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Accessibility News International
Accessibility News International will strive to bring you as much information as possible from around the Globe regarding issues of accessibility for the Disability Community.
Accelerated Reader Student App Update Gives Visually Impaired Students Quiz-taking Independence
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wisconsin.
April 2, 2013 /PRNewswire
Renaissance Learning™ announced today that the newest update to the Accelerated Reader™ (AR™) Student App for iOS includes VoiceOver support to enhance learning for visually impaired and blind students.
Fedora Outlier LLC Announced the Lucky Winner for Its Recent Giveaway Contest
Posted April 4, 2013
During its debut of its monthly Twitter #AccessChat, April 2nd, Fedora Outlier LLC In Association with the Old Hat Guide, announced the winner of the 16 GB iPad Mini Giveaway Contest for the soon to be released book, The Old Hat Guide to iPhone Accessibility.
Fedora Outlier LLC Blazes a Trail in Communicating with the Blind Community Using Social Media
April 4, 2013
In its first ever, revolutionary online Twitter Chat, Fedora Outlier LLC has reached out to the Blind Community in a very successful debut of what will become a monthly affair for the fast paced, talented and innovative Company.
Smartphone App Turns iPhone Into a Hearing Aid
Apr 3, 2013
Researchers at the University of Essex have developed a free mobile app that turns an iPhone or iPod into a hearing aid that could revolutionize the future for people with hearing disabilities.
Read more at
http://oldhatguide.com/smartphone-app-turns-iphone-into-a-hearing-aid/
Website Accessibility and the ADA: An Update
by Staff Reporter on April 1, 2013
We recently wrote about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its application to online businesses. In the March 22, 2013 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Joe Palazzolo reported that the government might be taking a proactive role in addressing online-accessibility issues.
New Code of Practice to Increase Accessibility of Non-NAS Air Terminals
Thursday March 28th 2013 – Canadian Transportation Agency Press Release
The Canadian Transportation Agency has released a new Accessibility Code of Practice and resource tool to improve the accessibility of Non-National Airports System (non-NAS) air terminals for persons with disabilities.
The National Airports System (NAS) is comprised of 26 national airports linking Canada from coast to coast. The Agency has a Code of Practice which applies to NAS terminals. However, as there are no current standards to address physical accessibility, communications or services to persons with disabilities for Non-NAS terminals, the Agency developed a new code of practice and a resource tool which will apply to over 90 Non-NAS terminals that handle more than 10,000 passengers a year.
CRTC InvitesComments on the Potential for a Video Relay Service for Canadians Who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Speech Impaired
OTTAWA-GATINEAU, March 27, 2013
Today, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) launched a public consultation on whether video relay service for Canadians who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired should be offered. As part of this consultation, the CRTC will hold a public hearing starting on October 21, 2013, in Gatineau, Que.
Currently, two text-based relay services, Internet Protocol relay and teletypewriter relay, are available to Canadians who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. Video relay service would enable people who use sign language to communicate with voice telephone users via an operator who relays the conversation from sign language to spoken language, and vice versa.
Canadian Judgments Need Style
by Lexum
March 27th 2013
As many colleagues involved in serving Canadian government’s online projects along the years, I too did my fair part of fence-sitting about web accessibility requirements. Those requirements were perceived as a set of obligations to take into account dying browsers, obsolete computers, extra narrow screens, and some other minor annoyances about coding more legible HTML. We at Lexum complied, without enthusiasm if the truth must be said, but we complied as any service provider had to in order to keep the business going.
This feet dragging cannot be continued any longer.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Is Even Worse Than You Think
It keeps e-books, online video, and more inaccessible to people with disabilities.
By Blake E. Reid|Posted Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at 1:06 PM
A student reads from a Braille science school book. Photo by Steve Mitchell/AP
Recently, the White House made about 114,000 new friends by agreeing that it should be legal to unlock your cellphone. In a response to a We the People petition, a White House adviser wrote that the Obama administration would work to address a recent decision by the librarian of Congress that made unlocking your cellphone illegal under the anti-circumvention measures of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
People With Disabilities ‘Excluded’ from Web Services
by Rodolfo Cattani 20 March 2013
Many European with disabilities feel excluded from information services because two-thirds of websites are not accessible – and a legally binding solution to the problem is required, says the European Disability Forum
“I tried to access a government website that showed a short video on how elections work. I could not understand the video because there was no sign language version.”
“The internet is great but I cannot access my bank account online because it is too complicated to log on to the bank website.”
Robot Sensing and Smartphones Help Blind Navigate
Posted Mar 22, 2013
Original, 01 May 2012 by Helen Knight
Magazine issue 2862.
ROBOTS need help navigating their surroundings and sophisticated location systems to keep track of their position. Now the same technologies are being adapted to help blind people navigate indoor and outdoor spaces independently.
