Accessibility in the News — 12/20/19.

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― Helen Keller

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Feature Stories

Savannah Ballet Makes The Nutcracker Accessible

December 12, 2019 | Source: Georgia Public Broadcasting

For many, the Nutcracker is a staple of the holiday season. And with good reason. It’s a fantasia of color and sound and, of course, dance. But for some, all of that can be a bit much. That’s why one Georgia ballet company has made the Nutcracker accessible to all. If you’ve ever seen the Nutcracker, live or on TV, you know it’s quite the spectacle. Dancers leap through the air, candy and toys come to life: it’s meant to dazzle. But for many with special needs, dazzle can turn into sensory overload…

Malls opening early for kids with autism

December 12, 2019 | Source: CBS News (video)

During the busy holiday shopping season, malls can get crowded and loud – and to some kids, that can be overwhelming. So, two organizations are teaming up to make visiting Santa at the mall a more pleasant experience…

How To Make Your Holidays More Accessible

December 13, 2019 | Source: Forbes

The year-end holiday season is a complex time for people with disabilities, and for their family and friends. It’s a time for celebration, sharing, and togetherness that can provide a break from everyday cares and strengthen supportive bonds. At the same time, the holidays bring disabled and non-disabled people together in more extensive and sometimes demanding ways that can put inclusive values and good intentions to the test. Amid all the joy and celebrations, familiar routines and coping mechanisms are disrupted…

Holiday hackathon makes toys accessible for children with disabilities

December 17, 2019 | Source: Arizona State University

Two local robotics teams just made the holidays more accessible for 20 local children who face challenges manipulating interactive toys. Arizona State University’s Desert WAVE and a high school team from Chandler, Arizona, called Degrees of Freedom, joined forces last weekend at CREATE at the Arizona Science Center, to “hack” toys for children with disabilities. Both teams were founded by the local Si Se Puede Foundation. “When I look at the kids that we are able to help, I see just that: kids,” said Desert WAVE member Jessica Dirks, an ASU sophomore with a double major in human systems engineering and robotics…

National News (U.S.)

Screens in the Classroom: Tool or Temptation?

December 11, 2019 | Source: The New York Times

Karen Huxtable-Jester, who teaches in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, knows technology’s distractible downside. Once, while observing a lecture, Professor Huxtable-Jester discovered that a group of students had been watching a movie instead of their instructor. “In years past, I was fully on board with the idea of banning technology use in my classes,” she said, making exceptions for students with disabilities who needed help. Over time, though, she became more flexible: “Every now and then, I could say, ‘Can we look something up?’”

DOJ investigating allegations of ‘sexual arousal studies’ at Iowa facility for people with disabilities

December 12, 2019 | Source: Des Moines Register

The federal government is investigating allegations of “sexual arousal studies” and other human subject experiments being conducted at a state institution where people with severe intellectual disabilities receive care, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services. Matt Highland, spokesman at the state agency, told the Des Moines Register that part of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Glenwood Resource Center is related to such studies. He declined to specify more about what that means…

Children’s Museum is improving access for kids with disabilities

December 14, 2019 | Source: Santa Fe New Mexican

I hadn’t been to the Santa Fe Children’s Museum in over 20 years, when my kids would spend hours there exploring and playing. I recently walked through the museum with Susan Lynn, the executive director, and staff members Leona Hillary and Hector Solis to learn about its efforts to serve children with disabilities and to recommend improvements. “The Santa Fe Children’s Museum is based on a simple idea: Children learn by doing, and we want to make sure that every child has the same opportunities to be involved,” Lynn said…

The blind woman developing tech for the good of others

December 14, 2019 | Source: Denton Daily

An accident in a swimming pool left Chieko Asakawa blind at the age of 14. For the past three decades she‘s worked to create technology – now with a big focus on artificial intelligence (AI) – to transform life for the visually impaired. “When I started out there was no assistive technology,” Japanese-born Dr Asakawa says. “I couldn‘t read any information by myself. I couldn‘t go anywhere by myself.” Those “painful experiences” set her on a path of learning that began with a computer science course for blind people, and a job at IBM soon followed…

A tweet gave a journalist a seizure. His case brings new meaning to the idea of ‘online assault.’

