New bar codes could offer assistive technology promise

An interesting advent in cell phone technology looms promisingly on the horizon for people with disabilities.

In this New York Times news article , read how
New bar codes can talk with your cell phone.
(The article includes a link for watching a demonstration of this software.)

According to the Times article:
“It sounds like something straight out of a futuristic film: House hunters, driving past a for-sale sign, stop and point their cellphone at the sign. With a click, their cellphone screen displays the asking price, the number of bedrooms and baths and lots of other details about the house. “

“Media experts say that cellphones, the Swiss Army knives of technology, are quickly heading in this direction. New technology, already in use in parts of Asia but still in development in the United States, allows the phones to connect everyday objects with the Internet.”

“In their new incarnation, cellphones become a sort of digital remote control, as one CBS executive put it. With a wave, the phone can read encoded information on everyday objects and translate that into videos, pictures or text files on its screen.”


So you wonder what this has to do with Access Ability and providing disability support services. Read on and allow me to explain.

The trick for making this venture work on a broad scope, of course, will be companies seeing value in incorporating this technology into their products. If enough companies do this, then the use of these new bar codes will spread. I’m predicting that this is a foregone conclusion and we will soon be seeing more and more of these bar codes. Remember, you read that here first!

That same thought about manufacturers finding value to make it worth their while goes for incorporating this feature into the field of assistive technology. They have to see the practical value in it.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of one aspect where a student buys the hard copy of a text book, uses her cell phone to gather the new bar code, and is instantly given the authorization for downloading the electronic version of the text. The accessible version can then be downloaded onto the phone and, with further innovation in cell phone technology, the book might also be read right there on the phone.

To ensure that it is actually a student with a disability who is accessing this material, this might be incorporated into a two-step process where, after entering the bar code from the book, the user is required to do the same with a publisher-issued identification card given to users of their accessible material.

This entire process can save much time for the publishers and, as time is money, the company can see profit by expediting the whole process of obtaining accessible material from a publisher. The student can also save time and have instant access to the material, an almost incomprehensible thought in many previous situations. Granted, it is a little pipe dreamy as we all know how tight the publishers hang onto their copyrighted material.

However, that proposed scenario is not too far off from being able to be realized today. There are a growing number of software applications that will run on cell phones, which already allow users to play audio files. The audio version of text material is great for some students with learning disabilities and the phone makes an ideal utilitarian tool. Additionally, two software models of screen readers already exist that allow blind people to access many features that appear on the visual display of many phones.

What is to prevent the actualization of making the cell phone progress even further, grabbing the informational leaps enabled by the new bar codes, complementing them with additional features that the assistive technology can make accessible to students with disabilities, and allowing a never before seen level of usability of information on a cell phone?

The only answer to that question may be limited thinking on behalf of the companies that have the technology and materials. If they do not think of the innovations like the one I proposed with the e-text authorization, then it is up to DSS professionals to share these ideas. If the tech companies won’t think outside of the mainstream box, we may have to pull them out.

April is Autism Awareness Month

The
Autism in Connecticut
Blog site reminds us that April is autism awareness month.

This blog makes a good autism resource and is sponsored by the Autism Society of Connecticut. It offers a good assortment of news and information for issues dealing with autism, including grants, training opportunities, and other available resources.

In a related bit of news, I wrote a post several weeks ago about Amanda Baggs, a woman with autism, and her
Ballastexistenz
Blog.
If you haven’t been following her web site, she has more to say. Her most recent posting is an interesting passage about describing autism to others. She discusses what autism is like for her as it pertains to interacting with people versus objects. Check it out for an enlightened perspective of what life is like for a person with autism.

Also, you might want to check out Ms. Baggs' March 31 posting about the real barriers in communication. In it, she discusses using text-to-speech software on a laptop (and other assistive technology) as a means for communicating with others. This concept is actually not too far-fetched. Think about it. She is unable to communicate in a method that most people understand, but by typing her thoughts on a computer, it can speak via the text-to-speech software and act as a translator, enabling all to communicate. That type of thinking is a good idea to keep in mind when facing a problematic situation where additional resources are needed.

As a reminder, Ms. Baggs Describes herself as a “non-speaking physically disabled and autistic woman. Again, I proclaim that for someone who is “non-speaking,” she sure has a lot to say and says it most eloquently.

CSUN assistive technology update

Okay, This is more like it.

Over the course of the past several days, Ranger1138 has posted a good bit of information on
The Ranger Station
about his trip to CSUN last week.

One of the most interesting items he posted relates to the Juliet Pro braille embosser. If you happen to have one of these embossers in your home or office, then you know what a noise maker this machine can be. You may want to pay particular attention to what Ranger1138 had to say about his best of show selection, a case for the Juliet Pro by Enabling Technologies, which cuts out a lot of the machine’s noise.

Aside from that recognition, Ranger 1138 provides a good collection of links for additional information on a variety of products that were displayed. Check out what this “dude in the assistive technology industry” has to say...he's worth listening to.

Flash animation and assistive technology

Is it just me, or has there been a recent explosion by web designers to incorporate Flash plug ins on their websites?

Perhaps Macromedia, the makers of the Flash animation product, have put on a full court press to promote a broader use of their application.

Whatever the reason, Flash seems to be flourishing on the web in the past several weeks. On top of that, in most cases, the controls for the Flash features are just the generic buttons with no description to what their functions are, leaving blind users of screen readers wondering what in the heck those buttons do. So, not only is Flash spreading like wildfire, the ignorance about accessibility is being incorporated in the fold as it does so.

I don’t think that most web designers have any idea that Flash is a difficult speedbump for users of screen readers. It is so much of a problem that Freedom Scientific’s JAWS screen reader includes a function to disable Flash animation when using the web browser.

Speaking purely anecdotally, I have noticed a large number of websites in just the past month that have begun embedding Flash animation as a means to spiff up their sites. I notice it because it makes it difficult for me to read their site’s content. On one newspaper’s site, if I had not been reading the site for the years that I have, I would have not known how the site was laid out and, as a result, when they employed Flash animation about three weeks ago, I would not have been able to read the news without taking a slow and time-consuming method of reading one line at a time with the down arrow. Even then, I don’t know how well the Flash animation would have interfered with JAWS.

Don’t misunderstand my complaint. I’m not a new JAWS user who might be unfamiliar with the program’s operation. I’ve been using this product for more than 10 years and am using the latest version. Also, I’m not a rookie in understanding how to maximize the efficiency of JAWS. I have often been called upon by friends who are also JAWS users for technical assistance.

I’m just noticing a glut of embedded Flash animation that is making my life difficult. I can’t speak for users of other assistive technology software such as screen magnifiers or other brands of screen readers, but I would think that this is affecting their access to web sites as well.

I just read an interesting post related to this subject on a new blog called ,
Aspirants.
It is only the second post on the blog, but seems well written and offers good insight to understanding web design.

Hopefully, future web designers will initiate some insight and think about the users of their products as somebody besides the typical, sighted consumer. Universal design would make their web pages readable by a broader audience. Isn’t more traffic what most creators of web content want? There are methods for creating accessible Flash animation. I’ve posted about some training on this specific subject here on previous occasions.

Finally, so you don’t think this post is purely a personal vent, look at your school’s web pages. Are they employing Flash as part of their effort to have the latest in whiz-bang technology? Is it accessible? Does it meet Section 508 standards?

Pardon any self indulgence on this subject, but it is a concern that I see as a growing trend and not dissipating in the near future.

My hope is that the understanding that Flash can be used successfully and also be accessible will begin to spread as fast as the use of Flash has been on the web.

Interview with Marcus Engel

As hoped, I have an announcement to make.

My interview with Marcus Engel is now posted on the
Disability 411 blog.

Well, sort of. The interviewer got a little chatty and the interview ran long, so Show 38 is the first half of my interview with Marcus, a dynamic and interesting professional speaker and author.

So, what are you doing reading this? Go on over and check out Beth Case’s blog and download the interview. Also, make sure to come back to her site later for part 2!

More CSUN information

Here are a couple more notes about the CSUN conference.

On the SpeEdChange blog, Ira Socol shares an interesting understanding of one conference session attended about the
Accessible Technology Initiative
That exists within the California State University system.

In the blog post, Ira said that it was, “rough to listen to - university administrators being so fond of acronyms that most of their speech is incomprehensible to anyone outside the system - but it was well worth listening to because every school, at every level, in every nation, will need to perform similar tasks very soon.”

These tasks include “web Accessibility, instructional Materials, technology Procurement, and library Materials, with the goal of a Universal Design-based system fully in place and operating by 2012.”

Universal design integrated as part of an education system’s mission. Now, that’s a great idea!

Ira also has other postings from CSUN on the
SpeEdChange blog Home page
That you might want to check out.

