Accessibility in the News — 5/8/2020.
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“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother”
– Abraham Lincoln
Feature Stories
Curve Flattens’ for ADA Website-Accessibility Lawsuit Filings, Seyfarth Report Says
May 6, 2020 | Source: Law.com
After explosive growth in the number of American with Disabilities Act website-accessibility lawsuits launched in 2018, it appears that the once-rising tide of litigation has leveled off, according to Am Law 100 firm Seyfarth Shaw. In 2019, there were 2,256 ADA website-accessibility lawsuits filed in the nation’s federal courts, as compared with just two more (2,258) in 2018, according to Seyfarth labor and employment partners Minh Vu and Kristina Launey, who keep a tally of various ADA suits lodged by the federal courts and who blog about their findings…
National News (U.S.)
How Colleges Can Improve Accessibility In Remote Courses
April 30, 2020 | Source: EdSurge
Colleges have long had offices designed to support students who have learning disabilities and to encourage broader accessibility in the classroom and beyond. But now that so many students are taking courses remotely, in improvised environments that may not be especially conducive to learning, it may take some extra effort to redesign instruction, assignments and assessments to address everyone’s needs. After all, “it’s not just enough to put materials in Blackboard if it’s not going to be accessible,” says Jennifer Albat, instructional designer at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville…
Luria calls on House leadership to hold floor vote on bill to help disabled veterans
May 1, 2020 | Source: Augusta Free Press & Representative Elaine Luria- House.gov
Congresswoman Elaine Luria, D-Va., is urging House leaders to bring the Department of Veterans Affairs Website Accessibility Act to the floor for a vote in order to ensure disabled veterans have access to the benefits they have earned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Website Accessibility Act (S. 746) is the Senate companion bill to Congresswoman’s Luria’s VA Website Accessibility Act of 2019 (H.R. 1199), which passed the House in October 2019…
Before coronavirus, workers with disabilities say they implored employers to allow them to work from home
May 1, 2020 | Source: MarketWatch
Robert Kingett, a 30-year-old freelance writer, author and accessibility consultant in Chicago, Ill., is blind. He also has cerebral palsy, which makes standing for long periods of time difficult. But Kingett has had trouble finding jobs where he can work remotely, he said, because positions like editor gigs or internships would be only partially remote — for example, still requiring applicants to attend on-site meetings. “When I was applying for internships, I was told that I could never work remotely, even if it was for a publishing internship position in the editorial department,” Kingett told MarketWatch in an email…
508 Compliance: Ensuring Technology Follows the Law and Meets All Students’ Needs
May 1, 2020 | Source: School Library Journal
Target, Seattle Public Schools, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and Domino’s Pizza have something significant in common. All have been sued for having websites or digital tools that are not accessible for individuals with disabilities. In recent years, hundreds of similar cases have been part of a rising tide of web accessibility litigation. In 2018, more than 2,200 such cases were filed in federal court, according to data from Courthouse News Service. That nearly tripled the 814 cases filed in 2017…
Michigan’s blind voters to get electronic absentee ballots for May 5 local elections
May 2, 2020 | Source: MLive
The Michigan Secretary of State office has agreed to provide absentee electronic ballots to the state’s blind residents to temporarily resolve an accessibility complaint filed as the coronavirus crisis continues. The National Federation of the Blind of Michigan filed a lawsuit, claiming the Secretary of State and Michigan Bureau of Elections had failed to provide accessible absentee ballots for the blind. As a temporary solution, the state has agreed to give blind voters the option of receiving a Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting (UOCAVA) ballot for the Tuesday, May 5, local elections…
Candidates rap Arlington school system on accessibility issues
May 4, 2020 | Source: Inside NoVA
Arlington Public Schools needs to do a better job of designing facilities that provide improved accessibility, candidates for School Board say, and should go well beyond consideration of physical disabilities in its design process. “Unfortunately, accessibility issues have been longstanding in APS, particularly when new or redesigned schools open,” said Steven Krieger, one of five candidates seeking the Democratic endorsement for two open School Board seats…
Toward More Accessible Work Environments
May 5, 2020 | Source: Society of Women Engineers
