Accessibility in the News — 3/20/2020.

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Feature Stories

Schools that go ‘remote’ for coronavirus must keep serving students with disabilities. Can any really do it?

March 12, 2020 | Source: Chalkbeat

When the Northshore School District in Washington state closed all its schools last week out of concerns over the new coronavirus, district officials promised they’d support their students with disabilities as schools moved all lessons online. School leaders distributed thousands of laptops and WiFi hotspots to students and urged parents of students with disabilities to share concerns and questions. Still, the switch has proved difficult for some parents — something the district says it’s working to address…

The Coronavirus Response Shows How Crucial Accessibility Is

March 14, 2020 | Source: BuzzFeedNews

Harvard. Apple. Biden’s campaign rallies. The list of organizations and events migrating to online platforms multiplies daily. Moving these hubs of in-person interaction to a virtual space is a critical part of flattening the curve of coronavirus spread — and although I’m sure these changes were not always simple to enact, the last few weeks have shown they are exceedingly possible. Seeing these dramatic changes implemented in a span of weeks has been heartening. It has also been deeply frustrating for those of us in the disability community, who’ve been asking for these accommodations — and been told they’re simply not feasible — for our entire working lives…

DOE Releases Webinar for Protecting Students’ Civil Rights During COVID-19 Response

March 17, 2020 | Source: DOE & Disability Scoop& Duane Morris & Webinar (Video)

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education released today a webinar on ensuring web accessibility for students with disabilities for schools utilizing online learning during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. In addition, OCR published a fact sheet for education leaders on how to protect students’ civil rights as school leaders take steps to keep students safe and secure. These resources will assist education leaders in making distance learning accessible to students with disabilities and in preventing discrimination during this Administration-wide response effort…

Coronavirus proves we need an accessible society

March 18, 2020 | Source: The Ecologist

The novel coronavirus has spread globally over the past few weeks. While borders are closing and quarantine measures are hastily implemented, the impact on workers and businesses is already being felt. Broadway has gone dark. Concerts and sporting events have been cancelled, and in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn has led the calls to suspend mortgage and rent payments for people effected by the virus. But one of the biggest changes has been the sudden drive towards accessibility, as the accommodations that are usually needed by disabled people, become an international necessity…

Blind exec: Highlighting digital accessibility is ‘silver lining’ of coronavirus crisis

March 18, 2020 | Source: WRAL Tech Wire

This week was supposed to be a very big week for me. I was supposed to travel to Anaheim to attend the 35th CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, and then return to North Carolina to keynote NC Tech’s Diversity + Inclusion in Tech Summit. However, I was not able to attend either event because of precaution against the coronavirus. Each day, we hear about new companies implementing a work-from-home policy, as the world tries to navigate through the global pandemic we are facing. However, this type of policy is not applicable for many types of jobs, in particular, roles that many people who are blind fill…

For Students With Disabilities, A Mass Shift to Online Courses Comes With Deep Concerns

March 19, 2020 | Source: Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

As colleges and universities hastily prepare to shift their courses online in response to the coronavirus, some students might welcome the chance to attend class at home in their pajamas. But for blind students, remote courses come with a host of new concerns and questions: Will online course platforms be compatible with their screen-reader technology? Will professors send readings as Word documents, which can be read with screen-reading software, or as scans, that cannot? What if there are images without alt text to explain what’s showing on the screen?…

National News (U.S.)

