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 Comments 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.
A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF FOUR SCREEN-ACCESS PRODUCTS
November 2008
By the Sterling Creations accessibility team
Hello there! One of the most frequently asked questions is this one: Are there any other screen readers out there in addition to Jaws, Windoweyes, and Hal? Are there any others that are cheaper than the ones just mentioned?
The answer to this is yes and this month we are going to share an article with you that we found a few months ago. We hope that you find this article of value.
From the July Braille Forum
A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF FOUR SCREEN-ACCESS PRODUCTS
by Josh Kennedy
When most people think of screen readers, the first thing that may come to
mind is JAWS, Window-Eyes, or Hal. While these are good screen access
products, they may not be suitable for everyone. In this article, I will
review four lesser-known free or low-cost products.
JAWS, Window-Eyes and Hal, while very powerful and extremely configurable,
are also very pricy, ranging in price from $800 to over $1,000. They are
often purchased through government agencies for their blind clients, and
they are also purchased in bulk for use in organizations, workplaces,
schools, and some libraries. But what if you don't have the money to buy a
screen reader such as JAWS? What if you're unemployed and you can't justify
the need for one of those three screen readers? You bought a computer
because computers these days cost anywhere from $400 to $800 for a decent
desktop or laptop computer. But, since you're blind, you still need that
thousand-dollar screen reader plus the SMAs to keep it up-to-date, right?
Not necessarily. This is where Thunder, NVDA, System Access, and the newly
released beta System Access To Go can help you.
Thunder
Thunder is a free screen reader created by the screenreader.net company. It
works with Windows XP Home, XP Pro, and Vista. It has a talking installer
which, when launched, installs Thunder with little or no intervention by the
user. Thunder works with popular applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel,
Outlook, calculator, the Windows XP desktop, basic PowerPoint support, media
player, and possibly more. Thunder lets you control the physical mouse,
simulating it with keys on the number pad. The only disadvantage to the
mouse simulation is there is no button for right-clicking, but there is one
for left-clicking. You can also make Thunder play musical tones to help you
get oriented to the screen. Thunder can read tables in Word, the titles of
windows, the status lines of some applications and more. You can also set
marks, kind of like virtual windows, if you want to read certain areas of
the screen frequently. Thunder is updated once every three to four months.
You can write
scripts for Thunder to work better with applications if you can obtain the
Visual Basic development environment and learn VB-Script. Scripts can also
be written in Notepad.
Some people have complained that Thunder crashes often on their machines and
is not very stable. I would give Thunder a 3 out of 5 rating. Thunder works
reasonably well with the applications it has been scripted for, but don't
count on making major changes to Thunder because the source code is not
available. Obtaining the Visual Basic integrated development environment may
be difficult for some people to do.
There is also a Thunder Pro version which allows you to have a little more
functionality such as telling the font and formatting styles in Word. You
can also buy more natural-sounding voices for Thunder for $49 each from www.screenreader.net and www.screenreader.co.uk. You may also purchase a
special version of Thunder pre-installed onto a USB thumb drive for about
$300.
Nonvisual Desktop Access
Nonvisual Desktop Access (NVDA) was created by Michael Curran in December of
2006. He created his own screen reader because he was tired of paying for
upgrades to his traditional screen reader. NVDA is both free and
open-source. It is written in Python, a programming language recommended for
beginners or for non-programmers to start out with. NVDA is registered under
the new general public license, which states that the program and its source
code may be obtained and modified, but that all changes to the source code
must be made known to the developers.
As of version 0.5, NVDA comes with a talking installer. You can choose to
use the talking installer, which loads a temporary copy of NVDA, allowing
you to install NVDA without any sighted assistance. You may also opt to
install using an existing screen reader you have running by pressing cancel
or escape and installing without speech. There is also an NVDA portable
version which you can unzip to a USB flash drive or CD and take with you.
NVDA will run on any Windows 2000, XP, or Vista computer. It does not yet
have mouse simulation; the developers are waiting until they learn how to
implement video hooks before they add that feature.
NVDA does, however, have a different method of object navigation. You can
use the number pad and the insert modifier along with keys on the number pad
to navigate windows by the order in which they appear logically in a
program. For example, the desktop is the "parent" window and the topmost
window in the entire operating system, while the other windows, such as
those in your applications, are considered "child" windows. NVDA allows you
to navigate through these windows, which may even include graphics, and
activate them with a single command. You can also route the mouse to these
objects, or you can route the navigator objects to the mouse location if you
want. NVDA does not yet give you a way to click the mouse, so the mouse has
little use. If you'd like, you can download both the Python development
environment, Python help, and NVDA source code and implement these features
or any other features you desire.
