Microassist

Digital Accessibility Digest

Home » Digital Accessibility Digest » Accessibility in the News – October 27, 2017

Accessibility in the News – October 27, 2017

By   |    |    |  

Accessibility in the News—10/27/17

NOTE: To get news like this every week in your inbox, before it hits our website, subscribe to our Accessibility in the News e-newsletter. It’s graphic, ads, and spam free. Just use the sign-up form on this page.

Skip to National News (U.S.)  |  Skip to International News

More Accessibility Resources on this Page

Accessibility Blogs and Information  |  Accessibility Statement Pages
Accessibility Announcements and Products  |  Accessibility Q&A and Tips

Microassist Accessibility Services

AITN Quote of the Week

“When speaking of disabilities, the blind and their needs are most often used as an example. It is deceivingly simplistic since accessibility is something most of the population can benefit from.”

— Marcus Osterberg

National News (U.S.)

Life, Blindness & Tech

Blind their whole lives, Josh and Lauren each share how living with disabilities affects their day-to-day living, and how web and app development choices impact their use of technology. Please watch their personal experiences, as captured in this audio-described video from Microassist. Many thanks to Josh and Lauren for their positive attitudes, good humor, and willingness to share their individual stories with each of us. Please share their video so others can be more aware of why accessibility truly matters.

Students Question ADA Accessibility on UTRGV Campus

October 19, 2017   |  Source: KRGV

A student claims a University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus was holding classes in at least one building not structurally in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. CHANNEL 5 NEWS discovered that although the building does not have an elevator, it doesn’t mean the school is breaking the rules. Although schools are expected to comply with all ADA requirements, construction or making architectural improvements aren’t required to if the school can bring the student access to the class in a different way. Some students CHANNEL 5 NEWS spoke with at the UTRGV Brownsville campus still don’t think it’s fair…

Website Auditor: The Hot Job Title You Want

October 20, 2017   |  Source: BlackEngineer.com

October is here and National Disability Awareness Month is almost gone.  But there’s still time to make decisions that will pay off for your career, or, the project you’re planning to work on next summer. There’s an ongoing search for people who can advance web accessibility and Dr. James Logan of the Georgia Institute of Technology identifies things you should know. “The web accessibility compliance auditor, is a field that every computer science and information systems student should think of pursing,” says Dr. James Logan, who is the quality assurance manager for Georgia Institute of Technology’s Enterprise Information Systems. “It really is just an extension of information systems. The field has so many opportunities for web developers.”…

Accessibility Needs to Be at the Heart of Internet Policy, Planning and Design

October 20, 2017   |  Source: Internet Society

The Internet Society’s 2017 Global Internet Report: Paths to Our Digital Future shows that new digital divides are emerging. It’s not just about accessing the Internet, but our ability to make the most of it. One only has to look at the UN DESA 2015 Global Status Report on Disability and Development to start putting the pieces together. Not only does the report show a significant gap between people with and people without disabilities when it comes to things like education, employment, and health, but also, that those who are doubly disadvantaged (women, refugees, indigenous communities) experience the lowest level of inclusion and participation in society…

Federal Court Finds Telephonic Access Could Be an Alternative to Website Accessibility

October 20, 2017   |  Source: National Law Review

A federal district court in Los Angeles last week endorsed the possibility that a business may be able to avoid making a website accessible if it provides the same goods and services through telephonic customer service. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in Gorecki v. Dave & Buster’s, Inc., No. 2:17-cv-01138-PSG-AGR (October 10, 2017), found that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had mentioned this alternative to website compliance in its 2010 Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. But the court denied Dave & Buster’s motion for summary judgment because it had not established beyond factual dispute that its website direction, which stated…

Microsoft Autism Hiring Program aims to attract diverse talent

October 20, 2017   |  Source: Windows Central

There are one billion people on the planet with disabilities. Beyond ensuring that its products have no inherent bias against people with disabilities, Microsoft is also on a mission to hire some of those people. A company can easily overlook the needs of a minority population in a quest to serve the majority. Sadly, that’s the course many companies have taken over the years. When external or internal pressures reach a certain point, however, companies sometimes begin to bend to the will of an underserved population. This is sometimes seen in how accessibility options are tacked onto a “finished” product to accommodate a particular population for whom the product was initially unusable. Or how hiring practices shift to become more inclusive…

Looking back at Disability Awareness Week

October 22, 2017   |  Source: Iowa State Daily

The Alliance for Disability Awareness (ADA) put together a week full of activities to recognize Disability Awareness Week on campus last week. Events started Tuesday and lasted until Friday, and were aimed at spreading more awareness about different disabilities and accessibility throughout the campus. With all of the events that were held this last week, awareness and education is always the ADA’s goal. “The ADA definitely did reach their goal. I think we were very public,” said Wendy Stevenson, Iowa State’s disability coordinator…

How Can Airlines Improve Their Websites for Passengers With Disabilities?