Experts say they can see both potential upsides and downsides to workplace policies put into practice in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Lessons from this experience could help advance greater accessibility, if properly applied and expanded upon. Yet disability activist and leader Rebecca Cokley said she wouldn’t count on “this sudden awakening” of employers to flexible work arrangements. Indeed, she is concerned that employers will perceive telework and interactive technologies as a way to avoid complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act after the coronavirus crisis ends…
What to Do (Online) This Week: A Filmmaker Examines Debt, Dependency, and Disability
May 5, 2020 | Source: Hyperallergic
“In learning to make a film, students are taught to show rather than tell,” artist Jordan Lord explains in voiceover in After… After… (Access) (2018). In the film, MRI images of Lord’s heart pulse and morph on the screen like a morbid screensaver, as they expand on this crucial point, noting “this conventional wisdom that filmmaking is an act of showing underestimates the performative capacity of telling.” In this film and others, Lord privileges methods geared toward accessibility (including the act of telling) within the very structure of their work…
Inaccessible Coronavirus Information Excludes Impairment Communities
May 6, 2020 | Source: Forbes
The absence of a sign language interpreter at key televised coronavirus briefings last week resulted in legal proceedings being brought against the office of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as the U.K government. Both cases highlight common misconceptions about how some people with hearing loss absorb information but equally, whose responsibility it is to provide it in an accessible format. The limitations of merely offering closed captioning subtitles are one such example…
“We have a unique opportunity to design and implement more inclusive and accessible societies”
May 6, 2020 | Source: UN News & Outlook & The Rahnuma Daily
The COVID-19 crisis is affecting every aspect of our societies, revealing the extent of exclusion that the most marginalized members of society experience. Today, I would like to highlight how the pandemic is affecting the world’s 1 billion people with disabilities. Even under normal circumstances, persons with disabilities are less likely to access education, healthcare and income opportunities or participate in the community. This is exacerbated for those in humanitarian and fragile contexts…
Masks Make Communication Difficult For The Hard-Of-Hearing; Check Out Our Digital And Practical Tips
May 7, 2020 | Source: PBS39/WLVT
For people who have hearing loss, communicating with a person wearing a face mask can be challenging. ”When people are wearing masks it eliminates some of the acoustic cues that we use to understand what people are saying,” explained Lindsay Bondurant, an audiologist and director of the Pennsylvania Ear Institute at Salus University. She says many people rely on lip reading to communicate. ”I think people don’t realize how much we all rely on those facial cues,” said Bondurant…
Researchers Use Computer Chip In Patient’s Brain To Restore Sense Of Touch After Spinal Cord Injury
May 6, 2020 | Source: Study Finds
A scientific breakthrough has given a man in Ohio the chance to reclaim a major part of his life after a devastating injury. Ian Burkhart suffered a severe spinal cord injury in 2010 while on vacation from Ohio University. He dove into a wave and struck an unseen sandbar that paralyzed him instantly. Since 2014, researchers at the nonprofit, Battelle, and the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have been working on new technologies to help restore the use of Burkhart’s right arm…
Study using human brain tissue shows herpes link to Alzheimer’s
May 6, 2020 | Source: STAT
A small 3D version of the human brain develops key features of Alzheimer’s disease when it is infected with a virus that causes cold sores, scientists reported on Wednesday, adding to the evidence that this most common form of dementia can be caused by a common microbe. The new research, published in Science Advances, is the first to directly show in a lab model (rather than through circumstantial evidence from human studies) that the herpes simplex virus HSV-1 might cause Alzheimer’s…
Student has received more than 20000 requests for the mask she developed for deaf, hard of hearing
May 7, 2020 | Source: KPAX-TV
At the end of March, a Kentucky college senior started sewing masks for the deaf and hard of hearing community while in quarantine. Now her mission extends beyond shipping fabric and elastic. Ashley Lawrence, a senior at Eastern Kentucky University, began making coronavirus masks with a clear window to make it easier for those who communicate American Sign Language to talk to others. Her story touched millions during a time when a historic pandemic is uniting the world…
Jack Fact — The WHO estimates that approximately 466 million people live with disabling hearing loss; of these, 34 million are children. In addition, 1.1 billion young people are at risk of hearing loss due to exposure to noise in recreational settings and through personal audio devices.