December 16, 2019 | Source: The Washington Post

Kurt Eichenwald sat down at the desk in his Dallas home office and logged onto Twitter. The prominent journalist and author was used to Internet invective — especially then, in the weeks after he posted a particularly inflammatory tweet about President Trump. More than 170 notifications awaited him when he signed on that evening, Dec. 15, 2016. But he didn’t make it past the first one: A GIF that strobed violently across his computer screen, flashing a red, yellow and blue geometric pattern behind the words “YOU DESERVE A SEIZURE FOR YOUR POSTS.”…

Transportation Department Looks To Increase Airline Accessibility

December 17, 2019 | Source: Disability Scoop & PaxEx.Aero & Fox Business & The Sun & Holland & Knight

Airlines would be required to improve accessibility for travelers with disabilities on more of their planes under a new federal proposal. The U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking public comment on a plan calling for all new, single-aisle aircraft to feature accessible lavatories. Current rules only mandate accessible restrooms on planes with more than one aisle. But the federal agency said that single-aisle aircraft are increasingly being used on long-haul flights…

Smart Ass Cripple: Who Needs Wheelchair-Accessible Cabs?

December 17, 2019 | Source: The Progressive

Here’s a quiz. (Don’t worry if you didn’t study. It’s only one question and it’s worth zero points toward your final grade). Anyway, who said the following stupid thing as a rationale for not putting wheelchair-accessible taxi cabs on the streets of New York City? “A lot of drivers say the passengers sit too far away and so they can’t have a good dialogue and they get lower tips.”…

Compliance warning on ADA laws as tire dealers sued

December 17, 2019 | Source: Traction News

Tire dealers across the US are being targeted for lawsuits under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and must take action to make their websites compliant immediately, experts warn. Traction News understands that tire dealers have been targeted with claims for tens of thousands of dollars from lawyers acting on behalf of legally blind clients, demanding they settle or face court proceedings likely to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars…

Shannon Finnegan Discusses Access And Public Space With Architecture Historian Aimi Hamraie

December 17, 2019 | Source: Art in America

Nearly thirty years after the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed, accessibility for disabled people both online and in public space remains severely insufficient. New York artist Shannon Finnegan and design historian Aimi Hamraie, who currently resides in Nashville, held a video chat on October 9 to discuss their respective artistic, activist, and historical takes on disability justice. Hamraie’s book Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability asks who counts as “everyone” according to architects of the Universal Design movement, which began in the late twentieth century…

Newtown restaurant settles ADA complaint

December 17, 2019 | Source: Danbury News Times & Daily Voice

A Newtown restaurant has agreed to provide accessible dining tables throughout the establishment as part of a settlement with the U.S Attorney’s Office in Connecticut, officials said Tuesday. The office announced the agreement with Market Place Kitchen & Bar in Newtown and its landlord, Mesa Contractors, to resolve allegations that the eatery and its premises did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. An individual with disabilities filed a complaint alleging that the Market Place was not fully accessible for individuals with physical disabilities…

New signage could make Seattle more accessible for pedestrians with disabilities

December 19, 2019 | Source: Crosscut

Most days, Anna Zivarts relies on Google Maps to get her where she needs to be. She has low vision, which in her case means that she can’t easily detect motion or see details like street signs, so she can’t drive. Instead, she navigates the city on foot and by bus. Sometimes she’s by herself, and sometimes she’s pushing her 3-year-old son in a stroller. But Google Maps alone isn’t always enough to make her journey easy. For example, some days when she’s with her son, her phone will guide her toward a long staircase that she can’t easily climb with a stroller in tow…

On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, disabled activists, allies demand elevators, not more subway cops

December 18, 2019 | Source: Workers World

The United Nations established the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Dec. 3, 1992, in a victory for the worldwide struggle of people with disabilities. IDPD has been celebrated around the planet to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of people with disabilities. For the fifth consecutive year, People’s Power Assemblies/NYC marked the IDPD with a Dec. 3 protest inside of Macy’s, which linked struggles for accessibility and against police repression in New York’s mass transit system…

Minding The (Age) Gap: Volunteer Drivers Make Transportation More Accessible To Suburban Seniors