Blind Americans Settle Lawsuit against Social Security Administration

March 12, 2020 | Source: National Federation of the Blind

The National Federation of the Blind, America’s civil rights organization of the blind, and two blind individuals, Lisa Irving and Amy Bonano, have reached a court-ordered settlement of the lawsuit they filed in 2017 against the Social Security Administration (SSA). Under the settlement agreement, the SSA will make improvements to the visitor intake processing kiosks (VIPr kiosks) at its field offices so that blind visitors can use the kiosks privately and independently, without revealing personally identifiable information such as their Social Security numbers to third parties like security guards or other office visitors…

Visually impaired students push for more accessibility in STEM programs

March 12, 2020 | Source: WMAR (Video)

It’s all about precision, hands-on experience and a little fun. As part of FIRST LEGO League, middle schoolers get to build robots, code them and compete against other teams…

Please Stop Treating Me Like I’m Disposable When You Talk About The Coronavirus

March 13, 2020 | Source: Huffington Post

“It’s fine, you don’t need to worry. It’s not a big deal. Only certain vulnerable populations, like the elderly and those with certain preexisting conditions, will be affected.” I read this message or some variation of it over and over again in the early weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak. It came from many people and many places. It was on Twitter, on TV, in newspaper articles. None of the people who gave this message seemed to consider the possibility that they might be delivering it to someone who could fall into one of those categories of vulnerable populations — nor did they seem to notice that it painted those populations as being disposable.

3Q: Collaborating with users to develop accessible designs

March 13, 2020 | Source: MIT News

Academic researchers and others have long struggled with making data visualizations accessible to people who are blind. One technological approach has been 3D printing tactile representations of data, in the form of raised bar graphs and line charts. But, often, the intended users have little say in the actual design process, and the end result isn’t as effective as planned. A team of MIT researchers hopes to fix that. They used a collaborative project with staff and students at the Perkins School for the Blind as a case study of the accessible design process…

Times New Roman is out of style

March 13, 2020 | Source: Dailyuw

I never enjoyed reading the newspaper. When I wait in line for coffee, I always watch as fellow coffee drinkers hold the giant paper up high as their eyes scan the black lines. How could that ever be enjoyable? Every time I pick up a newspaper, I get an instant headache as I watch the small black font blend together. I squint my eyes hopelessly, wishing that the words would magically stop playing tricks on me. Though learning disabilities go unseen, it’s a common part of life for many. For me, this is caused by dyslexia…

Built to accommodate disabilities, Green Bay’s ‘universal design’ housing projects increase value for everyone, advocates say

March 13, 2020 | Source: Green Bay Press Gazette

Joe Trawitzki didn’t fully understand what he’d gotten himself into until he found himself being measured for a toilet. Trawtitzki, a Milwaukee native who loves baseball and cooking, moved to Green Bay two years ago when he married his wife, Alyssa. He also has acromegaly, a disorder that makes his body continue to produce human growth hormone, which causes his bones to continue to grow. When the couple decided to build a new home, they hired Pat Drury, of Drury Designs Inc. to design a custom home that would meet Joe’s needs as he aged…

New Trump Rule Would Deny Disability Benefits To People Who Can’t Work Full Time

March 13, 2020 | Source: Huffington Post

Since 1956, the U.S. government has paid disability benefits to people with a serious illness or injury that leaves them unable to work full time. Now the Trump administration is planning a regulation that would essentially redefine full-time work as 30 hours per week, instead of the usual 40, for purposes of determining whether someone is disabled. Fewer people would likely win benefits as a result. The tighter eligibility standard, which has not been previously reported, is part of a draft rule that, if finalized, would bring sweeping changes to the Social Security Disability Insurance program…

Justice Department Files Lawsuit Alleging Disability-Based Discrimination in North Dakota Housing

March 17, 2020 | Source: STL News& Grand Forks Herald & The Dickinson Press

The Department of Justice announced today that it filed a lawsuit alleging that Hampton Corporation Inc. and several other individuals and entities violated the Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to design and construct multifamily residential properties and an associated rental office in North Dakota so that they are accessible to people with disabilities. Along with its lawsuit, the department submitted to the court a partial consent decree resolving claims against the architect and engineer involved in the design of one of the four apartment complexes at issue in the lawsuit…