NVDA works with applications such as Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and
Firefox. It presents web sites in virtual buffers. Many of the navigation
keystrokes you are familiar with using JAWS will also work in NVDA. NVDA
also works with Microsoft Word, Excel, the calculator, and other
applications. At press time, the developer is re-writing some of the code to
make it work better in some edit fields which currently do not speak when
you arrow around.
NVDA also comes with a free and open-source text-to-speech engine which
sounds a lot like Hal's Orpheus. This synthesizer is called eSpeak. You can
obtain a SAPI5 version of it by going to http://espeak.sourceforge.net.
There, you can download a version of eSpeak which is SAPI5 compatible and
will work with your other screen readers. If you don't already have eSpeak
installed before installing NVDA, don't worry. ESpeak has been made into a
.dll file; this is a small application tied directly into NVDA. The .dll
version of eSpeak is not SAPI5-compatible. For the latest features, it is
recommended that you also install the SAPI5 version of eSpeak on your
system. The two may coexist without interfering with each other.
In addition to the eSpeak speech synthesizer being able to speak many
languages, NVDA itself has been translated into over 10 languages. You can
switch between the language interfaces in the NVDA preferences by bringing
up the NVDA window with insert+n. In addition, it is easy to change the NVDA
modifier to whatever you like. It's as easy as editing a text file. And if
you know Python, you can change NVDA to suit your needs and even make it
work with that stubborn inaccessible program your employer may want you to
use. NVDA does not currently support braille displays, but that is being
worked on.
A final note on NVDA. If you wish to donate to the project, you may do so by
going to www.nvaccess.org. NVDA also has an e-mail list. Information on this
can be found on the community link of the main web site, www.nvda-project.org.
System Access
System Access is a low-cost screen access solution created by Serotek
Corporation. At a cost of $129 per year, you can have System Access on up to
two computers. System Access has both desktop and laptop layouts built into
it by utilizing more than one modifier key. Since System Access is not free
and not open-source, it cannot be modified by the user. Serotek did say,
however, that they will be coming out with braille support and scripting
capability later this year.
System Access lets you work with popular applications such as Outlook,
Outlook Express, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer. It does not
work with Firefox. System Access renders web sites and e-mail messages in
virtual buffers in much the same way that JAWS, Window-Eyes, and NVDA do.
System Access also has a virtual mouse mode with full mouse click
capabilities. You may label graphics and create program packs to upload to
the System Access users community.
In addition, System Access lets you connect to the Freedom Box network if
you have a Freedom Box account. System Access's default synthesizer is
DECTalk, but it will also work with any SAPI4? or SAPI5-compatible
synthesizer you have on your computer. Both System Access and System Access
To Go have a remote mode which will allow you to take control of another
person's computer to provide technical support. This works best when the
other person is also running System Access and is logged in. But you can
remotely control computers that are not running System Access using the
remote control feature built into both System Access and System Access To
Go. System Access can also be put onto a USB flash drive. It works on any
Windows 2000, XP, or Vista computer.
System Access To Go
Imagine for a moment that you went to a friend's house, or you went to the
library, and you need to use their computer. You forgot your USB flash drive
with your screen reader on it, and you want to look something up. Or what if
you just can't get to the computer's USB ports? Well, there is a solution:
System Access To Go. By going to www.satogo.com, you will be guided by
DECTalk into using System Access remotely. This means that, once loaded,
System Access will run from the web site and you can use the public computer
or your friend's computer. System Access To Go has all of the features of
System Access. But nothing is installed to the hard drive of the computer
that System Access To Go is run on. So when you shut it down, there is no
trace of the program left behind. With permission from the library, you can
use any computer in the library.
System Access To Go may have trouble running on computers with high security
firewalls. You may need to ask your network administrator in some cases for
permission to run System Access To Go.
If JAWS, Window-Eyes, or Hal isn't for you, you can consider one of these
four alternatives.
Business commentary
The Imperfect Board Member
November 2008
By the Sterling Creations business team
Hello everyone! It’s November and the start of a new month. We wanted to spice things up a bit for you by publishing an article that focuses on behaviour in the boardroom and a very interesting book written by a renowned author of the time. We found this article to be refreshing and yet filled with common sense and truths. We hope you enjoy it.
Using a fictional story followed by thorough analysis of the seven keys to
great board governance and effectiveness, The Imperfect Board Member helps
board members and CEOs work more effectively and avoid the problems that
have plagued companies like Enron and WorldCom. The principal characters in
the book represent three main categories of organizations--for-profit
companies, non-profit organizations, and faith-based religious
organizations. An entertaining page-turner that informs, educates, and
motivates while conveying principles that will enable effective governance,
the book reveals the Governance Effectiveness Model, describing seven easily
understood keys that will help every CEO and board member unlock the door to
effective boardroom leadership.
