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Presidential Candidates Share Positions On Disability Rights Issues, Are Their Plans Good Enough?

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Accessibility in the News — November 8, 2019.

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Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg Announces His Policy Agenda for People with Disabilities

November 2, 2019 Source  |   TIME and WTVA and Click Orlando and Huffington Post

Cedar Rapids forum focuses presidential candidates on disability rights issues, health care

November 2, 2019 Source  |   Des Moines Register and Photos

Ask candidates about disability plans, former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin urges

November 2, 2019 Source  |   Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg unveiled his plan for Americans with disabilities on Saturday, promising to increase access to jobs and education, as well as strengthen civil rights protections and take steps to create a more fundamentally inclusive society. The plan, announced the same day as Buttigieg and other Democratic candidates are scheduled to attend a presidential forum on disability issues in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is one of the most comprehensive proposals any candidate has created for those with disabilities…

National News (U.S.)

 

AI allows paralyzed person to ‘handwrite’ with his mind

October 23, 2019 Source  |   Science

By harnessing the power of imagination, researchers have nearly doubled the speed at which completely paralyzed patients may be able to communicate with the outside world. People who are “locked in”—fully paralyzed by stroke or neurological disease—have trouble trying to communicate even a single sentence. Electrodes implanted in a part of the brain involved in motion have allowed some paralyzed patients to move a cursor and select onscreen letters with their thoughts…

Employers Don’t Understand the Work People with Disabilities Can Do

October 29, 2019 Source  |   SHRM

Many HR professionals and managers think certain kinds of work can’t be performed by someone with a disability, and that prevents people in this talent pool from being recruited, hired or promoted, according to research released today from the SHRM Foundation and Workplace Initiative by Understood. In the last seven years, employers have not changed their recruitment methods to attract and hire talented job candidates who have disabilities,  Employing Abilities @Work shows, yet the nation’s employers continue to have trouble filling 7.2 million jobs…

Annual federal report to Congress notes progress, highlights gaps in enforcement of disability laws

October 31, 2019 Source  |   Yahoo Finance and National Council on Disability

The National Council on Disability (NCD)—an independent federal agency—today released its annual progress report on national disability policy, titled, Has the Promise Been Kept? Federal Enforcement of Disability Rights Laws (Part 2). In this report, NCD assesses the progress made by the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement and enforce federal disability rights laws..

U. of I. accessibility pioneer entering US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame

October 31, 2019 Source  |   University of Illinois News Bureau

Tim Nugent, the visionary first director of a ground-breaking University of Illinois program for students with disabilities, is being inducted posthumously into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame. Nugent will be formally inducted, along with 12 others, at an awards dinner Nov. 1 at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Nugent, often been called the “father of accessibility,” is being inducted as a “special contributor.” The rest of the 2019 class includes individual athletes, a team, a coach and two “legends.”…

JTA Tests First ADA Accessible Autonomous Transit Vehicle In The US

October 31, 2019 Source  |   WJCT

JTA’s autonomous vehicle program for Jacksonville’s urban core is coming together, marking a new milestone on Thursday. The transit agency is testing what it says is the first Americans with Disabilities Act accessible autonomous vehicle in the U.S. Among those on hand to try out the future of transit was Sharon Hoffmeyer Dykes, who lives on the Westside. After taking a ride in the autonomous Navya electric test vehicle she said, “I think it’s the wave of the future – and people getting around Jacksonville – even people with disabilities.”…

Blind Employee Sues Beacon Health Options

October 31, 2019 Source  |   National Federation of the Blind

Amy Ruell, a blind licensed independent clinical social worker, is suing her employer, Beacon Health Options, because inaccessible software and online resources that it uses prevent her from doing critical parts of her job independently. Among other things, Ms. Ruell cannot fully participate in mandatory job trainings (although she is still tested on their content despite that fact), access patients’ clinical records in order to make accurate assessments and recommendations, or participate in virtual conferences with colleagues, the lawsuit says…

Federal Website Access Lawsuit Numbers Increase 7% in 2019, With Possible Bump from Supreme Court Denial of Cert in Domino’s

