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.
Stanford grads developed technology to make hybridcars sound more like, well, cars
October 2008
By the Sterling Creations Accessibility team
Hello readers! Hope everyone is getting ready to enjoy the fall season. This month we would like to share an article with you that was published a while back. We often get asked the question by many with regard to how blind and visually impaired persons are going to deal with the newer and quieter highbred car? Are manufacturers going to take this question into consideration as they march along to their new inventions?
We hope that the following article can shed some light on this topic.
All Things Considered, June 21, 2008 . Hybrid vehicles are touted for their
environmental benefits and, given the spiraling price of gasoline, their
economic benefits. But for visually impaired pedestrians, who rely on sound
cues from oncoming traffic, the relative silence of hybrid engines poses
serious safety concerns.
Stanford graduates Bryan Bai and Everett Meyer have developed a technology
to make hybrid cars sound more like, well, cars. Their system uses
miniature, all-weather audio speakers that are placed on the wheel wells and
broadcasts specific sounds based on what the car is doing.
"It sounds essentially like a vehicle, except the sounds are more
intelligently projected," says Meyer, who along with Bai co-founded Enhanced
Vehicle Acoustics Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif.
"If a person is in drive mode and moving forward, the sounds are only
projected in the forward direction," he tells guest host Guy Raz. "If the
driver decides to turn left or right, the sound changes on the left or right
appropriately. So it minimizes noise pollution and maximizes acoustic
information for pedestrians."
Hybrids like the Toyota Prius can become eerily silent when driven at speeds
less than 25 mph or, say, when idling at a stoplight. At these low speeds
and in stop-and-go traffic, the vehicles switch from traditional combustion
engines to electric power. This boosts fuel efficiency - but it also
increases the risk for pedestrians.
The system created by Bai and Everett's company, which was formed with the
help of a grant from the National Federation of the Blind, emits sound when
the cars go into silent mode.
The federal government and a handful of states are considering legislation
to set minimum sound levels for hybrid cars. In April, Reps. Edolphus Towns
(D-NY) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) introduced the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement
Act of 2008. The bill proposes a two- year study to determine the best
strategy for tackling safety concerns about hybrids among the visually
impaired.
Everett acknowledges that his company's devices could be viewed as adding to
the noise pollution of traffic. But, he notes, "there's a different between
noise and sound, and we view our system as producing sounds which have a
purpose."
Business commentary
BREAKDOWN_ CANADA'S MENTAL-HEALTH CRISIS_ THE TROUBLEDWORKPLACE
October 2008
By the Sterling Creations business team
Hello there! There seems to be an increasing concern with regard to the mental health of our workers and this concern seems to be one that is spreading right across North America. We hasten to add that this concern seems to be a global problem and to this end we have chosen an article that was published a few months ago. This article shines the spotlight on our neighbors to the North. Canada! This may be a good time for Americans to sit up and take note. An unhealthy mind in the workplace is not what we need to be dealing with right now in this very challenging economic time.
BREAKDOWN: CANADA'S MENTAL-HEALTH CRISIS: THE TROUBLED WORKPLACE
The working wounded
Mental illness is costing the Canadian economy a staggering $51-billion a
year, each day 500,000 people miss work because of psychiatric problems.
What are employers doing about it? Not much.
André Picard
The Globe and Mail, June 23, 2008
GATINEAU, QUE. - The day Sylvie Giasson lost her job at the National Gallery
of Canada - a victim of restructuring - it was as if a black hole opened
upto swallow her.
The Gatineau, Que., translator began stuttering and crying. The tears
wouldn't stop. She couldn't sleep. Suicidal thoughts overwhelmed her.
It took all the energy Ms. Giasson could muster to get herself to hospital,
where she was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety disorder. She
spent seven months in the Royal Ottawa Hospital, being treated with
medication, counselling and electroconvulsive therapy. And she endured it
all virtually alone.
"Nobody wants to visit a loved one in a mental hospital," Ms. Giasson said.
There were no flowers or get-well-soon cards. No one called.
Society's silence about mental health is deafening. When you are diagnosed,
you disappear. Yet the vast majority of Canadians suffering from mental
illness - such severe conditions as depression, bipolar disorder and
schizophrenia - are not in hospital but in the community and at work.
Mental illness accounts for a stunning 40 per cent of disability claims and
sick leaves in Canada. While employees jest about "mental-health days," they
are no joke. Every day, 500,000 Canadians are absent from work due to
psychiatric problems; the most recent estimate pegged the annual economic
burden of mental illness at a staggering $51-billion. The World Health
Organization estimates that by 2020, depression will be the leading cause of
disability
on the planet.
"Depression is a colossus," said Bill Wilkerson, CEO of the Global Business
and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health. "It's one of the
biggest killers and one of the biggest disablers."
And it carries a cruel stigma. "There's this attitude out there that if you
come back from cancer, you're a hero, but if you come back from depression,
you're damaged goods," Mr. Wilkerson said.
Most people do return to work after bouts of mental illness. Yet few
employers are accommodating, and fewer still reach out to help staffers
before they descend into crisis.
"We can't afford to be tossing any workers overboard," Mr. Wilkerson said.
"We have a brain economy and we can't let all these brains go to waste." The
situation, he added, is a "national calamity."