DIRECT the organization in the best interests of its owners
PROTECT the interests of the organizations owners
RESPECT the owners by listening, communicating, and understanding their
interests
REFLECT on the organizations performance
SELECT talented people to lead the organization as Officers and Directors
EXPECT top performance from each director
INSPECT the CEOs performance
Praise for The Imperfect Board Member
"Finally! A book about boards that isnt boring!"
-Patrick Lencioni, author, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
"Everyone wins with good governance-countries, corporations, and community
groups. In a compelling style like no one before him, Jim Brown helps
leaders understand the keys for boardroom excellence. The Imperfect Board
Member ought to be required reading for people on every type of board. The
great thing is that it wont need to be required-its such a fun book, every
leader will want to read it."
-Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO, Research in Motion; chair, Centre for
International Governance Innovation
"I know no board members, myself included, who wont learn valuable lessons
from Jim Browns book The Imperfect Board Member. Dont miss it!"
-Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One-Minute ManagerR and The Secret
"Thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley, boards have become active. The Imperfect Board
Member clarifies sharply the lines of what boards need to do and what
management needs to do. The time has come for the two groups to work
together and yet keep independent."
-Ram Charan, coauthor, Execution, and author, Boards That Deliver
"The Imperfect Board Member by Jim Brown is a highly perceptive, eminently
readable, engagingly human book on how boards and directors can improve
their performance. In a breezy conversational style that uses dialogue
invitingly and often, the author explores with sensitivity and a light touch
not only the standard ingredients but also the more subtle nuances of
excellence in both corporate and not-for-profit governance."
-William A. Dimma, author, Tougher Boards for Tougher Times; chairman, Home
Capital Group Inc.
Foreword, by Patrick Lencioni.
Introduction: Boards Matter.
1. On the Edge.
2. A Glimmer of Hope.
3. The Secret Formula.
4. The Enemy Within.
5. Unraveling from the Inside.
6. Rebuilding from the Ground Up.
7. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.
8. Expect More.
9. Catching the Wind.
10. Uncovering the Gem.
11. Breakthrough.
12. The Big Day.
Afterword: Making Application.
Recommended Reading on Governance.
Notes.
Acknowledgments.
The Author
Laura Wood
Senior Manager
Research and Markets Ltd
laura.wood@researchandmarkets.com
From the soap box
Mental illness a crisis with no end in sight: expert
November 2008
By Scott Savoy
Dear readers, it is with great concern that my choice of article for this month follows. The experts continue to warn us about a mental crisis and I hope that the following article helps to wake you up to this fact. I am afraid that this crisis does not only apply to Canada. Indeed, it is also an American crisis and it extends way beyond North America. I hope you take a few minutes to read my choice for this month.
Mental illness a crisis with no end in sight: expert
Donna Jacobs
Ottawa Citizen, June 30, 2008
A Canadian authority on mental health in the workplace tells people it's
time to put down their BlackBerries -- and their cellphones, too. And leave
them down for a few days.
"Turn your back on the e-mail system for a particular part of the day," Bill
Wilkerson advises.
"Leave it to tomorrow. Next time you want to e-mail somebody, think twice.
Consider going to their office."
BlackBerries, he says, are ruining business protocols by being "an
incredibly cryptic and sometimes insulting short form of communicating."
They bypass human contact with its crucial body language, they isolate
people and, he says simply, "isolation predicts depression."
People are increasingly isolated, he says, even in crowded rooms, in big
buildings full of people.
Under the bombardment of random requests, he says, "risk aversion has turned
into responsibility aversion."
He says that nearly one in four Canadians will have a period of mental
illness at some point -- well above the global average -- a medical
condition dominated
by depression.
Mental illness is a national crisis, he says: a disabling or killing disease
with rates rising exponentially and no containment strategy in sight.
Mr. Wilkerson is at home with crises.
He has served as business manager for the NHL and CFL and for the Toronto
Blue Jays, executive assistant to the minister of energy, mines and
resources; adviser to the Ontario minister of industry and trade; chief of
staff to former Toronto mayor Art Eggleton and as former president/CEO of
Liberty Health insurance.
He now serves as special adviser on neuroeconomics for the Institute of
Mental Health at McGill University and works with policing agencies,
Canadian Forces and Veterans Affairs on mental health matters.
"The locus of mental illness is an intensified assault on the brain -- from
five-second TV advertisements, from immediacy of information, from
expectation of instantaneous results on the job, in investments, in
lifestyle changes, in fast-track learning," he says. "We have turned the
world upside down."
Are we frying our brains? "Absolutely. We are putting our resilience on the
line and once we do that, there is no fall-back position. Frustration and
rumination -- seething -- are the two major social effects of chronic job
stress. They are a prelude to depression."
During the course of his work, Mr. Wilkerson has been instrumental in
convincing Canada's CEOs (and, most recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper)
to tackle
the growing incidence of mental illness that costs Canadians more than $50
billion a year.