Deafness becomes less of an issue thanks to horses

March 17, 2020 | Source: Farm Talk

Horses can almost make a deaf person hear. Certainly, horses add to life’s pleasures for those lacking or deficient in the sense of hearing. The fact became most obvious at a recent horse seminar in Garnett, Kansas, where a deaf couple and friends were all smiles “listening” to the program. Gayla Staats, daughter of Mike and Sharon McGlynn of Paola, served as sign language interpreter for the obvious horse lovers. “My parents have had horse for more than 25 years. Mom is 80 years old and still loves riding horses,” Staats said…

Hearing aids come of age

March 17, 2020 | Source: The San Diego Union- Tribune

In the span of a century, like so many other devices, hearing aids have evolved from large, expensive and impractical ones to those that are nearly invisible through the latest digital technology. Hearing loss affects about a third of people between the ages of 65 and 74, and nearly half of those over 75, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Having difficulty hearing can negatively impact someone’s social life and their ability to communicate with others, especially family and their caregivers…

Legal Compliance For Your Law Firm Website (ADA, GDPR, CCPA)

March 18, 2020 | Source: Forbes

When designing a law firm website, the term “compliance” is thrown around quite a bit. “Is my website compliant?” is shaping up to be the question of the year from both new clients and law firms we have worked with for years. Website compliance is interpreted through adherence to the guidelines outlined in the following policies and regulations: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)…

Million Dollar Settlements of Closed Captioning Website Accessibility Lawsuits Highlight Need for Dual Approach

March 18, 2020 | Source: Duane Morris

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is seeking approval to pay $1,000,000+ in attorneys’ fees to settle a putative class action alleging MIT’s website was inaccessible to people with hearing difficulties. This comes just months after Harvard University preliminarily settled a nearly identical lawsuit for $1.575 million. Neither university admits liability or wrongdoing in the settlement agreements. The complaints alleged each university lacked adequate closed captioning of videos and audio tracks on publicly availably websites in violation of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act…

When Handicapped-Accessible in Hotels Really Isn’t

March 19, 2020 | Source: Next Avenue

The most unexpected lesson I learned from my 82-year-old mother’s stroke was what mobility-challenged people may face when they need to stay in the country’s more than 54,000 hotels. My education came from transporting my mother cross-country by car (the stroke meant no flying and it was shortly before the coronavirus outbreak), so she could live with my youngest sister and her family. The six-day road trip introduced us to so-called handicap-accessible rooms in which we sometimes found, frustratingly, that bathroom doorways were too narrow to accommodate wheelchairs or walkers..

Do Your D&I Efforts Include People with Disabilities?

March 19, 2020 | Source: Harvard Business Review

Businesses have long been drivers of social change. Across the globe, companies have begun acknowledging vital challenges and injustices such as climate change and pay gaps. Diversity and inclusion is one such defining issue, and, although huge progress has been made towards equality across boundaries of gender, race and sexual orientation, one aspect of D&I is too often neglected: disability. The UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines those for whom it advocates as…

My Life Is More ‘Disposable’ During This Pandemic

March 19, 2020 | Source: The New York Times

Like many people all over the world, I am not leaving the house now. For me, though, staying home is nothing new. I am in bed as I write this, propped up by my usual heap of cushions, talking to other sick and disabled people all day on my laptop about how the hell we’re going to care for one another in the coming weeks with a gnawing feeling of dread in my belly. The news doesn’t look good: There are more people sick; less relief is coming. The “reassuring” public service announcements are no better…

Closed Schools Raise Tough Questions For Accessibility, Special Education Support

March 19, 2020 | Source: WBAA

Communities are figuring out how to educate more than 1 million kids suddenly at home, making accessibility questions even more pressing. The governor announced Wednesday all schools across Indiana are closed to help combat the spread of COVID-19. Many schools are using e-learning tools, lesson packets and virtual instruction to keep educating students, but that doesn’t always mean kids can use them to learn. Daniel McNulty heads the PATINS Project – a state-funded school resource center focused on special education…