October 23, 2017 Source- APEX Media

Each year, millions of people with disabilities want to travel more and do so independently. In 2015 that North American travelers with disabilities spent $17.3 billion on travel, according to estimates by The Open Doors Organization, compared to $13.6 billion in 2002. However, US Government Accountability Office statistics reveal that complaints about airlines made by disabled passengers doubled in the past decade to more than 30,000 per year. What could be improved? A recently published report by Amadeus on barriers to accessibility across various stages of the passenger journey may hold some answers…

NFTA, U. of Buffalo study challenges faced by riders with disabilities

October 23, 2017   |  Source: METRO Magazine

For many people who have a disability, taking public transportation is a necessity. But it can also be a nightmare. The barriers abound. It can be extremely difficult to get up and down the stairs on the bus. Riders who use a wheelchair often feel undue attention drawn upon them as passengers sit and wait impatiently while the bus operator secures the wheelchair in place. But a research partnership between the University at Buffalo and the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) is working to dramatically improve the public transit experience for the region’s many riders who have some type of disability…

EdTech Hero: Val Emrich promotes accessibility for students with disabilities in Maryland

October 24, 2017   |  Source: EdScoop News

From an early age, Val Emrich has believed that all students — and, in particular, those with disabilities — deserve higher-quality resources and more equitable educational materials than are presently available to them. Drawing on personal experience with a sibling’s challenges in school, as well as conversations with officials at the National Federation of the Blind and administrators at the Maryland School for the Deaf, Emrich has made it a priority to raise awareness and provide better resources to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities…

Are smart cities failing the disabled and elderly?

October 24, 2017   |  Source: Cities Today

During Smart Cities NYC 2017, a new toolkit, Smart cities for all, was released to help cities reduce the digital divide and make them accessible for all. Jonathan Andrews spoke to Dr Victor Pineda, President of World Enabled, and Co-Chair, Persons with Disabilities, on the General Assembly of Partners, the civil society body designed to help governments implement Habitat III. He was joined by James Thurston, G3ict’s Vice President for Global Strategy and Development. From the survey and data analytics that make up the toolkit, which are the leading cities in terms of reducing the digital divide?…

Congress Could Destroy the Americans with Disabilities Act

October 24, 2017   |  Source: Care2.com

House bill, H.R. 620, is attacking key provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act under the guise of clarifying certain aspects of this landmark legislation. But it’s all part of the Republican war on disability rights. With misinformation swirling, it’s important to understand both the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the potential outcomes of this legislation. First, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. Signed into law in 1990, this bipartisan legislation included a number of key civil rights provisions to protect the disability community, including anti-discrimination statutes and mandates for accessibility…

Never Closed: Developments in Website Accessibility Under the ADA

October 24, 2017   |  Source: Eversheds Sutherland (PDF) & Lexology

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits places of public accommodation from discriminating against individuals with disabilities, including the blind and vision impaired. Since the ADA’s enactment, restaurants and retail establishments have grappled with ways to ensure that they are accessible to disabled individuals. The steady shift in our economy from physical brick-and-mortar locations to online web-based commerce, however, has led to an expanded interpretation of the ADA that encompasses not only a business’s physical location, but also its website. This expansion has, in turn, led to a large number of private lawsuits against businesses alleging violations of the ADA for failure to maintain websites that are accessible to the blind and visually impaired, with nearly 400 lawsuits filed over the last 2 years…

Fully accessible haunted attraction

October 24, 2017   |  Source: FOX43.com (Video) & LancasterOnline

The Disability Empowerment Center hosts a day of fright in the basement of Wheatland Place. Organizers calls the attraction Central Pennsylvania’s only fully accessible haunted house. It features everything from wheelchair accessibility, to inclusive effects for the deaf and blind. The creator of the attraction is deaf and says she wanted to give people with disabilities the same spooky experience that everyone without them enjoys at haunted houses. “I don’t think that we should limit these types of events for people with disabilities,” said Melissa Hawkins, the executive director of the center. “We should include everybody. Doing this was our way of including everybody in the community so they can enjoy everything.”…

