Yearly Archives: 2021

Blind People, Advocates Slam Company Claiming to Make Websites ADA Compliant

“If you have a website, do you want to include disabled people or do you want to exclude them? That’s why it’s a civil right,” one expert said. By April Glaser

Throughout the pandemic, as blind people, like everyone else, became increasingly dependent on websites to purchase goods, one of the fastest-growing companies that works with clients like Oreo cookies and Energizer batteries to make their websites more accessible has been engulfed in an increasingly contentious relationship with blind people. Many blind people say its product is making it harder for them to navigate the web.

Blind People, Advocates Slam Company Claiming to Make Websites ADA Compliant full article

‘You’ve got to keep pushing: CTA rules in woman’s favour over Regina bus accessibility

By Kelly Skjerven
Global News
Posted May 1, 2021

A Regina woman who uses a wheelchair filed a claim against Rider Express after an operator told her they could not accommodate her wheelchair on the bus.

After waiting over two years, a Regina woman who uses a wheelchair is happy the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) ruled in her favour against a bus company.

In October 2018, Terri Sleeva called Rider Express Transportation to book a ride from Regina to Saskatoon for a date in November.

Sleeva told the operator that she uses a wheelchair and was told that the bus was not wheelchair accessible. The operator told Sleeva the company would be receiving wheelchair-accessible buses in the future but was not told a specific date.

‘You’ve got to keep pushing: CTA rules in woman’s favour over Regina bus accessibility full article

Province of Manitoba Launches Online Engagement to Gather Feedback on Accessibility Standard for Customer Service

The Manitoba government is launching a new online engagement to gather feedback from Manitobans about their experiences with customer service and to ensure those with disabilities are protected with the same or similar access provided to others, Families Minister Rochelle Squires announced today.

“Our government is committed to protection and accessibility for individuals with disabilities, and the Accessibility Standard for Customer Service helps ensure respectful, barrier-free customer service provided by Manitoba organizations including businesses,” said Squires. “We want to hear from Manitobans on whether the standard is making a difference so we can continue to identify, remove and prevent barriers.”

Province of Manitoba Launches Online Engagement to Gather Feedback on Accessibility Standard for Customer Service full article

Intel and AI Developer Create Backpack for Visually Impaired

By Ujala Chowdhry
April 20, 2021

What differentiates an animal from a machine are its mirror neurons, a set of neurons in an organism’s brain that is fired to perform a task based on the performance of self or others. Discovered in 1991, the research on mirror neurons is still going on, and the Giacomo Rizzolatti research group believes that these neurons are the biological basis of compassion and empathy.

Intel and AI Developer Create Backpack for Visually Impaired full article

Manitoba Promises New Income Support Program for People With Severe Disabilities

New legislation will lift people out of EIA to a ‘better income,’ the province vows Ian Froese
CBC News, Apr. 26, 2021

People living with severe and prolonged disabilities will have a new income support program devoted to them, the Manitoba government is promising.

The Progressive Conservatives introduced new legislation on Monday that will move people with disabilities off of employment income assistance to a different income program tailored to them.

Under the new program, they will receive disability support payments and shelter assistance, the news release said.

Manitobans with disabilities who currently receive income support through EIA are treated the same as those who’ve temporarily lost their jobs, or have short-term or less severe disabilities.

Manitoba Promises New Income Support Program for People With Severe Disabilities full article

The Disabled Doctors Not Believed by Their Colleagues

Miranda Schreiber

BBC News, Apr. 19, 2021

When I was 15, I described what turned out to be the neurological symptoms of mental illness to my doctor. I told him I couldn’t do schoolwork, feel the cold, or understand a book. He suggested I go on walks if I was stressed.

This breakdown in communication, in which patient and doctor seem to live in different worlds, is well-documented by disabled people. Many feel they have to translate their experience, because disability and medical structures seem incompatible.

But this experience is familiar to disabled doctors too, and some are seeking solutions.

The Disabled Doctors Not Believed by Their Colleagues full article

Why Accessibility Is the Future of Tech

Designing solutions for people with disabilities offers a peephole into the future Originally posted Sep 4, 2019

“It’s just the right thing to do.”

Very few people think that those of us who are blind should be exiled from the web altogether, or that people with hearing loss shouldn’t have iPhones. That’s as it should be. But all too often, the importance of accessibility – the catch-all term for designing technology that people with disabilities can use – is framed in terms of charity alone. And that’s a shame because it makes accessibility seem grudging and boring, when the reality is that it’s the most exciting school of design on the planet.

Why Accessibility Is the Future of Tech full article

OPINION: In Anticipation of A BC Accessibility Act

When it comes to reducing barriers, B.C. has made progress, but still has a long way to go Apr. 17, 2021

Imagine for a moment you were the keynote speaker at an event, but you arrived and couldn’t get onto the stage.

What if you couldn’t speak and were refused medical services unless you allowed someone to speak for you?

What if you booked a vacation of a lifetime and arrived at your destination only to be told they didn’t have the special room you’d carefully booked, despite promises?

What if you applied for a job, but when they called you to book an interview and learned you had a disability they hung up?

OPINION: In Anticipation of A BC Accessibility Act full article

Mental Illness is Another Pandemic in the Making

By Benjamin Rempel
Mon., April 5, 2021

Cachelle Colquhoun, mother of four from Collingwood, Ont., is frustrated with the state of mental-health supports available to her children.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Colquhoun has struggled to meet the needs of her nine-year-old with general anxiety disorder and attention deficit disorder and her six-year-old who has challenges with neurodiversity, including sensory disorder.

“I spend a lot of my days trying to find the right resources for my kids,” Colquhoun says. “Getting help is nearly impossible. And if you can access services, you price yourself out immediately.”

Mental Illness is Another Pandemic in the Making full article

Virtual events open up the world

Technology plays catch up as events head online, making them more accessible to people with disabilities. By Suzanne Rent
Halifax Examiner, APRIL 6, 2021

Jewelles Smith is a human rights expert, scholar, and academic researcher who’s completing her PhD. This winter Smith attended a conference in Ireland and didn’t even have to leave home.

“It was really amazing for me academically and it wouldn’t have been possible for me otherwise,” Smith says.

Virtual events open up the world full article