Also, if you want more information about what is going on at CSUN right now, perhaps the best thing to do is visit the
CSUN conference site,
produced by Lets Go Expo. Here, you can find the latest, most up to date CSUN information, names of featured presenters, and sessions being presented. There is even a link that will allow you to view webcasts from the event. So, if you couldn’t make it to CSUN, you may still be able to take in the happenings from the privacy of your home or office.

Its just a thought, but wouldn’t it be nice if these webcasts were archived for future access?

Watch for more posts here about CSUN as it is available.

News article illustrates need for colleges to have service animal policy

Here is an interesting news article about a
Tenessee man’s experience with his service dog ,
including the challenges he encountered when attempting to go to class.

On the surface, the news article appears to be a human interest feature demonstrating the man’s adaptation to changing life situations. However, it is ultimately an illustration of the difficulties all sides face when a university does not have a service animal policy in place. The student faced hardships and barriers that should not have to be encountered in this enlightened 21st century where we have the Americans with Disabilities Act as a guide. Additionally, due to lack of foresight and proactive policies, the university looked Ill-prepared to manage a situation that had a common sense response.

Although this man trained his service dog himself, the article reports that she is registered with the
Service Animal Registry of America,
SARA, an apparently respectable and qualified resource for this type of information. The organization’s web site could serve well as a resource one might want to bookmark for future reference.

This story very clearly points out the fact that service animals are not always those used by blind people.

A few paragraphs from that story:
“With attending a public university that has no service animal policy, Michleski was met with hesitation and some disapproval from those who had never encountered a four-legged addition to a student that was not a pet. “

“Michleski explained how he was confronted by certain university officials concerning the use of Maggie and initially was escorted off of campus by safety and security until the matter could be resolved.”

“After deliberation between the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Michleski and UTM, the student was eventually allowed back on campus with a temporary policy in place exclusively for Michleski's situation. “

Again, this paints a very ugly picture of what can happen for everybody when a college isn’t prepared.

So, how about your school? Does it have a service animal policy?

CSUN conference on Technology and People with Disabilities

If you haven’t noticed, it is time for the 22nd annual CSUN Conference on Technology and People with Disabilities.

Maybe you know all too well that the conference is going on, but due to some scheduling or funding conflict, you aren’t able to attend the highly-anticipated California State University event.

Fear not, as there are a variety of resources to keep you up on the happenings at what is often simply referred to as "CSUN."

As I’ve reported here before,
EASI,
The website for Equal Access to Software and Information, is going to upload podcasts on the
EASI podcast conference page.
Bookmark that site and check back regularly or subscribe to the feed to keep up to date on the latest postings from CSUN. Also, you might want to check out the previously posted podcasts from last year’s CSUN for some good informational resources, including Learning Disabilities and Postsecondary Education.)

Two credible bloggers are also reporting with current posts from the conference as well.

Jeff Bishop, from the Main Menu program On the American Council of the Blind’s ACBRadio, is posting his CSUN observations on his blog
The Desert Skies.
As a matter of fact, he has already posted his first CSUN entry.
Additionally, if you’re interested in podcasts, Jeff has also posted information about how to subscribe to his podcast feed for more in depth discussion about what he takes in at the conference.

And, finally, Ranger1138, another favorite blogger of mine on the subject of assistive technology, is also at the event and posting to his blog,
The Ranger Station.
Sorry, Ranger, you’re running behind. Jeff’s already posting from CSUN. Better hurry up and log on.

So, if you’re not at CSUN, check out these resources for updates. And, if you have others to share, please leave a reply and share them.

COAT, The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology

All you outlaws, take note; there is a new sherrif in town.

COAT, the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, is a newly united gathering of established disability organizations working as a single entity to persuade the “powers that be” of the information technology sector, that providing accessibility is the right thing to do.

(I just learned about this worthy endeavor through Teri Adams’
Crip Chronicles,
An intelligent, thought-provoking blog written from her unique and interesting perspective on the world. I came across the Crip Chronicles through a news alert, but have found it compelling enough reading that I’ve included it in my regular RSS feeds. Check it out, I think you’ll find Teri’s writing interesting and worth your while.)

While the
official COAT press release
is dated December 17, 2007, I'm guessing that the year is a typo and it was probably issued this past December. Even if you find this to be a bit of old news, it is nonetheless an interesting gathering of some of the major disability rights organizations gathered for a single cause. You can see this list at the end of the press release.

The press release reads as follows:

Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology Launched For Full Disability Access in the 21st Century
WASHINGTON, March 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Get your COAT! Today, a new coalition of disability organizations was launched to advocate for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet protocol (IP) technologies. The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, or "COAT," consists of over 45 national, regional, and community-based organizations dedicated to making sure that as our nation migrates from legacy public switched-based telecommunications to more versatile and innovative IP-based and other communication technologies, people with disabilities will not be left behind. Emerging digital and Internet-based technologies can provide people with disabilities with new opportunities for greater independence,integration, and privacy, but only if these are designed to be accessible.
The guiding principle of this Coalition will be to ensure the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of daily living through accessible, affordable and usable communication technologies as these continue to evolve. To this end, and in order to achieve equal access in the 21st century, COAT has identified the following initial broad objectives:
* Extend current disability protections under Sections 255 and 710 of the Communications Act to IP technologies with improved accountability and enforcement measures, to ensure more accessibility, usability and interoperability for all persons with disabilities, including persons who are aging.
* Expand the scope of devices that must transmit and display closed captions under the Decoder Circuitry Act from the present requirement of television sets with screens that are 13 inches or larger to video devices of all sizes, including recording and playback devices, that are designed to receive or display digital and Internet programming.
* Apply existing captioning obligations under Section 713 of the Communications Act to IPTV and other types of multi-channel video programming services that are commercially distributed over the Internet.
* Restore the video description rules originally promulgated by the FCC in 2000 (overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit) and ensure that this access continues in the transition to digital television programming.
* Extend existing relay service obligations under Section 225 of the Communications Act to VoIP providers (i.e., extend the obligation to contribute to the interstate relay fund that supports these services), including obligations for greater outreach to consumers.
* Require accessible interfaces on video programming and playback devices, such as televisions, VCRs, and DVD players.
* Ensure that people with disabilities have equivalent access to emergency information through identification of barriers and implementation of solutions in current and new technologies, including solutions for achieving access by people with disabilities to 911 emergency PSAPs through the receipt of text and video.
* Ensure universal service fund availability for persons with disabilities (e.g., Lifeline/Link-up programs), to increase the number of people with disabilities as broadband users.
The above objectives were recommended in a report released by the National Council on Disability: The Need for Federal Legislation and Regulation Prohibiting Telecommunications and Information Services Discrimination, available at
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2006/discrimination.htm
(released
December 16, 2007).
COAT MEMBERS*

National organizations
1. Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
2. Alliance for Technology Access
3. American Association of People with Disabilities
4. American Association of the Deaf-Blind
5. American Council of the Blind
6. American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association
7. American Foundation for the Blind
8. American Society for Deaf Children
9. Assistive Technology Industry Association
10. Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs
11. Association of Late-Deafened Adults
12. Communication Service for the Deaf
13. Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf
14. Deafness Research Foundation
15. Deaf Seniors of America
16. Gallaudet University
17. Gallaudet University Alumni Association
18. Hearing Loss Association of America
19. Helen Keller National Center
20. Inclusive Technologies
21. International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet
22. National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments
23. National Association of the Deaf
24. National Black Deaf Advocates
25. National Catholic Office of the Deaf
26. National Court Reporters Association
27. National Cued Speech Association
28. Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf
29. Speech Communication Assistance by Telephone, Inc.
30. Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc.
31. USA Deaf Sports Federation
32. WGBH Media Access Group
33. World Institute on Disability

Regional and Community-Based Organizations
1. Association of Late Deafened Adults, East Bay - Northern California
2. Center on Deafness - Inland Empire
3. Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center, Inc. Fresno
4. Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center, Inc. Roanoke, Virginia
5. Deaf Community Services of San Diego, Inc.
6. Deaf Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency, San Leandro
7. Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness
8. Hearing Loss of Northwest Indiana Support Group for Hoosiers
9. Northern California Center on Deafness
10. North Carolina Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities
11. Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons
12. Orange County Deaf Equal Access Foundation
13. Roanoke Valley Club of the Deaf
14. San Diego - Hearing Loss Network
15. Tri-County GLAD

New game device may be promising as assistive technology

There is interesting news in computer gaming that may have broader future applications as an assistive technology peripheral device.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Emotiv Systems introduced a breakthrough brain-computer interface system that allows the game player to interact using only their thoughts and facial expressions with the computer via a helmet wired to the pc.
The Project Epoch
Reflects the user’s facial expressions and excitement/calmness level, and also allows the person to move computer objects with their thoughts.