Deaf, Blind Sue Over Web Shopping
Advocates for Disabled Say Netflix, Target Are Legally Obligated to Make Sites Easier to Navigate
By JOE PALAZZOLO
March 21, 2013, 6:54 p.m. ET
Stephen Voss for The Wall Street Journal
Anne Taylor uses a Google Nexus 7 tablet at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore.
.Commerce has moved online. Now, the disability lawsuits are following.
Advocates for disabled Americans have declared that companies have a legal obligation to make their websites as accessible as their stores, and they’ve filed suits across the country to force them to install the digital version of wheelchair ramps and self-opening doors.
Online Consultation for a Disability Inclusive Development Agenda Towards 2015 and Beyond
Posted March 16, 2013
In many countries gains made on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have not been successful in reaching marginalized populations, including persons with disabilities. This clearly highlights the importance of taking inequality, discrimination and social exclusion more effectively into account both in the still ongoing efforts to accelerate and expand progress on the MDGs and in the definition of the new development framework that will succeed the MDGs post-2015.
Read more at
http://www.worldwewant2015.org/enable
Disability Equity: The Cheerleader Rushes the Net
Posted by safeandsilent on March 13, 2013
I blogged recently about the myriad apologies I had received for accessibility failures.
In the blog, I noted that many accessibility equity programs are run not by people WITH disabilities, but FOR us. Often these programs are subsumed under diversity programs, which just serves to underscore that you think of us all as the Other, whether it is our complexion, our gender, our cultural heritage, or our ability that is not the same as the mainstream – we are Different, therefore we are Diversity.
Community Engagement Questionnaire
Posted March 13, 2013
Questionnaire CONSENT FORM
Researcher: Christine Nieder
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between early community engagement and skill sets obtained against the success of employment of blind, deafblind and partially sighted Canadians between the ages of 22-64.
You have been invited to participate in this study as a blind, deafblind or partially sighted individual between the ages of 22-64 living in Canada in relationship to your early community engagement experiences, skill sets gained, measured against your success in employment. As the researcher, I am interested in learning about the relationship between these factors and how early community engagement positively influences blind and partially sighted individuals in adulthood.
Sign Language App Makes G+ Hangouts More Accessible for Hearing Impaired
04 Mar, 2013 | by Anuradha Shetty |
Google is introducing two accessibility improvements in Google+ Hangouts. The first one’s a Sign Language Interpreter app for the service’s deaf or hard of hearing users who prefer using sign language. They can invite interpreters to speak and/or interpret for them during a Hangout.
Those using this app will always see their interpreter at the top right of the window, and they’ll become the focus of the Hangout whenever their interpreter speaks for them. To install the app, go to https://plus.google.com/up/accounts/upgrade/?continue=https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_?gid%3D532733437531.
NHTSA Proposes Rules for Automakers to Add Sound to Hybrids, EVs
Vehicle sounds said to improve pedestrian safety
To meet the requirements, automakers would need to add speakers that are audible from the street.
By: Gabe Nelson, Automotive News on 1/07/2013
Automakers would need to make hybrids and electric vehicles emit sound under rules that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed on Monday.
The rules, ordered by Congress three years ago, are meant to protect pedestrians and bicyclists from vehicles that make little sound when using electric power. NHTSA says that designing the vehicles to make noise at speeds below 18 mph would prevent about 2,800 injuries over the life of each model year of vehicles.
The Old Hat Guide To iPhone Accessibility
March 2, 2013
In conjunction with the release of the first ever multimedia ebook created for the blind, by the blind, Fedora Outlier, LLC, is offering an opportunity to win a free 16GB iPad Mini to those who
enter the giveaway and answer the question, “What was your biggest challenge when learning to use your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch?”
Low Vision and Motor Disability Surveys February 12, 2013
by Jared Smith
In the spirit of our popular screen reader user surveys, WebAIM has launched two new surveys – a Survey of Users with Low Vision and a Survey of Users with Motor Disabilities. We invite all individuals with these disabilities to complete these brief surveys.
Read more at
http://webaim.org/blog/lowvis_and_motor_surveys/
Mentally Ill are Unlikely to Re-offend; So Why is Canada Toughening Rules for Them, Researcher Asks
Douglas Quan
Edmonton Journal, Mar. 1, 2013
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson’s Bill C-54 flies in the face of the Conservative government’s promise to fight the stigma associated with mental illness, mental health organizations say.
A McGill University researcher says a bill introduced by the Harper government toughening rules for violent offenders deemed “not criminally responsible” due to mental illness left her a bit baffled: Didn’t federal officials bother to look at the data she had collected for them?
Anne Crocker, a professor of psychiatry, told Postmedia News that the data she turned over to the Justice Department’s research division in November showed that this group of offenders is among the least likely to reoffend.
