Accessibility in the News — 7/12/19.

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“It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”

― Muhammad Ali

National News (U.S.)

The Universal Page

July 2, 2019 | Source: 99% Invisible |

Reporter Andrew Leland has always loved to read. An early love of books in childhood eventually led to a job in publishing with McSweeney’s, where Andrew edited essays and interviews, laid out articles, and was trained to take as much care with the look and feel of the words as he did with the expression of the ideas in the text. But as much as Andrew loves print, he has a condition that will eventually change his relationship to it pretty radically. He’s going blind. And this fact has made him deeply curious about how blind people experience literature…

Fourth Circuit Says Inability To Get Information From Website, Without More, Is Not Enough To Establish Standing To Sue

July 3, 2019 | Source: Seyfarth Shaw |

Courts in the Fourth Circuit are taking a hard look at a plaintiffs’ standing in website accessibility cases. In a small but potentially important victory for defendants facing website accessibility lawsuits, the Fourth Circuit has issued two decisions upholding dismissal of lawsuits for lack of standing with a well-reasoned analysis that can be applied to the defense of other lawsuits…

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty reportedly sued over lack of access for visually-impaired customers

July 4, 2019 | Source: Revolt & HotNewHipHop |

Although The Navy believes that Rihanna can do no wrong, there are others who question that theory. According to a new report from The Blast, the Anti singer was hit with a lawsuit earlier today (July 4). A visually-impaired customer, Beatriz Gutierrez, filed a lawsuit against Fenty Beauty for lack of access for visually impaired customers. Gutierrez, who is visually-impaired and legally blind, states that the beauty website is not equipped to handle her needs. She further explains that Riri’s beauty company doesn’t utilize standard screen-reading technology…

How has Pinterest Upped its Game by Making it Accessible to Everyone

July 4, 2019 | Source: iLounge |

Pinterest is a great social media platform if you wish to reach out to the audience who can be visually appealed by your pins to be interested in your products and services but what about the others who are challenged visually or any other way? How would you reach out to those audiences? According to the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it has been clearly stated that modifications and adjustments need to be made in order to ensure that people with disability are able to enjoy on an equal basis without any discrimination…

United Nations’ Conference highlights importance of collaboration and innovation for disabled people

July 5, 2019 | Source: Disability Horizons |

Philip Hanks, Leonard Cheshire’s International Partnerships Manager, reflects on the charity’s participation at this year’s United Nation’s Conference of State Parties on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). When the CRPD was first adopted in 2006 it was encouraging to see organizations coming together with a common goal to ensure disabled people are given the same opportunities. While progress has been made since then, globally there is still a lot of work to be done…

Saving for a Future Complicated by the Loss of Sight and Sound

July 5, 2019 | Source: The New York Times |

Albert Rizzi gave up on trying to manage his nest egg because as a blind person, he encountered digital barriers constantly. Many of the websites, mobile apps, PDFs and software programs he needed were not accessible. Sometimes, they just didn’t work. So Mr. Rizzi, 55, the founder of My Blind Spot, an accessibility advocacy group in New York, filed a federal lawsuit in April 2018 against Morgan Stanley, the firm he uses to manage his personal retirement accounts…

Facebook’s Image Outage Reminds Us How Bad Social Media Accessibility Really Is

July 5, 2019 | Source: Forbes |

Facebook’s brief image outage earlier this week exposed the general public just how bad accessibly really is in our modern visual-first social Web. While most major social media platforms today offer some ability for users to provide ALT descriptive text for their images and videos, few users spend the time to write up accessible textual descriptions of their imagery. Instead, most ALT text on social platforms is automatically generated by deep learning algorithms that generate a comma-delimited set of metadata tags of major topics or activities depicted in the image…

Lawsuit claims MTA discriminates against disabled riders

July 6, 2019 | Source: Fox5NY (Video) |

The MTA has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that they discriminate against transit riders with disabilities. The non-profit group Disability Rights Advocates say that only about 24% of subway stations in New York City are accessible to the disabled, which they claim is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. “The MTA must acknowledge that accessibility must be a top priority,” Disability Rights Advocates said in a statement. “They can no longer continue to prioritize amenities like Wi-Fi and artwork over the ability of their customers with disabilities to ride the subway.”…

Stevie Wonder Announces Plans for Kidney Transplant Surgery: ‘I Have a Donor, It’s All Good’

July 6, 2019 | Source: People & CBS |

Stevie Wonder revealed he will be undergoing kidney transplant surgery this fall. The music icon, 69, made the announcement about his health during his performance at British Summer Time Festival in London on Saturday. “So what’s going to happen is this: I am going to have a kidney transplant in September of this year,” Wonder told fans in the audience. “I’m all good, I’m all good, all good,” the star said, reassuring the crowd about his condition. “I have a donor and it’s all good.”…

Why Do We Fix AI Bias But Ignore Accessibility Bias?

