Accessibility in the News — 4/17/2020.

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Feature Stories

They are deaf and blind, and social distancing has now taken their ability to touch

April 8, 2020 | Source: Boston Globe

If you could have peeked into a building on Gallaudet University’s campus on a recent day, you would have seen a 6-foot-3 man crawling on the floor. He was not hurt. He was not sick. He was trying to find his name on a case of water. During another time, the task would have been easy enough for James Groff, a 28-year-old graduate student. The case had been left for him in a building not far from his dorm. The problem was that his was not the only case there, which meant he had to locate the one bearing his name, and he had to do that with limited use of three of his senses…

Deaf community hopes interpreters at COVID-19 press conferences raise awareness, increase accessibility for American Sign Language

April 15, 2020 | Source: CIProud.com

Sign Language Interpreters Steal the Show During COVID-19 News Conferences

April 14, 2020 | Source: How Stuff Works

The National Association of the Deaf calls American Sign Language “the backbone of American deaf culture.” As the third most popular language in the United States and Canada, ASL allows for conversation and education. That’s why knowing, learning, and teaching ASL is so important. “Like any spoken language, ASL has its own rules, its own grammar, it’s own syntax,” said Stephanie Lipe, an instructor and assistant professor at ISU teaching ASL education classes…

Face masks are excluding the deaf and hard of hearing community

April 16, 2020 | Source: Quartz

Face masks are spreading as a coronavirus mitigation measure, but it’s leaving out a large population: The deaf and hard of hearing. While surgical masks have been the norm in Asian countries, they’re a new addition to Western economies fending off the spread of the deadly disease, Covid-19, caused by the novel coronavirus. Governor Andrew Cuomo, on Wednesday, March 15, mandated all New Yorkers wear a mask when going out in public starting Friday. Similar calls were heard in Germany and other countries, nevermind the low supply of masks…

National News (U.S.)

Texas schools closed by coronavirus struggling with special education

April 10, 2020 | Source: The Texas Tribune

Losing the stability of a school day frustrates 14-year-old Logan Heller. He regularly melts down: screaming at the top of his lungs, hitting himself in the face and fleeing from anyone who tries to calm him. Until at least early May, the Cuero Independent School District has moved to online learning, like hundreds of other schools, to stem spread of the new coronavirus throughout Texas. That’s left Logan’s mother, Robyn Garza, with no respite and minimal assistance managing her son’s self-injurious episodes…

Google’s accessibility chief shares her advice for young techies, what it means to be an ‘integrator,’ and her favorite Google features

April 11, 2020 | Source: Business Insider

When Eve Andersson joined Google in 2007, the accessibility movement was what she called a “grassroots effort.” Now, 13 years later, Andersson serves as Google’s director of inclusive machine learning and accessibility engineering, spearheading the company’s focus on accessibility. That grassroots effort of just a few employees now numbers in the hundreds. Andersson has been working in tech for over 22 years, and when she started at Google, she worked on the technical side of company partnerships…

Congress Must Protect the Voting Rights of People with Disabilities

April 13, 2020 | Source: WDRB

On Friday, April 10, ACB and more than 75 national, state and local disability and civil rights organizations sent a letter urging Congress to protect the voting rights of people who are blind and disabled during the current pandemic. The letter, which is available here, urged Congress to mandate an accessible online absentee voting system to be used by any state adopting vote by mail as an alternative to in-person elections at polling locations. “Americans with disabilities have fought for decades to secure the same voting rights as all other Americans.”…

Pikes Peak Is My Mountain: “It Symbolizes The Mountains, Challenges I’ve Had To Overcome”

April 14, 2020 | Source: KRCC

The city of Colorado Springs is gathering reflections from community members on their personal connections to Pikes Peak. It’s part of a campaign called “My Mountain” leading up to completion of the Pikes Peak Summit Complex next year. The city has shared audio versions of several stories with 91.5 KRCC, which we are editing for broadcast. In this audio postcard, we hear from Brandon Lyons, a paralympian who lives and trains in Colorado Springs. I dove into shallow water, broke my back at the T5 and T6 vertebrae. That left me with a spinal cord injury…