DCSS moves forward with ADA projects

October 24, 2017   |  Source: Demopolis Times

The Demopolis City Schools Board of Education approved Monday a measure that will allow officials to move forward with negotiations related to a complaint regarding compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The school system received a complaint in April 2015 regarding a lack of compliance with ADA at Demopolis Middle School. The measure passed Tuesday allows the system to enter negotiations and to execute the U.S. Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights agreement for ADA standards compliance. Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff told the board if the system did not proceed with compliance, the system could lose federal funding…

Education Department Defends Rollback Of Special Ed Guidance

October 24, 2017   |  Source: Disability Scoop

The Education Department is working to dispel concerns after announcing that it would rescind 72 special education guidance documents under a Trump executive order requiring the federal government “to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.” The U.S. Department of Education is insisting that its move to withdraw dozens of special education guidance documents will not compromise services for students with disabilities. The agency said this week that all of the stricken guidance is no longer relevant. On Friday, the Education Department said it had identified 72 guidance documents to rescind as part of a Trump administration effort “to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.”

Bitcoin Accessibility From a Blind Person’s Perspective

October 25, 2017   |  Source: Bitcoin News

Currently, there is an initiative in the works to transcribe Satoshi’s white paper in Braille, a tactile writing system used by individuals who are visually impaired. The creator of the project explains that Satoshi’s paper has been translated into multiple languages, but has yet to be transcribed in Braille. The Bitcoin white paper Braille project is working with the American Printing House for the Blind, in order to press, bound, and distribute the copies to anyone who is visually impaired for free.  “Most of the cost of printing is related to the creation of tactile graphics representing the various technical diagrams that appear throughout the white paper,” explains Adam Newbold, the creator of the white paper Braille project…

Mobile Health Apps – Accessibility Issues

October 25, 2017   |  Source: Nixon Peabody LLP

The explosion of mobile health applications (apps) on the market brings potential accessibility issues—such as private litigants seeking to bring disability claims or regulators looking for headline-grabbing enforcement actions—to the legal landscape. Companies like Grubhub and various ride-sharing providers have all been hit with lawsuits alleging that their mobile apps violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because they contain access barriers that make it difficult, if not impossible, for disabled individuals to use the apps.  Moreover, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently stepped up its enforcement of the ADA regarding accessibility of mobile apps…

How Microsoft used tech to help people with ALS regain mobility

October 25, 2017   |  Source: Windows Central

Every year approximately 6,000 people are diagnosed with the immobilizing disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Microsoft wants to give them and other mobility-challenged individuals the technology to regain some of their lost autonomy. ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a progressive neurological disease that affects the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. It robs a person of the ability to walk, use their limbs, talk and even breathe independently…

Southbury-Based Hotel Reaches Settlement With US Department of Justice

October 25, 2017   |  Source: Patch.com

The federal government has reached a settlement agreement with the Wyndham Southbury Hotel in Southbury to resolve allegations that the hotel had not been operating in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”), announced Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. The settlement agreement resolves an ADA complaint filed by an individual with disabilities alleging that the Wyndham Southbury Hotel was not accessible for individuals with physical disabilities…

‘Accessible Vote by Mail System’ Comes To San Mateo Co., Election Officials Say

October 25, 2017   |  Source: Patch.com

San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Mark Church Wednesday announced the release of a new Accessible Vote by Mail system for disabled and visually impaired voters. The new Accessible Vote by Mail system allows disabled and visually impaired voters to access and mark their ballot in a screen-readable format using their personal computers. San Mateo County will be the first county in the State of California to deploy an Accessible Vote by Mail system for disabled and visually impaired voters, as authorized under AB 2252 Remote Accessible Vote by Mail Systems…

The fight for accommodating websites

October 26, 2017   |  Source: The Retriever

Recently there has been an influx of lawsuits against colleges that do not have websites accessible to students with disabilities. These lawsuits were all won by the plaintiff, Emanuel Delacruz, who is blind. Applying to college is one of the hardest tasks that a young adult undertakes. So it stands to reason that the application process becomes even more difficult when people with disabilities have to face more hurdles that limit their accessibility. Official college websites are an important aspect in anyone’s search for a school that is right for them. Without providing closed captioning for the hearing impaired or audio descriptions for the blind, college websites are essentially violating the Americans with Disabilities Act according to the ruling…

What will it take to make our campus accessible?