According to the article linked above:
“Sensors in the helmet pick up on electric signals in the brain. The system software analyzes the signals emitted by the brain and then wirelessly relays what it detects to a receiver. The receiver is plugged into the USB port of a game console or PC, according to Randy Breen, Emotiv's chief product officer.”
“As with handwriting or voice recognition, the machine itself has a learning curve, improving as it better understands what the player is thinking, but there is also a skill level involving visualization on the part of the gamer.”


Can you imagine the potential of this system if it were applied to a situation where the person were quadraplegic or missing a limb? I’m sure there are other uses that can be realized, but these are the ones that immediately came to my mind when I read this news. By Joining the functionality that the Project Epoch employs with the latest innovations in robotics, a person with some particular disabilities can see a quality of life that could only be dreamed about in previous times.

Early anecdotal feedback of the Project Epoch System reports that children do better using this device than adults. Might this be due to the ability of children to imagine possibilities beyond their normal limitations? If this feedback is correct, and this system can be used in the situations I’ve described above, then it would be essential to instill the belief in the person with a disability that he/she can do things that were previously impossible. Come to think of it, that's not necessarily a bad state of mind for any of us to have.

Assistive technology roundup-- lots of news

I’ve discovered a lot of information about assistive technology in the news of late. Instead of writing individual posts about each item, I thought I’d do a more comprehensive AT round up. So, head ‘em up and move ‘em out, here we go!

Some of the more innovative uses of assistive technology are its applications at the
Center for the Intrepid,
the newly opened, state of the art rehab facility for severely burned and injured soldiers, located near San Antonio, Texas.

In what other setting might one find a firing range simulator as an application of assistive technology to aid in physical rehabilitation?

Although this isn’t exactly postsecondary DSS, these novel applications of AT are landmarks and are assisting a most worthy audience. These soldiers have sacrificed for our freedom and liberty, so let’s give them the best that we can for their recovery.

Voice of America
has been a mainstay on the airwaves of many countries across the globe for several decades. I only knew of this pro-democracy radio network through reading about it in books and history class. I’ve never actually tuned my radio in to a VOA broadcast. However, in this modern internet age, one doesn’t need a radio to listen to VOA. They provide on-line webcasts and podcasts, including accessible transcripts of these shows.

NO, Access Ability has not been commandeered as a shill for the U.S. government.

My reason for writing about VOA is that they recently aired a broadcast on
Assistive technology.
This was actually the third in a four-part series on people with disabilities. The first part aired in January and was on education, while February’s was about employment. If you missed these prior broadcasts and want to check them out, VOA has them archived at
voaspecialenglish.com.

If you don’t like the voice of America, then you might like to go to Japan where
The sidewalks talk.

The Associated Press article linked above reports that Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district has embedded 1,200 computer chips, transmitting information to receivers in portable media players that shoppers carry around their necks. The Tokyo Ubiquitous Technology Project, one of several applications of this AT across Japan, sends information about the shops that the users are strolling near to the media devices that also feature a small video screen.

“In front of Mitsukoshi Department Store, a voice explained how a statue of a lion has long been the store's trademark. Cross the street to Nissan Motor Co.'s showroom, and the gadget automatically switched to a chip at the showroom. "Welcome to Nissan Ginza gallery," a woman who appears on the video screen says. By pushing buttons on the device, the user can see additional information, such as a map or a historical photo.”

The use of technology such as this presents itself as an accessible , guided tour for the user, even if they are visually impaired. It has been previously employed in a similar fashion at national blindness conferences by
Talking Signs Inc.,
And is also akin to those already in place at some museums and national landmarks such as the Franklin D. Roosevelt monument in Washington DC.

The final piece of AT news that I want to share is about
Dadnab - Transit at your fingertips.
This is a melding of information technology that brings transit schedules to a user via text message. The assistive technology is brought about when it is information gathered by a blind user needing to know his/her bus or train route and has a cell phone with either the Talks or Mobile Speak screen readers.

This last application of AT was gained via
Wayne’s blog,
the personal blog of Wayne Merritt, a technology trainer at the Criss Cole Blind rehabilitation Center in Austin. Read Wayne’s post on Dadnab to fully understand and appreciate how this tech fusion can bring quick information access to a blind commuter relying on a city’s metro service for transportation.

That 'bout wraps up today's assistive technology roundup, pardner. I hope you enjoyed the ride.

Kidney Early Evaluation Program offering free screenings

Until I read a recent letter in
Dear Abby
about the National Kidney Foundation sponsoring the
Kidney Early Evaluation Program,
or KEEP, I was unaware that such a program even existed.

However, now that I am aware of it, I can work to pass along the news of this great screening program in hopes that the news gets disseminated even further.

March 8 is World Kidney Day and it is the day that the NKF is offering these free screenings.

According to the author of the letter in Dear Abby, 20 million, or 1 out of every 9, adults in America have chronic kidney disease and another 20 million are at risk of it.

KEEP is offering free evaluations to people at high risk of kidney disease and has been doing this since the year 2000. Those at high risk include those with diabetes and high blood pressure, two of the leading causes of kidney disease, as well as a family history of kidney disease. The screening is able to find symptoms of kidney disease that might otherwise go undetected with traditional screenings and tests most patients undergo.

To locate the nearest center offering screenings,, check out
www.keeponline.org
or call 800-622-9010.

Awareness is preventative medicine at its best, so please share the news of this screening to those you know that may be at high risk of kidney disease.

Interview submitted to Disability 411

I spent Friday morning conducting an interview for submission to the
Disability 411 podcast.
Beth had recently sent out a call for guest submissions to help her manage recent time crunches on Disability 411. With that opening, I figured I’d take my first crack at the world of podcasting and called up a good friend,
Marcus Engel,
To be the interviewee for my freshman introduction.

I have known Marcus for twelve years and find him to be an interesting and fascinating man. He is a 31-year old professional speaker and author of two books. He was blinded at age 18 in 1993 as the result of an auto accident when the car he was riding in was hit by a drunk driver. After more than 300 hours of surgery, most of it above the neck, Mark redirected his life with a positive attitude and a personal motivation for success.

I don’t know if Beth will select this interview for inclusion in her podcast, but I certainly hope she will. Granted the interviewer sort of stumbles a bit in his questioning, but give him a break. It is his first podcast effort. As for Marcus, his replies are interesting and thought provoking.

Whether she uses the interview in her podcast or not, Marcus is donating signed copies of both his books for Beth to give away to listeners of Disability 411. He is also offering a computer file of his manuscripts to those with a disability that keeps them from reading printed material. They can get this by simply emailing him through his website. Now, that’s accessibility!

To learn more about Marcus, click the link above for his official home page. On that site, you can also subscribe to the monthly newsletter that he writes. As if the speaking schedule, book and newsletter writing weren’t enough, Marcus also writes
Engel’s Ensights,
His personal blog with updates on a regular basis.

LearnOutLoud.com appears promising, but has accessibility concerns

I recently learned of an interesting clearinghouse for audio and video learning resources.

LearnOutLoud.com
Claims to have more than 10,000 educational audio books, podcasts, mp3 downloads, as well as videos at its disposal. They boast to have the internet’s largest collection of these items. Of this vast collection, they have more than 500 audio and video titles which are free. It does have a searchable database that appears to have strong potential.
The site also hawks an e-magazine and a “Free resource of the day” email.

This all sounds good and promising, but I have not personally delved any deeper into their offerings beyond the home page. I find the web site to be very cluttered and several of the links in dire need of alt tags. It is not very screen reader friendly and that’s both sad and ironic. It would be to the advantage of the site’s owners if they would realize that their project could be of great service to the population of students with disabilities, but to serve this population, they will need to address the accessibility of the overall site.

Senator Harkin: Congress may be restoring ADA

Hark, hark, Senator Harkin!

If you missed it, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) remarked in a Feb. 27 presentation that the new Congress may push for
restoring the Americans with Disabilities ACT.
He commented that the ADA has been defined narrower than Congress had originally intended.
He also dogged the current Medicare policy restricting wheelchair purchases to only those appropriate around the home, giving no regard to people with disabilities being mobile and activbe in the communities within which they live.

Breast cancer drug trial results appear biased

In research and statistics classes, one idea is often repeated—be skeptical of statistics. It is not meant to degrade the value of statistical information, but more as a guide to pursue the purpose of the provided statistical information. The professors want students to evaluate the source of the research, usually by examining who provided the funding for the research. To be objective, research should be free of bias.

Unfortunately, bias seems to be the case being reflected in a world where advances and growing awareness are regularly reported—breast cancer research. In a Mcclatchy Newspapers article, it is noted that
Funding seems to affect breast cancer drug trial results.

According to the article:
“Some 84 percent of company-supported drug studies published in 10 major medical journals in 2003 reported positive results about the breast cancer drugs they investigated, according to an analysis by Dr. Jeffrey Peppercorn, a cancer physician and researcher at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's School of Medicine, and colleagues at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.”