Ms. Giasson, now 51, was one of those who clawed her way back. Doctors
discovered the combination of medications that controlled her symptoms,
including antidepressants and the Pill to deal with the violent mood swings
linked to her menstrual cycle.
She left hospital with $35 to her name. After a stint on welfare, she found
employment, first as a temp, then doing contractual work and finally landing
a full-time government job. Since 1992, Ms. Giasson has risen steadily
through the ranks of the civil service, where she now works in employee
assistance services at Health Canada. Over that time, she has had two bouts
of severe depression, each necessitating a few months off.
"Depression was not part of my career plan," she said wryly.
While she does not consider herself any different from workers with chronic
illnesses like diabetes or heart disease, she knows she faces far different
perceptions.
"In terms of dealing with an individual with mental illness," Ms. Giasson
said, "we're still in the Stone Age."
ECONOMIC IMPACT
There is no doubting the scale of the problem. A poll commissioned by the
Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace found that 18 per
cent of workers in Canada had, at one point, a diagnosis of clinical
depression. At any given time, about 8 per cent of those on the job are
taking drugs for a mental-health condition, and 6 per cent are under the
care of a physician.
And because mental illnesses tend to afflict people in their prime working
years, they have a huge economic impact.
The estimated $51-billion in annual cost to Canada was the conclusion of a
study by Dr. Carolyn Dewa of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in
Toronto. The study estimated direct medical costs at $5-billion, while loss
of productivity due to long-term disability came to $8.5-billion a year and
short-term sick leaves rang in at $9.3-billion annually. The balance, about
$28-billion, was attributed to "reductions in health-related quality of
life" - a method
used to put a dollar figure on pain and suffering.
Phil Upshall, national executive director of the Mood Disorders Society of
Canada, can rhyme off these stats with alacrity. He believes the figures are
essential to understanding the scope of mental illness and the folly of not
dealing with it.
"I have to use the numbers. They're all I have. I don't have a Timmy," Mr.
Upshall said, referring to the way causes like breast cancer and muscular
dystrophy capture the public imagination by putting a human face on the
conditions. But mental-illness sufferers are reluctant to come forward
because they fear the stigma.
"There's this assumption that people will 'go crazy' on the job," Mr.
Upshall said. "An employer would never ask a diabetic if he expects to slip
into a diabetic coma soon. That would be unthinkable and crass. But they ask
that type of question all the time to people with mood disorders."
According to the Great-West poll, employees feel the workplace is where they
are least likely to get support. It's no wonder the majority of those with
mental-health problems - 64 per cent - keep their condition secret from
employers.
Renea Mohammed, a 37-year-old peer support worker at Vancouver Coastal
Health, said secrecy is a defence mechanism: "Mental illness shatters your
confidence so the last thing you want to do is tell your boss. You don't
want to be judged and you don't want to lose their trust."
Ms. Mohammed was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic while studying for her
master's degree in library sciences a decade ago. She attempted suicide
three times in four years and was hospitalized on numerous occasions.
Despite it all, Ms. Mohammed held down several jobs as a librarian. With the
help of medication and counselling, she's now healthy and her condition is
stable. Along the way, she changed careers.
"If I was still working in a library I would keep this quiet. I'm not sure
everybody believes in recovery, even intelligent, educated people," she
said. But in the mental-health field, Ms. Mohammed says, she feels shielded
from stigmatization and believes it's important to speak out on behalf of
those who can't.
Michael Paré, a family doctor and co-ordinator of the Medical Clinic for
Person-Centred Psychotherapy in Toronto, says professionals are particularly
leery about admitting they suffer from mental illness.
"My clients are all working people," he said. "They have really good jobs
and provide for their families. But they are also the walking wounded." Dr.
Paré says he urges people to be discreet. "I tell them: 'You're not keeping
it secret; you're keeping it private.' "
Still, he has been open about his own diagnosis of depression and his
suicide attempt in university days. He's still in therapy, but not taking
medication. He can be candid because he's self-employed, he said, but "there
are still pockets of stigma in a society like medicine. It's a paradox: The
healer can't be sick."
Mamta Gautam, an Ottawa psychiatrist dubbed the "doctors' doctor" because
she treats only physicians suffering from mental illness, said the "culture
of medicine perpetuates the notion of doctors as always being healthy,
capable and available." She said physicians tend to minimize their symptoms
and continue to work at a high level; as a result, they often seek help
later. "The ability to function well is often the last thing to be
impacted," Dr. Gautam said.
But there is a price. The late treatment, severity of symptoms and easy
access to potentially lethal drugs - along with the pervasive stigma in
society - means the rate of suicide among male physicians is about twice
that of the general population. Among female physicians, it is about four
times higher.
UPSIDE-DOWN LIVES
Jacqueline Beaurivage was holidaying in Ontario's Algonquin Park in January,
2003, when an emergency call came from one of her teenage son's best
friends.
Her son, she was told, was sending out goodbye notes by e-mail and seemed
poised to kill himself. Ms. Beaurivage phoned her son, and her husband
dialled police.
Her son, Jonathan Singh, was diagnosed with severe depression. Even though
Ms. Beaurivage was not the patient, the illness turned her personal and
professional life upside down. A senior executive at CIBC, she called her
boss and said she needed time off.