October 26, 2017   |  Source: Kenyon Collegian

President Sean Decatur said 90 percent of Kenyon’s classrooms will be accessible by 2023, after the Master Plan is completed. Although many administrators see this as a positive change, the lengthy timeline of the project highlights the frustration of community members seeking a more accessible campus. The primary factors that restrict accessibility at Kenyon are stairs, width of hallways and width of doors, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which outlines minimum standards for accessible design. Seventy-one percent of Kenyon’s classrooms are currently accessible, and most of the College’s inaccessible spaces are in Ascension Hall, Ralston House, Palme House, Treleaven House, Sunset Cottage and the houses along College Park Road…

Focus Group — A Candid Look at Disability Inclusion

October 26, 2017   |  Source: Ability Magazine

“There are no right or wrong answers. You’re here to represent all of the people who may think like you.” A focus group facilitator reassured a group of Hollywood insiders who are casting agents, writers and film-festival programmers. The nonprofit organization, RespectAbility, formed the focus group to try to better understand why people with disabilities make up nearly 20% of the population, yet account for fewer than 2 percent of characters on scripted TV in 2016*. Participants’ names were changed to encourage more candid responses…

SHRM Chapters Advocate for Workers with Disabilities

October 26, 2017   |  Source: SHRM

A Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) chapter and state council are advocating for people with disabilities—both as individuals who should be valued, not stigmatized, and as a source of labor for their local economies. Inspired by a chapter member’s son who has autism, the Greenville chapter of SHRM in South Carolina is studying how to recruit and work with people with disabilities. Since 2015, the chapter’s Workforce Readiness Committee has been looking at untapped workforce talent pools—people with criminal backgrounds, older workers, military veterans, the long-term unemployed and people with disabilities—as the area grapples with a labor shortage…

Is your website ADA-compliant?

October 27, 2017   |  Source: New Hampshire Business Review

A federal class-action lawsuit filed in 2015 against Harvard University might well portend a new compliance challenge for New Hampshire businesses: website accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit, National Association of the Deaf v. Harvard University — along with a companion case filed simultaneously against neighboring MIT — alleges that free online courses and video content offered by Harvard to the general public did not have appropriate closed captioning, thereby making the content inaccessible to hearing impaired individuals in violation of the ADA…

Airlines to increase availability of accessible kiosks at US airports

October 27, 2017   |  Source: Airport Technology

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has signed agreements with private airlines to increase the availability of accessible airport kiosks across the country. The agreements were reached with Alaska Airlines/Virgin America and Spirit Airlines in an attempt to improve the travel experience for passengers with special needs. Through an agreement, the USDOT also ordered All Nippon Airways (ANA) to make the airline’s mobile website more accessible for individuals with disabilities…

Kinect, Xbox and Windows 10: Why accessibility matters

October 27, 2017   |  Source: ZDNet

Kinect is either Microsoft’s biggest success or biggest failure, depending on how you look at it. Kinect brought voice control to the living room long before Alexa or Google Home. It’s been great to see Microsoft embrace the broad concept of accessibility over the last couple of years. It’s just good business sense; if you have a disability and you can use Windows or Xbox to make your life better, you’re another potential customer. That’s not the only benefit either; if you design for partially sighted users, the same non-visual cues make that app more useful in the car where drivers need to keep their eyes on the road…

Autumn Wilke and Professor Eliza Willis awarded grant to improve campus accessibility

October 27, 2017   |  Source: Scarlet and Black

The Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment has awarded Assistant Dean for Disability Resources Autumn Wilke and Professor Eliza Willis, political science, funding for a project called Innovation Inspires Inclusion. The project explores accessibility on campus through the lived experiences of student leaders. The grant provides training for six student leaders, two staff and two faculty members by the Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD) on how to conduct user/expert reviews of the campus environment. The IHCD defines a user/expert as “anyone who has developed natural experience in dealing with the challenges of our built environment.”…

Jack Fact — A first-of-its-kind study published by the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) in partnership with US Business Leadership Network (USBLN) finds that in the U.S., 30 percent of college-educated employees working full-time in white-collar professions have a disability.

International News

 I Was Blinded After I Was Shot in the Head. This Was My Road to Recovery

October 19, 2017   |  Source: OZY- UK

I was 24 when I was shot in the head. It was supposed to be just a routine visit to a friend’s house in Abuja. But I didn’t realize what I had walked into: It turns out that there was a robbery in progress. My phone was taken, and before I could fully comprehend what was happening, I got caught in the crossfire. It was a life-changing event — I lost my sight and sense of smell — and I’m still dealing with the aftermath. Rebuilding your life from scratch isn’t easy, and 12 years on, I am slowly coming to terms with the events of that fateful night in Nigeria. In the early months, it was family, including my now-wife, Maryam, who rallied to my aid and helped me get through some painful moments. I wanted love, not pity, and she understood that…

Accessibility Guides launched by national tourism bodies

October 20, 2017   |  Source: The Edinburgh Reporter- Scotland & Breaking Travel News- England