November 1, 2019 Source  |   Seyfarth Shaw

Website accessibility lawsuit filings in federal court in 2019 are on track to exceed 2018.  Will we see an increase in filings as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the Ninth Circuit’s Order in Robles v. Domino’s? As of June 30, 2019, we counted 1204 website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal courts since January 1, 2019, for a projected total of 2408 by year end. This would constitute a seven percent increase over 2018’s numbers…

Memorial site more accessible after ADA updates

November 1, 2019 Source  |   Bryan-College Station Eagle and WTAW

The Texas A&M Bonfire Memorial will reopen Monday after a little more than a month of renovations to make the space more accessible to those with mobility limitations. “It’s our hope that the renovations will make the site much easier to navigate for persons of all abilities, and we hope that people who were not able to visit the site before are now able to do so,” University Art Galleries marketing and communications specialist Molly Painter said…

What New York City Misses by Not Doing Hearing Tests on Students

November 3, 2019 Source  |   The New Yorker

In 2012, Nadine Dehgan noticed that her one-year-old daughter seemed developmentally delayed compared with her sister, who was a year and a half older. “She was missing all kinds of milestones, and she wasn’t speaking, wasn’t responding, wasn’t being social,” Dehgan, who was then a consultant in New York City who worked with nonprofits, told me. “She would just sit by herself in the corner and build towers and smash them down.” The younger child’s behavior and responses were within the range of normal, though only just, Dehgan said…

Round Rock ISD installs new accessible playgrounds for kids of all abilities

November 4, 2019 Source  |   KXAN

Students at five Round Rock ISD schools have new playgrounds this school year, the first phase in the district’s efforts to make recess accessible to kids of all abilities. The playgrounds, funded by 2018 bond money, are equipped with ramps instead of stairs and they’re surrounded by soft turf, which is easier to navigate in a wheelchair than the pea gravel it replaces. The entire play area is also circled by a concrete path to allow easier access to all the structures…

How Philly is making all voting locations accessible for the first time ever

November 4, 2019 Source  |   Billy Penn

This Election Day marks the first time in history all Philadelphia polling places are accessible to people who use wheelchairs or have limited mobility. According to the City Commissioners Office, the city doesn’t keep track of complaints about accessibility. In 2006, 594 polling places weren’t accessible. The City Commissioners Office gradually reduced that number over the years, leaving just 22 inaccessible for the May primary. That won’t be the case on Nov. 5…

Local parafencer wins bronze medals against USA World team, brings accessible sport to Oakland University

November 4, 2019 Source  |   Oakland Press

One Oakland University student is breaking barriers by starting the university’s only wheel-chair accessible club and bringing home two bronze medals in her first year in the sport. Alissa Bandalene, a senior studying biology at the university, has been living with neurological genetic autoimmune connective tissue disorders all her life. As a teenager, she took up fencing and fell in love with the sport. But by her early 20s, Bandalene found her mobility was decreasing exponentially. She’s re-learned how to walk four different times since then and uses a wheelchair for daily activities…

Healthcare websites are the worst for people who need them the most

November 4, 2019 Source  |   Quartz

Is your cool new app ADA-compliant? As the Department of Justice has started cracking down more on websites and apps that fail to meet requirements for the Americans with Disabilities Act, more companies—notably, healthcare companies—are having to ask themselves this very question. Sadly, the answer is pretty bleak, especially when you consider healthcare consumers who are blind and visually impaired. From drugstore to insurance companies to hospitals, websites that are supposed to share healthcare information tend to hide it from those who need visual assistance…

Smartphone Voting Could Expand Accessibility, But Election Experts Raise Security Concerns

November 4, 2019 Source  |   TIME

Some voters with disabilities will be able to cast their ballots on smart phones using blockchain technology for the first time in a U.S. election on Tuesday. But while election officials and mobile voting advocates say the technology has the potential to increase access to the ballot box, election technology experts are raising serious security concerns about the idea. The mobile voting system, a collaboration between Boston-based tech company Voatz, nonprofit Tusk Philanthropies and the National Cybersecurity Center, has previously been used for some military and overseas voters during test pilots…

New Library Is a $41.5 Million Masterpiece. But About Those Stairs

November 5, 2019 Source  |   The New York Times and Library Journal and Archinect

