Accessibility in the News — 8/14/2020.

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Feature Stories

Lawsuit against NC: Absentee-by-mail ballots not accessible to 105000 voters

August 10, 2020 | Source: Carolina Public Press

Enhanced voting options available for voters

August 10, 2020 | Source: The Recorder

ACLU Sues Mississippi To Make Absentee Voting More Accessible During Pandemic

August 11, 2020 | Source: Forbes

Lag continues for federal voting system standards

August 13, 2020 | Source: FCW

North Carolina voters who are blind or have limited mobility will not be able to cast private, independent ballots from home this fall unless the state makes changes, according to a lawsuit filed by the national nonprofit Disability Rights Advocates. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in North Carolina and makes claims that state practices violate two federal laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. Under both laws, the complaint argues, the state is required to provide an accessible vote-by-mail option for voters with disabilities…

National News (U.S.)

Clear Masks Make Life So Much More Accessible For Deaf People—So Why Aren’t They More Popular?

August 6, 2020 | Source: Yahoo

I’ve been deaf since I was three years old. Due to my hearing loss, I’ve become very used to having to teach people how to communicate with me. But with face masks, communication is not always clear. Something that folks might not realize is that most connections are nonverbal. You show so much of what you’re saying on your face. Tone, inflection, and the pitch of your voice all show via your facial expressions when you speak, especially on your lips and cheeks…

30 years after ADA, Port inches toward accessibility

August 6, 2020 | Source: Times Herald-Record

Katie Horsham has been looking forward to the new ramp at the Port Jervis train station. For the first time, she will be able to roll on with her wheelchair and take the train to Manhattan. Horsham has lived in Port Jervis for 29 of her 36 years. She was born with spina bifida and has needed a wheelchair since she was 5 years old. Thirty years after the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act requiring equal access to public facilities, and two years after Horsham and others gathered by the Port Jervis tracks to protest the lack of access, a project to make the Port Jervis train station accessible finally began this year…

Senate Republicans ‘Have Declared War’ On The ADA, Says Duckworth

August 6, 2020 | Source: Forbes- Peter Slatin

Never mind the ACA. Let’s gut the ADA. Senate Republicans, unsuccessful (so far) in ridding the nation of the pesky Affordable Care Act, have decided to follow the alphabet one letter forward and are taking aim at another favorite conservative punching bag, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, (D-Ill.) accused her Republican colleagues of “declaring war on the ADA.” Seizing on the national crisis presented by the novel coronavirus and Covid-19 and focusing on protecting businesses from liability while ignoring the bleeding coffers of states, cities and hospitals…

DOJ Settles With Mass General Hospital To Ensure Equal Access For Individuals With Disabilities, Including Those In Recovery From Addiction

August 7, 2020 | Source: ADA.gov

The Justice Department and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) entered an agreement, under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), to resolve allegations that MGH denied a patient eligibility for a lung transplant because he was being treated with a prescription medication for opioid use disorder (OUD). The patient later received a lung transplant elsewhere. Under the two-year-agreement, MGH will implement a non-discrimination policy stating that it will not impose eligibility criteria that unnecessarily deny or limit treatment for individuals on the basis of disability…

Deaf Man Told He’s “Faking” His Deafness While Ordering at McDonald’s

August 7, 2020 | Source: Rare

I’ve worked in the service and food industry before, so I feel that I’m justified in my opinion over this. I simply don’t understand why this Mcdonald’s made this situation so much more complicated than it actually ever needed to be. Nevertheless, this is an important lesson for everyone to learn, and I applaud this couple for sharing their experience to spread awareness. SIgn Duo is a Youtuber couple named Ryan and Ellen. They’re high school sweethearts who have been together since 2011 and also have a wonderful story…

Deaf artist, a 2020 graduate, needs help to hear in college

August 7, 2020 | Source: Sun Sentinel

Even though he faces challenges with his deafness, which was caused by an accident when he was young, Sharmari Norris has a spirited resilience that won’t allow him to give in to his physical limitation. Norris has been a member of the nonprofit youth organization Police Athletic League in West Palm Beach for over three years. He graduated from John I. Leonard High School in Greenacres after successfully navigating school using a hearing aid that was loaned to him by the school district…