A Potential CRISPR Breakthrough For Blindness

March 19, 2020 | Source: NPR

It’s no exaggeration to say the gene-editing technique CRISPR could revolutionize medicine. It’s really cool because CRISPR is this really powerful gene editing technique that allows doctors to make really precise changes in our genetic codes, and so it’s got incredible potential for treating lots of diseases. It is actually not an exaggeration to say that CRISPR could revolutionize medicine in the future. For the first time, scientists have used CRISPR to try to edit a gene while the DNA is still inside the body…

Jack Fact — According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the global prevalence of glaucoma for population aged 40-80 years is 3.54%. In 2013 the number of people (aged 40-80 years) with glaucoma worldwide was estimated to be 64.3 million increasing to 76 million in 2020. One in every eight person above the age of forty years is either a glaucoma suspect or patient.

Hit The Road Jack — Inclusive Tokyo: Sensoji temple in Asakusa for improving access

International News

In Israel, fashion is for everyone – even those with disabilities

March 8, 2020 | Source: Israel21c

Nothing was quite the same for Shay Senior after he injured his right arm during his military service. One of those things stared him in the face when he opened his closet following three years of treatment and rehab: He realized could no longer wear half the clothing in his wardrobe. “I started searching online and I found either healthcare products that a fashionable person would never wear, or fashionable brands that offer adaptive products with super-high prices,” Senior tells ISRAEL21c…

Disability: Humanity & Inclusion situation in Sindh

March 13, 2020 | Source: Daily Times- Pakistan

Leaving no one is behind is the main theme of Sustainable Development Goals SDG’s which Pakistan has ratified. But in province Sindh people with disabilities are always left behind in all aspects of life. Every day is a challenge for people with disabilities but not because of their physical or mental conditions, but society’s inability to serve their needs. World Health Organization defines disability as any restriction or lack (resulting from any impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being…

Burnaby council holds off on ride hailing, citing accessibility concerns

March 13, 2020 | Source: Burnaby Now- Canada

BC Taxi Industry Gets New Insurance Product To Compete In Ride-Hailing World- South Asian Link- Canada

Burnaby city council is holding off at least until its next regular meeting before voting on whether or not to join the regional ride-hailing licensing program. Municipalities from around the region have agreed on a framework for the inter-municipal business licence (IMBL), and city councils are expected to be voting on whether or not to ratify the agreement locally and participate in the licensing program. The use of a regional licensing program would ease the regulatory burden, and therefore cost, on individual cities by cutting down on red tape, according to a Burnaby city staff report…

House committee revisits laws for PWDs

March 14, 2020 | Source: SunStar- Philippines

Naga society ‘insensitive to needs and rights of PwDs’

March 14, 2020 | Source: Morung Express- Philippines

Compliance to persons with disabilities (PWD) laws on the accessibility of PWDs was tackled during the meeting of the Special Committee on Persons with Disabilities. The meeting was led by Committee chair Fifth District Rep. Ma. Lourdes “Marilou” Arroyo. Among the issues raised during the meeting attended by government agencies concerned and various non-government organizations for Persons with Disabilities were the implementation and compliance of laws pertaining to accessibility for PWD in government offices and in local government units (LGUs)…

Authorities must ensure accessibility for differently-abled persons

March 16, 2020 | Source: The Nation- Pakistan

Despite reserved facilities and three percent job quota, differently-abled persons are still living on the margins of their life due to inaccessible infrastructure and bureaucratic hurdles to claim the dedicated services. Ministry of Human Rights and Treaty Implementation Cell must consider the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and revise the statutes to make it harmonize with international standards. The authorities must not approve the maps for public and private buildings without accessibility code…

Centre for Accessible Environments secures £322k to transform employment prospects for young disabled Londoners

March 16, 2020 | Source: Access and Mobility Professional- England

The Centre for Accessible Environments (CAE) is preparing to launch its Pathways project which will support young disabled Londoners into careers in inclusive design and accessible environments. The project, which has won 3 year funding totalling £322K from City Bridge Trust’s Bridge to Work programme, is set to kick-off in April 2020. The Pathways project aims to work with 40 participants over its three year programme offering an initial taster session in June 2020 for young people to find out more about the programme…