Public servants are asking for sick time and disability time, or struggling
on the job, in steeply rising numbers, he says.
These days, he is meeting with federal deputy ministers and RCMP
Commissioner William Elliott to set strategy for the Mental Health
Commission of Canada.
"The real question for the federal workplace," Mr. Wilkerson says, "is this:
'Is it difficult or hopeless in your mind to get routine things done
routinely?'
"If everything is tough, then your workplace is too crowded with too much
stuff.
"You've got to understand the migratory sequence between stress, burnout and
depression. Chronic stress makes everything urgent and everything a
priority.
Burnout is the graduation to another level where nothing is a priority and
frankly you've begun to tune out. That can lead to a brain response which
produces
symptoms of depression.
"Depression is the emptying out of our sense of control, our sense of place.
It undermines our immune systems. It excretes hormones in hugely excessive
volumes and it attacks our cardiovascular health."
What is the solution in the workplace?
"The solution is the cornerstone of good old-fashioned management, which is
based on human decency, clear thinking, open communications. The other
cornerstone
is clarity of purpose and function. When those two things go missing, bad
practices replace them."
This year is the 10th anniversary of the Global Business and Economic
Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health, a non-profit think-tank he
co-founded with
former finance minister Michael Wilson, now Canada's ambassador to the U.S.
and Roundtable chairman.
Mr. Wilkerson and Mr. Wilson have lost family to mental illness. Mr.
Wilson's 29-year-old son, Cameron, took his life in 1995. Mr. Wilkerson's
father, James
Earl Wilkerson, was hospitalized several times with paranoia.
Mr. Wilkerson once put his loss starkly in one of hundreds of speeches he's
given around the world.
"Depression killed two members of my family," he said. "One with a blood
clot, the other, a gun.
"In 2004, my older brother, Bob, died alone at home. Official cause of
death: heart failure. More to the point, he was killed by his depressed
mood. Having
recently lost his wife to cancer, he abandoned his blood thinners and
anti-depressant medication.
"In 1979, my ex-wife used a small revolver her brother gave her for
protection against the night to put a bullet in her brain -- while she was
stirring
a pot of spaghetti sauce, her specialty. Separated, not divorced, we were
still close.
"Depression and other forms of mental illness are not invisible, impossible
to diagnose or -- as some popular mythology would have it -- imaginary.
"Imagination didn't kill my brother or my wife. With a blood clot and a gun,
depression did that."
Last week, in this interview, Mr. Wilkerson set out Canada's two most
compelling mental illness demographics.
The most vulnerable are children, he said, who are susceptible because their
brains are still forming. They're especially vulnerable to those stronger
than
they are. They're soaking up impressions, pressures and, sadly, the effects
of being neglected, abused, treated inhumanely.
The average age for anxiety onset in Canadian children is 12, for depression
it's 21 and for substance abuse it's 18, he says.
The second demographic is people in their 20s, 30s and 40s -- "men and women
in their absolute prime working and earning and living years.
"You've got teachers who are at a higher-than-national-average rate of
depression and stress-related absence. And you have parents who are taking
stress-related
absence from work in record numbers.
"The kids get it at both ends of their day."
How the country responds is, he says, "a challenge to the integrity of
Canadian values, the Canadian health care system and our sense of right and
wrong.
It's that fundamental."
He says that friendship, family support and basic human love are just as
important as medical treatment to a mentally ill person's survival and
recovery.
His advice to those distressed? "Don't suffer alone. Reach out."
And his advice to the spouse, relative, co-worker: "Reach back."
Donna Jacobs is an Ottawa writer; her e-mail address is
donnabjacobs@hotmail.com
The reader’s choice
To Deny or Not to Deny Disability - What is disability__
November 2008
Contributed by Liz Kelly of Montreal Canada
We would like to thank Liz for her contribution this month. This article was chosen for its hard-hitting facts and sincerety.
Thank you Liz.
To Deny or Not to Deny Disability - What is disability?"
Disabled people have always struggled against the way they have been
prevented from taking part in the normal activities of their communities.
More recently, however, these struggles have taken a step forward. Disabled
people have begun to organise for their emancipation and joined the growing
numbers of groups struggling against social discrimination. We are taking a
deeper look at ourselves, at the way we are treated and at what is meant by
disability. We have noticed that it has nearly always been others who have
researched, written, analysed, examined our history, and proposed their
knowing solutions for us. More and more disabled people have had experience
of "disability experts" and increasingly we have come to recognise the
humiliation this relationship
may take for granted. Can it be that having others research on the lives of
disabled people rather than us expressing our own experience) has something
to do with the very nature of disability? What, then, is disability?
