Accessibility in the News — 12/11/2020.

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AITN Quote of the Week

Crafted while listening to: Best Of Teddy Swims

“It is your character, and your character alone, that will make your life happy or unhappy.”

― John McCain

Feature Stories

Senate passes ALS Disability Insurance Access Act

December 2, 2020 | Source: WLNS 6 News & Bill

Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow is voicing her approval after the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act cleared the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a progressive disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It is sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the baseball player who was diagnosed with it. According to the ALS Association, the average survival time after diagnosis is about three years…

National News (U.S.)

Blind Patient Receives Settlement from Nash Hospitals, Inc.

December 2, 2020 | Source: Disability Rights North Carolina & Becker’s Hospital Review

Nash Hospitals, Inc. will pay $150,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to settle legal claims by a blind Rocky Mount, NC man whom Nash General Hospital refused to provide written materials in Braille. The National Federation of the Blind, America’s civil rights organization of the blind, and Disability Rights North Carolina also agreed to not pursue further litigation against Nash Hospitals, Inc. for its past failures to provide written materials in formats accessible to the blind…

Lost in translation: Why audio description must go onto the accessibility agenda

December 3, 2020 | Source: World Economic Forum

Imagine you’re in a room with a group of colleagues, or a group of friends or family, and everyone is laughing, but you don’t get the joke. Sound familiar? That experience is something that blind and visually impaired people are faced with every single day. That’s because when they watch regular TV, the visual context is omitted, resulting in content being lost in translation. For me, the power of audio description in advertising came to light when I found myself in that very situation…

NAB to FCC: Audible Accessibility Waiver Still Needed

December 3, 2020 | Source: TV Technology

The National Association of Broadcasters said there is still essentially no practical way to provide audio descriptions of “dynamic” visual emergency information, like weather radar maps, for the blind and visually impaired. Currently broadcasters do not have to do that under a five-year waiver of the requirement that “emergency information provided visually during non-newscast video programming be made audibly accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired.” Actually, the requirement was supposed to kick in in 2015, but broadcasters are on their second waiver…

Student aims to improve transit for disabled Virginians

December 5, 2020 | Source: New Haven Register

With $137 million in new transit funding up for grabs across the Richmond region over the next year, a VCU graduate student is hoping to channel resources into improving the lives of people with disabilities. Rebekah Cazares, a Wilder Fellow with PlanRVA, the region’s district planning commission, is conducting a study of how the built environment — roads, sidewalks, utility poles and bus stops — in Richmond and its surrounding counties can be improved to make travel less difficult for people with physical disabilities, such as those who are blind or use a wheelchair…

Creating opportunities for people with disabilities is crucial for business success

December 6, 2020 | Source: ZDNet

Businesses and organizations that don’t make their websites, applications, communication channels, physical locations, and online working environments accessible, risk alienating large populations of customers and potential employees. According to the CDC’s U.S. disability figures, 5.9% of Americans (about 19.5 million people) are “deaf or have serious difficulty hearing” and 4.6% of Americans (about 15.2 million people) have a “vision disability with blindness or serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses.” Companies have made progress making their offerings more accessible to the 61 million Americans and estimated 1 billion people around the world with disabilities…

Thirty Years Later, Still Fighting Over the ADA

December 7, 2020 | Source: The Regulatory Review

A federal judge for the Southern District of New York recently ruled that the city of New York violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to install audible devices at crosswalks. These devices tell blind and visually impaired people when it is safe to cross the streets, but the city had installed them in only 3.4 percent of intersections. The federal district court concluded that the city’s conduct amounted to an illegal denial of services and benefits by a public entity in violation of Title II of the ADA. The decision comes 30 years after the U.S. Congress enacted the ADA…