July 6, 2019 | Source: Forbes |

Silicon Valley has become obsessed with addressing AI bias. As deep learning algorithms have graduated from the academic research lab into the real world, there has become a growing awareness of the implications of their innate biases as their limited Western training data has collided spectacularly with a globalized digital world. Confronted with an increasingly skeptical public, relentless press coverage and growing policymaker interest, the deep learning community has responded with a wave of investments and initiatives focusing on how to address such bias…

New Report Shows Travel Industry is Failing People With Accessibility Requirements

July 8, 2019 | Source: Travel Pulse |

The travel industry is leaving vast segments of the global society behind. Activist travel company Responsible Travel has just issued the latest chapter of its manifesto for the future of tourism in which it details how the industry is failing travelers who have accessibility requirements. According to the newly released data, 1 in 7 people on the planet live with a disabling condition and more than 46 percent of people over 60 years old worldwide live with a disability…

Wheelchair users may soon have more chances to hail Lyft, Uber rides

July 9, 2019 | Source: San Francisco Chronicle & Engadget & SFGate |

First Transit Forms Partnership with Lyft for Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles

July 10, 2019 | Source: Virtual-Strategy Magazine & Mass Transit |

As Lyft and Uber became part of the nation’s transportation systems, people who use non-folding wheelchairs felt left on the sidelines because the cars couldn’t accommodate them. That’s slowly starting to change. The two San Francisco companies on July 1 began collecting 10 cents on every ride in California to go to an accessibility fund established by the California Public Utilities Commission. The agency has not yet said how and where that money will be allocated…

County looks to settle with serial litigator over ADA noncompliant website

July 9, 2019 | Source: Naples Daily News |

It is a “gotcha” situation and Collier County got got. “It is what it is,” County Attorney Jeff Klatzkow said ahead of his recommendation the county settle a lawsuit filed by a visually impaired Miami man over the county’s website. Juan Carlos Gil filed the suit in June, alleging that the county’s website is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act because not all the documents can be accessed by the blind. “Our site is not 100 percent ADA compliant,” Klatzkow acknowledges. “There isn’t a site in the country that’s 100 percent ADA compliant.”…

Lyft self-driving cars from Aptiv offer tactile maps, diagrams for blind riders

July 10, 2019 | Source: Mashable & Observer |

Aptiv’s self-driving cars on the Lyft ride-hailing network drove down the Las Vegas strip with blind and low-vision passengers along for the ride. For many of the riders, this was their first time in a self-driving vehicle of any sort. After three hours and about 50 demo rides in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind’s annual convention in Las Vegas, it was also a way to demonstrate how the blind and low-vision community can use robo-taxi services…

Loss of Vision Doesn’t Deter IT Student from his Master’s Goal

July 10, 2019 | Source: Southern New Hampshire University |

When Ricardo Scarello ‘19 crossed the stage to accept his diploma, his service dog Puck was by his side. Scarello didn’t just earn his master’s degree; he earned a Master of Science in Information Technology, by all accounts a challenging program for anyone, let alone someone that’s vision impaired. But he did it, online, and graduated with a 4.0, too. He credits Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) with “giving me the ability to be an equal to any other student” — and now, he’s using his skills and knowledge to allow others to experience the same through the work he does every day as a senior software developer…

Gene therapy gives people with inherited eye disease a new perspective on life

July 10, 2019 | Source: ABC Nightline |

For most of her life, Heather Hodlin’s eyesight would fade with the day. By nighttime, she was almost completely blind. Everything was clearer in the daytime, but still, she struggled — unable to see areas that were shaded by trees or buildings. She could see at night if the lights were on inside her home, but they remained fuzzy — she still couldn’t make out the features on her fiancé’s face or the color of his eyes. Regardless of the time of day, Hodlin, 25, used to have to tap her foot in front of her to prevent herself from falling or colliding with objects…