On the website you will find ways of getting visitor information in a user-friendly format. This will make it easier for businesses to explain what they offer as well as allowing disabled customers, their friends and families to compare venues before they visit. Research shows that one in five people in the UK have access requirements. This includes not only wheelchair users, but also people with hearing loss, visual impairments, older people, families with young children and many more. In 2015, £12 billion was spent in England, and £1.3 billion in Scotland, on trips where a member of the party had an impairment. This includes day trips, domestic overnight trips and inbound trips…

Addressing the accessible housing deficit

October 20, 2017   |  Source: Planning & Building Control Today- UK

There has been considerable focus on the importance of accessible housing in the last few weeks – and with good reason, says Christina McGill of Habinteg. As there are 300,000 disabled adults who have an unmet accessible housing need in the UK right now, increasing the supply of accessible and adaptable homes is essential. Habinteg’s #ForAccessibleHomes campaign, which culminated in a day of action on Friday 8 September, helped raise awareness of the positive impact of accessible housing. There is a broad and growing coalition of support for the issue. Just 7% of homes in England offer even minimum accessibility features, which is simply not sufficient to meet the requirements of our current population, let alone the increasingly pressing needs of our ageing society…

Ebola’s Legacy: Children With Cataracts

October 19, 2017   |  Source: NY Times- Africa

Hoisted onto the operating table by a nurse, Aminata Conteh, a spunky 8-year-old, crossed her skinny ankles jauntily and held stock-still as doctors numbed her eye and then pierced it with a needle to withdraw a sample of fluid. Two years ago, Ebola nearly took Aminata’s life. Now, complications from it are threatening her sight. She came with her mother to an eye hospital here in late July, hoping for surgery to remove a dense cataract that had clouded the lens of her right eye, erasing most of its vision. Cataracts usually afflict the old, not the young, but doctors have been shocked to find them in Ebola survivors as young as 5…

Disabled passengers unable to board 10 per cent of Adelaide Metro buses

October 21, 2017   |  Source: NEWS.com

Wheelchair users are being stranded at bus stops in extreme weather because they are unable to board the all the buses in the Adelaide Metro fleet. One in 10 of the network’s 990 buses does not have provisions to allow wheelchair users to board — and it will be four years until the fleet becomes fully accessible. The situation has been described as unacceptable by a leading disability advocate, while the Opposition has accused the State Government of prioritising new trams over wheelchair access. Several wheelchair users were witnessed by the Sunday Mail being forced to wait at bus stops for another service in unseasonably warm weather and heavy rain this month…

Improving accessibility

October 21, 2017   |  Source: Isle of Man Today- UK

The Equality Act can be good for business. That’s the message from Equality Champion Jane Poole-Wilson and Annette Pinhorn, who is lead on the Tiered Award Scheme, already in place to recognise the efforts of firms who make improvements to make their business more accessible to everyone. Nor does meeting obligations under the act mean, necessarily, heavy costs for a business. There are many simple fixes – some of which bosses may discover by talking to their staff, customers and charities who are keen to assist…

Disability advocate says businesses missing out of 1.3 billion people

October 22, 2017   |  Source: The National- Dubai

If businesses think more about accessibility, they can tap into a huge market of 1.3 billion people, says the global inclusion advocate Haben Girma, the first deaf and blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. She will be speaking about accessibility and inclusiveness at Naseba Global WIL Economic Forum in Dubai on October 26. When people think of accessibility they tend to think about wheelchair ramps and lifts but Eritrean-American Ms Girma, 29, is more focused on the role of technology in driving inclusion – adding transcripts to online videos, descriptions to digital images and making Web text readable with screen readers or digital braille displays…

Braille keypads to make smartphones accessible to blind

October 23, 2017   |  Source: Deccan Herald- India

A cab, a meal, a new outfit, bank transactions are just a few screen taps away with smartphones. But navigating the digital world can be slow and cumbersome for a visually-impaired person. Identifying this problem, entrepreneur and engineer Vijay Raghav Varada has developed a Braille keypad called ‘Tipo’ which can be attached to smartphones to improve accessibility. Vijay has been interested in making devices accessible to the blind since 2014 and it was while working on a project on Braille laptops for keyboards that he learnt of the smartphone problem…

Notes on banking accessibility

October 23, 2017   |  Source: BlueNotes- Australia

Australians may notice a new blue and gold addition to their wallets in the coming weeks as the Reserve Bank of Australia circulates the new $A10 note. And if you can’t see the new note you will definitely be able to feel it. The new notes contain the same world-leading security features as the $A5 note issued in 2016 – including tactile features to support people from the blind and low vision community. While the roll out of the new currency has been welcomed by the Australian blind and low-vision community, advocates have warned  of the new wave of challenges faced as technology is introduced by the commercial banking sector which risks leaving the blind and low-vision community behind…