“Non-industry supported studies were far less likely to be upbeat, publishing favorable results just 54 percent of the time.”

Compare and digest those numbers: 84% favorable when it is company funded research versus 54% favorable when studies were independent.

It doesn’t take a statistics major to figure that this equals a 30% differential when the drug companies are not funding the research.

If the statistical research being submitted is as skewed as this article reports, then This is truly sad. Breast cancer is a dangerous killer and honest research needs to be conducted to maintain a vigilant battle to defeat this beast.

We are taught that statistics are just numbers. We are also taught that just because the difference exists, this does not infer any causal relationship. However, recognizing this difference does make my eyebrows raise, oh, about 100% of the time.

Assistive technology allows "low functioning autistic" to function beautifully

I usually use the forum of Access Ability to provide links to web sites that provide qualified and worthy resources or news that is of interest to DSS professionals. As a result, I limit links to any personal blogs, as many are only personal soapboxes and do not usually provide credible, professional information. However, I have discovered one that is definitely worthy of the attention of DSS professionals. Let me direct you to
Ballastexistenz,
The blog site of Amanda Baggs, a woman with autism.

Her doctors describe Ms. Baggs as “a low-functioning autistic.” However, when you read her blog, you will see that this label is very misleading. What this misnomer fails to grasp is the stimulating intellect that Ms. Baggs’ possesses. The mind which hides behind her disabling condition can totally flourish when provided the proper assistive technology.

Ms. Baggs is a video blogger with a demonstrative video posted under her on-line name of
SilentMiaow
posted on Youtube. Her video
in my language
was shot, edited, and posted by Ms. Baggs herself.

On the link of her blog marked “About,” Ms. Baggs explains the insightful and thought-provoking source of the name of her blog and further discloses:
I am a non-speaking physically disabled and autistic woman who’s lived in institutions, whose income comes from a disability check, and whose services are funded by the state.”

“This blog is about assorted ideas, but most will have something to do with human rights, autistic liberation, disability rights, and so forth.”

Check out her blog and see what I’m talking about. For somebody who classifies herself as “non-speaking,” she sure has a lot to say…and she says a lot that is worthwhile. Her video is a strong statement of this fact.

I originally came across this post through another blogger’s writing about Ms. Baggs via a news alert for the terms “assistive technology.” I think her Ballastexistenz blog demonstrates a hallmark example of what strides people with disabilities can gain via AT.

NAD celebrating Read Captions Across America

On March 2, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is launching its 2nd
Read Captions Across America Campaign.
This event is in conjunction with the National Education Association’s (NEA) Read Across America celebration.

In the press release on its web site, the NAD explains this observance as:
“Read Captions Across America puts emphasis on the importance of captioned media (DVD, CD-ROM and Internet streaming) as a reading tool for deaf and hearing children alike.”

“The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), administered by the NAD and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is organizing and promoting Read Captions Across America and loaning captioned media for the event as well. “We are pleased to be joining the NEA in celebrating the joy of reading,” says Nancy J. Bloch, NAD Chief Executive Officer. ‘Teachers and parents of young children are fast discovering the benefits of captioned media in fostering literacy development.’”

“Captions are text forms of the spoken word and often convey sound effects. Captions and subtitles can be carried on DVD, videotape, broadcast TV and cable TV. Also, an increasing amount of content on the Internet has sound, with some of it being captioned. While captions were originally developed for deaf and hard of hearing persons, they are increasingly used by others to develop reading skills.”

Please share the news of this great awareness campaign. While they are marking this observance during the week of March 2, and the week following, both Read Captions Across America and Read Across America are year-long campaigns.

New E-Journal from Access Technologists Higher Education Network

I have previously posted about the
Access Technologist Higher Education Network,
or ATHEN, so their name should not be new to those who have been reading this blog for a while.

However, what is new is that this proactive assistive technology group has just published their second issue of
The ATHEN E-Journal.

This issue’s focus is on web accessibility and higher education, strongly emphasizing providing future support and training. The articles listed in the journal include:
* Welcome to the ATHEN E-Journal Issue #2
* Accessible Electronic & Information Technology: Legal Obligations of Higher Education and Section 508
* Cultivating and Maintaining Web Accessibility Expertise and Institutional Support in Higher Education
* Accessibility Training for Distance Learning Personnel
* Case Studies in Training and Professional Development for Web Accessibility
* Contributors

Take the time to check it out. The E-journal has some good information and resources. While you’re at it, also bookmark the ATHEN site as an on-going resource to turn to for updated information in the access technology newsfront.

Two assistive technology resources

Today, I present two leads for assistive technology, one I discovered on my own and the other is a user review describing his adaptation of a gaming keyboard, turning it into an assistive technology device.

After a recent hard drive crash on my old computer, I was forced into looking at getting a new pc. In doing this, the one thing that I knew I wanted to avoid was getting a computer with the new Microsoft Vista operating system. I use JAWS as my screen reader and the newness that is Vista was something JAWS wasn’t quite up to handling just yet. I had no problem finding a pc with Windows XP and was soon back in the digital world.

One thing I took for granted on my old computer was the CD burning program, Record Now. That program had come installed as part of the manufacturer’s package and I was happily surprised when first using it because I found it was designed with accessibility in mind. There was even an accessibility heading under the help menu which told how the manufacturer wanted the software to work with screen readers.

When I first attempted to burn some files onto a CD on the new machine, I had to look around the programs to find the one to use. There are actually three applications on here that can do the job, but, unfortunately, none of them are very accessible, nor are they designed to be intuitive in their operation. This brought me to search for an accessible CD burning program.

Fortunately, this search didn’t take too long. I quickly found the Premiere CD/DVD Creator manufactured by
Premiere Assistive Software.
The program was easy to locate and download and, best of all, it was free. More than that, though, is that it was designed to be accessible to screen readers.

I instantly recognized the Premiere Assistive Software name, as it was the manufacturer of some software programs we used in providing DSS to students at my last position. The main draw of their software for our job was that they did the tasks we needed very well and were affordable. The link above will take you to a page listing all the available titles. Some, like the CD/DVD Creator and talking calculator, are free.

The other item I want to share is how somebody took a
Logitech G11 gaming keyboard
that was not intended as assistive technology, but after he saw the device’s abilities, quickly understood how it could be made to meet his AT needs. The focus is the keyboard’s additional, programmable function and mode keys. Instead of assigning game functions to these keys, the user assigned executable macros to them and made it function as AT to assist him in overcoming his physical limitations.

Again, technology not specifically designed to work as AT fits well into the DSS domain. This is the true beauty of designing products with universal access. If only the manufacturer’s could see this, they could open up new markets for their products.

Informative article about epilepsy

I want to tell you about an interesting article in today’s
New York Times.

Though the article focuses on the life experiences of a 12-year old girl with epilepsy and the impact on her family as well as herself, ,it provides a good overall understanding of the difficulties faced with this neurological disability. It discusses the trade-off of having the seizures versus the often impairing side effects of medication and also the role diet may play in the management of the disorder. It also explores the social stigma associated with epilepsy.

Some statistics in the article worth noting:
*50 million people worldwide have epilepsy
*2.7 million Americans have epilepsy
* There are more Americans with epilepsy than those with Parkinson’s disease, Multiple sclerosis, and Lou Gherig’s disease combined
* 30% of the people with epilepsy have seizures which are not controlled by existing treatments

I have had several close friendships over my lifetime with people who have epilepsy and thought I knew a lot about the disorder, yet still found the article very insightful and informative, learning things I had not previously known about epilepsy. Check it out— it is a good read. (Remember that the Times requires registration to read their articles, but it is free.)

Adaptech Research Network-- a great DSS resource

I have just recently learned about a Canadian web site that seems very promising in what it brings to the table for DSS. While it is from our northern neighbor, the information presents a strong parallel to U.S. colleges and universities.


The Adaptech Research Network
Has information that should be of interest to any DSS provider. It offers resources that would fit in with any program. They are also seeking input that DSS providers should have thoughts on.

On its website, ARN is seeking informational input about free or low-cost software programs that would be beneficial to students with disabilities. By low-cost, they mean under $200. If you have names of software titles you would like to share, email
catherine.fichten@mcgill.ca

She would also like the name of the companies that manufacture the software, if you have it.

The reason for this query is to expand the ARN’s
database of free and low-cost software.
They have recently updated their database, but are continuously seeking to expand the listings. They would also like any input you might offer on the usability of the library. If you have any comments, please email Catherine at the email address above.

Additionally, the ARN has recent data that is of interest to DSS professionals. They have conducted research into graduation/employment rates of students with disabilities, comparing these rates to the non-disabled student population.