Accessibility essential for Alberta’s COVID-19 updates: ‘We have no choice but to wait’

March 16, 2020 | Source: Globalnews- Canada

On Monday, an ASL/English interpreter was present during an Alberta Health COVID-19 update for the first time. It’s a significant moment for the deaf and hard of hearing community, which had called on the government to provide an interpreter or live captioning during the updates. “It’s about accessibility,” said president of the Edmonton Association of the Deaf, Sarah Snively. Snively said many members of the community turned to updates out of B.C. or other provinces where an ASL/English interpreter was used…

Disabled Canadians feel excluded from COVID-19 messaging

March 18, 2020 | Source: Weyburn Review- Canada

Karen McCall clicked eagerly on the link tweeted out by her provincial health ministry, keen to read the promised list of tips meant to help her protect against COVID-19. But a familiar sense of disappointment soon set in when she realized the pointers were provided in a format incompatible with the screen-reading technology she relies upon to access the internet. She soon resorted to trolling through a variety of other sites in a bid to access the information…

‘Hearing loss should not limit you’

March 18, 2020 | Source: The Patriot- South Africa

The World Hearing Day (declared by the World Health organisation (WHO) in 2015) commemoration for 2020 was held on March 3rd in Goodhope under the theme “Hearing For Life: Don’t Let Hearing Loss Limit You”. Hearing loss continues to affect millions of people world-wide, invariably impacting on their quality of life. According to the 2017 WHO report on prevention of deafness and hearing loss, 360 million people across the world live with disabling hearing loss. The report indicates that most vulnerable of this population are children and older adults who compromise 30% and 50% of the 360 million respectively…

This Navi Mumbai startup provides free wheelchair services to people with disabilities

March 19, 2020 | Source: Your Story- India

Ravindra Singh was diagnosed with post-polio paralysis when he was just eight months old. He and his family dealt with the personal and societal struggle that comes along with being a person with disabilities. Recounting a pivotal moment in his life, he adds, “I was on a tour to the Statue of Unity and the available wheelchair had been reserved for VIP use. There was no assistance either. That gave me the idea to start an on-demand assistance service.”…

For Persons with Disabilities, avoiding Covid-19 poses special challenges

March 19, 2020 | Source: Scroll- India

Sixteen-year-old Yan Cheng was a resident of Hubei in China. Living with an extreme form of cerebral palsy, Yan Cheng could not move his body, speak or look after himself. His father was his sole carer. In mid-January, he was left stranded at his home as his father showed symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus and was put in a quarantine facility. Over the next week, he was fed only two meals despite an appeal by his father on the local social media platform Weibo. He died, home alone…

NCPEDP awareness seminar in Bhopal on RPWD Act draws NGOs from across MP

March 19, 2020 | Source: NewzHook- India

The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, India’s apex body representing the rights and interests of persons with disabilities, organised a state-level seminar in partnership with Arushi, an NGO working for the rights of disabled people in Bhopal. The aim of these state-level events is to spread awareness about the finer points of the Rights of People with Disabilities Act 2016. India legislated the Rights of People with Disabilities Act 2016 (RPWD Act) in December 2016…

Blind golden retriever is mistaken for a guide dog, but actually needs a ‘guide human’ himself

March 19, 2020 | Source: Metro- UK

Guide dogs are often retriever breeds, due to their loyal and caring nature and ability to be trained. However, Tao is a golden retriever that needs a guide human, after he lost both his eyes to glaucoma. Tao had his first eye removed last year after he began suffering what seemed to be excruciating pain. A trip to the vets revealed the glaucoma, and he was potentially going to be put down, but the surgery was able to go ahead to remove the eye. His owner Mel Jackson, from Shepton Mallet in Somerset, was given drops and managed to keep the condition in the remaining eye at bay for 11 months…

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