Pedestrian safety: Those bright orange plates popping up in London are designed to help the visually impaired

October 22, 2017   |  Source: UK- London Free Press

Call it the difference between a nice walk, and a dangerous tumble into traffic. Those bumpy, orange, mat-like things you see popping up at London street corners aren’t some funky decoration. They’re a new safety feature, and for some the metal plates — called “tactile walking surface indicators” — could not be more crucial. A pedestrian accessibility feature, they make all the difference for people with visual impairments. “We’re taught when we come to an intersection, (to) look left, right, left again to make sure nothing’s coming. When you’re blind, you can’t look,” said Kash Husain, an accessibility advocate who’s legally blind…

Newfoundland Province Updating Accessibility Regulations for First Time in Almost 40 Years

October 23, 2017   |  Source: VOCM- Canada

 The province has updated its accessibility regulations for the first time in 36 years. The new regulations were announced this morning. The amendments announced today bring many of the regulations up to national standard. They apply to everything from handrails and business counters to restrooms. As well, there will be changes to the blue zones, removing the total coverage of blue paint, which have been found to be a slipping hazard. But the zones aren’t going away, and there will be in increase in fines of up to $700 for illegally parking in them…

Going paperless? Make your PDFs accessible

October 23, 2017   |  Source: IT PRO- UK

There’s not much that’s more frustrating for your staff than trying to fill out an online document and finding they can’t even highlight the text. Whether it’s speeding up train season ticket loan applications or making your last board minutes available to all employees, there’s many advantages to going paperless, and only one of those is about costs. As part of a comprehensive and integrated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, organisations can stand out positively by providing compliant and accessible web pages and documents. For staff with certain disabilities, barrier-free access to information is crucial, so accessibility should be at the top of your agenda…

Theatre group calls for Corpus Playroom boycott over lack of disabled access

October 23, 2017   |  Source: Varsity Online- UK

Cambridge theatre society has launched a petition calling for the Corpus Playroom to be made a fully accessible venue and asking students to boycott the venue, shortly after cancelling their show at the Playroom due to a lack of wheelchair accessibility. The Relaxed Theatre Company (RTC) announced on Friday they were cancelling their second show, Any Little Thing, after discovering that they would not be able to fit a ramp to the steps outside the Playroom to make the venue wheelchair accessible…

Disabled ‘losing out on jobs’ over Access to Work cap

October 23, 2017   |  Source: BBC News- UK

Disabled people are “losing out” on jobs because of a government support scheme that is “no longer fit for purpose”, campaigners say. Access to Work – which gives workplace support to disabled people – is beset by errors, with many having support cut, charity Inclusion London said. One deaf, leading artistic director said having her funds capped would mean she could no longer work full time. The government said it was “committed to supporting disabled people” in work. Access to Work is a government programme aimed at helping disabled people and those with physical and mental health conditions that make it difficult to work…

CBC report card: We invite a journalism student to put our building to the test

October 24, 2017   |  Source: CBC- Canada

People who are living with a disability have to face many challenges every day that able-bodied people do not even have to think about. How do I know this? Well, I am one of the adults living with a disability who worries about whether a building is wheelchair accessible every time I go into a new place. So, it was a real honour when CBC asked me to tour its headquarters in St. John’s and give my opinion on its accessibility. When I arrived on the GoBus with videographer John Pike, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was relieved to see that the wheelchair ramp was low enough for me to wheel and that there were rails on the ramp for my safety. However, I needed help to enter the building because the doors were too heavy for me to open…

Why a St. John’s coffee shop is spending extra to become truly accessible

October 24 2017   |  Source: CBC- Canada

Jumping Bean marketing manager George Murray had a strong reaction when CBC News contacted him. It was about the company’s coffee shop on Elizabeth Avenue in St. John’s. A woman who uses a motorized wheelchair couldn’t close the stall door in the shop’s bathroom, because she didn’t have enough room to turn around — even though the stall was marked accessible. “I was pretty shocked,” Murray said. “The idea that we would have a community that isn’t able to use our facilities to the fullest extent is really distressing.” The franchise at that location opened in the fall of 2015, and has done booming business ever since. Murray said the company willingly followed every requirement set out by the Newfoundland and Labrador government. In fact, he said that Jumping Bean location wouldn’t have been able to open its doors without an inspection…