Here is a synopsis of the study from their website:
“The Adaptech Research Network in collaboration with our partners recently completed three studies whose goal was to explore obstacles and facilitators to college studies and examine what happens to college graduates with and without disabilities a year after graduation. Participants were: 182 graduates with and 1304 without disabilities from three large junior/community colleges, 57 college based professionals providing disability-related services, and 300 students with disabilities who were registered to receive disability related services from their college. While current students with disabilities indicated that disability-related accommodations such as extended time on exams were important facilitators, for the most part these students, as well as graduates with disabilities, mentioned the same facilitators as their nondisabled peers. The same was generally true for obstacles. The main difference here was that students and graduates with disabilities cited disability-related issues, such as health, as a major obstacle. Graduates with and without disabilities continued their studies and obtained jobs at the same rate as nondisabled graduates.”

You can download the executive summary of their report in either MS-Word or PDF format from their web site linked above.

EASI offering podcasts, tips for creating accessible web seminar

I have previously posted information about
EASI,
the web site for Equal Access to Software and Information. These are usually about educational seminars teaching how to create accessible materials. Today, I will share two more resources from EASI, one that is a new feature and another web seminar they are offering.

Podcasts have grown in popularity as a timely and useful medium to get information to users. Many colleges are employing podcasts in some manner, either as part of information distribution of course material or as informational outreach. EASI is no different and is also making some of their information available with a
podcast page
recently added to their site.

The staff from EASI will report from next month’s CSUN Conference on Technology and People with Disabilities. This is the 22nd edition of this annual event and EASI is going to bring highlights of the event to you by means of their podcasts. So, if you’re not able to make it, but want to know the latest scoop in AT and what is cutting edge out there, watch the EASI podcast page for updates.

The other EASI tool that I want to share is an upcoming web seminar on
Making web seminars accessible.

This is a free seminar, but you need to register in advance to participate.

The seminar is being presented on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 2 pm Eastern.

If your school offers web seminars in any form, then it is imperative to have these accessible to all students. If it is not the DSS office teaching accessibility to the creators of your school’s seminars, then who is?

The price is right for this seminar. Check it out and see what they have to teach.

Regenerating fingers and limbs

This is the first of several posts I want to write today. There is a lot of good stuff in the news of late and I want to give each subject it’s own post. Consider yourself warned!

Last week, I posted a short piece here about scientists discovering methods to make the spine regenerate in rats. In a related story, some other scientists are working on
digit and, in the future, limb regeneration.

An extract of pig’s bladder is marketed by a company named Acell Inc, which is used to regrow ligaments in horses, and is also now approved by the federal government for use on people. This compound has already been successfully used to regenerate the fingertip on a man who was involved in an accident with a table saw.

Further, there are anomalies in nature that defy human understanding. Salamenders can regrow limbs and a particular breed of mouse can heal itself. Scientists are studying these animals to learn the genetics involved and if these can be used in the future to help humans heal.

These medical advances offer potential that has before been unthinkable. They present hope for some restoration for people who have damaged or missing appendages or limbs. And, that is only the near future prospects. When examining the potential research that can branch off from these findings, the potential advances are even more encouraging.

According to the Associated Press article:
“The implications for regrowing fingers go beyond the cosmetic. People who are missing all or most of their fingers, as from an explosion or a fire, often can't pick things up, brush their teeth or button a button. If they could grow even a small stub, it could make a huge difference in their lives.”

“And the lessons learned from studying regrowth of fingers and limbs could aid the larger field of regenerative medicine, perhaps someday helping people replace damaged parts of their hearts and spinal cords, and heal wounds and burns with new skin instead of scar tissue.”


While this news may not be necessarily central to providing service to people with disabilities, it is, nonetheless, encouraging for a particular segment of the DSS population. I offer it here on Access Ability as an informational conduit for these people.

Unintended innovation becomes assistive technology

Every now and then, a product comes along that has an unintended feature that makes it a useful piece of assistive technology. Such is the case of two voicemail management programs.

The original pitch of these two products is to make getting access to one’s cell phone’s voicemail easier to manage without burning up precious minutes of your calling plan. If you’ve ever experienced the prolonged messages that begin most cell phone voicemail programs, they seem to take forever before allowing you to respond by pushing your desired action to retreive messages. Then, some programs also make you listen to the entire length of each voicemail message before allowing you to decide to keep or delete each one. All of these tasks take away some of those precious minutes of your call plan, which is what both
Simulscribe
and
Spinbox
Are initially targeting in their offered services.

However, when you understand what they are offering is voice-to-text transcription service for voicemail messages that are then sent to the user as either an email or a text message which can be read on the subscriber’s mobile phone or PDA, it seems clear that this might very well be useful to people who are deaf.

The primary difference in what the two companies are offering is price-- Spinbox is free and Simulscribe costs$10 monthly for 40 messages. However, the idea is an innovative way to quickly get audio messages to people who wouldn’t otherwise hear them.

To read a more in-depth review of these two offerings, check out the article in today’s
New York Times.
(The Times requires on-line readers to register, but it is free.)

Some informational notes from that article:

“SimulScribe is available right now. It costs $10 a month, which covers 40 messages; each additional transcription costs 25 cents. This can become very expensive if you get a lot of messages. The company plans to offer better deals for frequent phoners — including an unlimited plan — in the coming months.”

“SpinVox, on the other hand, has been operating in Britain for some time. It will be free during its year of testing in the United States. To sign up for the free year, send an e-mail inquiry to gamma@spinvox.com. (Ignore the “seven-day trial” offered at spinvox.com; that’s just for British customers.) Eventually — in the second half of this year, SpinVox says — the service will be available in the United States only through cellular carriers; pricing hasn’t been set. That’s right: you’ll be able to spend more money with your carrier to spend less time on its voice mail system.”

“When you sign up for either service, an e-mail message gives you instructions for reprogramming your phone. For most carriers, that involves dialing a string of numbers with * and # characters; for Sprint, you have to call customer service. Either way, this process reroutes incoming messages to the SpinVox or SimulScribe service. (Until you re-record the greeting, callers hear a generic “Welcome to SimulScribe” or “Welcome to SpinVox” message.)”

News: Scooter giveaway, Spinal breakthrough

In my daily scanning of news for anything worth posting here, I came across two items today that caught my attention.

First, The Scooter Store—yes, the same one that you see repeatedly on television promoting mobility—is sponsoring a national concert tour raising funds to fight Multiple Sclerosis. Additionally, The Scooter Store will
give away a scooter
at each of the 53 cities that the tour plays.

The series is the Roger Neal and Friends Sing for MS Concert Tour, a Southern Gospel show.

I figure that I’d mention it here as an informative service. Besides, if you have a student who could benefit from a new scooter, please share this with him or her.

The second bit of news I have today is to pass along something that is pretty groundbreaking. In a recent study, researchers at Johns Hopkins have proven that
the spine can repair itself.
This study has disproven the long-held idea that the spine was incapable of repairing itself. The results of this study are based on clinical trials with rats, but the results offer promise and hope for the many people who have suffered a spinal injury. Only time will tell where this leads.

Class teaches students about disability

Every now and then, an innovative program pops up on a college curriculum that makes me sit up and take notice.

Such is the case of the new course being offered at the University of California Santa Cruz. The new
Course teaches UCSC students about disability.
This credit course offers students much more understanding than the typical disability awareness day or, at best, week usually offered up at colleges and universities.

According to the official UCSC web site:
“The University of California, Santa Cruz, is offering a new general education course on universal access and assistive technology, enabling students from all majors to learn more about disability and the issues that surround it.”

Did you notice "universal access" is part of the objective. Hooray for this great insight!

The professor for the class is Roberto Manduchi, an associate professor in computer engineering. Manduchi’s research has included work on assistive technology. The class will also feature guest lecturers in various aspects of the field: experts who study disability; professionals who work with people with disabilities; and some people who have disabilities themselves.

There is a quote from Manduchi on the site that really makes the course sound intriguing:
"There is some technology involved, because this is an engineering course. But mostly the emphasis is on understanding the physiology, psychology, and sociology of disability."

In addition to the class work, there will also be a project required of the students. This might include learning some American Sign Language or spending 24 hours with somebody with a disability.

It sounds like this is a computer engineering course on the surface, but in a deeper sense, this is a broader study of understanding disabilities.

Good work, UCSC!

Disability rights: It is not one world

While the following is not particularly about DSS at a postsecondary institution, it is, nonetheless, a brief discussion about the rights appreciated by people with disabilities here in the United States.

Reknowned radio commentator and newsman Paul Harvey invokes a phrase when discussing subjects that reflect situations in other countries that play out differently than they might have here in the good old U.S. of A. He usually closes these narratives by highlighting, “It is not one world.”

The same might be said when discussing disability law and the rights of people with disabilities. Remember that the ADA is the “Americans” with Disabilities Act. These rights do not go beyond our border, not even to our closest neighbor to the south, Mexico.