State unemployment websites: 4 out of 5 fail mobile and accessibility tests

April 15, 2020 | Source: TechRepublic

Nearly 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the digital infrastructure meant to support them is inadequate, according to a new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). This means that the vast majority of state unemployment websites fail basic mobile and accessibility tests, making it difficult for people to apply for unemployment benefits, according to the ITIF, a non-partisan think tank for science and technology policy…

Accessibility Dissonance: The disability community’s overlooked fight for remote learning

April 15, 2020 | Source: The State Press

For Sarah Leal, not being able to attend class some days cost her a year of schooling due to an excess of absences. Leal, a senior studying journalism, is among the 1% of the population living with Von Willebrand disease, a blood disorder that prevents the blood from clotting properly. The disease causes some, like Leal, to cancel a day’s plans to tend to major bleeding at home. As universities around the world go online and many workers shift from cubicles to dining tables, some people with disabilities are left wondering if ableism was the only thing standing in their way of previously being granted such accessibility…

How a CSE student’s hearing disability shaped his experiences in diverse environments

April 16, 2020 | Source: The Daily

Dhruv “DJ” Jain almost drowned in a scuba diving lesson. While training on the water surface, he couldn’t bring his hearing aids and was incorrectly taught how to inflate his jacket. Jain, waving for help, was fortunately spotted by a crew member who pulled him into safety. This wasn’t the first time Jain had encountered a disability-related accident during the course of his 15-month trip. He documented his perspectives as a hard of hearing traveler backpacking across 21 countries in an autoethnographic study…

After Coronavirus, Colleges Worry: Will Students Come Back?

April 16, 2020 | Source: The New York Times

For years, Claire McCarville dreamed of going to college in New York or Los Angeles, and was thrilled last month to get accepted to selective schools in both places. But earlier this month, she sent a $300 deposit to Arizona State University, a 15-minute drive from her home in Phoenix. “It made more sense,” she said, “in light of the virus.” Across the country, students like Ms. McCarville are rethinking their choices in a world altered by the pandemic…

Quarantine Is a Nightmare for People With Disabilities

April 16, 2020 | Source: VICE

Andrew Gurza hasn’t been out of his apartment since October. Gurza has cerebral palsy and uses a power wheelchair to get around. Colder weather, snow, and road salt make the streets difficult to navigate for the winter months. Usually at this time of year Gurza, who works as a disability advocate and hosts the Disability After Dark podcast, would be taking full advantage of the warmer spring weather, but then the coronavirus hit. “There’s a comfort level that everyone is doing this right now,” Gurza said…

Pharmacologic treatment an option for open-angle glaucoma

April 16, 2020 | Source: Ophthalmology Times

Glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the United States, is caused by ocular hypertension, which damages the optic nerve and results in visual field loss. There is no cure, but the disease can be managed with pharmacologic therapies, among other more invasive treatments, that lower and stabilize intraocular pressure (IOP). Joseph F. Panarelli, MD, associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at NYU Langone Medical Center and Sahar Bedrood, MD, PhD, a glaucoma specialist at Acuity Eye Group, recently spoke on the current state and future of glaucoma therapy…

Jack Fact — According to the National Center for Health Statistics, approximately 20% of the U.S. population is deaf or hard-of-hearing.

International News

Federal government names group to ensure disabled Canadians included in COVID-19 response

April 10, 2020 | Source: National Post- Canada & Employment and Social Development Canada

The COVID-19 pandemic takes a particularly heavy toll on Canadians with disabilities and more efforts are needed to ensure they’re included in national efforts to respond to the crisis, the minister overseeing accessibility issues said Friday as she appointed an advisory group to take on the task. Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough said disabled residents have been sounding alarms about a host of concerns related to the outbreak, which has already killed at least 550 Canadians and sickened a minimum of 22,000 others…

Opposition urges Gov’t to make CARE programme accessible to disabled community

April 10, 2020 | Source: Jamaica Observer- Jamaica

The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has brought to the attention of the Government that many Jamaicans with disabilities are finding it impossible to meet the requirements of the CARE programme. In a release issued today by Opposition spokesman for finance Mark Golding, the PNP stated that people with disabilities applying for the compassionate grant under the CARE programme, either because they do not have TRN numbers or because they do not have bank accounts and will be unable to go to a remittance outlet to collect funds…