A sound idea from Apple benefits Cochlear implant recipients

October 25, 2017   |  Source: The Australian- Australia & 9to5Mac

Patients wearing revolutionary Australian-invented Cochlear implants will soon enjoy speech and music delivered straight from an iPhone to their brain. Apple said its accessibility ­engineering team had worked with Cochlear to adapt a special form of Bluetooth low-energy audio (LEA) that links an iPhone with the external part of a new Coch­lear system known as the Nucleus 7 sound processor. The project has been under way a long time. Apple first mentioned it was working with Cochlear on a Made for iPhone hearing aid at its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2012. The breakthrough involves making sure that Bluetooth connectivity doesn’t rapidly exhaust the hearing system’s battery…

ANZ rolls out new debit cards for vision impaired

October 25, 2017   |  Source: Finder.com- Australia & Finextra

ANZ has today started rolling out its new Visa debit cards, which include a range of accessibility features to assist vision-impaired Australians with their everyday banking needs. The bank announced the cards back in November 2016 and was the first Australian financial institution to offer cards for vision-impaired customers. The new Visa debit cards will include tactile indicators, larger fonts and high visibility leasing edges so vision-impaired customers can more easily identify their card and can identify which way to insert their card into ATM and EFTPOS machines. ANZ will begin rolling out these new features across its 3.4 million Visa debit cards from today…

95% of polling stations in NA-4 lack accessibility arrangements for disabled persons

October 25, 2017   |  Source: The Express Tribune- Pakistan

Out of the total 269 polling stations set up for the NA-4 by-polls, 95 per cent lack essential accessibility criteria for people with disabilities [PWDs], elders and sick people, an audit report revealed. The survey, conducted by sister foundation of Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, the Pakistan Alliance for Inclusive Elections [PAIE], through October 16 to October 22, found that only five per cent of the total polling stations were accessible while 42 per cent did not have obstacle free passage leading to the centre. The report, seen by The Express Tribune, also found that 75 per cent of the buildings did not have level access to the entrance – adding that 93 per cent of those without level access also lacked a ramp to facilitate wheelchair users…

‘Everyone is temporarily able-bodied’: This Halifax exhibit brings together aging and disability

October 25, 2017   |  Source: CBC- Canada

Artists later in life have frequently adapted their working methods to meet changing physical abilities. Take Matisse’s paper collages or David Hockney’s iPad paintings, for example. But while the field of disability arts is growing, few curators and writers are talking about where it meets the concept of aging. Bodies in Translation: Aging and Creativity is an exhibition at Halifax’s Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery that takes this intersection as a premise. Curator Eliza Chandler, a professor in disability studies at Ryerson and former artistic director of Toronto’s Tangled Art + Disability Gallery, was well-versed in disability studies before this project — but less so in aging…

Inclusive workspace: Husky Energy shows off its universally-designed offices

October 25, 2017   |  Source: CBC- Canada

When Husky Energy was first planning its move into a new office building in downtown St. Johns, it made the decision to design a space that could be used by everyone. The company availed of universal design — creating an area that’s usable by all, regardless of age, size, or ability — for its 100,000 square feet of office space at 351 Water Street. “We’re very lucky. We had a new space to work within, so that makes a huge difference,” said Margaret Allan, Husky Energy’s manager of administration and regulatory affairs. “You’re starting with a kind of blank slate, so you have lots of opportunity to get things right.”…

Vaporum’s Little Puzzles Cause Big Accessibility Issues

October 25, 2017   |  Source: GameSpew- UK

If you’ve played Legend of Grimrock, sitting down with Vaporum will practically be second nature. It utilises a tile-based movement system with real-time combat, and focuses on exploration, puzzle solving, monster fighting, and loot collecting. Key differences include a streamlining of combat (spells can be cast with hotkeys instead of inputting specific ruin combinations), the removal of parties (you’re all on your own here), and a switch to a steampunk setting. The latter of those is what really makes Vaporum stand out, with its mechanical arachnids, steam-powered suits of armour, and decidedly old-school weaponry…

Disability tech goes mainstream

October 25, 2017   |  Source: Financial Times- UK

Buried in the settings of an iPhone are a range of functions that go unnoticed by many users. These powerful features are designed for partially sighted people but are of value to a much wider group.The “accessibility” controls — and their equivalents on other smartphones — include making characters bold, inverting the colours of the text and background, enhancing brightness and zooming on screen to ease readability. They are among a range of “assistive technologies” that are no longer just a costly afterthought but an integral element in the design of products — and one that has a broad impact on how they are used…

College supports for students with disability

October 26, 2017   |  Source: Galway Advertiser- Ireland

It is that time of year when students start to consider their options before the central applications system opens in November. It may be particularly worrying for students with disabilities as they question their suitability for certain courses based on what they feel may be a restriction. They may also feel they might be more successful in securing a college place if they hide their disability. This could not be further from the truth. The DARE programme, which stands for Disability Access Route Education, is one access scheme designed to assist school-leavers who may face some barriers to participating in higher level education…