A recent Houston Chronicle article illustrates the
plight of Mexicans with disabilities
through Joaquin Alva, a man who was paralyzed from the chest down in an auto accident. He now uses a wheelchair and walks with the assistance of elbow crutches and leg braces. He is a 31-year old government worker and is also a stalwart disability advocate.

The article reports:
“When a Mexico City-based health-club chain barred him from using its facilities, the 31-year-old federal government worker decided to teach the company a lesson in disability rights.
He's achieved more than that. In a country where the disabled have long lived on the fringes of society, suffered discrimination or simply been ignored, Alva has made their plight headline news. And in the process, he's shamed the government into enforcing, in his case, its much-touted new laws protecting disabled rights.
It took five months. But faced with a lawsuit, government fines and a public relations nightmare, Sports World agreed to make its 10 health clubs disabled-accessible within three months.
It also has accepted Alva's proposal to provide 30 free memberships for the disabled, including 15 members of Mexico's Special Olympics squad.”

The article points out that even though Mexico has had disability rights laws since 1995, enforcement, the teeth that make legislation work, has been spotty at best. The implication is that without activism to bring about action, none will be taken.

Here in America, we have the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as well as various state laws to support the rights of those with disabilities. The laws allow for legal recourse and these may be pursued by the very people who find themselves discriminated against. While our system of laws isn’t always perfect, the rights of people with disabilities are given a good base to stand on. We may not always appreciate the rights we have until we look elsewhere to see what isn’t there.

Also, remember that, even if there are problems, Mexico does have laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities. With these in place and better enforcement, the situation for people with disabilities can only get better. There are other countries that have no laws protecting the rights of these people.

Mr. Harvey, you are correct-- It is not one world.

Cerebral palsy resource web sites

At my most recent position, I was a little surprised at the number of students on my caseload whose disability was cerebral palsy. There were more people than I had anticipated who were managing the spectrum of impairments associated with this condition Hence, I had to study up on CP and learn more of what to expect so I could better serve my students. My prior experience was limited to knowing only one person who has cerebral palsy, an inspiring young lady and good friend, who was Ms Wheelchair Texas 2005.

If you are looking for a couple of good resources to increase your understanding of cerebral palsy, I offer the following two web sites.

First, the intuitive resource for CP would be the
United Cerebral Palsy
Home page.

The UCP site offers some very useful information for understanding CP and is also a good resource for disability advocacy/rights in general.

Secondly, you should also check out the
Cerebral palsy information
Site.

While this site is intended as a resource for K-12 educators, it is nonetheless useful for anybody seeking more understanding about the impairments that accompany cerebral palsy in the education setting.

While these two web sites are far from being everything one would need to have comprehensive cerebral palsy resources, they are definitely good additions to keep bookmarked.

Two more web resources

Today, I want to tell you about two websites that offer rich resources for disability support service. They are useful to bookmark and come back to when needed.

First, I offer

Accessibility Resources,
A virtual compendium of anything related to accessibility. The site is a blog created by the
Virtual Private Library.
There is more information here about accessibility resources than I’ve seen collected in any one location anywhere else.

Secondly, there is
Assistive Technology for hearing impaired students,
A pretty good compilation of resources specific to the needs of deaf and hearing impaired students. It is the latest post to Special Education and Technology, a fairly new blog that appears promising.

These are just more resources to be aware of. Information is power, so check these sites out and consider yourself recharged for the day.

Hackers exploit Vist'as voice recognition

Well, well, well. What do you know? It took until the release of Windows Vista, but they’re finally taking notice of assisstive technology.

Those involved in the world of AT would love for more people to take notice of what is out there and make use of it. Unfortunately, the “they” in this case is not good. The first reported exploit in the just-released Windows Vista operating system has been revealed –
Hackers exploit Vista’s voice recognition.

In the InfoWorld article linked above, the term “Shouthack” is used to identify the first reported break in the new premiere Microsoft operating system.

According to the article:
“Microsoft researchers are investigating the reports of a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to use the speech recognition feature to run malicious programs on Vista systems using prerecorded verbal commands, the company said in an e-mail statement.”

For the full details, read the entire InfoWorld article. It also gives insight on how to prevent execution of this malicious hack.

Voice Recognition has been a breakthrough that has provided great access to many for several years, most notably through Dragon’s top of the line program. It is actually sad that the first time such a useful feature is incorporated into the newest offering of the dominant operating system manufacturer and it is the first thing that gets exploited by hackers.

Hold on to your defenses and don’t panic. The first crack isn’t the end of voice recognition in Windows. It is just a new playground for the hackers to look at now that it is being deployed en mass. The developers must remain diligent in following the cracks and filling them in. As for the users, do your part and ensure that all steps are taken to alleviate the threats by keeping anti-virus programs current and not opening files from unknown sources.

Rich Resource for Bipolar Disorder

If you’re wantding to stay up on the latest information about Bipolar disorder, then check out the offerings on
Psychcentral.com.

The information on the site is extremely comprehensive, including descriptions of the disorder, its various phases and aspects, an abundance of resources, and the latest feeds of news pertaining to the illness.

Psych Central is a credible web resource offered by Dr. John Grohol and is regularly updated by he and several contributing editors. Psych Central states that it is in its 15th year and has been on the web for 12. According to the site’s “About” page, it has been listed among Forbes Magazine’s Best of the Web Directory and has been noted in the Washington Post, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, L.A.Times, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, USA Weekend, The Village Voice, Business Week, Forbes Magazine, and dozens of other publications.

More 508 news and a developer's guide

I’m back with another post about web site accessibility. This time I've got some news that may be of interest to you and a resource for web developers.

It was just announced that
Blackwell Publishing has redesigned its web offerings.

According to the

EContent.com
article:
“Blackwell Publishing, a society publisher, has announced its newly re-designed online delivery platform, Blackwell Synergy. Blackwell Synergy enables its users to search 1 million articles from over 850 scholarly journals across the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and medicine. The redesign is intended to provide easier navigation, faster loading times, and improved access to tools for researchers, as well as meeting the latest accessibility standards (ADA section 508 and W3C's WAI-AA). The new Blackwell Synergy website retains all the benefits that researchers, librarians, and authors value and uses the same URL structure. In addition to a new look and feel, features have been repositioned to highlight options more clearly to users and enable them to make best use of the suite of tools available such as most read and most cited articles, citation alerts, download to reference manager software, and the ability to email the article to a friend. Full-text online access to the journals on Blackwell Synergy is available at thousands of institutions worldwide.”

Kudos to Blackwell Publishing for being a database service that has the initiative to make their offerings accessible.

Also, for web developers interested in making their material accessible, another resource is Dan Hounshell’s book review of
Cascading Style Sheets 2.0: Programmer's Reference
By Eric Meyer.

mr. Hounshell says:
“More than just a CSS book, this book covers the gamut of web standards from CSS to HTML markup to Section 508 and WAIS accessibility. The author is a web standards pragmatist, the book could have easily been part of the Pragmatic Programmer series, rather than a strict zealot. He offers standards options explaining the benefits and detriments of each one, letting you decide how much or how little you'd like to travel down the web standards path, and telling you it's okay to take baby steps - "some is better than none". This alone makes implementing a site built on standards approachable and realistic.”

The next time you run up against a developer who gives you excuses why he couldn’t make the contents of his work accessible, refer him to this handy guide.

Forgive the Section 508-heavy posts of late, but if the law wasn’t worthwhile, then it wouldn’t keep making news.

Section 508: gripes and suggested alternative solutions

In my career as a correctional supervisor, I led with the philosophy of “I’m not perfect and my decisions are not always the best, but don’t gripe about my decisions unless you can propose a workable alternative.” It left the door open for good input of ideas and also demonstrated a reasonable allowance for critique. In this same vein, I offer today’s post about accessaibility.

Last week, I posted a couple of times about Section 508. The reason for those posts was by necessity, as too many web sites still exist that limit access to people with disabilities. Following my own advice, while I don’t think I was necessarily griping, I continue the 508 discussion and suggest some alternative solutions to inaccessible web sites.

Granted, Section 508 only requires that entities that receive federal funds make their web sites compliant with 508 standards for access, but according to the
ZoomNews
Newsletter, 18 states have already adopted the statutes set out in Section 508. Additionally, one private website, www.target.com, is being sued for having an inaccessible website. So, it is becoming obvious that the trend of requiring access is growing.

And, wouldn’t it be nice if people just did the right thing and made their web offerings accessible to all from inception?

With all that said, there are still 32 states that don’t require web access standards and, at this time, the private business sector is only required to provide access if the individual business deems it a nice goodwill gesture on their part.

It is understandable that businesses want to market their wares using the snazziest and latest whiz-bang marketing technology. This often means using Flash media on their web sites, which is a graphical interface and, in the method usually offered up, is very inaccessible to users of screen readers.