International News
Zayed Higher Organisation, Microsoft to accelerate remote learning
April 30, 2020 | Source: Gulf Digital News- United Arab Emirates
Zayed Higher Organisation for People of Determination (ZHO) on Thursday signed an agreement with Microsoft to enhance its remote learning initiative and ensure continuity in education, the development of skills and social empowerment of people with disabilities. The ZHO has adopted Microsoft Teams as its unified communications platform for teachers to communicate with students and engage them in various activities, including performing practical exercises, assistive reading and writing, as well as equipping them with interpersonal and self-reliance skills…
Akshay Kumar’s tribute song to COVID-19 healthcare workers now accessible to deaf people
May 1, 2020 | Source: NewzHook- India
Bollywood star Akshay Kumar is moved and touched by the gesture made by Sai Swayam Society to dedicate his hit song Teri Mitti to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Teri Mitti, the hit song from Akshay Kumar’s blockbuster hit Kesari was released recently with new words to pay a tribute to the healthcare workers who are fighting to keep us safe from COVID-19. The song is has been made accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people by Sai Swayam Society, a organisation dedicated to empowering the people with hearing disabilities…
People with visual impairments struggling to access essentials during coronavirus restrictions
May 1, 2020 | Source: Globalnews- Canada
According to the CNIB Foundation of New Brunswick, residents with visual impairments are struggling to navigate their communities amid coronavirus restrictions. Christine Kennedy-Babineau, the program and resource development manager for CNIB New Brunswick, said some of the changes that have been made at grocery stores are presenting a challenge for people with vision loss. “Now we have lines where you are supposed to go to line up and arrows directing traffic flow through stores and someone with sight loss who is blind or partially sighted isn’t able to see them,” Kennedy-Babineau said…
COVID-19 tracing app needs to be accessible for people with disability
May 1, 2020 | Source: Disability Support Guide- Australia
Australians across the country are being encouraged to download an app to their smartphones to help trace the spread of COVID-19, however the accessibility of the app and unreliable internet access to download could be an issue for people with disability. COVIDSafe has been launched by the Australian Government to help understand and trace the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia. When COVIDSafe is installed and Bluetooth sharing is turned on, it is able to recognise other devices that have the app installed…
Mandatory Aarogya Setu app not accessible to persons with disabilities
May 3, 2020 | Source: The Hindu- India & Hindustan Times
The government’s Aarogya Setu app to track COVID-19 cases was not accessible to persons with disabilities (PwD), particularly those with hearing and visual impairment, the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has informed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the app developer, the National Informatics Centre (NIC). While using the app was earlier voluntary, downloading has been made mandatory for all government staff by the Department of Personnel and Training through an order on April 29 and for all employees in the public and private sector through a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) order on Friday…
COVID-19: Disability group calls for active participation
May 3, 2020 | Source: The Punch- Nigeria
The Centre for Infrastructural and Technological Advancement for the Blind has lamented the non-involvement of representatives from each disability group as part of the government’s committee since the beginning of the CoronaVirus Pandemic. The chairman of the group, Jolomi Fenemigho, in a press statement signed by the organisation’s media officer, George James, lamented the unavailability of disabled stakeholders from all the disability clusters as part of the government’s committee during these difficult times…
This startup seeks to change vision care for the rural poor with affordable eyeglasses
May 3, 2020 | Source: Your Story- India
Most of the rural population in India cannot afford quality eyeglasses. While brands like Lenskart and Ben Franklin serve urban centres, rural markets do not have access to decent eyewear. To address the gap of improving accessibility of affordable eyeglasses across Tier II, Tier III, and Tier IV cities and towns, Shivi Singh and Saurabh Dayal started ClearDekho in December 2016. It is a budget eyewear brand, which blends both online and offline shopping experiences to provide standardised and consistent affordable optical solutions to consumers…
City urged to think about people with disabilities in CurbTO plan to create space on sidewalks
May 3, 2020 | Source: CBC- Canada
An advocate is urging the City of Toronto to make sure its plan to ease sidewalk crowding takes into consideration the needs of people with disabilities amid COVID-19. David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, said the new CurbTO program, in which the city will make room for pedestrians and delivery drivers through the creation of “curb lane pedestrian zones” and “temporary parking pickup zones,” is a good one. The alliance is a consumer advocacy group…
Israel To Make Meoras HaMachpela Wheelchair Accessible
May 4, 2020 | Source: Yeshiva World News- Israel
In a move that will cause the appropriation of land from the Palestinian run municipality of Hebron, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett approved the construction of an elevator that will make the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron accessible to individuals with physical impairments, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Under the terms of the 1997 Hebron agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, such construction requires the approval of the Hebron Municipality even though the site of the Tomb of the Patriarchs itself is under the auspices of the IDF…
Fighting Covid-19: Let’s leave no one behind
May 4, 2020 | Source: Daily Monitor- Uganda