December 19, 2019 | Source: WAMU

Janice Palmer’s world turned upside down this year. The active 66-year-old found out she had stage 4 cancer. Palmer is unable to drive herself to medical appointments after a recent fall. She’s lived with her brother in their childhood home in Arlington for the last 50 years. But even with family close, Palmer can’t rely on her brother for transportation because he also has medical issues that prevent him from driving. “We are having a really difficult time adjusting to this dependence on others,” Palmer says…

The Trouble With Accessibility

December 19, 2019 | Source: Forbes- Peter Slatin

The trouble with accessibility is that it’s still troublesome. Even though the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law almost 30 years ago, architects—who are among both the foot soldiers and grand schemers on the road to equality of access—still face push back from clients and their own uncertainty and annoyance about having to deal at all with this still intrusive subject. The 1990 passage of the ADA was the conclusion to a long, long period of exclusion and anonymity for people with disabilities…

Supervisors approve deaf-accessible warning system at Torrance Beach

December 19, 2019 | Source: Easy Reader News

An emergency evacuation system designed for hard-of-hearing beachgoers has gotten the green light from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, likely setting a Torrance Beach pilot program to be ready in time for the return of warm weather. On Tuesday, the Supervisors approved a pilot program for the Beach Emergency Evacuation Light System, or BEELS, at Torrance Beach. The project is budgeted for no more than $300,000, and is likely to be ready by late March…

This Ice Rink Is Accessible to All!

December 19, 2019 | Source: ABC7 News (Video)

Iceoplex in Simi Valley, in conjunction with the charitable organization, The Ark, hosts a day for special needs adults to come enjoy an ice skating show, as well as the ability to go onto the ice in their wheelchairs and a Santa sleigh. This is the fourth year that Iceoplex has partnered with The Ark of Ventura to host this event. The volunteers are young skaters who frequent the Iceoplex throughout the season. Theses skaters enjoyed sharing their love of skating with participants that have special needs because of the joy and excitement they express during the event…

A disability advocate explains the joys—and challenges—of navigating Atlanta

December 19, 2019 | Source: Atlanta Magazine

When I was nine years old, I was diagnosed with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, a disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness. My body breaks down my own skeletal muscle. Typically, it’s hereditary, but mine was caused by a spontaneous genetic mutation. I’m a special snowflake in that way. When someone tells you at nine years old that you’ll eventually need a wheelchair, it doesn’t compute. You look at yourself and you think, “I play soccer, I play basketball, I run. Is there really anything wrong with me?”…

Jack Fact — Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that more than one billion people live with some form of disability – about 15 percent of the world’s population.

Hit The Road Jack — The most wheelchair friendly cities in England to visit

International News

‘National accessibility standard’ for tourism accommodation likely, says Symmonds

December 12, 2019 | Source: Barbados Today

Hotels, guest houses and villas may soon be required to ensure their properties are fully accessible for people with disabilities, Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds hinted on Wednesday. He said changes could be coming to the “tremendous amount” of concessions being granted to the tourism industry. He made the suggestion while addressing the opening of the fourth Caribbean International Tourism Conference at the University of the West Indies (UWI) School for Graduate Studies and Research…

Targets missed, Accessible India campaign’s deadline extended

December 13, 2019 | Source: The Hindu- India

The deadline for the government’s Accessible India campaign that aims at making public spaces friendly for persons with disabilities has been extended due to “slow progress,” the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has informed the Lok Sabha. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishanpal Gurjar said “due to slow progress, revised deadlines have been extended to March 2020.” The decision was taken by the Central Advisory Board chaired by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot…

Statistics & studies show Telangana largely inaccessible for people with disabilities

December 13, 2019 | Source: NewzHook- India

A recent survey from the National Statistical Office (NSO) has revealed that Telangana remains largely inaccessible for people with disabilities. The state government had introduced many schemes and programmes for welfare of people with disabilities. Nothing has been implemented till date. Members from the community point out the injustice. The government of Telangana had promised an accessible and disabled friendly state ever since the state was formed in the year. Last year, the state welfare department and Election Commission of India assured accessible public spaces…

All prime time TV shows now have to be accessible. How Toronto could become a world leader in captioning and describing