However, it doesn’t need to be inaccessible. Methods exist to make the graphical content accessible.
Layers Magazine
Offers a site where web developers can read the
Flash 8 Accessibility Design Guidelines.

According to the site:
“Whether using ActionScript or the Accessibility panel in Macromedia Flash, creating accessible Flash content can be quick and easy. Using text and text equivalents, designers and developers can create exciting content for users of screen readers and other assistive technologies.”

“At the same time, the screen reader environment poses new challenges. Just as designers and developers are mindful of the user experience in a browser or stand-alone environment, it is important to consider how users of assistive technologies such as screen readers will interact with Macromedia Flash content.”

The site clearly demonstrates that just because it is made accessible, web content doesn’t need to be boring. Web designers can still use whiz-bang technology like Flash media; they just need to think with a little forethought to make it accessible. The guidelines shows interested parties how to install a virtual curb cut that allows everybody to gain access to their on-ramp of the information superhighway.

If web developers aren’t going to make the effort to make inclusion a forethought, then at least they can incorporate offering a web page text-only translator, such as the
Lift Transcoder,
offered by the
University of Florida’s Disability Service Office
web site. This useful application allows the user to take any web page and translate it into a version that is text-only.

While this software tool has the potential to make any web site accessible, I’m sure there are limitations. It falls into the category of the last, best solution under 508 standards, but a text-only version is better than one where no access is allowed.

With my pardons to Dr. King… I have a dream of a world where one day there will be no need for discussion about accessibility, a day where inclusion will be the norm.

Accessibility training opportunities

I want to pass along information about two on-line accessibility training opportunities that are being offered next week. These are good informational opportunities and are both free.

First, The Hadley School for the Blind is offering
Digital Accessibility in the workplace
On Wednesday, January 24 at 2 p.m. central time.

The Hadley Seminars web site states:
“This 45-minute interactive seminar will be presented by staff from the Hadley School and will explore the various ways employees more effectively share data in the workplace using email, PDFs or word processed documents. Presenters will share tips for handling tables and graphics along with other kinds of electronic files.”

Registration is required and can be done at the web site linked above. The school encourages participants to enter the room prior to the the beginning of the seminar to check out conection and interactivity. Additionally, they recommend entering the room ten minutes prior to the beginning of the seminar as it will begin promptly at the scheduled time.

While this particular session addresses the workplace, the parallels to the academic setting can not be overlooked. It may provide some good information to pass along to students as they prepare to enter the world of work. And, you can always share the link with your students so they can participate in the seminar on their own.

Secondly,EASI, Electronic Access to Software and Information, is presenting a seminar on
making accessible Google Maps
on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 3 p.m. central time.

The EASI page describes the seminar as follows:
“Google Maps is a great tool that allows information to be presented in many exciting ways. Unfortunately it's very inaccessible to many people. Using Google's publicly available API we will see how to create custom Google Maps and make them accessible at the same time. We will see how to navigate the map by using the keyboard and also how to make the data behind the pushpins accessible.”

Even if this seminar is not one that you believe is pertinent at this time, it could offer some good resources for future application in assisting your students. Again, registration is required, so go to the site linked above and get this done prior to the event date for best results.

Finally, if you are seeking other access training opportunities, look over the EASI site and check out what other classes they offer. Some of them are offered for a fee, but there are some at no cost. One in particular that may be of interest is the March 22 session on authoring DAISY documents. It will be offered for free and will be broadcast live from CSUN.

More Section 508 information

A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about Section 508 being under review. I have a few other comments and links about Section 508 which I’d like to share with you.

I was originally pointed in the direction of the news about that review by a link in
ZoomNews,
A monthly newsletter of AI Squared, the manufacturer of the ZoomText screen magnification software. If a reader prefers, there is a link on the page for an audio version of the newsletter available that plays in the ZoomNews Audio Player.

An interesting factoid from the ZoomNews site:

Every 24 hours, more than 3.2 million pages and 715,000 images are added to the internet.

Whew! That figure’s enough to boggle the mind all by itself.

Now, look at those numbers and think about how many of those pages and images are accessible. That’s what Section 508 is about. I don’t have the data, nor the intellect, to figure the accessibility of those pages and images, but, by my own experience, I would venture to guess that the percentage of accessible pages is probably pretty low.

ZoomNews also offers a brief overview of the issues considered to be critical by the Access Board to make web sites accessible. Here is their list.

• Documents must be organized so that screen readers, like ZoomText, can speak them to the user (without dependencies on associated style sheets or other external formatting information).
• Page frames and tables must be titled with text, including row and column headers.
• Electronic forms must be designed to allow the user to access all the information and functionality. In other words, to allow the user to navigate, read and complete the form in an intelligent manner.
• When timed responses are required, the website must alert the user and provide a method to give them additional time if necessary.
• All graphics must have a text element to identify them. This element can be alternate text that appears when hovering the mouse over the graphic and also able to be spoken by a screen reader.
• Information conveyed with color, such as charts, graphs and data legends, must also be comprehensible without identification by color.
• If compliance cannot be established any other way, the web site must provide a link to a text-only page, but this is only as a last resort.

If you want to brush up on your knowledge about Section 508, you can always do so via the official U.S. government
Section 508 Site.
A very useful feature for visually impaired readers of the site is the adjustable font selection and font size at the top of the page. I might add, these are easily recognized as user-selectable combo boxes, even by those who can’t physically see the page and access the page with screen reader software, a great point for others to emulate for access and inclusion.

This site also offers
The Section 508 Universe
an on-line training program, which you may find useful to share with others on your campus who are not as enlightened about federal law as you are.

Using the training site does require the user to register with a user name and password. No other information is gathered. The user name is used to allow users to pick up in courses at the same location they might have had to leave in a previous web session.

There are 11 courses offered through the Section 508 Universe. If you would like more information about what these are each about, check out the Section 508 Universe web site. These classes are:
• Designing Accessible Websites
• Accessible Conferences
• Buying Accessible E&IT (Requiring Officials and Contracting Officers)
• Section 508 Coordinators
• Additional Accessibility & Usability Concerns
• Accessible Video and Multimedia
• Building and Buying Accessible Software
• Buying Accessible Computers
• Opening Closed Products
• Micro-purchases and Section 508
• IRS Course on Software Development

Finally, there is also a
Section 508 Awareness CD
That is available through the website as a download. This CD contains general information about section 508 for all employees, and includes a self-test and copies of the statute and accessibility standards.

Even if you’re not the person in charge of purchases and development, such as those specified in the list of classes offered through the Section 508 Universe, as the DSS coordinator, you have a duty to ensure that the persons making these decisions do so with as much knowledge and insight to Section 508 as possible. Help these folks make informed decisions and share the knowledge of your expertise.

The exact requirements of Section 508 may change to some degree in coming months, depending on the recommendations of the review committee, but the general principles offered in the training and the CD download will still be in place. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Section 508 under review, called obsolete

Section 508 is an omnipresent force for any entity who gets federal funding to contend with. If your college or university is a state school, then this post pertains to you.

If you didn’t already know, the latest version of Section 508, a complex and sometimes difficult to understand law, is under review.
The law, an extension of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, spells out specific rules on making electronic information accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Section 508 was drafted with good intentions, but, in this dynamic world of ever-evolving technologies, it is finding itself a bit outdated.

Last July, an advisory board was put in place to work up new recommendations for the law. The initial draft proposal is projected to be released in July 2007.

According to an
article in Federal Computer Week,
“The panel said that emerging technologies have made current 508 standards obsolete. Bluetooth and wireless mobile devices, streaming Web video and asynchronous Java and XML-enabled Web sites have become common since the original standards were set in place.”

The article demonstrated the committee’s forward thinking with the comment by committee member Gregg Vanderheiden,a professor at the University of Wisconsin –Madison, “We're trying to create guidelines that not only work today, but also with technologies that are upcoming.”

So, Section 508 as we know it may be in for a major change. Time will tell what revisions the committee comes up with.

Olympus introduces three accessible recorders

As anybody who has done so would know, purchasing an accessible digital player/recorder in the past has required one to buy either a specially modified, otherwise commercially available product or a specialty product made specifically for the glind. In Both cases, the recorders have been expensive, often costing several times more than what an off the shelf model would cost. Now, that experience is changing.

Olympus is introducing
three accessible digital recorders.
The electronics company is launching its DS-30, DS-40, and DS-50 models, which the company claims are “optimized for downloading, listening to, and creating podcasts.” Olympus is pitching these units as the “all-in-one audio device,” noting that the high sound quality makes them ideal for listening to audio books and music.

What sets this line of recorders apart from any competition is that they are accessible to blind consumers off the shelf.