Preschool For Children With Disabilities Works. But Federal Funding For It Is Plummeting

July 10, 2019 | Source: Huffington Post |

Lindsey Eakin’s son Corbin was only six months old when she started to suspect something was wrong. Corbin, her third child, wasn’t babbling or cooing like his two older siblings had at his age and he was experiencing chronic, painful ear infections. His pediatrician at the time wasn’t concerned. But by the time he turned 1, Corbin wasn’t meeting developmental milestones in speech and Eakins was frustrated that nobody seemed to have answers for her…

“Just because discrimination is illegal, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen”

July 11, 2019 | Source: GamesIndustry.biz |

The games industry should lead by example when it comes to inclusivity and accessibility, according to producer, writer, and campaigner Felicia Prehn. Disabled people are disproportionately unemployed and face employment discrimination at much higher levels than the general population said Prehn, who is legally blind. But the games industry “has the ability to make a really big difference in the world, in a way that other industries really can’t.”…

Despite Americans with Disabilities Act, websites are often inaccessible to the impaired

July 11, 2019 | Source: Courier Journal |

Many of the headlines began the same way: “Blind man sues Playboy …” That’s page view gold for news websites. Stories breathlessly detailed Donald Nixon’s lawsuit claiming the Playboy website lacks compatibility with screen reading software, including “alt text” used for photo descriptions. That was in November 2018. Would the reaction have been the same if the lawsuit targeted websites with crucial public policy information? Take the websites for all of the 2020 presidential candidates, for example…

A Timeline of iOS Accessibility: It Started with 36 Seconds

July 11, 2019 | Source: MacStories |

On June 8, 2009, at the end of a two-hour WWDC keynote, Phil Schiller was running through a long list of new features and apps that would be available on the iPhone 3GS, due to ship on June 19 of that year. Phil was pinch-hitting as keynote master of ceremonies for Steve Jobs, who was then on leave, recovering from a liver transplant. At 1:51:54 in the video, just after he showed off Voice Control and the new Compass app, Apple’s version of the accessibility logo appeared on screen. It’s a stick-style figure with arms and legs outstretched. The icon is still used today…

Apple’s new Patent helps Users with Partial Blindness see the full Field of View

July 11, 2019 | Source: GIZMOCHINA |

When we say Augmented Reality, the first thing that comes to mind is AR Emojis or other similar application wherein a virtual object is placed in the real world. However, AR can have a number of other significant applications, and it looks like Apple is working on an important AR feature to help users with partial blindness see better. Many types of visual impairment result in partial blindness or obstruction in a person’s field of vision. These people can develop floaters or blind spots which obstructs a part of their vision…

Developing Treatments for Blindness: Gene Therapy Shown to Restructure Retinas

July 11, 2019 | Source: Interesting Engineering |

According to researchers, gene therapy is helping the retina to restructure itself, regain normal light responses and, ultimately regain vision in mice. A paper, published in JNeurosci, outlines the findings and supports the continued development of treatments for blindness designed around saving dying cells in retinas. Much like with the brain, it has been found that the retinas of our eyes retain a remarkable ability to change, on a cellular level, throughout our lives…

Deafness pushes dance student to pursue her art: ‘There’s always something that you can do’

July 11, 2019 | Source: Penn Live |

When Reva Nallani was 18 months old, her parents began to suspect that their daughter had a hearing problem. As an infant, Reva wouldn’t turn in response to voices, and as she grew older she didn’t make attempts to speak. Just before her second birthday, at a family gathering, Reva was close to a balloon that popped. The loud noise startled everyone, except for the young toddler. After being tested by a specialist, their suspicions were finally confirmed. Reva was diagnosed with auditory neuropathy, meaning she was functionally deaf…

Jack Fact —According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide suffer from some form of vision impairment.

Hit The Road Jack — 10 most accessible cities in Europe named

International News

Which council spends the most on adaptive equipment?

