we would have to deal with how female doctors are going to be able to juggle their careers, motherhood, and wifehood.Perhaps we may be in for a very unique type of trend and it would be very interesting to see how our male medical professionals react to this.
The president's feature
Call for the disabled Internet revolt
June 2006
Sponsored by Donna J Jodhan
Hi everyone!This month I'd like to publish an article that was sent to me by Gerard Lustfield from London England and I was interested in this article as it centers around persons of special needs being encouraged to stand up for more accessibility on the Internet.So many developers and designers are under the impression that accessible websites mean the incurrence of higher costs in order to accommodate accessibility but in truth and in fact it's really not so and as a matter of fact more accessibility means more benefits for all.
Thank you Gerard for your article.
Call for disabled internet revolt
By Mark Ballard
The Register (UK), March 10, 2006
Being nice has achieved little
The Disability Rights Commission plans to call upon disabled internet users
to rise up against inaccessible website owners and help it take complaints
with the force of law.
The rabble-rousing message will be broadcast by the DRC following the launch
of new guidelines to amend what it says are limitations in the WAI
accessibility standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium .
Threats to website owners accompanied the DRC's first notable publicity
grab, marked by the publication of its formal investigtion into web
accessibility two years ago.
"We are serving notice that the Disability Rights Commission will use all
its powers to secure compliance on this very important matter," warned DRC
commissioner Michael Burton at the time, while his lawyer said those who
refused to settle out of court would be "pursued all the way".
But the warning has never been honoured, even though a high profile court
case would do wonders for its cause. Six years since the Disability
Discrimination Act made it illegal to produce an inaccessible website in the
UK, the laws have gone limp through disuse.
Even the Royal National Institute for the Blind, which has been more
diligent in its pursuit of ignorant web owners, has only brought legal
action against two sites, and both of those cases where settled out of
court.
The problem is that the campaigners need disabled people who are prepared to
complain and bring action with their assistance. The DRC gets around 2,000
calls a week, but very few complaints. Most calls are pleas for advice and
help. The commission reckons that when disabled people come across
inaccessible sites they usually just move on to one they can use.
Without disabled people prepared to challenge the establishment in the
courts, the DRC can do little more than provide advice and guidelines. But
the marketing for its latest publication will include a call for
disabled people to complain about offenders so it can take action against
them.
"It will be a part of our marketing to encourage people to ring us and
complain," a DRC spokeswoman said today.
Of course, corporations and public sector organisations are easily
embarrassed into making their sites accessible, as many already have. And
few are likely to want to commit commercial suicide by making a bigoted
stand against accessibility in the courts.
Then the educational work of the DRC does help. The criticism in its formal
report that the WAI guidelines were too technical has been followed up with
the launch this week of its own code, which recommends adhering to WAI
standards, but provides further advice on non-technical issues such as
commissioning websites.
This could be useful, as 80 per cent of developers told the DRC that their
clients were not interested in building accessible sites.
Most notable is the guide's insistence that the automated testing most
website owners do to ensure accessibility is inadequate. The DRC asserts
that it is vital that disabled people are used to test a site.
Its new guidelines have been developed in conjunction with the British
Standards Institute, so have some significant kudos. That does mean,
however, that it costs #30 to acquire them and the price does not include a
kite mark that considerate site owners can use to display their credentials.
Yet the softly-softly approach appears to have achieved little. The DRC
revealed two years ago that 81 per cent of websites were inaccessible. They
This month I'd like to contribute an article that I came across on a cell phone study.I hope that this article is of interest to you and that it will help you to be more aware of how heavy cell phone use could affect your health.
I am also going to give you some tips on how to identify those growing number of "Grow Ops" in your neighborhood.For those who don't know what are, Grow Ops are houses that are being used to grow marijuana.
Cellphone study connects heavy use to tumour risk
The Toronto Star, April 1, 2006
Using cellphones over a long period of time can raise the risk of brain
tumours, according to a Swedish study that contradicts the conclusions of
other recent research.
Researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life studied the
mobile phone use of 2,200 cancer patients and an equal number of healthy
control cases. Of the cancer patients, age 20 to 80, 905 had a malignant
brain tumour and about a tenth of them were also heavy users of mobile
phones.
"Of these 905 cases, 85 were so-called high users of mobile phones; that is
they began early to use mobile and/or wireless telephones and used them a
lot," the study's authors said in a statement issued yesterday by the
institute. Early use was defined as having begun to use a mobile phone
before age 20.