To many of us, the single factor that unites us together in our struggles is
that it is our society that discriminates against us. Our society disables
people with different physical impairments. The cause, then, of disability
is the social relationships which take no or little account of people who
have physical impairments. If this definition is correct, then it should be
possible to prove that other social groups can become disabled, in an
imaginary society which took no account of their physical status. In such an
imaginary society it would be possible for physically impaired people to be
the able-bodied!
Let us see whether we can turn the world upside-down and show that
disability is a socially caused problem. An upside-down world where the
"able" become the "disabled" and the "disabled" become the "able-bodied" and
where we show, too, that far from adjusting and accepting disability
perhaps, just perhaps, it is healthier to deny and struggle to eliminate
disability?
Let us suppose that those who believe in segregation could really have their
way. We will imagine a thousand or more disabled people, all
wheelchair-users, collected together and settled in their own village where
they had full management and democratic rights. We will suppose able-bodied
people do not often visit the village and that the wheelchair-users control
all aspects of their lives. They make the goods that they sell in their
shops with special aids, they work the machines that clean the street, run
their own educational colleges, banks, post offices, and transport system of
the village, and so on. In fact, for the villager, being in a wheelchair is
like everyone else in their world of people that she or he meets in daily
life. They see wheelchair-users on television and hear them on radio.
Able-bodied people, however, are only rarely seen and little understood.
In the course of the life of the village the wheelchair-users plan their
lives according to their needs. They design their own buildings to suit
their physical situation. One thing the wheelchair-user architects quickly
discover in this village is that because everyone is always in wheelchairs
there is no need to have ceilings at 9 feet 6 inches high or door heights at
7 feet 2 inches. Soon it becomes standard practice to build doors to a
height of 5 feet and ceiling or rooms to a height of 7 feet 4 inches.
Naturally the building codes set out in the regulations made these heights
standard. Now everyone is happy in the village; all the physical
difficulties have been overcome and this little society has changed
according to the physical character of its members. At last the buildings
and environment are truly in tune with their needs.
Let us say that when all the adjustments had been made and became fixed, in
this wheelchair-user society, a few able-bodied had, through no choice of
their own, to come and settle in this village. Naturally, one of the first
things they noticed was the heights of the doors and ceilings. They noticed
this directly, by constantly knocking their heads on the door lintels. Soon
all the able-bodied members of the village were also marked by the dark
bruises they carried
on their foreheads. Of course, they went to see the village doctors, who
were, naturally, also wheelchair-users. Soon the wheelchair-user doctors,
wheelchair-user psychiatrists, wheelchair-user social workers, etc., were
involved in the problems of the able-bodied villagers. The doctors produced
learned reports about the aches and pains of the able-bodied in society.
They saw how the bruises and painful backs (from walking bent double so
frequently) were caused by their physical condition. The wheelchair-user
doctors analysed the problems and wrote their definitions. They said these
able-bodied people suffered a 'loss or reduction of functional ability'
which resulted in a handicap. This handicap caused a 'disadvantage or
restriction of activity' which made them disabled in this society.
Soon special aids were designed by the wheelchair-user doctors and
associated professions for the able-bodied disabled members of the village.
All the able-bodied were given special toughened helmets (provided free by
the village) to wear at all times. Special braces were designed which gave
support while keeping the able-bodied wearer bent at a height similar to
their fellow wheelchair-user villagers. Some doctors went so far as to
suggest that there was no hope for these poor sufferers unless they too used
wheelchairs, and one person even went so far as to suggest amputation to
bring the able-bodied down to the
right height. The able-bodied disabled caused many problems. When they
sought jobs no one would employ them. Special experts had to be trained to
understand these problems and new professions created for their care. When
one able-bodied disabled person applied for a job as a television
interviewer, a special medical examination had to be arranged to see whether
he was fit for this work. In the end it was decided that be was not
suitable. It was felt, the wheelchair-user
doctor pointed out in the case file, that a television interviewer wearing a
helmet all the time would not be acceptable. Since the cameras would only
show the top of his head because the able-bodied were always bent double by
the harness they had to wear, he would not be suitable for interviewing. It
is well known, the wheelchair-user doctor wrote, how difficult it is to
communicate with the able-bodied because it is not easy to see their facial
expressions
and meet eye-to-eye while they bent double
In time special provision had to be made in the village to provide a means
of obtaining money for these able-bodied disabled to live. Voluntary
societies were created to collect charity and many shops and pubs had an
upturned helmet placed on the counters for customers to leave their small
change. Painted on the helmets were the words "Help the able-bodied
disabled". Sometimes a little plaster-cast model would stand in the corner
of a shop - the figure bent double, in their characteristic pose, with a
slotted box on the figure's back for small coins.