July 3, 2019 | Source: Access and Mobility Professional- England

Raft of small scale accessibility upgrades set for UK rail network

July 8, 2019 | Source: Access and Mobility Professional- UK & Rail Technology Magazine

Councils in the north of England spend the most on making accessibility adaptations to people’s homes while authorities in the south tend to spend much less. That’s according to a freedom of information request, which has revealed Leeds City Council to be the authority which spends the most on Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) and issues the second highest amount of the grants. DFGs are provided by councils to individuals so they can make changes to their homes and install ramps, stairlifts and adaptable bathrooms…

Indian government asks Uber to act against drivers who harassed disability rights activist

July 4, 2019 | Source: Your Story- India |

The Centre has asked the app-cab aggregator Uber India to act against its two drivers, who had allegedly harassed disability rights activist Arman Ali for which he had missed a flight and a meeting last month and had to shell out Rs 14,000 to book a fresh air ticket. The Union social justice and empowerment ministry wrote to Uber India ‘to look into the matter and take appropriate action against the erring drivers.’…

Creating a disability awareness website led to full-time work for Sian

July 4, 2019 | Source: Milford Mercury- Wales |

A Haverfordwest web developer has created a website to raise awareness about accessible places and services in Pembrokeshire. Website page developer and part-time administration officer Sian Andrews, 27, said she will always cherish March 22, because it was the day the new website that she has played a crucial role in developing, accesspembrokeshire.co.uk, was launched. Diagnosed with autism, Sian was determined to follow her passion for making people aware of the issues surrounding disabled access…

Where is the Disability Beat in Canada?

July 4, 2019 | Source: Canada Land- Canada |

The homeless man from Lumby, BC, whose puppy was stolen, “suffers from a disability.” Trudeau’s ban on plastic drinking straws will affect many Canadians who “suffer from a disability.” The disability tax credit is not intended for “everyone who suffers from a disability.” Every time Wendy Porch, executive director of the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto (CILT), reads an article like the ones quoted above and finds the phrase “suffers from,” she knows that she is reading an article that does not include her perspective on the world…

Transport for London to consider training shakeup for staff helping disabled passengers after ‘humiliating’ treatment

July 4, 2019 | Source: Independent- England |

Transport for London is to consider making changes to the training it gives staff on how to help disabled passengers after concerns were raised by The Independent. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s office said TfL would seek feedback from disabled people after London Assembly members heard of problems being raised and demanded improvements. It comes after Independent columnist James Moore wrote about his experience during a recent tube journey, during which the driver announced that “a mobility-impaired person” was the reason the train was being delayed…

Centre’s letter to Uber asking for action against drivers for discriminating against activist welcomed

July 5, 2019 | Source: Newz Hook- India |

The Facebook post by disability rights activist Arman Ali highlighting the discrimination he faced from Uber drivers has been taken notice of by the Centre, a move that many in the disability sector hope will lead to greater sensitivity from all service providers. Uber India continues to face heat for the insensitivity shown by its drivers in Chennai towards well-known disability rights activist and National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People’s executive director Arman Ali…

Accessibility Testing of European Health-Related Websites

July 5, 2019 | Source: Springer Link- Europe |

The current development of the Internet and its growing use make it necessary to satisfy the needs of users with disabilities. The primary objective of this study is to examine healthcare-related websites in nine European countries in order to evaluate the status of their accessibility. Such a detailed statistical comparison has not yet been made in Europe, especially as the present study offers a dual measurement system combining both the application of automated testing software and statistical analysis of user feedback…

Budget provisions a major letdown for the disabled community

July 6, 2019 | Source: NewzHook- India |

Differently abled neglected in Budget: Activists

July 7, 2019 | Source: The Tribune- India |

Barring one announcement regarding accessible coinage, the much awaited Budget announced by newly appointed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has no other provisions for the disabled community, leading to an overwhelming sense of disappointment. For a government that had accessibility for disabled people as one of it’s flagship campaigns, the provisions of the Budget announced yesterday came as a big letdown for the disabled community…

Euan MacDonald: Share excitement of Edinburgh’s festivals with better disabled access

July 6, 2019 | Source: The Scotsman- Scotland |

August is just around the corner and Edinburgh, the world’s leading festival city, will once again reach its pinnacle with six festivals vying for our attention. We’ll see the city’s population swell and it will seem as though every nook and cranny has been turned into a venue space. The excitement for visitors is clear to see. But have you ever considered what the experience can be like for disabled visitors? I became a powerchair user after I was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2003…

Playgrounds can alienate children with disabilities. Now, they’re being built with accessibility in mind