"He said: 'Take all the time you need,' and I'll never forget that," Ms.
Beaurivage recalled.
She ended up taking three months off work, getting educated about mental
illness and caring for Jonathan. "It was overwhelming. Every ounce of me was
invested in my son. There was no way I could work," she said.
But when she did go back to the office, it was cathartic and also a positive
message to Jonathan that life was returning to normal. "Three months off was
a good investment for my employer," Ms. Beaurivage said. "I'm a damn loyal
employee now because I experienced the human side of CIBC."
Mr. Wilkerson says that, unfortunately, too many employers are
short-sighted.
"We have a knowledge economy, where the heavy lifting is being done by the
brain," he said. "We can't treat mental illness as a secondary or tertiary
issue any more. Dealing with this issue in the workplace is essential to our
economy and our quality of life."
By the numbers
1 Rank of depression among
the leading causes of disability
in the world
8% Percentage of workers taking
medication in Canada to treat depression and other mental-health conditions
20.6% Percentage of workers who suffer a bout of mental illness, most in the
prime of their working lives
40% Percentage of short- and long-term disability claims that involve a
mental-health problem
60% Percentage drop in family income when a breadwinner is diagnosed with
mental illness
500,000 Number of workers off sick each day in Canada with mental-health
problems
$8.5-billion Amount that employers and
insurers spend each year on
long-term disability claims related to mental illness
$9.3-billion Annual cost of short-term leave for mental-health problems
$51-billion Amount that mental illness costs the Canadian economy each year
Sources: World Health Organization, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,
Canadian Public Health Agency, Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in
the
Workplace, Statistics Canada
PUTTING ITS STAMP ON MENTAL HEALTH
"Going postal" is one of the most evocative phrases of modern life,
conjuring up the disturbing image of an employee going berserk in the
workplace.
The idiom, which arose from a series of bloody incidents at the U.S. Postal
Service, makes Moya Greene cringe. "An unfortunate label," said the
president and CEO of Canada Post Corporation.
It is also an expression she hopes to turn on its head. "Going postal, for
me, should mean being a leader on the issue of mental health," Ms. Greene
said.
Canada Post, a company with annual revenues of $7.5-billion and the
country's sixth-largest employer, has decided to make mental health its
issue of choice. It has created the Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health
and, in the fall, will issue a stamp to draw attention to the cause.
Just as important, Ms. Greene says, Canada Post is trying to be a model
employer. It is training managers to spot mental-health problems early and
deal with them openly.
The corporation also plans to leverage its vast resources - people,
infrastructure and visibility in communities - to promote awareness and
combat stigma.
"I want to get to the point where we can speak of mental illness like we do
diabetes," Ms. Greene said.
The CEO is leading by example, using her frequent public appearances to
boost the cause. Last year, she was honoured as a "champion of mental
health" by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health.
Ms. Greene says Canada Post, while large - 72,000 employees - is typical of
many corporations in feeling the impact of mental illness. For example:
*38 per cent of disability claims are related to mental health;
*35 per cent of absenteeism is due to mental-health problems;
*35 per cent of company drug-plan spending is for antidepressants.
Ms. Greene said Canada Post intends "to be an employer that takes the issue
out of the closed office."
From the soap box
Access Denied_ The Blind or Deaf Can Feel Left Behind As the Tools of Technology …
October 2008
By Scott Savoy
Hello all! This month I have chosen to dive headlong into a very hot topic. There are several differing views on this topic and it is one that I am still learning much about. I have friends who tell me that technology has done wonders to improve their lives but at the same time I have others who continue to tell me that technology is quickly leaving the deaf and the blind behind. Especially so when it comes to the issue of accessibility.
The following article is one for everyone to read and ponder.
Happy October to you all.
Access Denied
The Blind or Deaf Can Feel Left Behind As the Tools of Technology Advance
By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 19, 2008; D01
Olivia Norman's fingers fly across her laptop keyboard, dexterously tapping
out instant messages to friends and entering Google searches without
committing a single typo. A minute later, she's listening intently to the
voice cues that help her read e-mail and send text messages on her Motorola
Q smartphone.
Norman is blind, so the cues help her navigate the tiny keypad and
understand the words on the screen.
She is not able to order an on-demand movie from Comcast because she can't
read the on-screen menus. And she had trouble setting up an iTunes account
because the speech-synthesizing software she relies on couldn't find the
right link on the Web site.
"It's a curse and a blessing at the same time," said Norman, 27, who lives
in Cleveland Park. "The Internet has revolutionized my life, but there are
basic things that are still completely inaccessible to people like me."
In many ways, Web technologies and mobile devices have created new ways for
blind and deaf consumers to find information and connect with friends. But
as entertainment and communications tools increasingly take digital form,
some people with disabilities feel left behind. Online videos are not
required to have captions for those who can't hear, for example, and
ticker-style emergency messages are not narrated for those who can't see.
A number of efforts by various groups have tried to address some of these
hurdles over the past few years.
For example, the Federal Communications Commission last year ruled that
Internet phone services, such as Vonage, that connect to the public
telephone network must be compatible with hearing aids and relay services,
as traditional phone companies' service is. The agency also decided that
wireless carriers must ensure that at least half of their cellphones are
compatible with hearing aids.