It has been heralded as an architectural triumph: A new $41.5 million public library in Long Island City that ascends over multiple landings and terraces, providing stunning Manhattan views to patrons as they browse books and explore. But several of the terraces at the Hunters Point Library are inaccessible to people who cannot climb to them. A staircase and bleacher seating in the children’s section, judged too risky for small children, has been closed off…

What to Know About Sudden Hearing Loss

November 5, 2019 Source  |   Consumer Reports

Nine years ago, Richard Einhorn woke up in a hotel room at 5 a.m., “my head buzzing with a strange loud noise,” the 67-year-old New York City music composer recalled. Startled, he jumped out of bed, and promptly fell over. “I couldn’t stand up, I was so dizzy,” he says. He then realized that he’d lost all hearing on his right side. “I’d gone to bed with the A/C blaring,” Einhorn recalls. “But I couldn’t hear it at all on my right side.” Einhorn took a taxi to the nearest emergency room, where he was told that his symptoms pointed to a condition called sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or SSNHL…

Ramps for Accessible Trails and Shared-Use Pathways

November 6, 2019 Source  |   American Trails

Ramps have a specific definition for building access in the ADAAG, “Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities”. The maximum slope of a ramp is 1:12, the maximum rise for any run is 30 inches, and the minimum clear width of a ramp is 36 inches. Level landings are also required at top and bottom of each ramp run. There can be good reasons to use these designs on urban trails, but ramps are not required in the proposed Accessibility Guidelines for trails…

Adults Diagnosed With Autism Later In Life Reveal How They Felt Like ‘Bad’ People: ‘I’d Always Felt Like This Alien’

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Newsweek

People diagnosed with autism later in life have revealed how not knowing for decades that they had the condition made them feel “alien” and like “bad” people. The condition can be diagnosed at the age of 18 months, with a series of behavioral and developmental tests. However, autism was first included in the manual of mental disorders used by qualified health professionals in 1983, meaning those who grew up before this time went under diagnosed or misdiagnosed, researchers explained in a study published in the journal Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine…

Buccaneers rookie who is completely blind in one eye set to make his NFL debut

November 6, 2019 Source  |   CBS Sports and Yahoo

Kahzin Daniels is completely blind in one eye, but starting this Sunday, he could be playing defense for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Undrafted out of Division II Charleston (WV), the rookie outside linebacker was promoted from the practice squad to the Bucs’ active roster Wednesday, and with veterans Carl Nassib and Anthony Nelson nursing injuries, he figures to make his NFL debut in Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals — almost two decades after he lost sight in his right eye…

Discrimination Lawsuit Against Bridgeport Housing Authority Resolved By Justice Department

November 7, 2019 Source  |   Daily Voice

The Justice Department announced that the Housing Authority (HACB), doing business as Park City Communities, has settled after complaints that they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing Act. The agreement filed this week in U.S. District Court, requires HACB to institute broad reforms to safeguard the rights of individuals with disabilities, including revising its policies and processes for handling reasonable accommodation requests and developing an inventory of accessible units for tenants with mobility, vision, and hearing-related disabilities…

Accessibility for all- When learning tools and resources are accessible to all, we all win

November 7, 2019 Source  |   UW IT Connect – University of Washington

Three years ago, UW Bothell’s Ana Thompson started an all-out battle against inaccessible online PDFs. PDFs are in wide use at the UW, as they are elsewhere. But when they’re not created properly, they become a huge barrier to learning because screen readers cannot interpret them for people with disabilities. “People don’t always realize they are not making things accessible,” said Thompson, a Learning and Access Designer in the Office of Digital Learning and Innovation (DLI)…

The Future is Accessible

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Stanford eCorner – Stanford University (Video)

While earning his MBA at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School and teaching himself to code, Srin Madipalli found himself compelled by the power of technology to transform the lives of people with disabilities. He soon co-founded Accomable, a web app that grew to list accessible accommodations in 60 countries around the world. In November of 2017, Accomable was acquired by Airbnb, and Madipalli joined Airbnb as its accessibility product and program manager…

Mattel releases first deck of UNO in Braille

November 7, 2019 Source  |   6 On Your Side

Middle schoolers at the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind are getting their hands on the first official braille UNO deck. “Games don’t usually have braille on them unless you put it on, so I think putting braille on things like card games and legos and stuff that’s a really good thing to do,” said seventh-grader Kathryn Reese. Some of played the game before, but with this deck, they didn’t have to hand-braille it themselves. “UNO is one of the best games of all time, and not being able to play, going through childhood or adulthood without playing UNO, it’s just not possible, you can’t do it; you’ve got to have UNO in your life,” said Rees…