The Equal Opportunities Commission is mandated to give effect to the State’s constitutional mandate to eliminate discrimination and inequalities in all spheres of life, be it political, economic, social or cultural, against any individual or group of persons and take affirmative action in favour of groups marginalised for the purpose of redressing imbalances which exist against them. Amid the Covid-19 crisis, it is gratifying to see many people coming out to voluntarily render help to the vulnerable and support government in its primary role of keeping all citizens safe…
Scientists experiment with gene therapy for completely color-blind patients
May 4, 2020 | Source: ZME Science- Germany
A tiny fraction of the population suffers from complete color blindness that renders them unable to distinguish otherwise vibrant colors. Now, doctors in Germany have run a trial with an experimental gene therapy that aims to correct the rare condition. Achromatopsia, or complete color blindness, is a condition characterized by the total absence of color vision. This is due to defects in the cone cells — specialized light receptors in the retina that are responsible for both daylight and color vision…
Special needs students face hurdles in e-learning
May 6, 2020 | Source: New Straits Times- Malaysia
The abrupt shift to virtual classrooms may be daunting for university students with special needs due to lack of accessibility. Nghiem Dinh Dat, 36, a blind Masters in Public Policy student at Universiti Malaya’s International Institute of Public Policy and Management, said e-learning would be convenient in normal circumstances. However, he found that the current unstandardised implementation had left disabled students at a disadvantage. “Lecturers use different applications such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Skype. It can be difficult to adapt to each application as many are not accessible to blind students,” he said…
Minister criticised by government ‘disability champion’ over third access exemption
May 7, 2020 | Source: Daily News Service- UK
The government has been criticised by one of its own “disability champions” after it granted the transport industry its third temporary exemption from access laws, so it could continue to use inaccessible vehicles for rail replacement services. In December, it emerged that the government was allowing the industry to continue to use older buses and coaches for rail replacement purposes even if they did not comply with the Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) 2000…
COVID-19 Resources and Information
- Tech Review: Best Applications for Video Calls
- BlueJeans Accessibility Features for Meetings and Events
- Access Board Continues to Provide Services to the Public
- National Federation of the Blind Distance Education Resources
- Six ‘COVID-19’ Related E-Commerce UX Improvements to Make
- Coronavirus Cleaning Tips for Your Phone, Tablet and Other Devices
- Accessibility resources available for faculty transitioning to remote learning- Penn State
- Center retools to find accessible solutions for remote learning- Colorado State University
- 5 Tips For Successfully Engaging Yourself in an Online Course- CEOWORLD Magazine
- Unique COVID-19 awareness video combines Odissi dance moves with sign language- Newz Hook
- Office of the Texas Governor, Greg Abbott- Additional COVID-19 Executive Orders Available in ASL
- Accessibility of online classes a major issue for disabled students during lockdown, DEPwD intervenes
- Aarogya Setu app essential, says Centre. What about accessibility, ask disability rights groups- NewzHook
- 5 reasons why accessible ecommerce site design is crucial during COVID-19 lockdowns- DigitalCommerce360
- Redbirds Keep Thriving: The expansion of closed captions during the coronavirus pandemic- Illinois State University News
- How Post-Secondary Schools Should Examine Accessibility And Online Learning In Light Of The Covid-19 Pandemic- Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr
- Rehabilitation International (RI Global) Commission on Technology and Accessibility – Basic Recommendations for considering Persons with Disabilities during the COVID19 Pandemic
Accessibility Blogs and Information
- NFB-Newsline
- A Future Date- 25 YouTube Videos
- How to be a digital ally to the Deaf community- Sociable
- Benefits of online transcription software- VENTS Magazine
- Telling The Story, Better Accessibility Statements with ASPIRE
- The Digital Accessibility Legal Summit 2020: An Update Webinar (YouTube)
- Student Senate passes resolutions regarding accessibility- The Scout
- “As a visually impaired woman, I navigate two worlds.”–Payal Kapoor
- Accessibility best practices for screenreader testing- Sheri Byrne-Haber
- Restaurant website accessibility falls short at a critical time- Karl Groves
- Captions in video calls: better accessibility, but harmful side effects- Quinn Keast
- How Sheltering in Place Shows Us a More Accessible World- School Library Journal
- Accessibility—Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing it in an Android App- Polidea
- 6 ways to stay fit and healthy during lockdown if you’re disabled- Disability Horizons
- Don’t just design accessible products, build accessible experiences- Sheri Byrne-Haber
- Viewpoint: Then and Now: Personal Reflections on Accessibility- Society of Women Engineers
- How accessible is your parish?- What does a parish that includes all people look like?- U.S. Catholic
- Electronic Information Technology (“EIT”) Accessibility Compliance- Youngstown State University
- Challenges with Accessibility Guidelines Conformance and Testing, and Approaches for Mitigating Them
- “Work Is for Everyone” Normalizes an Accessible, Inclusive Work Environment When It Matters Most- Life Pulse Health
- Rehabilitation Council of Texas and Texas Workforce Solutions Vocational Rehabilitation Services to host Virtual Town Hall Series
- Challenges with Accessibility Guidelines Conformance and Testing, and Approaches for Mitigating Them- W3C First Public Working Draft 01 May 2020
Accessibility Announcements and Products
- Accessible Travel News
- Free Online Consultation for Deaf Patients
- Announcing the first annual Thatcher Prize
- RNIB relaunches accessible library platform
- Introducing Lighthouse: Rappler’s new platform
- Announcing the first WordPress Accessibility Day!
- Celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day with GDS
- Chrome 83 DevTools Emulates Vision Deficiencies and Locales
- Deque Introduces Automated Source Code Accessibility Checker
- $25K project to improve accessibility, scenery on Heart of Ohio Trail
- Deque Unifies Accessibility Software Offerings Under The Axe Brand
- Apple promotes accessibility tech with dedicated Apple Care team, app curation
- Google announces Web Vitals, user experience and performance metrics for websites
- Apple is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day with a host of apps and features
- AudioEye Sets First Quarter 2020 Earnings Call for Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 4:30 p.m. ET
- Audioeye, Inc. (AEYE) May Report Negative Earnings: Know the Trend Ahead of Q1 Release
- Video Platform Leader Simplifies Transcript Editing to Improve Online Learning and Accessibility
- UW team imagines a better Parkinson’s test, lands in global finals for Microsoft student competition
- Wheelers Accessible Van Rental offering FREE one day rentals to disabled vets and wheelchair users
Accessibility Forums, Tips, and Gaming
- Color Contrast
- Design Accessibly
- Windows accessibility help
- Best smartphones for the elderly
- 5 Accessible Home Design Ideas
- How to use text-to-speech on Discord
- How to Test the Usability of Documents
- 5 tips to make your website more accessible
- Accessibility issues from Google Lighthouse
- April 2020 (version 1.45)- Visual Studio Code
- Secret things you might not know your iPhone can do
- Wheelchair Safety Tips for Riding in an Accessible Van
- How to make the phone read aloud the content on the screen
- Xamarin.Forms 101: Accessibility using Automation Properties
- Google Drive for iOS gains Touch ID and Face ID authentication
- One of the best Android features is coming to Mac and Windows
- Jedi: Fallen Order Improves Accessibility Through Free Content Patch
- Live Captions are coming to Google Chrome as flag appears in Canary
- SpecialEffect is helping people with physical disabilities play the games they love
- Here’s how you can type your questions and requests to Siri instead of speaking them aloud
Accessibility Statements
- EA
- Taoti
- Financial Times
- Reason Foundation
- Emerald Publishing
- NXP Semiconductors
- Portland State University
- University of Eastern Finland
- San Francisco Unified School District
- Northeast Organic Farming Association
Microassist Digital Accessibility Services
Have you received an accessibility demand letter because of your website or application? Please contact us for any questions you have about our accessibility services and how we might support your organization.
Services include:
- Accessible Website and Application Development— We rely heavily on accessibility best practices and using HTML5 and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) standards to build WCAG-compliant and human-tested accessible environments. Our teams are proficient in open source technologies such as WordPress, Drupal and Moodle, as well as custom frameworks in .NET, PHP, AngularJS, and other frameworks. Our Learning and Development team can also help you create accessible custom training.
- Accessible Document Services— Whether you’re dealing with a few or a warehouse of Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, or other files, there are several ways Microassist can enable your team to offer documents and materials that meet stringent accessibility standards.
- Accessibility Remediation— Our accessibility remediation services help you fix existing materials so that they conform to WCAG, Section 504 and 508, Department of Education OCR, and ADA Title II/III requirements. We remediate websites, applications, documents, and elearning, recommending re-creation when that is more efficient and economical. Especially for website and applications, to find out what is in need of remediation, we’ll start with an Accessibility Audit.
- Accessibility Training— With several courses available for developers, testers, and content creators, your team can become equipped to consistently and expertly produce accessible digital products and online environments.
- VPAT®Evaluation Services— Primarily used by government purchasers and government vendors during the procurement and sale of ICT products and services under Section 508, a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template® (VPAT) attests to the accessibility of a given product or service. Contact us to make sure the VPAT you write or review is accurate and meaningful.
Learn More About Digital Accessibility
Our Digital Accessibility Digest blog covers our Accessibility in the News archives as well as expert commentaries on digital accessibility issues.
Our most popular commentaries include:
- The WCAG 2.1 Update: A Brief Look at What’s Changed
- Introducing VPAT®0, the More Stringent Accessibility Reporting Tool Required for Government IT Procurement
- Accessibility in the News, Legal Edition: Updates on ADA Title III News and More
- What Lawyers Need to Know: A Primer on Digital Accessibility Terms and Today’s Legal Landscape
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