Five years ago, the FCC set rules requiring video operators to provide
"video description" services that narrate scenes for people with visual
impairments. But those rules were overturned in court when movie studios
argued that the FCC did not have authority to make such rules.
Today, a Democratic congressman plans to introduce legislation that would
restore those requirements, as well as bring other big changes to the way
Internet phone and video are designed.
"Now we're full-blown into this digital era, and we, in general, need to
upgrade the laws that ensure that there is accessibility for all the people
who use these new technologies," said Rep. Edward J.
Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications
and the Internet.
The bill, also sponsored by Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.), calls for new
rules for devices that display video programming. Federal law requires all
TV sets with screens larger than 13 inches to display closed captions. Under
the new legislation, all gadgets from MP3 music players to cellphones would
be required to show captions.
Devices would also be obligated to provide video description services and
read aloud emergency messages that scroll across the bottom of the screen.
And they would have to be designed so that on-screen menus are usable by
people with disabilities.
In addition, Markey's bill would extend existing Internet phone service
requirements to Skype and similar services that let users exchange voice,
text or video communications over the Internet.
Various advocates of people with disabilities have lined up in support of
the bill, arguing that it's high time that the law spelled out technology
standards that consider the needs of consumers with visual or hearing
impairments.
But tech industry groups say that such a list of requirements will dampen
the innovation that's already making these products and services available
and more accessible. They also argue that new regulations will drive up the
price of products for all consumers.
"No one thought about these things five years ago, and yet these
technologies are coming down the pike on their own and we need to make sure
we don't stifle that growth," said K. Dane Snowden, vice president of state
and external affairs for CTIA, the wireless industry's main lobby group in
Washington.
Robert McConnell, a 23-year-old student at Gallaudet University in Northeast
Washington, said Web cameras, instant-messaging programs and his BlackBerry
allow him to communicate in ways that were not available to previous
generations of the deaf and hard of hearing.
"We live through our thumbs," he said of his dependence on his cellphone to
send text messages and photos of sign-language sequences.
But video clips and many TV shows that are streamed online are often
unintelligible to him because they lack captions. At the moment, it is left
up to the producers of online content to decide whether to provide captions.
CBS's Web site, for example, does not have captions for all of the network's
content, but Hulu.com, a joint venture between NBC and Fox, often does.
Similarly, Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, has put
captions on many of the videos on his campaign Web site, McConnell has
observed. Officials with Republican candidate Sen. John McCain did not say
whether his site provides captions for videos.
Captions are difficult to post with online videos because there is no common
standard for how they are decoded and displayed, said Larry Goldberg,
director of media access at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston.
The station is coordinating a coalition called the Internet Captioning
Forum, formed last year by AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, which is
working to draw up captioning standards for content providers and Web sites.
The proposed bill would not extend to the homemade clips posted on YouTube
and other video sharing sites but would require major TV networks and movie
studios to include captions with Web-bound content.
"The problem is every video player -- RealPlayer, Windows Media Player,
QuickTime -- works differently," Goldberg said.
Although made-for-TV content is required to have captions, they are not
always easily repurposed for the Web. For example, if a half-hour show is
broken up into smaller clips for the Web site, the prerecorded captions "can
be garbled or destroyed."
Some companies have created programs that cater to deaf and blind people.
FeedRoom, a New York company, has created a video player that can display
captions. Audiopoint, based in Rockville, has a text-to-speech program that
reads e-mail and news alerts over the phone in a robotic voice.
But the software can cost hundreds of dollars, and compatible devices can
cost in the thousands, said Karen Peltz Strauss, who helped form the
Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology.
She said she thinks federal action would help make the technologies more
affordable.
But Vincent Morris, communications director for the Information Technology
Industry Council, argued that government action would also lead to higher
prices for all consumers.
Computer access resource, WebAnywhere
October 2008
Contributed by Ryan Gardener of Washington DC
Dear Editor,
Thanks very much for choosing my contribution. I am really excited about this break through.
Dear Ryan,
We are absolutely delighted that you sent us this article and we hope that as many persons as possible see it and read it but above all that they can take advantage of this sotware.
Thank you!
The University of Washington has issued the following announcement:
Online service lets blind surf the Internet from any computer, anywhere
Visions of future technology don't involve being chained to a desktop
machine. People move from home computers to work computers to mobile
devices; public kiosks pop up in libraries, schools and hotels; and
people increasingly store everything from e-mail to spreadsheets on the
Web.
But for the roughly 10 million people in the United States who are blind
or visually impaired, using a computer has, so far, required special
screen-reading software typically installed only on their own machines.
New software, called WebAnywhere, launched today lets blind and visually
impaired people surf the Web on the go. T he tool developed at the
University of Washington turns screen-reading into an Internet service
that reads aloud Web text on any computer with speakers or a headphone
connection.
"This is for situations where someone who's blind can't use their own
computer but still wants access to the Internet. At a museum, at a
library, at a public kiosk, at a friend's house, at the airport," said
Richard Ladner, a UW professor of computer science and engineering.
Ladner will demonstrate the tool next week in Dallas at the National
Federation of the Blind's annual convention. WebAnywhere was developed
under Ladner's supervision by Jeffrey Bigham, a UW doctoral student in
computer science and engineering. The research was funded by the
National Science Foundation.