Top tips for making the re-opening of your church accessible to all

August 8, 2020 | Source: Christian Today

The world of church has changed so much over the last few months, with changes continuing to happen as the Government plays whack-a-mole with virus hotspots. For those not in a hotspot and able to attend church in a building, everything seems so alien – like going to a foreign land and not knowing the customs. For some who cannot return with others due to illness or disability, it might feel like being one of the Biblical exiles. For larger churches who can only have a few members of their congregation in the building, it may feel like a lottery – your number comes up and you’re allowed in!…

Accessibility challenges persist in many rural Colorado communities

August 8, 2020 | Source: The Colorado Sun

Rural counties across Colorado are reopening, but not for everyone. Restaurants, bars, parks, stores, ski areas and trailheads closed this spring for several weeks or months as the nation began feeling the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many considered restrictions to public spaces unprecedented. But not much changed for Kelsey Bell. Parked cars recently filled downtown Durango. Bell and her partner, Hunter Purdum, parked in an accessible space a couple blocks away…

30 years after ADA’s signing, disabled still face challenges

August 8, 2020 | Source: East Valley Tribune

April Reed remembers what it used to be like before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. Reed remembers her father, who wears hearing aids, telling her how he was turned away from a job interview. She remembers a colleague hoping every day that the bus would be wheelchair-accessible when it came by, so she could go about her day. She remembers another colleague with a master’s degree but an obvious physical disability that cost him his job. The ADA, signed 30 years ago July 26, changed all that…

Were the Ancient Greeks ADA Compliant?

August 9, 2020 | Source: Daily Beast

Last week marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the legislation that guarantees disabled Americans protections under U.S. law. What seemed at the time to be ground-breaking legislation may actually be a late arrival to the accessibility party. A new article on the archaeology of ancient healing centers argues that thousands of years before the ADA was passed, the ancient Greeks were already providing accommodations for those with mobility impairments…

What it means to live with a disability in America

August 10, 2020 | Source: Borneo Bulletin

At age four, Jaipreet Virdi lost most of her hearing during a severe bout of meningitis. For years she endured a range of fruitless treatments that ultimately led her to study the ways medicine and technology sought to cure deafness. In her insightful book Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History, Virdi probed how society perceived deafness and challenges the idea that a disability is a deficit. Instead, she views deafness and other disabilities as differences that come with the individual’s responsibility for participation, and society often makes such participation difficult…

Advocate says some special education students falling through the cracks during the pandemic

August 10, 2020 | Source: Michigan Radio

For Tanya Haaseth’s family, it was a disaster. She lives in West Bloomfield with her three children. Her husband works out of state, so she says she’s basically a single mom most of the time. Two of Haaseth’s children have autism. The 19-year old, Alex, is severely affected. He’s enrolled in a post-secondary program in the West Bloomfield School District. She says it was like a tsunami hit her family when school shut down suddenly last March…

Meet the Women Making the Outdoors More Accessible to All

August 10, 2020 | Source: Condé Nast Traveler

As we start to finally leave our homes after months inside, there’s one place Americans are increasingly turning to: the great outdoors. It makes sense. Vast, beautiful, and ripe for exploring, the country’s trails, coastline, and national parks make for a perfect combination of adventure, fresh air, and social distancing. But for many of us, the outdoors space seems far from accessible, with everything from hiking and climbing to surfing and cycling often feeling exclusionary to anyone who isn’t white, male, cisgender, or able-bodied…

Disney introduces adaptive costume line for fans who use wheelchairs

August 10, 2020 | Source: KFSN-TV

Disney is launching a new line of adaptive costumes designed specifically for fans who use wheelchairs or have other accessibility needs. The line includes Cinderella, Buzz Lightyear and Incredibles costumes. They have stretch fabric that opens in back for easier dressing, longer lengths for wheelchair-friendly wear and a flap opening on the front center with self-stick fabric closure for tube access. It also includes two wheelchair wraps, one designed to look like Cinderella’s coach and a second that looks like the Incredimobile from “The Incredibles.”…