Researchers Say We’re Watching The World Go Blind

December 7, 2020 | Source: Newswise

As the global population grows and ages, so does their need for eye care. But according to two new studies published in The Lancet Global Health, these needs aren’t being met relative to international targets to reduce avoidable vision loss. As 2020 comes to a close, an international group of researchers set out to provide updated estimates on the number of people that are blind or visually impaired across the globe, to identify the predominant causes, and to illustrate epidemiological trends over the last 30 years…

How To Put Accessibility At The Forefront Of Marketing

December 7, 2020 | Source: Forbes

While your marketing department may be meeting the creative standards of your brand, have you asked them lately if the content they’re developing can be consumed by all people living with a disability? There are over 60 million U.S. adults — our neighbors, family members and colleagues — who have some form of disability. That is one in four Americans. Globally, 15% of the world’s population — 1 billion people — experience some form of disability. This number is expected to double by 2050…

WWE Settles Legal Dispute on Accessibility for Blind & Visually Impaired for Online Shop

December 8, 2020 | Source: 411mania & Heel By Nature & Wrestling

According to a report by Heel By Nature.com, WWE has settled a lawsuit out of course with a man claiming he was denied equal access to WWEShop.com. The lawsuit was filed by Josue Romero on October 16 in the United States District Court Southern District Of New York. News of the settlement surfaced after Romero’s counsel released a settlement notice on December 7, which advised the court to dismiss the case. WWE reportedly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount of money…

‘Deafness isn’t a disability, it’s a world.”

December 8, 2020 | Source: Report Door & Times Standard & The Day & The Courier

The cruelest of ironies lays at the center of the acclaimed new drama Sound of Metal: A professional drummer, played by a transfixing Riz Ahmed, loses his hearing, robbing him not only of the basic sense he has long taken for granted but also his livelihood. Forced to abandon his cross-county tour with girlfriend and metal bandmate Lou (Olivia Cooke), Ahmed’s Ruben desperately seeks implants while taking residence in a rural community that caters to deaf recovering addicts and treats hearing loss as something to embraced, not cured…

‘The beauty of accessibility’: Model with Down syndrome featured on cover of Allure magazine

December 8, 2020 | Source: FOX 23

Ellie Goldstein started dancing when she was five years old but fell in love with the spotlight when she appeared in her school’s performance of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” “When I was doing that play, it hit me [that I wanted to keep doing this]. I love to be seen,” Goldstein, 18, told Allure magazine. The British model, who has Down syndrome, is the cover subject of Allure’s latest digital issue and the focus of the outlet’s second installment in its “The Beauty of Accessibility” series…

Conair Website For CuisinArt Is Sued For Excluding Visual Impaired Settlement Mulled

December 9, 2020 | Source: Inner City Press & Case

Josue Paguada sued Conair Corporation for the alleged lack of accessibility to the blind of the cuisinart.com website. On December 9 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Sidney H. Stein held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it. Only the day before in another website case, Judge Stein has expressed skepticism about the plaintiff’s lawyers due diligence. But here, the parties said they are near settling the case. Judge Stein set another date of January 14, and said he was expecting and would be pleased to receiving notice of settlement / dismissal by then…

5 Books For An Introduction To Disability History In The U.S.

December 9, 2020 | Source: Book Riot

I’m not a historian, but I love researching. I’m also constantly thinking about how ableism affects my and other disabled people’s lives. I enjoy academic and popular history books with ample citations and bibliographies. History books often omit that Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, and many other important historical figures were disabled. This list is not exhaustive, of course, but these U.S. disability history books show how racism, anti-LGBTQIA prejudice, ableism, and sexism intersect…

11-year-old boy lobbies for disabled accessibility

December 9, 2020 | Source: Benitolink

The city of Hollister recently approved local student Jack Preader’s petition to make Frank Klauer Park compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The accessibility changes will include resurfacing the playground and installing several new structures, including ramps and lifts for kids who, like Jack, 11, have cerebral palsy and get around in an electric wheelchair. Jack’s mother, Melissa Preader, took him and his younger sister Claire to Frank Klauer Park earlier this fall…

Gene Therapy Shows Promise for a Form of Blindness, but Is It a Cure?