According to the Olympus press release linked above:
“The three new devices offer a voice confirmation function that can be turned on or off. When turned on, the function enables the devices to speak, helping users to navigate the folders and various set-up options. The pleasant automated voice guides users through the onscreen menus for setting date, time and other menu selecting modes. It also confirms by stating the folder name as the user moves from one folder to another. This enables visually challenged users to easily move through the device's menus, folders and set-up options. An instruction manual will also be available to users as an audio file. Much like any audio book, this option enables users to listen to the instruction manual for quick and easy use.”

The recorders connect with users computers via a USB cable and, via the included software, podcasts are automatically downloaded to the unit when it is connected to the pc. Additionally, the digital recorders are designed to work with
Audible.com,
A commercial site for audio books and spoken word content many blind consumers are already familiar with.

The primary difference between the three units are the storage capacities. The DS-30 holds 256 Mb, the DS-40 512 Mb, and the DS-50 holds 1 Gb.

All of the recorders play files in either the MP3 or WMA format.

Another useful feature of the units is the ability to slow down and speed up the playback of the recordings. The recordings can be slowed down to 50% speed or sped up by 50%, assisting users to either grab specifics or to breeze through recorded lectures.

I was impressed with the devices’ claimed reported battery life. Olympus states that users can get up to 32 hours of use from 2 AAA batteries. (An AC power adaptor is also included with the unit.)

These units are supposed to be available this month. Accessories included are a USB cable, a stereo microphone, stereo headphones, two AAA batteries, and software. The DS 50 also comes with a remote control and a carrying case.

MSRP for these units: DS-30, $149; DS-40, $199; DS-50, 249.
Olympus is leading the way by making products that are accessible out of the box.

Employers and what students' GPAs mean to them

There is an interesting article in today’s New York Times about
employers and what a student’s GPA means to them.

(Note: To read this article, readers need to register with the Times’s site.)

Some noted passages from that article:

“you ask Johnny C. Taylor Jr., senior vice president of human resources for the IAC/InterActiveCorp, the factor that matters most to him is a graduate’s grade-point average.”

“’Companies want the smartest people, and the best indicator for new employees competing in a knowledge-based economy are grades,’ said Mr. Taylor, whose company has 33,000 employees worldwide and owns 60 businesses including Ticketmaster, Match.com and the Home Shopping Network. ‘G.P.A. is the best indicator an individual is likely to succeed,” Mr. Taylor said. “It demonstrates a strong work ethic and smarts.’”

“Not every company puts as much emphasis on college grades as IAC, but many use it as an important factor in weeding out lower-achieving students from the interview process. Often companies will advise college admissions officers and recruiters that they will not see anyone with less than a B (3.0) average.”
“In its Job Outlook 2007 survey, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 66 percent of employers screen candidates by G.P.A., and 58 percent of those surveyed said they would be much less likely to hire graduates with grades averaging less than a 3.0. This cutoff makes it even more critical for average or below average students to take advantage of college internships and leadership positions in extracurricular activities, job experts say.”

On the surface, this article may not appear to be about students with disabilities. However, I challenge that it is especially about students with disabilities. Let me explain.

First, the job market is fiercely competitive. If you doubt this, I would venture that you’ve been sitting in your present position for some time now and haven’t tried to seek employment for a number of years. Get out there and see just how tough the scramble for employment can be.

Secondly, students with disabilities must work fiercely to overcome the demands of their accommodative needs in addition to the time and work loads placed on every other student. This compounds the workload placed on students with disabilities in issues such as finding accessible textbooks or scanning printed material. This also includes other encumberances such as the additional time it takes to write their numerous papers by formulating the sentences and paragraphs mentally—a Herculean task in itself—and dictating the final paper using software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking.

Finally, when interviewing for a job, the student must be able to show potential employers that despite their disability, they are the most qualified, fully confident and competent, individual for the vacancy. This may be easier for those who have invisible disabilities, but for those who enter the interview room using a wheelchair or a guide dog, the reaction of the interviewer is often a glass wal that bars access. When it comes down to standing out, the GPA may be the cutting edge that grabs the interviewer’s attention, the one thing that screams out what the student is capable of achieving, despite the obvious.

This article, while it does not address students with disabilities directly, does a great job highlighting that in today’s job market, students’ GPAs are being strutinized as much as, if not more than, any other potential factors for hirability. It is imperative to stress to students that they need to be tenacious about achieving the highest grades possible and not being satisfied with just getting by. When seeking employment, having just gotten by with your grades may very well translate into just getting passed over for the job.

Disability Nation, by and for people with disabilities

I’d like to share another resource for discussion and commentary on current issues in the world of disabilities.

Disability Nation
is an audio magazine by and for people with disabilities.

Some of the most recent topics include The Ashley Treatment, discussing the parents who had surgical interventions taken to assist them in caring for their severely disabled 9-year old daughter, the suit against the Federal Reserve to make paper money accessible to the blind, and an informative piece about the Adaptive Sports Association.

One of the podcast magazine’s features worth noting is the availability of transcripts for the aired episodes. I’ve only seen this offered at one other site,
The Disability 411 podcast.

If you’re interested in expanding your toolbox of resources with the addition of one that provides the insight from those with disabilities, check out Disability Nation.

New look and a reader question

If you didn’t notice, AccessAbility has changed and made the switch to the new Blogger look. I’m a bit resistant to change whenever a new technology comes along for the very reason that this blog exists—accessibility. Too often, technology will change and not consider the needs of those who use assistive technology, leaving the person trying to embrace the change shut out. In that frame of mind, I have hesitated clicking the okay button for the past several months when Blogger started prompting me about the “New Blogger Beta,” as there is too often something inaccessible in that word Beta. Another reason for my delay is that Google, the owner of Blogger, has not been the most noteworthy of tech companies to adopt changes for inclusion and enhancing accessibility.

I figured that it is now 2007 and enough people have tried the new Blogger, that AccessAbility might as well begin the year with the latest features Blogger offers. So far, it is going smoothly.

You’ll notice that the posts here now have tags to indicate the category that the subject is about. You can click on a tag and see which other posts are related and classified under any particular tag heading. (I’ll be going back and placing tags on each previous post in the coming days to reflect accurate cataloging.))

Another feature the new Blogger allows is easier access to comment moderation. That means the comments needing my attention are easier for me to find. Since enabling comment moderation more than 60 days ago, this site has received 16 comments. However, using the old Blogger program, I did not know they had been posted. Now, when I logged onto the new AccessAbility site, I was immediately prompted that there were 16 comments needing moderation. The reason for originally enabling this tool was to keep spam comments promoting questionable web sites and promoting product sales of unrelated items, which had occurred on a few occasions prior to using the screening mechanism. When scrolling through the 16 comments, all but one of them were spam and I quickly dispatched them to the ether-wasteland.

Unfortunately, because of the time delay in not knowing I had comments to moderate, I was not able to respond in a timely manner to somebody who left a comment and I feel compelled to toss it out here for any feedback. Here it is, verbatim:

“Hello, I am an Occupationa therapist in Fl. with a patient who lost all his fingers. I am looking for a quadraplegic reacher where he can use his wrist to grab things. Would appreciate any assistance in finding a used one as a new one costs $251.00. My patient is on Medicare/Medicaid and this is considered an "item of convenience". Thanks. Joan”
So AccessAbility readers, any feedback to share about resources for a used reacher for a quadraplegic?

Thanks for any feedback and Joan, I hope you’re still reading AccessAbility.

IBM continues to innovate with WebAdapt2Me

Big Blue keeps working on in-roads for access.

IBM, the company who originated the pc and later created the Home Page Reader, continues to develop and enhance software for providing computer access for people with disabilities. In the latest advent, IBM worked with a professor at California State University Long Beach to test the usability of the features of IBM’s newest software,
WebAdapt2Me.

In this small-scale study, the professor put together a team of ten students and faculty members with visual, hearing and other disabilities to test the new access tool in a trial basis. They used the personally adjustable software to read on-line textbooks. The features of the application allowed each user to change the type size, color, and contrast to best suit their individual access needs, as well as the key feature of allowing the user to change the page layout.

According to the official
IBM WebAdapt2Me press site:
“IBM WebAdapt2Me software allows individuals to view the Web in a way that's most productive for them. For example, people with low vision can change the size of the type and the colors and contrast of the page for easier viewing. People with learning disabilities can reduce the visual clutter of the page by, for example, reducing several columns to one, so they can follow the text more easily. People without full mobility can set up their system so the mouse and keyboard are easier to use. And people with learning disabilities can ask WebAdapt2Me to read the text on the screen aloud, using IBM ViaVoice technology. “

A tip of the hat to IBM for continued innovation making technology personally accessible. Another nod goes to the state of California for requiring that textbooks be made available on-line. These are examples of embracing technology and using insight to see where it can be best applied to serve a broad spectrum of people.