But one day, when the able-bodied were sitting together and discussing their
problems they realised that they were never consulted by the
wheelchair-users about this in the little society. In fact they realised
that there may be solutions to their problems which had never occurred to
the wheelchair users simply because they never looked at these in the same
way as those who had them. It occurred to these able-bodied disabled people
that perhaps the cause of their problems had a social solution - they
suggested that the door and ceiling heights be changed! They formed a union
to fight segregation. Of course some of the wheelchair-users thought the
able-bodied disabled were failing to accept and adjust to their
disabilities, and they had chips on their shoulders because they argued so
strongly for social change and a change in attitudes by the
wheelchair-users. The able-bodied disabled even argued that perhaps, just
perhaps, their disabilities could be overcome (and disappear!) with changes
in society.
Source: Magic Carpet, New Year 1975, xxvii, No. 1, pp 31 - 8. [from Brechin,
A., Liddiard, P. and Swain, J. (Eds.) (1981) Handicap in a social world,
Hodder
and Stoughton.]
News and views
Scientists believe they have uncovered the link betweendiabetes and Circulatory problems
November 2008
By Christian Robicheau
Hell all!
It always pleases me to bring you articles that report on medical break-throughs and this month I have chosen one such article for you. I hope that it helps to bring hope to those of you interested in this subject matter.
Have a great November.
Scientists believe they have uncovered the link between diabetes and
circulatory problems which causes thousands of Britons to need a limb
amputation each year.
A protein in cells could be responsible for leg ulcers and gangrene in
diabetics, which lead to their needing amputation, they said.
Experts from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said the study could pave
the way for a new drug to cut down the risks. About 5,000 diabetics a year
in the UK - or 100 a week - have a limb amputated.
Experts carried out experiments on mice and found that a protein called
p75NTR was present in the cells of diabetics but not in the cells of healthy
mice.
When they stopped the protein working in diabetic cells, they found that
circulation to the lower limbs improved. But when the protein was introduced
into cells, circulation worsened, suggesting the important role played by
the protein.
Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation
(BHF), which funded the study, said: "The researchers have found that there
is an increased expression of this protein in the cells of diabetics. The
problem with diabetics is that they get all sorts of circulation problems
and can suffer things like gangrene in their toes. People have never
understood before exactly why this is."
Helpful tips
November 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Hello there! Just one more month before we enter the fast and exciting holiday season. We can’t wait to get started on this month’s contribution. So, here it is! Enjoy your month.
Helpful tips for November
Would you like us to clear up some of the myths about eggs?
Well, here goes!
Brown hens can only lay brown eggs
White hens can only lay white eggs
Brown and white eggs contain the same amount of nutrition, taste the same, and are of the same quality.
See, no difference!
How can you prevent butter from burning in your pan?
Well, just sprinkle in a tip of oil and that should do the trick.
For those of you planning to travel during the upcoming holiday season?
Remember, a hot sunny day out in the sun can create cold sores.
Yes, hot summer sun is one of the prime creators of cold sores.
Want to know a bit more about eczema?
Try using Organic Coconut Oil to Treat Eczema.
Eczema is a skin condition which causes red, dry skin, and it can appear anywhere on the surface of the body. Although there are topical creams such as hydrocortisone medications that can be used to alleviate the symptoms, you can give this remedy a try.
How can you tell if you are currently wasting your online marketing dollar?
Well, try the following quiz as suggested by Web Pro News.
Answer The Following Questions, and if you
answer NO to any one of the three, you could be
wasting your online marketing dollar.
1. Do you currently appear in the Top 10 rankings in the top three major search engines: Google, Yahooo!, and MSN? Yes No
2. Is your website bringing in all of its potential online leads? Yes No
3. Do you feel you are achieving maximum ROI for the money you are paying your SEO Company? Yes No
Hey! Would you like to know which is the least acidic of those many types of vinegar?
Why, it's the rice wine vinegar.
What is the difference between potatoes that are steamed and those that are boiled?
Starch! Those that are boiled contain much less starch than those that are steamed.
Did you know this about sesame seeds?
Yes, they contain calcium.
Okay, would you like to know which type of pepper is the tastiest and has the most punch to it?
We mean, between black pepper and white pepper?
Well, the experts say white pepper.
Apparently, white pepper has more punch to it and is tastier.
So what's this about bell peppers?
Well, and this is according to the chefs at the food network:
There are three types of bell peppers
Red, yellow, and green.
Which tastes the best and has the most flavor?
The red ones.
Hey, what's this about the benefits of lavender?
Well, according to some latest articles:
Lavender can help you to deal with those painful headaches,
can help you to deal with your anxiety,
and can help you to sleep better at night.
A healthy sniff of lavender is all you need to get you going.
Avocados, avocados! What are the benefits?
Avocados contain a lot of potassium and fiber
They are good for dealing with high blood pressure
Each avocado contains a maximum of 30 grams of fat.
Yummy, yummy!
Accessibility news
Hybrid cars may pose silent threat to the blind-
November 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Hey there! We’re back again and for our second contribution we have chosen an article that continues to center on the topic of hybrid cars and their potential danger to blind and visually impaired persons.