Startup aims to make voting more accessible through blockchain

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Decrypt

Since 2018, Voatz, a mobile voting platform that uses blockchain technology, has been used in the state of West Virginia as well as counties in Colorado, Utah, and Oregon to conduct mobile voting pilots for some overseas military voters and their families. Military voters tend to vote in lower numbers due to problems with absentee voting overseas. Now, Voatz is eyeing a new user group with lower-than-average voting rates: people with disabilities…

Jack Fact — According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 7.7% (18.4 million) of all adults used a cane, crutches, or a walker to assist with mobility and 2.3% (5.5 million) used a wheelchair. Overall, adults 65 years of age and older used a cane, crutches, or a walker at about five times the rate of adults between 18 and 64 years, and they used a wheelchair about four times as often.

Hit The Road Jack — Gulf Shores named one of nation’s most handicap accessible beaches

International News

 

UN must uphold rights of all persons with disabilities: Gopinathan Achamkulangare, former Indian diplomat

November 1, 2019 Source  |   Economic Times- India

Gopinathan Achamkulangare, former Indian diplomat and currently Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations System has urged that a perspective relating to the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their rights, particularly as it relates to accessibility, be incorporated into all facets of the work of the United Nations system organisations. In a recent interview with UN Chronicle Gopinathan spoke on the current state of accessibility within the United Nations system and the prospects for addressing the situation comprehensively…

How Glasgow’s club scene is pushing accessibility and inclusivity forwards

November 1, 2019 Source  |   Red Bull- UK

Across the UK, conversations around club culture – who it’s for and how spaces should be used – are central to how many promoters, DJs and performers are approaching their craft. When it comes to accessibility, this has largely been explored within the context of disability and economic means – installing a lift for wheelchair users, or having different price points for the unwaged. But increasingly, the onus is also on encouraging artists and audiences to express what they want from a night, especially those for who club culture has been prohibitive in the past…

Netflix’s Kathy Rokni describes how accessibility is a craft of its own

November 2, 2019 Source  |   The Hindu- India

There is a moment in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch during which you have to choose between confiding in a therapist about trauma or staying mum. But the screen is, somehow, not as cluttered as you’d expect it to be: especially if you’re using Closed Captioning (CC) along with the pop-up text for the choices you must make. While some may brush it off as simple tech, it is really not. At production houses like Netflix, a major chunk of this is due to the work of the globalisation and accessibility departments…

Lack of disabled taxis in Angus will prompt motion to seek government funding to reverse ‘appalling’ situation

November 2, 2019 Source  |   The Courier- UK

The number of wheelchair accessible vehicles in the region has dropped to just seven. An Angus councillor wants local authority officials to ask the UK and Scottish governments for funds to help taxi drivers buy adapted cars. People with accessibility needs in Angus are facing a “postcode lottery” as there are no accessible vehicles in Monifieth and Sidlaw and only one serving Montrose and Brechin and a single car for all of Arbroath and Carnoustie. There are five in Forfar and Kirriemuir…

British Columbians pack meeting to help develop accessibility law

November 2, 2019 Source  |   Vancouver Sun- Canada

Thousands of disabled British Columbians are contributing ideas for legislation to make the province more accessible, including a large group that packed into a community meeting Saturday in Vancouver. More than 150 people turned up for the public consultation session at a downtown hotel where Shane Simpson, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, asked them about the barriers they have experienced, what they think about framework proposed for the legislation, and how his ministry can improve it…

Hackathon empowers visually impaired

November 3, 2019 Source  |   The Manila Times- Philippines

Microsoft recently held its AI for Accessibility Hackathon, an Asia Pacific-wide competition where participants developed prototypes of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to transform the daily lives of people with disabilities (PWD), in the Philippines. 400 teams of students and young developers in the Asia Pacific worked side-by-side with startups and nonprofit organizations to simultaneously conceptualize AI solutions that address the lack of awareness and availability of assistive technology in the region…