July 7, 2019 | Source: The Globe and Mail- Canada |

Moving beyond wheelchair accessibility, playgrounds are being designed with new materials and thoughtful equipment to remove barriers for those with vision impairments, hearing deficiencies, social anxieties, autism and sensory development delays. Until Hannah Houghton started Grade 3 in September, 2017, she had never romped on the playground of her school, McGirr Elementary in Nanaimo, B.C. In fact, she had never been on any of the 20-plus jungle gyms and adventure parks in her hometown…

The Accessibility Discourse

July 7, 2019 | Source: Rising Kashmir- Kashmir |

Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD, 2006) defines “Persons with disabilities as those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in the society on an equal basis with others”. This is a comprehensive definition that clearly gives the reader an idea that there is a difference between the terms disability and impairment…

Disability advocates slam lack of accessible housing in push for universal standards

July 8, 2019 | Source: ABC News- Australia |

Disability advocates have renewed their push for local councils nationwide to ensure that new housing is universally accessible to address what they describe as a critical shortage of accommodation. Melinda Montgomery, a disability advocate who lives with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), has had more than 100 broken bones and requires a wheelchair to move around. Because of the wheelchair, Ms Montgomery’s home requires wider hallways, a larger shower and lower benchtops and light switches…

New United Nations survey highlights multiple ways India’s education system fails disabled children

July 8, 2019 | Source: NewzHook- India |

A recent report by the United Nations shows that a shockingly high number of children with disabilities in India have never attended school. The situation is far worse for girls. The report has come at a time when the government has been widely slammed for its new draft education policy which does not take into account the needs of children with disabilities. India has over 78 lakh children with disabilities in the age group of five to 19 years. This is a significant presence, one that has the potential to be a huge resource provided they are given the opportunity to study and grow…

Stranded at the airport: hundreds of disabled travellers miss flights

July 7, 2019 | Source: The Northern Echo- UK |

Hundreds of disabled travellers were left stranded at airports across the UK due to errors and failures with assistance services, a Newsquest investigation can reveal. While the vast majority of those who use airport assistance services are boarded successfully, the Government has branded “completely unacceptable” figures that show more than 700 people with disabilities or reduced mobility missed their flights between 2015 and 2018…

Human Rights Tribunal to hear disabled customer’s complaint about Pat Quinn’s

July 8, 2019 | Source: Vancouver Courier- Canada |

An accessibility complaint against Pat Quinn’s Restaurant & Bar will go before the Human Rights Tribunal later this year. The complaint has been filed by Tsawwassen’s Vince Miele who uses a wheelchair and has long been an advocate for people with disabilities. According to his application, in February 2016 he made a reservation for four and informed the Tsawwassen Springs restaurant that one in the party uses a wheelchair…

Majority of passengers with disabilities report problems using trains

July 8, 2019 | Source: The Guardian- UK |

UK launches fund to improve accessibility for disabled rail passengers

July 9, 2019 | Source: Railway Technology |

Two-thirds of passengers with disabilities still experience barriers to travel when using trains, government research has found. A lack of accessible toilets in carriages, being unable to use ticket machines and antisocial behaviour were among the issues cited by respondents to the Department for Transport (DfT) survey. Of those who said they had faced problems during train journeys, 37% said onboard announcements were unclear, while 29% of people surveyed said they had been on a train with no toilets onboard that they could use…

Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations now finalized

July 10, 2019 | Source: Canada News Wire & Mirage News |

The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) today announced that its Accessible Transportation for Persons with Disabilities Regulations (ATPDR) are now finalized. The regulations consolidate the CTA’s various accessibility instruments –six voluntary codes and two regulations – to create a single, robust, legally binding set of accessible transportation regulations. The ATPDR require transportation service providers to: meet the communication needs of travellers with disabilities…

Wheelchair friendly housing scheme ‘is blueprint for accessible homes’

July 10, 2019 | Source: Access and Mobility Professional- UK |

A housing development in Ashford comprising two affordable homes suitable for wheelchair users has won a coveted construction award and been described as a ‘blueprint for accessible housing’. A delegation from Ashford Borough Council’s housing team were among 300 industry professionals attending the LABC South East Building Excellence Awards in Brighton – and ended up scooping the Best Social or Affordable New Housing Development award…

Students producing map to help people with disabilities navigate CBD

July 10, 2019 | Source: TODAY- Singapore |

Lunch with colleagues is a simple affair for many, a little highlight of each workday. But for people with disabilities, it can be an ordeal they have to pass up because of the lack of accessibility where colleagues may be gathering. A group of 25 students from Singapore Polytechnic’s (SP) landscape and architecture department is working towards producing a map that gives an accessibility overview of the Central Business District (CBD) area, one of the busiest places in Singapore…