We hope you find it interesting.
Hybrid cars may pose silent threat to the blind
Advocates want vehicles to make some sound
By Rick Rojas .
Louisville courier-Journal, July 8, 2008
They're quiet, save gas and are easier on the environment.
But for blind pedestrians, hybrid vehicles are accidents just waiting to
happen, advocates say.
Now a move is under way in Washington to require manufacturers of hybrids to
set minimum sound standards for new cars and trucks, with advocates arguing
blind pedestrians can't hear the nearly silent vehicles, which use a gas
engine for higher speeds and an electric motor for slower speeds.
"For us, these cars are invisible," Deborah Kent Stein of the National
Federation of the Blind told government officials recently at a National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration hearing.
Some of those same advocates made their case in Louisville yesterday during
the American Council of the Blind's annual convention, a nine-day event that
is being attended by several hundred sight-impaired people from across the
nation.
They used a Toyota Prius hybrid to make their case for newly introduced
legislation that would require new hybrid or electric vehicles to have
Technology that would alert nearby pedestrians.
Carmakers say making hybrids noisy isn't as easy as it sounds, and they
reminded lawmakers that studies show no documented cases of blind
pedestrians being struck and killed by hybrids.
"Even if the hybrids sound as loud as every other vehicle, there wouldn't be
any fewer traffic deaths," Chris Tinto, a vice president at Toyota tasked
with studying the issue, said during the Washington transportation hearing.
'Sound is our sight'
With gas topping $4 a gallon, more consumers are looking to fuel-efficient
vehicles as the alternative -- including hybrids.
Toyota has said that sales of the Prius, the company's best-selling hybrid,
should increase to more than 1 million a year by 2010. The Prius lists for
$21,500 for a base model and gets 48 miles per gallon in the city.
For Karen Gourgey, president of the New York City chapter of the American
Council of the Blind, and others who are seeing-impaired, the vehicles are a
threat they have never dealt with
before.
She said "sound is our sight," and without it, they are in danger.
"We use sound to understand when someone is coming or crossing," she said.
Industry officials said they hoped to begin preliminary testing later this
year to quantify typical noise emissions from vehicles. But they said the
Issue is complicated because so many things contribute to traffic sounds:
engines,
tires hitting the road and wind resistance, among others.
At the American Council of the Blind's convention organizers demonstrated
how silent the vehicles can be. People who work with The Seeing Eye, a
dog-training school in Morristown, N.J., drove in their Prius for a
demonstration.
The training school had bought the Prius to see how seeing-eye dogs
responded to it, and experiment with ways to teach them how to notice it and
protect their owner.
After a group of seeing-impaired people gathered in the parking garage of
the Galt House hotel yesterday, the car was driven around the garage and
stopped directly in front of them. Nobody realized the vehicle was there.
"I could not hear a thing," said Ronald Milliman, a member of the American
Council of the Blind and a professor at Western Kentucky University who is
blind.
"If you're walking around a parking lot or by a parked car, you have no way
of knowing it's there."
One woman asked if her seeing-eye dog would be able to recognize the
vehicle. Lukas Franck of the Seeing Eye said that, while the dog may see the
vehicle, the animal cannot hear it.
"When we say they're silent, they're silent," he said.
Gourgey, who lives in New York City, said the realization she could
encounter more hybrids on the streets is "really sobering."
Adding sound
Though the legislation is in its beginning stages, research already is being
conducted on what could be used to add sound to hybrids.
Researchers at Stanford University have created a device that is essentially
an all-weather radio placed in the wheel wells that transmits sounds based
on what the car is doing. For example, if the car is turning right, the
sounds will come from the right side.
Another idea is to use a feature similar to a panic button on many vehicles'
keyless remotes. A blind person would carry a device, and if they neared a
vehicle, the device would be triggered to sound an alarm.
"We're going to have to use technology," said Robert J. Wilson, chief
executive officer of 625k Inc., an Alabama-based company that works to
maintain older
hybrids. But he said that could be difficult, as another sound from a hybrid
might not be discernible to a pedestrian amid the chorus of traffic noise.
Still, he said, he understands the concern.
"All they want is the hybrid cars to make noise," he said.
Phyllis Fitzgerald, a Prius owner in Louisville, said she bought her hybrid
for its efficiency. The fact that it is silent only means the gas engine is
off, she said.
"I would have no problem at all if they added some kind of noise," she said.
"I understand their complaint."
Milliman, of the American Council of the Blind, said their concern should
not be read as a statement against hybrid or electric vehicles. He said he
Recognizes the issue of gas prices and how these vehicles minimize the
impact on the environment.
He says, however, that safety is paramount.
"We just want to get some sound incorporated into this."