People with Disabilities: This city doesn’t care about them

November 3, 2019 Source  |   The Daily Star- Bangladesh

Except on the weekends and public holidays, Mir Arshedul Karim leaves his rented home in Mirpur for Dhaka University every morning, guided by his trusted white cane. He is an assistant librarian at the DU and a person with a visual impairment. His journey on the 10km route begins with a rickshaw ride. But the real challenge starts once he joins others waiting for buses at the bus stop. “Buses show little interest in picking me up. Sometimes I have to throw myself into the crowd of passengers to get hold of handles of the bus doors,” said Arshedul…

People devastated over plans to close Cuisle accessible holiday resort in Roscommon

November 3, 2019 Source  |   Longford Leader- Ireland

People are devastated following news of the planned closure Cuisle Accessible Holiday Resort at the end of the month. Julie O’Donoghue, Green Party general election candidate for Roscommon / Galway, says there is widespread support for saving Cuisle, not just locally but also nationally. Cuisle Holiday Centre, located in Donamon, Co Roscommon is Ireland’s leading wheelchair accessible resort, and it has been providing holidays to people with physical disabilities and their families since June 1997…

‘Nagaland needs to promote sign language’

November 3, 2019 Source  |   Eastern Mirror- India

Persons who have disabilities experience myriad difficulties that can be anything from accessibility issues to needing educated mentors for them. Another difficulty, a state official of the Disability establishment has said, is the need to promote sign language in Nagaland. A seminar about the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016 for heads of offices in Peren district was conducted on October 29 in the deputy commissioner’s conference hall in Peren. The government publicity agency the department of Information and Public Relations (IPR) gave updates informing about programme…

Chandigarh railway station to be North India’s 1st to be accessible to visually-impaired people

November 4, 2019 Source  |   Newz Hook- India

Bengaluru-based NGO Anuprayas and Northern Railways have come together to make Chandigarh railway station accessible to visually impaired people. This will make Chandigarh the first visually-impaired friendly railway station in North India. The Indian Railways will partner with Anuprayas, a Bengaluru-based NGO working to make India into a blind-friendly nation, to make Chandigarh railway station accessible to visually impaired people. The project, headed by Anuprayas and Northern Railways will begin on 20 November and will be finished in three months’ time…

Next government ‘must tackle dangerous shortage of accessible homes’

November 4, 2019 Source  |   Yahoo- UK and Home Care Insight and CityMetric and County Press and Inside Housing

The next government should make all new homes accessible and adaptable, according to a coalition of housing and charity groups. The organisation, which has called itself Housing Made for Everyone (HoME), includes Age UK, Riba (Royal Institute of British Architects), Disability Rights UK, the National Housing Federation, and the Chartered Institute of Housing. It has published an open letter calling on the next government to take greater action to secure housing suitable for an ageing population and people living with disabilities…

Accessibility Gets Graphic with a Cool Wraparound Wheelchair Ramp

November 4, 2019 Source  |   Yahoo- China

Built environments tend to rely heavily on staircases for circulation, failing to accommodate people who can’t easily navigate them. When there are no elevators or ramps present, the message architects are sending to disabled people is “this place is not for you.” And that’s not an acceptable way to design spaces in the 21st century. The defense is often that there’s no money for an elevator and no room for a ramp. And in crowded urban spaces, building a ramp with the gentle grade required to make it usable can, indeed, take up quite a bit of space — but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s impossible…

UK to make buses more accessible for disabled passengers

November 5, 2019 Source  |   Traffic Technology Today- UK

With a wide membership drawn from local authorities, bus and rail operators and system suppliers, the RTIG supports good practice in the use of communications technology on public transport, and will work with the DfT to allocate £2m (US$2.5m) of funding to small bus operators for audible and visual on-board information. With around 50% of UK public transport journeys made on buses, the new funding will help to ensure that passengers can board more buses with greater confidence, knowing where they are and when to get off…

Accessible Tourism Summit calls for greater inclusion

November 5, 2019 Source  |   Gulf News- Dubai

Dubai Hessa Buhumaid, Cabinet Member and Minister of Community Development, described Dubai’s hosting of the first Accessible Tourism Summit, as a ‘golden chance’ to improve the lives of People of Determination, when she opened the two-day event at Dubai World Trade Centre on Tuesday. The summit brings together leading figures in the industry of accessible tourism, ahead of Dubai’s vision to become one of the world’s most disabled friendly cities by 2020…