December 13, 2019 | Source: The Star- Canada

As I mentioned in my column two weeks ago, it’s a Golden Age for TV and films. But it’s not so golden if a hearing or visual disability bars you from enjoying that content. So here’s some good news: Toronto is poised to be a Canadian, North American, and perhaps even global centre of excellence in narrowing the disability digital divide. Ryerson University’s School of Continuing Education is now offering a series of weekend courses beginning in January for those who want to learn or enhance their skills in inclusive media such as live closed captioning and audio description/described video…

Travelling with a wheelchair across Europe taught this family to expect the unexpected

December 13, 2019 | Source: ABC News- Europe

Another glorious day dawned, and Paris, with its magnificent boulevards, enticing aromas and intimate niches, glitteringly beckoned. We had dreamed of this day and travelled far to arrive at it. Right now though, we had a big problem. We — me, my husband Pete and our three teenage kids, Lewis, Poppy and Charlie — were stuck in our stuffy third-floor apartment with no way out. Stuck, because the sole lift had stopped working, and the steep spiral staircase wasn’t an option…

App helps blind and visually impaired navigate indoors

December 13, 2019 | Source: Brantford Expositor- Canada

New technology is helping people who are blind or partially sighted get around the city. Beacons that work in tandem with BlindSquare, a smartphone app, have recently been installed in several Brantford buildings. The system provides the user with navigational information on their phones about the layout of the space – for example, washrooms are at 10 o’clock, an information desk is at 3 o’clock, or the location of the stairs. Larissa Proctor, lead for accessible community development with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, helps municipalities install the technology…

Government Commits to Preserve Disabled People’s Rights, Ensure Integration

December 14, 2019 | Source: Morocco World News

The Minister of Solidarity, Social Development, Equality and the Family, Jamila El Moussali has presented the government’s actions and measures aimed to enable people with disabilities in accessing their fundamental rights in the fields of education and teaching. Speaking at a national meeting on the International Day of Disabled Persons, El Moussali said that the provision of support for the disabled in Morocco is dependent on the provision of know-how, training, and knowledge in the field…

Apple’s determination to make gadgets that work for everyone

December 14, 2019 | Source: Evening Standard- UK & Patently Apple & Industry Global News 24

As one of the world’s premier tech companies, Apple has a whole lot of people using its products around the world. Earlier this year, CEO Tim Cook confirmed there were in fact 1.4 billion active Apple devices, including iPhones, iPods, Macs, Watches and Apple TV – though about 900 million of these were the company’s smartphone. With all those devices being used across the world, it’s likely that some of those Apple gadget owners will be disabled…

Human Rights Commission wants privacy laws adjusted for an AI future

December 17, 2019 | Source: ZDNet- Australia

The Australian Human Rights Commission has called on the Australian government to modernise privacy and human rights laws to take into account the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as one of 29 proposals put forward in its Human Rights and Technology discussion paper. “We need to apply the foundational principles of our democracy, such as accountability and the rule of law, more effectively to the use and development of AI,” Human Rights commissioner Edward Santow wrote in his foreword in the discussion paper…

Only 20% of Czech train stations are wheelchair accessible

December 17, 2019 | Source: Expats.cz- Czech Republic

Only one fifth of railway stations in the Czech Republic, or 504 of them, are a least partly accessible to wheelchair users and generally the situation in railway transport is not good for these people, Ombudsman Anna Sabatova told a press conference today. She said there is no legal instrument to force the railway operators to make their services more accessible for people who are wheelchair-bound. She added that she would like to introduce such an instrument. “There is only a regulation saying that all railway carriages produced after 2008 must be accessible to these people,” Sabatova said…

Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act

December 17, 2019 | Source: The Review Newspaper- Canada

Accessibility is now hard-wired into everything the Town of Hawkesbury does. Council recently approved the town’s 2019-2024 Accessibility Plan. The new five-year plan was developed by the Municipal Accessibility Committee, chaired by Johanne Ménard, in collaboration with all municipal departments. The plan is to ensure compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the provincial law aimed at eliminating accessibility barriers to people with various physical, cognitive, and intellectual handicaps…

Everyone has a right to accessible transit in Toronto

December 17, 2019 | Source: Toronto.com- Canada

Transportation is an essential service for persons with disabilities. It helps us get to school where we learn skills to participate in our communities. It takes us to employment where we earn wages to help lift us out of poverty. It takes us to health-care providers who are crucial for health and disability services. Transportation assists us in accessing other important service providers, like Ontario Disability Support Plan workers or even shopping…