Innovating for disability, because you have to

August 11, 2020 | Source: Marketplace

This week, we’re using the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act to talk about technology and accessibility. Today, we’re looking at assistive technology, which aids people with disabilities in navigating school, work and everyday interactions. I spoke with disability rights advocate Haben Girma, author of “Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.” We relied on some of her personal tech to conduct our interview. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation…

Why Deaf People Oppose Using Gene Editing to “Cure” Deafness

August 11, 2020 | Source: Discover

As someone who was born deaf, I’m concerned about the latest application of a gene-editing tool called CRISPR 2.0. And I’m not alone. In June, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard and MIT announced that, using mice, they figured out how to use the technology to temporarily “correct” a mutation in the TMC1 gene, which can cause deafness in babies. The work is a monumental step toward reversing hereditary deafness in people with a single injection. It could drastically change the fact that two to three out of every 1,000 U.S. children are born deaf or hard of hearing, according to research completed in 2007…

How the FCC regulates accessibility for new technologies

August 12, 2020 | Source: Marketplace

The FCC is Pushing Broadcasters to Ensure Information is Accessible to Viewers with Disabilities

August 13, 2020 | Source: Cord Cutters News & PDF

The Americans with Disabilities Act turned 30 this summer, but this year also marks a decade since the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act was signed. That law sets federal rules for things like streaming video, mobile browsers and teleconferencing software. Regulators at the Federal Communications Commission are in charge of making sure people follow that law, and they get help from the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee. I spoke with Brian Scarpelli, co-chair of that group and also senior global policy counsel for the App Association. He said tech has definitely outpaced the law…

Listening in High “Deaf”inition: How AirPods Are Affecting Our Hearing

August 12, 2020 | Source: Engineering

The world is in the process of reopening, and for many of us that means an end to the remote work trend. Wrenched out of our (likely) peaceful homes, we will be back on the streets among throngs of people who are also returning to noisy commutes. Craving some semblance of our personal bubble, we may reach for a pair of handy earbuds—perhaps the Apple AirPods, by far the global favorite in wireless earbuds. Despite their popularity, AirPods aren’t amazing at what they do. While their performance may be decent in quiet environments, the listening experience deteriorates in the presence of background noise…

Advocate for the disabled spurs Birmingham to improve handicap parking spaces

August 13, 2020 | Source: FOX 2 Detroit

On the 30-year anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act Erica Coulston, in a wheelchair herself, is changing the way parking spaces look in Birmingham. “Birmingham is a city where I go often for services, restaurants, you name it, parks, everything, it’s a great walkable or rollable town,” Coulston said. In 2016, the city decided to convert their free disability accessible parking into paid metered spots. They added more accessible parking spots for those in wheelchairs. Progress, but there was a problem…

The Teen Behind ‘Deaf Kardashians’ Series On Why All TikToks Should Have Closed Captioning

August 13, 2020 | Source: NYLON

Blind teen captivates social media with reading and writing lesson: ‘This blows my mind’

August 13, 2020 | Source: Yahoo

If you think TikTok is only disjointed dances practiced ad nauseam in front of bathroom mirrors, you’ve barely scratched the surface of the massively popular video sharing app. It’s in its most niche content where TikTok shines its brightest. Case in point: 19-year-old Scarlet May and her viral TikTok series, “Deaf Kardashians.” As a deaf creator, May’s series finds her cleverly signing her way through some of the most iconic scenes from the Keeping Up With The Kardashians canon, with perfect comedic timing and enough wardrobe changes that do justice to the matriarchal power family…

Jack Fact — According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), 25.5 million Americans over the age of five have travel-limiting disabilities. 13.4 million are ages 18 to 64 and 11.2 million are over 65 years of age.