Free screen readers already exist, as do sophisticated commercial
programs. But all must be installed on a machine before being used. This
is the first accessibility tool hosted on the Web, meaning it doesn't
have to be downloaded onto a computer. It processes the text on an
external server and then sends the audio file to play in the user's Web
browser.
"You don't have to install new software. So even if you go to a heavily
locked-down computer, say at a library, you can still use it," Bigham
said.
In May, Bigham was named the winner of the Accessible Technology Award
for Interface Design for the Imagine Cup, a student programming contest
sponsored by Microsoft Corp. The prize comes with $8,000 and a trip to
Paris in early July.
For the past month WebAnywhere has been available on request. Bigham
said he's received inquiries from librarians who would like to make all
their machines accessible on a limited budget. He's also had interest
from teachers who struggle to find the time to locate free software, get
permission to install it on a school computer and then maintain the
program so that a single computer is accessible to a visually impaired
student. This software would make any computer in the lab instantly
accessible for Internet tasks. The Web-based service also eliminates the
need for local technical support: there is no software to install or
update because each time a person visits the site he or she gets the
latest version.
To test the software, researchers had people use the tool to do three
things typically done at public machines: check e-mail, look up a bus
schedule and search for a restaurant's phone number. People using
WebAnywhere were able to successfully complete all three tasks, using a
variety of machines and Internet connections.
Like other screen readers, WebAnywhere converts written text to an
electronically generated voice. So far the system works only in English.
But the source code was released a few weeks ago and a Web developer in
China has expressed interest in developing a Chinese version.
The UW team plans to create updates that will allow users to change the
speed at which the text is read aloud and add other popular features
found in existing screen readers. The service is currently hosted on a
server at the UW campus.
Bigham is also working with Benetech, a Palo Alto, Calif., technology
nonprofit that distributes free electronic books, to make its collection
of more than 30,000 books accessible to blind users without them having
to install any screen-reading software.
He believes this could be the first of many Web-based accessibility
tools.
"Traditional desktop tools such as e-mail, word processors and
spreadsheets are moving to the Web," Bigham said. "Access technology,
which currently runs only on the desktop, needs to follow suit."
News and views
JUVENILE DIABETES
October 2008
By Christian Robicheau
Hi everyone! Hope everyone is doing just fine. This month I have chosen an article that talks about juvenile diabetes. I know how important this topic is to so many of us and I hope that it is of interest to our readers.
JUVENILE DIABETES
Is sunshine the key?
Vitamin D holds promise in reducing disease, new study suggests
Martin Mittelstaedt
The Globe and Mail, June 5, 2008
The cause of juvenile diabetes has long eluded medical researchers, with no
one knowing why children develop the disease, and why rates vary so
dramatically around the world.
Among children under 14, Canadians are believed to have the third-highest
rate in the world. A youngster growing up in Finland is about 400 times more
likely to develop the lifelong ailment involving insulin deficiency than one
growing up in Venezuela.
But U.S. researchers believe they have a plausible explanation for the
medical puzzle: They suspect the odds of acquiring the disease are linked to
latitude and the way it determines how much vitamin D children produce from
exposure to sunlight.
In a groundbreaking paper published today in the online version of the
journal Diabetologia, researchers from the University of California, San
Diego, found that the incidence of diabetes tends to be low at or near the
equator, where the rate often approaches zero, and then rises steadily at
progressively higher latitudes, reaching peaks in places like Canada,
Finland and southern Argentina's Tierra del Fuego.
At higher latitudes, sunshine is too feeble for much of the year to allow
children to produce vitamin D the natural way, through exposure of skin to
strong ultraviolet light, increasing the odds of them developing juvenile
diabetes, the paper says.
The researchers contend that the link to the so-called sunshine vitamin
opens up a promising avenue to reduce rates of juvenile diabetes, for which
doctors have no prevention strategy.
"This suggests there is a tremendous amount of room for reduction in the
incidence of type 1 diabetes with vitamin D," says Cedric Garland, professor
of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San
Diego, and the paper's lead author.
Dr. Garland said it may be possible to reduce the risk of the disease by
giving children about 1,000 to 2,000 international units of vitamin D daily,
or less in sunny locations or during the summer. That dose would give
children in northern countries vitamin D levels similar to those of people
in tropical locations.
This "would revolutionize, I think, pediatric preventive medicine practice
by allowing the doctors to ensure adequate vitamin D status and prevent a
terrible, lifelong disease," Dr. Garland said.
The possible link to vitamin D is "a very exciting hypothesis and if it's
true, a major dent could be made in the number of children ... developing
type 1 diabetes every year," agreed Shayne Taback, a pediatric
endocrinologist and diabetes researcher at the University of Manitoba.
The amounts of vitamin D that Dr. Garland suggests are far higher than what
Health Canada recommends - 400 IU a day for breast-fed infants under 1 and
200 IU for older children. Health Canada's maximum safe dose is 1,000 IU a
day for those younger than 1 and 2,000 for those older, although the
government agency said last month that it intends to review its
recommendations in light of new research linking insufficiency of the
vitamin to a number of diseases.
Health Canada said in an e-mail response to questions from The Globe that it
recommends Canadians follow its existing doses pending the outcome of the
review.