Leonard Cheshire calls for accessibility law as it lambasts lack of accessible rail stations

December 18, 2019 | Source: THIIS- UK & WalesOnline & CommonSpace

Despite significant investment being made available to improve the accessibility of rail stations across the UK, research by national charity Leonard Cheshire has found that 38 percent of train stations across Great Britain still do not have full step-free access. After reviewing 34 train operating companies, 29 of which are responsible for at least one train station, the charity says the government will significantly miss its 2030 target to make end-to-end journeys step-free at the current average rate of completion…

Obligation to ensure the digital world is inclusive

December 19, 2019 | Source: Otago Daily Times- New Zealand

What do you think about when you hear the word “accessibility”? Perhaps a lift or ramp springs to mind; braille, or special seats on the bus. Perhaps you think of disabled parking spaces, quiet hours at your local supermarket, or the chairlift that your grandmother uses. However, you probably don’t think of accessibility as you’re scrolling through Facebook or uploading your holiday pics to Instagram. But web accessibility is just as important as physical accessibility and is often overlooked when it comes to website design and social media use…

New North Korea law requires wheelchair accessibility, state media says

December 18, 2019 | Source: UPI- North Korea

North Korea has adopted a bill requiring all buildings to be wheelchair accessible, according to state media. North Korea said the law would improve facilities for the disabled, Pyongyang’s state-controlled news agency KCNA reported Wednesday. “Construction regulation standardizing barrier-free buildings has been adopted,” KCNA said. The report added, “A barrier-free environment is an environment in which people with disabilities can move around freely.”…

“Accessible to everyone”: How shopping centres serve people with special needs

December 19, 2019 | Source: Inside Retail- Australia

Shopping centres around the world are starting to make their properties more accessible for people with diverse needs by removing barriers and partnering with nonprofits. Recent years have seen shopping centres roll out Quiet Hours, when lighting and noise levels are adjusted for the needs of people with autism or sensory challenges, memory cafés, which cater to people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s, and apps that enable blind and the visually impaired to navigate their way around shopping centres…

Former Apple Staffer Sues Apple for inadequately supporting his Disability as required by Law

December 18, 2019 | Source: Patently Apple- Canada & Cult of Mac- Canada

As Apple opens a new ‘flagship’ store in Canada a 33-year-old person with a disability who was employed for more than eight years as an “Apple Genius” working at an Apple Inc. store in Ontario is claiming that he was dismissed by the computer giant because he requires a wheelchair and is suing for lost wages and damages. Robert Shaw alleges in a Statement of Claim that Apple repeatedly refused to work on an individual accommodation plan with him, opting instead to provide piecemeal solutions to his disability…

5,736 of the World’s Poorest People Received the Gift of Sight in 2019 at the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute

December 19, 2019 | Source: Yahoo- India

Tej Kohli Cornea Institute welcomed 56,083 outpatients in 2019 and completed 11,744 surgical procedures, largely at no cost. The Tej Kohli Foundation has committed another $14m of funding to end poverty blindness. This marks four-years of successful collaboration between the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad and the London-based Tej Kohli Foundation…

The EVOTION project: Preventing deafness and hearing loss

December 19, 2019 | Source: Open Access Government- EU

According to World Health Organization (WHO), as of today 466 million people across the globe have a disabling hearing loss, and by 2050 the number is predicted to rise to 900 million unless action is taken.1 In 2017, the WHO adopted a resolution on the prevention of deafness and hearing loss. This resolution calls upon the Member States to integrate strategies for ear and hearing care within the framework of their primary healthcare systems, under the umbrella of universal health coverage…

Early intervention helps hone speech abilities in hearing impaired children

December 20, 2019 | Source: The Hindu- India

Early identification of deafness and intervention would offer best chance of language, communication and speech abilities to children with hearing impairment. This was one of the aspects discussed at a two-day international conference organised in the city on Thursday. Hosted by Balavidyalaya, School for Young Deaf Children, the conference on ‘Parenting Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children’ aimed at creating awareness on early intervention in hearing impaired children and its advantage…

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