When you hear the word commitment
November 2008
By Donna J Jodhan
When you hear the word commitment
So, here is my big question of the day. When you hear the word commitment, what does it mean? Does it mean that you have made a promise to do what you say you are going to do? Or does it mean that you will only do what you feel like doing? Or does it mean that you are only going to do half or less of what you promised to do?
There was a time when most of us took commitment seriously. We did exactly what we promised to do and even went a bit further. Some times, I notice that some of us still adhere to the sacred word but there are so many who simply do not. They do not take commitment seriously and I get the impression that their version of the word commitment is that they will do whatever they feel like doing and the hell with the rest. A few months ago I had the unpleasant experience of interacting with a young man who definitely did not understand the meaning of the word commitment. He committed to producing a monthly newsletter for one of our clients but when he realized that it would entail having to work within a team, and working with persons from diverse backgrounds, he simply walked out saying: "I don't have time to mingle with those of you who don't know what you're doing."
Clearly, this person missed the boat. True it is he made the commitment to produce the monthly newsletter, but his version of commitment was vastly different from mine. It appears to me that his version of the word commitment meant that he would do whatever he felt like doing and if something did not please him, then he would simply walk out. Very sad!
Commitment seems to be on the decline these days. From governments to companies and individuals, the general impression is that commitment seems to be quickly slipping away and being replaced with non commitment. It's probably why so many marriages continue to end in divorce; because couples are not willing to carry through with their commitment. It's probably why so many governments continue to find themselves in hot water with each other and with their own people; because they continue to break their commitments. It's probably why so many companies continue to find themselves losing customers and revenue; because they continue to ignore the commitments that they have made to their customers. It's probably why so many recent graduates continue to find themselves being frustrated at not being able to find suitable employment; because they are unable to keep their commitment to show that they can stick when the going gets tough.
Unfortunately, the experience that I described above is very common these days. We are constantly seeing instances of persons who commit to specific responsibilities and tasks but fail to complete them and you know what? The excuses that they offer for not fulfilling their commitment are becoming more and more ridiculous. In the case of this young man that I referred to above, he could not really come up with a real reason as to why he walked out. Why he broke his commitment. First he had the boldness to say that he did not want to mingle with people who did not know what they were doing. Then he said that he did not want to meet us face to face for meetings. Then he said that he did not want to work with anyone who was not committed. Figure it out for yourself.
Here is my take on this subject. I believe that when most of us make a commitment, we do it with the best of intensions but for some reason, whenever we run into difficulty, whenever we are faced with unexpected challenges, whenever the going gets tough, we simply forget our commitments and walk away because it’s the easiest thing to do. Time for us to revisit and relearn the meaning of the word commitment.
Greetings everyone! Here are this month’s comments.
From Katie Corning of Toronto Canada:
Donna, I read your October editorial and it sounds like you're referring to the Canadian Human Rights Commission as well as our Federal government. If you are, then you have my whole hearted support. The CHRC in my opinion does not really understand when it comes to protecting our rights as blind persons. They're just too busy to do a proper job and I don't know where else we can turn.
From Scott Turner of New York:
I am asking this magazine to be a bit more forceful with its editorials. You would do better to come out and name names. Don't be shy now. It's the only way to get something done and be noticed.
From Celia King of New York:
Ha! Ha! What a drag! We as blind persons have to put up with so much garbage and this is a global problem. Just look at what they do to the folks in China.
From Carolyn Cooling of London England:
Would it be too much for you to vary your helpful tips section a bit more? Maybe give us more tips on identity theft and so on?
From Bruce McKay of Ottawa Canada:
Bravo for this magazine. It's time that someone started standing up to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Personally, I think that this agency should be scrapped. It is an embarrassment to say that they represent our best interest. Some of their investigators need to be educated when it comes to understanding the meaning of rights for those with disabilities.
From Dan Giordano of Toronto Canada:
The Canadian Human Rights Commission, what a joke. What a sorry bunch. They are overworked, some of their investigators should be working elsewhere, and I wonder how impartial they really are.
From Fred Greenberg of Washington DC:
Could someone tell me what more we need to do in order to get Congress to change our currency? The darn thing is green all the way and for us blind people who can't read the note, what should we do?
From Dennis Dancow of San Jose California:
Donna, I notice that you are also writing blogs at www.numpad.com. Good for you!
From Rina Radosky of San Francisco California:
What happened to those e books that you promised? Are they available as yet?
From Eleanor Hotcast of Sidney Australia:
I am wondering if you would be interested in running some seminars in Sidney. I know it's far but we are willing to work out something with your company.
Please contact us.
Thanks.
If you have something to say, an opinion to express, or anything that you wish to share with the rest of the world, then please send it on to info@sterlingcreations.ca.
Comments to the editor are yours and yours alone. All comments are reviewed to ensure appropriate language.
Notes
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