Hit The Road Jack — The Great Outdoors – accessible recreation in the United States

International News

DFID India-SCPwD workshop lays out policy level recommendations for trainings for disabled youth

August 8, 2020 | Source: NewzHook- India

DFID India in collaboration with Skill Council for Persons with Disability (SCPwD) held an online workshop to disseminate the findings of an innovative pilot trainings for persons with disabilities which was jointly implemented in 2019-20. The pilots were implemented by Muskaan, National Association of Blind India Centre (NAB) and V-Shesh. The aim was to explore job opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities and visual impairments in sectors like hospitality, retail, beauty and wellness, IT and food processing…

Pandemic exacerbates challenges facing Argentina’s disabled community

August 8, 2020 | Source: Buenos Aires Times- Argentina

The coronavirus pandemic has changed almost every aspect of normal life, from grocery shopping to work, from exercising to socialising. While the changes, brought on by fear of infection and the state-mandated quarantine –– which has been in place in Argentina since March 20 –– are difficult and inconvenient for everyone, for those living with disabilities across Argentina, the virus crisis has posed a unique threat to their ability to access basic healthcare, education and to their own individual autonomy…

Hear For You helps deaf teenagers gain confidence

August 9, 2020 | Source: Bundaberg Now- Australia

Hearing impaired teenagers were given a chance to explore a number of hearing challenges and make new friends at a Hear For You life goals and skills workshop in Bundaberg. Bundaberg teens Maeve Taggart and Alana Reid were excited to attend the region’s first Hear For You workshop, where they met inspiring mentors Claire Cunningham and Dan Jarvis. Maeve said the two-day event was worthwhile and it was nice to meet others with a similar background. “I’m having a lot of fun and it’s been good,” Maeve said…

Sudbury patios causing accessibility challenges, advocate says

August 10, 2020 | Source: CBC- Canada

Secondary suites will create more affordable, accessible housing, Halifax councillor says

August 11, 2020 | Source: CBC- Canada

Rob DiMeglio often walks to work in downtown Sudbury, but recently, he’s been afraid to venture into the city’s centre — after a scary incident left him “shaken up” and concerned about accessibility for people with disabilities. DiMeglio, who is the executive director of Independent Living Sudbury Manitoulin, is blind, and navigates using a cane and a guide dog. Recently, he had a frightening experience, when he and his dog were unable to navigate a path around a patio — one of many that have taken over sidewalks this summer, as bars and restaurants reopen…

Disabled People In UK Find Their ‘Lockdown Lifeline’ Of Online Shopping Threatened By Delivery Problems

August 10, 2020 | Source: Post and Parcel- UK & Parcel and Postal Technology International

Citizens Advice has found that two in five disabled people in the UK have had a problem with parcel delivery in a single week – a disturbing finding given that online shopping is for many a ‘lockdown lifeline’. The percentage of disable people encountering delivery problem – 39%, which equates to 7.1 million – compares to just 27% for people who don’t identify as disabled. The number is even higher – jumping to just over half (51%) – when looking at those in the shielded group, which includes those who are elderly, pregnant or have a long-term illness…

40% of Ireland’s top attractions are not completely wheelchair accessible

August 10, 2020 | Source: Irish Central- Ireland

Lisburn-based stairlift supplier Olympic Lifts has reviewed the accessibility of over 40 of Ireland’s most visited attractions and has concluded that 40% of them are not completely wheelchair accessible. The list of attractions comes from Fáilte Ireland’s list of most visited attractions in 2017 and sees the likes of the Cliffs of Moher, Dublin Zoo, and the Book of Kells in its ranks. Many of these tourist attractions are found in places with uneven ground and historical steps, such as Glendalough site and Blarney Castle, making them incompatible with modernization, but many others have simply not modernized their facilities to meet the needs of all visitors…

KBA, FSD Kenya And InABLE Partner To Promote Financial Inclusion For Persons With Disabilities

August 10, 2020 | Source: Capital FM- Africa

The Kenya Bankers Association has partnered with the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSD Kenya), non-profit inABLE and Georgia Institute of Technology in a programme to promote access to financial services for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs). The initiative, whose pilot phase kicked off this month, aims to identify major accessibility challenges PWDs face while using banking service channels. The programme seeks to assess PWDs’ access challenges using the sample of seven banks. The project will be jointly funded by the banking industry and FSD Kenya…