Kjell Mild, who led the study, said researchers found heavy users of mobile
phones had a 240 per cent increased risk of a malignant tumour on the side
of the head the phone was used.
The study, published in the International Archives of Occupational and
Environmental Health, defines heavy use as 2,000-plus hours, which
"corresponds to 10 years' use in the workplace for one hour per day." The
researchers took into account factors such as smoking habits, working
history and exposure to other agents.
"The way to get the risk down is to use hands-free," Mild said, adding his
study was the biggest yet to look at long-term users of the wireless
portable phone, in use in Sweden since 1984, longer than in many other
countries.
Last year, the Dutch Health Council, in an overview of global research,
found no evidence that radiation from mobile phones and TV towers was
harmful. A four-year British survey in January also found no link between
regular, long-term cellphone use and the most common type of tumour.
Tips on how to identify "Grow Ops" in your neighborhood
I pulled these tips together as I thought that they may be of help to those who are concerned about the growing number of "Grow Ops" in their area.There seems to be a growing number of them especially so in the Toronto and surrounding area of Ontario Canada.
Tips for discovering a grow op
1If the occupants of a house drive expensive cars but never seem to go to work.
2If visitors always drive straight into the garage so you never see them.
3If the shades on the windows always seem to be pulled down.
4If the windows always seem to have condensation on them.
5If during a cold winter there is never any snow or sleet on the roof.
6If there are an unusual number of vents on the roof.
7If there are an usual security features such as fences, dogs, and electronic gates.
8If the backyard always seems to be unkempt.
9If there are toys and bikes outside but no kids.
10 If visitors park down the street and walk to the house.
11 If there are bad odors coming from the house.
12 If there are unusual numbers of brown outs.
Letters to the editor
Welcome to June and this month we have a handful of letters to share with you.
From Mary Parks in Washington DC:
Doug asked about dating services for the disabled in last month's issue.He can try www.hfriends.com.A friend told me about it and I've visited the website and it's okay.I myself am not disabled but my friend is.
From Bert Rogers in Franklin Delaware:
I recently saw an announcement about a new portable scanner for the blind.Does anyone know anything about this?
From Mike Pico in Atlanta:
I recently bought "Untapped Wealth Discovered" by Marquis and Harrison and I have to say that there are books and there are books.Know what I mean?This one is a winner.Lots of brilliant ideas, honest stats, and I like how the authors put in self evaluation forms.They've even included sections for women and kids and I love this.
From Anne Glacier in Montreal Canada:
Can Nadia really teach chess over the phone?What a brilliant idea for those who can't easily get to a chess school.It's particularly good for grownups who want to learn.Good for you Nadia.
From Robin Holt in Sidney Australia:
I'd like to publish my own book but don't quite know how or where to start.Could you give me some basic hints please?Things like online publishers, how to publish my book, how many pages, and so on.
From Hans Vandenberg in the Netherlands:
Thanks for talking about that racing game for the blind.I have friends who have downloaded it and are having great fun with it.I can see but this game is good for the sighted too.
From Nicholas Cook in Manchester England:
Can your magazine tell us more about business ideas for retirees?I just retired and want something to do as I don't want to stay at home and drive my wife crazy.
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Notes
If you would like to contribute an article to our magazine then please contact us at:
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 we will print it upon receipt of payment.
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Are your customers constantly complaining that your website is either too difficult to navigate or access?Are they saying that they have to wait for such a long time when trying to access your website?Or are your cell phone customers unable to access your website with their cell phones because there are just too many icons or graphics?
If you are looking for ways to improve access to your websites, improve the content of your documents, emails, faxes, letters, and proposals, then visit www.sterlingcreations.ca.
If you are looking for skilled and creative writers to help you craft and write your ideas, proof read and edit your documents then visit www.sterlingcreations.ca and go to the ghostwriters' page and then you will find a variety of services that are designed to help you.
If you are looking for new business ideas for yourself, your kids, or even a friend then visit www.untappedwealth.com and there you will be treated to a collection of free ideas and information and you will have an opportunity to purchase either a hard or electronic copy of "Untapped Wealth Discovered" written by Jeff N Marquis and Kerry J Harrison.You will also find up to the minute information on the business desk page, a list of very informative articles on some really important strategies on the top business strategies page, plus much more.