The Canadian Diabetes Association has been financing research into vitamin
D, including a study by Dr. Taback that gave infants 400 IU or 2,000 IU
daily to see whether there were any adverse effects. None were found.
Some researchers are cautious about the new paper because it amounts to the
scientific equivalent of circumstantial evidence. The differing incidence by
latitude could be due to some other factor, such as genetics.
Dr. Taback leads a team that wants to conduct a drug-style clinical study to
determine whether that the nutrient actually can prevent diabetes. Type 1
Diabetes TrialNet, an international consortium that oversees research on the
disease, has approved his proposed study, which is awaiting funding and
would use doses as high as 2,000 IU.
As many as 180,000 Canadians have juvenile or type 1 diabetes, according to
figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada. It is a chronic, lifelong
autoimmune disease, usually diagnosed during childhood and treated by
injecting insulin. Among its symptoms are extreme thirst and sudden weight
loss.
It is a different illness from the more common adult onset diabetes, known
as type 2, which is linked to such modern lifestyle factors as being
overweight and sedentary.
The new research is among a number of studies suggesting a link between the
vitamin and the disease. Juvenile diabetes is thought to have a genetic
component, with about 15 per cent of the population potentially susceptible,
although it is not known what environmental factors trigger a fraction of
those to develop the disease, in which the body's immune system turns on
itself, destroying cells in the pancreas responsible for insulin production.
Helpful tips
October 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Greetings readers! Hope everyone is getting ready for the lovely fall season. Well, here we are with our first contribution. Please give us some of your attention for a few minutes and read our tips for this month.
Helpful tips for October
Always wondered which is the best type of fish for frying?
Halibut and Salmon.
These types of fish are firm.
Don't use Sole as this type of fish is soft and does not stand up to frying.
Have you ever wondered how to attract more butterflies to your garden?
Well, try planting more parsley and fennel.
These two tasty herbs definitely attract more butterflies to your garden and everyone loves butterflies! Right?
What is the meaning of the term cellulite?
Cellulite refers to the fat found in one's thighs, hips, and buttocks.
Okay, always wanted to know a bit more about those very pretty emerald stones?
Well, here's what we just discovered.
Emerald stones are soft and what does this really mean?
They do not stand up very well to wear and tear.
You are well advised not to wear them on a continuous basis.
Do not take showers or baths with them on.
Protect them from every day contact with water.
Of course, you can wear them when you go out but when you return home take them off.
In short, they are best worn socially and not while doing household chores.
So what's this about the term Trinity that chefs often use when they're cooking up a storm?
Well, this term is applied to the use of onions, celery, and sweet peppers when used in combination.
All you ever wanted to know about Aspirin?
A low dosage of Aspirin is recommended for keeping your in good health.
Too much of the higher doses and you could be in trouble with higher heart rates and levels of blood pressure.
In other words, too much use of higher doses of Aspirin can increase your heart beat as well as your blood pressure.
What other medication can increase your heart rate and blood pressure?
Yes, cough medication. Too much of cough medicine can certainly increase your heart rate as well as raise your blood pressure level.
What's this about when you should take your calcium pills?
Best time to take these types of pills is with your evening meal.
Calcium pills work best when you are asleep and it takes up to four hours during sleep time for the body to take the calcium from your system and distribute it to your bones.
So, what more would you like to know about blood pressure?
For one thing, blood pressure fluctuates throughout the day.
It tends to be highest at night and when you awake on mornings.
If you want to have your blood pressure tested, do not do it right after drinking coffee or tea.
Do it about half hour after drinking them.
A little tip for when you wake up on mornings?
Before you decide to race out of bed, do this!
Place your feet firmly on the floor and get up slowly from your bed.
By doing this, you avoid the risk of getting dizzy and even fainting.
Why? It's all because of higher levels of blood pressure at this time of the day.
When you wake up on mornings, your blood pressure would normally be at its highest levels.
As a matter of fact, whenever you wake up, take a few precious seconds to sit on your bed before standing up. It's for your own good.
What's this about choosing to pay with your credit card rather than with a cheque?
Well, when you pay with your credit card, here's what happens:
Your credit card company is always on your side in that if you wish to return your purchased product within the stipulated time period, you can do so even if the company in question refuses to reimburse you.
However, with a cheque, when you pay that's it.
If you wish to return your product for the promised refund, it is always more difficult to retrieve your money if the company refuses to pay.
Bottom line? Your payment with a credit card guarantees that you will receive your money back if you return a purchased product to a company.
Payment with a cheque does not.
Ever wondered about what not to ask when you go for a job interview?
Well, here are some very important questions not to ask.
1. Do not ask the interviewer how many times does one have to receive a poor performance evaluation before they are asked to leave the company.
2. Do not ask how deep does the company go when checking criminal backgrounds.
3. Do not ask how many sick days is one allowed to have before pay starts to be deducted.
4. Do not ask if the company has a firewall that prevents its employees from surfing adult websites.
Accessibility news
House Votes to Expand Civil Rights for Disabled
October 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Hello again! It’s our turn again and for our second contribution this month, we have chosen an article of great interest to many Americans. Especially to those millions of Americans with disabilities. We know, this article is a bit outdated, but we felt it important enough to reprint it in our magazine. So, here goes.