Meet The 3 Nigerian Musicians Who Were Born Blind But Still Became Successful

August 10, 2020 | Source: GH Gossip- Nigeria

Blindness is the inability to see anything, including light. Some people suffer from partial blindness while others also suffer from complete blindness. Some people seen with blindness were either born with it or caused by some factors like accidents. There are some Nigerian musician who were born blind but they have become very successful in the music career and have also marked their name in the industry…

Majority of complaints received by disability commission relate to accessibility

August 11, 2020 | Source: Newsbook- Malta

The Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability presented the 2017-18 Equal Opportunities for All report to Parliamentary Secretary for Active Ageing and Persons with Disability Silvio Parnis. The report provides an overview of all the complaints received by the Commission for the Rights of Persons with a Disability between October 2017 and October 2018. It shows that during the said period there were 205 complaints by persons with a disability or their family members filed with the Commission…

What Has Online Education Been Like For A Person With A Hearing Disability?

August 11, 2020 | Source: Youth Ki Awaaz- India

“The first question I’m usually asked when I tell people I have hearing loss is, “Do you know sign language”? to which I respond with, “No. Oh, why?” and the proceeding list of questions are endless which makes me feel excluded. You may find that there is a sign language, but not everyone knows how to use it. More often than not, I have to lip read and that’s a quite struggle in itself.” I don’t really feel like I fit in the with the deaf community because sometimes when I speak to someone, their response is ‘You don’t sign, so you are not deaf, and you sound like a hearing person.’ I’m hard of hearing and don’t fit in with either of them…

Commission Formalises Commitment To Accessible Information For Disabled People

August 12, 2020 | Source: Scoop- New Zealand

The Health Quality & Safety Commission is the latest signatory of the government Accessibility Charter – a commitment to providing accessible information and online tools to all disabled people. The charter, launched by the Ministry of Social Development in 2018, requires agencies to work towards making information accessible, so that everyone can interact with them in a way that meets their individual needs and promotes their independence and dignity…

The doors of the metro stations: first barrier to accessibility

August 12, 2020 | Source: Canada NewsWire

When we talk about universal accessibility in the Montréal metro, the discussion invariably focuses on the presence of elevators in the stations. But what is the point of having an elevator inside if, outside, it is impossible for an elderly or mobility-impaired person to open the door to the station entrance? It is important to know that the “piston effect”, i.e. the air pressure differential due to speeding trains in the tunnels, makes it difficult to open the doors to the entrance buildings. This, despite the fact that these “butterfly doors” were designed to reduce the piston effect by allowing more air to escape when they are open…

Government’s ‘contempt’ for disabled people, as planning white paper ignores accessible housing

August 13, 2020 | Source: Disability News Service- UK

The government has been accused of “showing contempt” for disabled people after publishing an “utterly shameful” 84-page white paper on the future of the planning system without including a single mention of disabled people, disability or accessible housing. The Planning for the Future document makes repeated references to the need for “beautiful new homes”, “beautiful places” and “beautiful buildings”, while ignoring the accessible housing crisis. There is also no mention of wheelchair-users in the white paper, which looks only at England…

When Street Design Leave Some People Behind

August 13, 2020 | Source: Bloomberg CityLab- England

Last month, cycling advocates in the U.K. cheered the opening of Manchester’s “CYCLOPS.” Short for “Cycle Optimised Protected Signals,” the redesigned junction is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, land of the difficult roundabout. Cyclists can ride seamlessly around the “external orbital cycle route,” separate from pedestrians, who cross cycle lanes and traffic islands, and in sync with motor vehicle traffic. It will act as a blueprint, advocates say, for future junction design…

Shingles in the eye is dangerous and can cause blindness — here’s how to prevent it

August 14, 2020 | Source: Business Insider- Australia

Shingles is a painful rash caused by a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. It’s a very common condition, as one out of three people will develop it throughout their lifetime, most often after the age of 50. Although the shingles rash will most commonly appear on the torso, it’s possible for it to affect your eyes as well. Shingles of the eye has its own name: herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO). Recent research by the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Centre found that the incidence of HZO tripled between 2004 and 2016. They also determined HZO is most common in those over 75 years old…

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