Consult PWDs on Covid-19 campaigns-Disability Forum

April 12, 2020 | Source: News Ghana

The Chairman of the Disability Forum of Ghana (DFG) has asked Government to include the leadership of Persons living With Disabilities (PWDs) on the committee on the COVID-19 campaign. This would make the committee able to address issues on disability and understand the situation in order to come up with a good strategy and intervention on how to minimize the impact of the pandemic on PWDs in Ghana, says Mr. Alexander Tetteh. Mr. Tetteh made this call in an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Tema on the impact of COVID-19 on PWDs and other vulnerable groups in Ghana…

Feds name group to help Canadians with disabilities during COVID-19 crisis

April 13, 2020 | Source: National Observer- Canada

Morning show Now with Dave Brown puts news in the lens of disability

April 13, 2020 | Source: Calgary Herald- Canada

Back in February, when protesters fighting the Coastal GasLink pipeline project erected blockades on Via Rail routes across Canada, at least 42,000 passengers in the Montreal-Toronto-Ottawa triangle were stranded. News outlets jumped on the shutdown and its related issues — Indigenous land rights, environmental costs and government intervention. But, says morning show host Dave Brown, the coverage was missing something. “Not one show talked about how it impacted the blind curling team coming back from the national championship in Ottawa. There’s a way that disability and accessibility played into that story that a lot of people were blind to,” he says…

Society’s Adapting To Isolation. As A Disabled Person, I Hope The Changes Stick

April 13, 2020 | Source: HuffPost- Canada

By the time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a press conference announcing that Canada was closing its borders and Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency across the province, I had already been cooped up inside my Toronto home for days. It was not because I had taken prescient isolation measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 — it’s because I am disabled and social isolation is a lifestyle that I have long been accustomed to. My disability causes chronic pain and fatigue, and can be unpredictable…

Accessibility Is A Human Right

April 15, 2020 | Source: The Daily Vox- Africa

South Africa is slowly getting into grips with the realisation of a lockdown that doesn’t seem to have an end date anytime soon and with the awareness of the economic impact of what it could mean for a country that was already in a recession with retrenchments every other day. The stark and constant reminder of how those without are going to be without even worse is making everybody wake up to a painful reality writes Makgosi Letimile. With this I have been thinking about how accessibility will be playing itself out for all to see and how for many the lessons will be missed because they have the privilege of having a soft spot to land due to ableism privilege…

Online teaching and challenges of COVID-19 for inclusion of PWDs in higher education

April 15, 2020 | Source: Daily Times- Pakistan

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are more vulnerable than others having more needs related to health-care, safety and accessibility. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has contaminated the societies with fear, anxiety and stigmatization. This pandemic has affected the lives of million people on earth in order to maintain their routine and social activities, however, the impact is heavier on vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities. It can be assumed that they are dully affected by the situation; one for having disability and second for not having accessibility while facing social isolation…

New Zealand: Accessible Streets rule package proposed by the Associate Minister of Transport

April 15, 2020 | Source: Wynn Williams- New Zealand

The Associate Minister of Transport has proposed an ‘Accessible Streets’ rule package which seeks to improve the safety and efficiency of multiple types of transport. This rule package responds to the: Increase in use of micro-mobility devices like e-scooters. Desire to encourage the use of public and active transport options. Calls for clarification of local authority powers. There are 9 key proposed rule changes under the ‘Accessible Streets’ package that the Government is seeking consultation on…

ZBC, Govt sued over lack of accessible information on coronavirus in format friendly to visually impaired and deaf people

April 16, 2020 | Source: The Zimbabwean- Africa

Three organisations representing people who are visually impaired and Deaf have sued government and the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) demanding to be provided with information on coronavirus in a format which is accessible to them. Development, Deaf Zimbabwe Trust and Zimbabwe National League Of The Blind argued that the rights of persons with disabilities have been infringed and continue to be infringed by government and ZBC during a public health emergency crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic as there is a lack of access to information in a format that is accessible to persons with disabilities…

Clear vision, many smiles: How a non-profit is helping children in India see better

April 16, 2020 | Source: Your Story- India

India is home to 472 million children. According to a study published by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information, out of 668 hospitals, only 192 (28.7 percent) reported that they provided pediatric eye care services – a handful in a country as vast as India. Primary and quality eye care is a necessity, and to make it accessible, Orbis International, a non-profit non-governmental organisation, started its saving initiative in India with its flagship Flying Eye Hospital. Orbis International was founded in 1982 in the United States….

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