Call for orchestras to act on disability

July 10, 2019 | Source: Arts Professional- England |

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is calling on other orchestras to employ disabled musicians and embed disability awareness in their organisations, after overhauling its own approach to accessibility. The organisation is offering a cultural change programme for businesses, created following an 18-month programme that led it putting inclusion “at the heart of the orchestra”. It received funding from Arts Council England’s Change Makers initiative to become more accessible and inclusive…

UK Civil Aviation Authority reports on disabled access at UK airports

July 11, 2019 | Source: Travel Daily- UK & THIIS & International Airport Review |

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published its fourth annual report on the disability access of the UK’s largest airports, spanning a 12-month reporting period of 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2019. The accessibility framework is a world-first and is driving improvements in performance to help improve accessibility across UK airports. In total, there were a record number of 3.7 million requests for assistance at UK airports in the latest year – a rise of over 80 per cent since 2010…

Accessibility in hotels – we need to talk

July 11, 2019 | Source: Hotelier Middle East- Dubai |

Dubai is currently in, and facing a number of important years in its goal to be disability friendly. 2019 marks the ‘Year of Tolerance’ and 2020 marks the deadline to make Dubai completely accommodating to disabled people. A defining aspect of Dubai is surely its hotels so how exactly do they shape up in this mission? I have stayed in a lot of hotels in a lot of different countries, I have seen how the Japanese hotel staff reacts to me wheeling into the lobby, I have seen how the British do and I have seen how the Emiratis do…

Buildings to comply with new regulations for disabled-friendly facilities from next year

July 11, 2019 | Source: The Straits Times- Singapore |

From Jan 6 next year, new buildings or buildings undergoing large-scale renovations have to ensure that they fulfil new accessibility regulations. These include building more spacious changing rooms and bathrooms for the convenience of the elderly, their caregivers, and the disabled, to give them a more accessible and convenient living environment. The new regulations are part of an update made on July 5 by the Building and Construction Authority to its Code on Accessibility in the Built Environment…

Digital Accessibility for Young Adults in Europe: tools, training and participation

July 11, 2019 | Source: EuroScientist- Europe |

Digital technology continues to play an ever-increasing role in people’s lives, and has become an indispensable tool in many arenas, such as education and training, seeking employment, interacting with government bodies and companies, gaining an awareness of current affairs and issues faced by humanity, and communicating with others on digital platforms such as social media. Citizens have varying levels of physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities and disabilities—indeed, it is estimated that 80 million Europeans have a disability—and it is of vital importance that all have full and equal access to digital technologies…

New federal accessibility law now in force

July 11, 2019 | Source: iPolitics & Canada NewsWire |

Canada’s first national accessibility law is now in force. Bill C-81, known as the Accessible Canada Act, officially came into force today after passing through Parliament late last month. It was passed unanimously in the House of Commons. The law looks to proactively identify and remove, as well as prevent, barriers to accessibility in areas that fall under federal jurisdiction. This includes sectors that are regulated at the federal level, such as banking, interprovincial transportation and telecommunications, as well as Crown corporations, federal government environments and Parliament…

Ask An Agent: Tips For Finding Accessible Housing In The GTA

July 11, 2019 | Source: Toronto Storeys- Canada |

Imagine this scenario: you are newly disabled and you’ve just been discharged from rehab. It’s time to go home, but your home isn’t accessible and no longer suits your needs. You need accessible housing and you need it fast.

Thankfully, Jeffrey Kerr, a broker at RE/MAX Unique Inc. Brokerage in Toronto specializes in barrier-free housing. He’s had a connection to disability ever since childhood when he lived with his aunt who had MS and his mom, a retired physiotherapist at Toronto Rehab Institute…

My Label and Me: Being deaf is a gift, especially when the baby is crying at 4am

July 11, 2019 | Source: Metro- UK |

During my school years I was called ‘dopey,’ ‘cloth ears’ and ‘slow’. This wasn’t by bullies but by teachers who failed to recognise my lack of hearing. Being called these names was humiliating and something I didn’t want to talk about, so I swept it under the carpet. I regularly misunderstood situations and instructions and had to learn to survive. I would assess a scenario visually, piece together what was happening, using lip-reading to add context…

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