New York Times (NY, NY)
June 26, 2008
House Votes to Expand Civil Rights for Disabled
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON - The House passed a major civil rights bill on Wednesday
that would expand protections for people with disabilities and overturn
several Supreme Court decisions issued in the last decade.
The bill, approved 402 to 17, would make it easier for workers to prove
discrimination. It would explicitly relax some stringent standards set
by the court and says that disability is to be "construed broadly," to
cover more physical and mental impairments.
Supporters of the proposal said it would restore the broad protections
that Congress meant to establish when it passed the Americans With
Disabilities Act that President George Bush signed in 1990.
Lawmakers said Wednesday that people with epilepsy, diabetes, cancer,
cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and other ailments had been
improperly denied protection because their conditions could be controlled by
medication or were in remission. In a Texas case, for example, a federal judge said
a worker with epilepsy could not be considered disabled because he was
taking medications that reduced the frequency of seizures.
In deciding whether a person is disabled, the bill says, courts should
generally not consider the effects of "mitigating measures" like
prescription drugs, hearing aids and artificial limbs. Moreover, it
adds, "an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a disability if it
would substantially limit a major life activity when active."
The chief sponsor of the bill, the House Democratic leader,
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, said the situation was now bizarre. "An
individual may be considered too disabled by an employer to get a job,
but not disabled enough by the courts to be protected by the A.D.A. from
discrimination," Mr. Hoyer said.
The chief Republican sponsor, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.
of Wisconsin, said the Supreme Court had "chipped away at the protections"
of the 1990 law, leaving millions of Americans with no recourse or remedy
for discrimination.
His wife, Cheryl Sensenbrenner, has testified in support of the bill as
chairwoman of the American Association of People With Disabilities, an
advocacy group. Mrs. Sensenbrenner suffered a spinal cord injury in
1972, when she was 22, and sometimes uses a wheelchair. In addition, she noted
in an interview, she has a sister with Down syndrome.
Supporters of the bill immediately shifted their attention to the
Senate, which is expected to pass a similar bipartisan measure. Senator Tom
Harkin, the Iowa Democrat leading the effort, predicted that the Senate would
act "in the near future."
The White House said that although President Bush "supports the overall
intent" of the House bill, he was concerned that it "could unduly
expand" coverage and significantly increase litigation.
The House bill reflects a deal worked out in months of negotiations by business groups and advocates for the disabled. The United States
Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers helped shape the bill
and endorsed it as a balanced compromise.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, called the Supreme
Court reading of the 1990 law "cramped and misguided." Remedial
legislation is needed now more than ever, Mr. Nadler said, because "thousands of men
and women in uniform are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious
injuries, including the loss of limbs and head trauma."
The House Republican whip, Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, said the
bill "puts people to work, creates opportunity and makes America a more
productive country" by unlocking new pools of talent.
The 1990 law said "individuals with disabilities are a discrete and
insular minority." The bill passed Wednesday deletes that phrase, which the
Supreme Court has cited as a reason for limiting the definition of disability.
The law generally prohibits an employer from discriminating against a
qualified individual who has, or is perceived as having, a disability,
defined as a physical or mental impairment that "substantially limits"
one or more major life activities.
The Supreme Court said in 2002 that "these terms need to be interpreted strictly to create a demanding standard for qualifying as disabled." To
meet this test, the court said, a person has to have "an impairment that
prevents or severely restricts the individual from doing activities that are of
central importance to most people's daily lives."
Under the bill passed on Wednesday, Congress would establish a less stringent standard, saying an impairment qualifies as a disability if it
"materially restricts" a major life activity like seeing, hearing,
eating, walking, reading or thinking.
Compromising of confidentiality and privacy
October 2008
By Donna J Jodhan
Compromising of confidentiality and privacy
Based on my experience of the last few years, I have come to the conclusion that both governments as well as many of those agencies that are responsible for protecting the human rights of their citizens do not really get it when it comes to understanding why it is so important for blind and visually impaired persons to be able to preserve their confidentiality and privacy. My impression is that these particular bodies through their deliberate actions truly believe that if they provide assistance to a blind or visually impaired person, in other words, if they provide a band aid solution to a problem, it’s enough. Things have been looked after so what’s the problem.
As I see it, if the mainstream person is allowed to preserve their confidentiality and privacy, then the same right should be afforded to blind and visually impaired persons. If the mainstream person is allowed to complete forms that require them to input confidential information without having to identify themselves, and without any assistance from anyone that they do not know such as a government official or public service official, then the same right should or must be given to someone who is blind or visually impaired. The right to confidentiality and privacy is a given for anyone, so why is it that these particular bodies are unable to provide it?
We continue to receive several complaints on this subject but I have two specific examples to report and I'll let you be the judge.
First example: Last year one of our clients applied for a contract investigator's position with a Human Rights agency in their country. When they went to complete the application form, they discovered that the form was in PDF format, not a format that is accessible to them as a blind person. Our client had to spend over two weeks getting someone to convert the PDF application form into word format and despite getting good service from the person who eventually helped them to obtain the accessible format, they were not happy because they had to identify themselves as being visually impaired in order to obtain an application in a format that they could work with. Our client wrote to the agency in question with their concern but unfortunately the response was that they were looked after so there was nothing for them to be concerned about.