Accessibility advocate David Lepofsky urging people to highlight access deficiencies

November 5, 2019 Source  |   Windsor Star- Canada

Accessibility advocate David Lepofsky came to Essex Tuesday to promote a Twitter campaign aimed at affecting change by identifying barriers to mobility for the disabled. Lepofsky, chairman of the Accessibilty for Ontarians with Disabilities Alliance, spoke to about 60 people at the Essex Civic Centre. “We have made progress, but we are not on schedule for accessibility in 2025, nowhere close,” said Lepofsky. “Our accessibility and our rights should not be dismissed as red tape.”…

Majority of large assemblies still not accessible for wheelchairs

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Asahi Shimbun- Japan

Less than half of the nation’s prefectural and major municipal assemblies have made enough efforts to become barrier-free for members in wheelchairs. An Asahi Shimbun survey revealed that only 29 assemblies, or 43 percent, said wheelchair users can readily access their assembly chamber. The Asahi asked all 47 prefectural assemblies and all 20 assemblies of major municipalities that have jurisdiction close to those of prefectures whether their forums were accessible to members using wheelchairs…

Selwyn District Council leads way in commitment to accessibility for all

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Voxy- New Zealand

Selwyn District Council has laid a marker in its commitment to all Selwyn residents by becoming the first local government authority to sign an accessibility charter. Mayor Sam Broughton signed the Te Arataki Taero Kore Accessible Selwyn Charter at a ceremony on Monday attended by disability groups and organisations. Anne Hawker, Principal Disability Advisor to the Ministry of Social Development who attended the ceremony, says it was a first for New Zealand…

Only 42 of 334 Gżira and Sliema commercial outlets accessible to disabled persons

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Malta Today- Malta

Only 42 out of 334 commercial outlets on Gżira and Sliema’s seafront are physically accessible for disabled persons, a report has found. The report, issued by the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) on Tuesday, found that 292 outlets on the two towns’ seafront do not conform with the Access for All Design Guidelines 2011 (AADG 2011) issued by the Commission. Following complaints regarding physical accessibility, officials from the Commission carried out onsite inspections at all the commercial outlets located on the Gżira and Sliema front between November last year and April this year…

Government calls on companies to join accessibility campaign as £2m bus funding announced

November 6, 2019 Source  |   THIIS- UK

Train companies to miss accessibility deadline

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Banbury Cake- UK

Continuing with its investment into transport accessibility, the Department for Transport is to provide £2 million to fund audio and visual equipment for buses to improve journeys for disabled people. Working in partnership with the Real Time Information Group (RTIG), a community group which supports the spreading of communications technology in public transport, the collaboration will see the two parties allocate the £2 million to small bus operators…

A Step Further in Making Pakistan Digitally Accessible

November 6, 2019 Source  |   Internet Society- Pakistan

In a bid to improve digital accessibility in Pakistan – a country with about 30 million persons with disability (PWDs), according to the World Health Organization –  we recently partnered with the Ministry of IT (MoIT) and the National IT Board (NITB) so that more existing government websites could include accessibility features and future websites could incorporate such designs. We set out to make five websites more accessible – as a start – and are already seeing encouraging results…

Tours for people with disabilities in Jakarta put accessibility infrastructure to the test

November 7, 2019 Source  |   CNA- Indonesia

Pavements covering 1.2km along the West Jakarta river where Dutch merchant ships once passed and docked, were supposed to be friendly to people with disabilities like Mr Faisal Rusdi. Or so the city government claimed when they spent 260 billion rupiah (US$18.5 million) in 2018, renovating centuries-old buildings along Kali Besar street in the historic part of the Indonesian capital, dredging out the mountain of trash and waste from the riverbed and renovating its footpaths…

Pitch for Canberra to host Asia Pacific’s very first accessible tourism conference and Expo

November 7, 2019 Source  |   About Regional- Australia

With the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability commencing public hearings this week, the general public will be forced to confront how we have often failed to create a safe, inclusive and supportive community for people with disabilities. It is vitally important to shine a light on where the system is failing people with disabilities and work out how to respond to this issue structurally…

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