Accepting disability and becoming a disabled parent

October 26, 2017  |  Source: Disability Horizons- UK

Being a parent is never easy, let alone if you have a disability to contend with as well. But that hasn’t stopped Rebecca Brown. She has suffered from cardiomyopathy and kidney failure, and just after giving birth, she was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. It wasn’t easy, but she’s incredibly proud of how her daughter has developed, in part, because of her disability. I would describe myself as a mum, wife, advocacy officer for Muscular Dystrophy UK and, lastly, disabled. The first experience I had of what it is like to be disabled was at the age of 15 when I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy…

Implementation of the rights of persons with Disabilities Act 2016

October 26, 2017   |  Source: Lexology- India

The passage of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (the Act) and subsequent notification of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017 (the Rules) is intended to bring Indian legislation in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The Act and the Rules replace the 1995 legislation and introduce substantial changes to rights and protections of people with disabilities. Employers should take note of the changes in order to avoid falling foul of the provisions, most significantly because private establishments must now observe the requirements in respect of their employees…

Canadian universities sign off on pledge for greater diversity, accessibility

October 26, 2017   |  Source: CTV News- Canada

Canadian universities have done a great job making their campuses more accessible for students with disabilities, but now have to turn more attention to helping those students get jobs, one of Canada’s leading disability advocates told a room full of university presidents Wednesday. Rick Hansen, a former paralympian whose foundation is devoted to making the world a more accessible place, spoke to the presidents in Ottawa on Wednesday, just before they voted to make a public commitment to seven principles of diversity…

Deadline for 2017 AODA Compliance Report is Coming Up

October 26, 2017   |  Source: Lexology- Canada

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (“AODA”) mandates that businesses and not-for-profit organizations with at least 20 employees in Ontario file a compliance report once every three years. Accessibility reports must be filed by a director, senior officer, or another “responsible person with authority to bind the organization.” Failure to file a compliance report on time and failure to have the right person file the report can result in a monetary penalty being imposed against the organization. The last compliance reporting deadline for businesses and not-for-profit organizations was on December 31, 2014, which means that the next deadline, December 31, 2017, is fast approaching…

Numbers at third-level with disabilities triples over a decade

October 26, 2017   |  Source: Irish Times- Ireland

The number students with disabilities in third-level or further education has more than tripled in a decade, new research shows. The dramatic increase is linked to more than €70 million which has been spent on improving access and supports for vulnerable students. However, funding per individual students has dropped by about a third in that time as resources have not kept pace with the growth in student numbers. The numbers of people with disabilities attending third level or higher education have grown from 3,800 in 2008 to more than 12,000 students this year…

Accessibility Resources

Accessibility Blogs & Information

Accessibility Pages

Accessibility Announcements & Products

Accessibility Q&A & Tips

Microassist Digital Accessibility Services

Microassist Accessibility Services

Our digital and web accessibility services cover
Accessible Elearning Development — Does your online training reach all learners, whether they’re your employees, resellers, students? Let us help you design effective, engaging training that works for everyone.
Accessible Website and Application Development — An inaccessible website or application is increasingly seen as violating the ADA. Let’s talk about creating an online presence that reaches all your customers and reduces your litigation risk.
Audit and Testing Services — A thorough accessibility audit against recognized accessibility standards will show you where you may be under-serving your customers and putting your organization at risk.
Accessible Document Services — Digital assets such as Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, and audio and video files need to be accessible to individuals with disabilities, too. We can help you establish creation processes or remediate historical documents so that they meet accessibility standards and are usable by people with disabilities.
Remediation Services — Whether for a time-sensitive response to a legal action, or for proactive remediation, we can fix what doesn’t meet accessibility standards.
Accessibility Training — Contact us to get your teams introduced and informed about accessibility best practices.

Please contact us for any questions you have about our accessibility services and how we might support your organization.

Digital Accessibility Digest

One of our three industry blogs, Microassist’s Digital Accessibility Digest is the “umbrella” for much of our accessibility content. It features commentary, guidance, curated news, and event information.Accessibility in the News is a regular feature of the Digital Accessibility Digest.

To receive Accessibility in the News in your inbox, before it hits our website, subscribe below. As a bonus, the newsletter version also includes information on upcoming conferences, training opportunities, and resources.


Subscribe to Accessibility in the News

Stay informed! Get your weekly update on digital accessibility standards, private and public sector trends, litigation, events, and more.

Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

MENU