Second example: A few years ago, another client applied to their government for a job using their online process. When they went online to apply, they quickly discovered that the online application process was not accessible to them as a visually impaired person so they had to spend a fair amount of time trying to find someone within the government's ranks to help them. Eventually, the government in question provided someone to help them and it was someone that they did not know, never met, and had to work with him over the phone. The application forms were completed but guess what? Our client was never able to verify that the info that he entered on their behalf was accurate! Nor were they ever able to determine whether or not these applications were actually submitted. True it is that our client trusted the government official to do as they asked, but our client had to depend on trust all the way. In other words, our client had to trust blindly.
Our client filed a complaint with the Human Rights agency in their country but not surprisingly they dismissed the case saying that our client's needs were met. This after according to our client one of their investigators spent barely 10 minutes to interview them, did not understand what accessibility meant, and did not even take the time to interview their important witnesses. I think that the time has come for blind, visually impaired, and print disabled persons to start voicing their concerns about how their confidentiality and privacy are being handled by both their governments and by human rights agencies.
Confidentiality and privacy means that a person does not have to identify oneself in order to receive assistance. Human Rights agencies are supposedly here to protect and preserve the rights of all persons but with examples like these plus many more that we personally know of, one has to ask the question: Why is it that Human Rights agencies continue to ignore and disrespect the confidentiality and privacy of persons who are blind and visually impaired? Do they honestly believe that if someone is looked after, meaning if the problem is solved, it does not matter that during the process the person's confidentiality and privacy have seriously been compromised and trampled upon?
Are Human Rights agencies so overworked that they simply do not have the time or manpower to do a better job? Or is it that their staff is simply not knowledgeable enough when it comes to understanding when a person's confidentiality and privacy have been seriously compromised and infringed upon? Or, is it that they simply do not care enough to consider it important enough to do the right thing?
These are very serious breaches and concerns and I truly hope that those offending governments and Human Rights agencies are listening. So many countries pride themselves on being fair, considerate, and doing what is right. So, do what is right now. Take the time to address these concerns. Stop treating blind and visually impaired persons like second-class citizens. We have rights too and this includes a right to confidentiality and privacy like everyone else. We pay taxes like everyone else, so surely, we must be entitled to our rights like everyone else. Or is it me who is missing the boat here?
Comments to the editor
October 2008
From the desk of the editor
Greetings everyone! Here are this month's comments to the editor.
From Ryan Christy of Dublin Ireland:
I am just blown away by the comments that A & P Canada made to you folks. What is wrong with this supermarket! Don't they get it! You in Canada should take them to court over these comments.
From Tim Francona of Salem Massachusetts:
I liked your September editorial. Sad but true. We are often put in a position where we have to make decisions with data that is out of date. I hope that someone is listening.
From Candice Shriver of Atlanta Georgia:
Okay, I'd like to know how all of these cutbacks in the airline industry are going to affect those of us who need assistance at the airport?
From Margaret Walsh of Kent England:
You folks in Canada sure put up with a lot of absolute rubbish over there. Imagine A & P making comments like they are not in the business to help others but rather to sell groceries. Whoever made these comments should be fired from their job immediately. No questions asked.
From Ricky Delmonte of New York:
What I would like to know is this. Are you going to do anything about those comments that A & P made? How could they be allowed to get away with making such a bombastic and out of the park comment?
From Heather Gargoff of San Francisco California:
I liked your August editorial. It sure brought tears to my eyes. Keep up the good work Donna. I sure admire you.
From Marc Gabriel of Montreal Canada:
Donna, you should move to Montreal and then you'll see what good service our supermarkets offer to those who need assistance. Toronto is just another large city that just does not care about the elderly, and the disabled.
From Debby Murphy of London England:
Donna, your editorials sure make their readers sit up and take note. Your July editorial was really on the money. Your August editorial was a tear jerker, and last month's editorial really hit home.
Keep up the good work my Dear.
From Karl Vanholt of Amsterdam:
I liked the chess article in the August issue of your magazine. Here in Europe there is a lot of opportunity for blind persons to play chess. I am myself blind and play chess reasonably well.
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
If you would like to contribute an article to our magazine then please contact us at:
Tel (416) 491-7711
Email info@sterlingcreations.ca
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.
If you’re looking for a one-stop writing shop then look no further!
At www.sterlingcreations.ca you will find experienced professionals standing by to offer affordable Sterling services in the following areas:
Research, Writing, translation, and transcription.
We can do anything from articles and blogs to newsletters, emails and faxes to speeches, brochures and books to websites, plus more.
Please send all inquiries to info@sterlingcreations.ca.
Looking for affordable translation services?
At www.translationpeople.com you will find qualified translators and language coaches to help you in the following languages:
English, Spanish, French, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
These experienced professionals can help you to write, translate, and transcribe to and from these languages.
For all inquiries please send your emails to info@translationpeople.com.
If you’re looking for ways to keep abreast of the latest news wires, trends and strategies, or ideas for creating your own small business, then you can take advantage of lots of free information by visiting www.untappedwealth.com.
There you’ll find skilled researchers and writers willing to help you with your challenges.
For all inquiries send your emails to info@untappedwealth.com.