December 9, 2020 | Source: The Wall Street Journal

A clinical trial of a gene therapy for an inherited condition leading to vision loss made an unexpected finding: Patients treated in one eye experienced improvement in the other eye as well. Researchers gave the experimental therapy to 37 people with Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, or LHON, a rare genetic disease that can lead to irreversible vision loss, according to a paper published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. The disease, which primarily affects young men, can cause sudden loss of central vision in one eye, usually followed by the other eye within a short period of time…

ack Fact — According to the American Foundation for the Blind, only 15 percent of those who are “legally blind” have total vision loss. The other 85 percent suffer from “low vision,” which generally refers to permanent vision loss that interferes with daily activities and cannot be corrected with regular glasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery. This means that 85 percent of those considered “legally blind” may, in fact, have some vision.

Hit The Road Jack — Caribbean Beach Resort Accessibility Review: A Redemption Story

International News

Athens Acropolis hill becomes more accessible to disabled, elderly

December 3, 2020 | Source: Xinhua- Greece & Travel + Leisure & ekathimerini.com

Municipality of Athens plans for equal access to the Greek capital for all

December 8, 2020 | Source: Tornos News- Greece

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday inaugurated a new elevator installed at a slope of the famed Acropolis hill and specially designed pathways to make the 2,500-year-old monuments more accessible to people with disabilities and the elderly. “Today, December 3, on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we inaugurate the new elevator and the routes which have been designed with great care in order to make the Acropolis accessible to all,” he said in a statement broadcast on Greek national broadcaster ERT…

Why universal accessibility is important in the tourism space

December 3, 2020 | Source: Independent- South Africa

International Day for Persons with Disabilities is observed annually on December 3 and aims to promote the rights and well-being of people with disabilities. December 3 also marks the end of National Disability Rights Awareness Month in South Africa. South African Tourism believes that International Day for Persons with Disabilities and Disability Awareness Month present an opportunity for the tourism sector to ensure universal accessibility and strive to make tourism accessible for all…

Rick Hansen Foundation supports a national standard for accessible homes across Canada

December 4, 2020 | Source: Canadian Architect

Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF) is supporting the development of a new national standard for affordable, adaptable and accessible homes across Canada. The Foundation intends to use the proposed national standard, being developed by CSA Group, to inform the basis of a new Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification ( RHFAC) module enabling RHFAC Professionals to rate the accessibility of residential homes. Based upon the National Standard of Canada, CSA B651-18…

Disability group hoping to encourage Tasmania’s tourism industry to be more accessible to everyone

December 5, 2020 | Source: ABC- Australia

The ground below Mole Creek in Tasmania’s north is home to a stunning karst system of caves, sinkholes and gorges. Cave guide Deb Hunter takes visitors into the hidden world underground, focussing on the undeveloped caves. “We can go further than just an entrance view,” she said. “We can go and see glow worms, we can see running streams and ancient forms of animals that are found nowhere else in the world.” Ms Hunter found out as an adult that she was high functioning on the autism spectrum…

Making digital art accessible to the visually-impaired

December 5, 2020 | Source: Telangana Today- India

Instagram is one of the most popular social networks worldwide. This visual medium is not just a photo gallery anymore it has transformed into a platform for creative expression, engagement and even a source of income for many. The AltMuseum enables a simple functionality of alt-text available on Instagram to introduce a creative experience for the visually impaired. With the talk-back setting on Androids and Voiceover feature in iOS enabled, a creative coded in Alt-text helps in describing the visual through an audio narrative…

As 2020 winds down, Israel leaves people with disabilities behind

December 5, 2020 | Source: The Jerusalem Post- Israel

I grew up with a disabled IDF veteran father who was confined to a wheelchair when Israel was not accessible at all. Whenever we decided to leave the house, I was responsible for carrying the load.

It was only after my accident – due to a technical problem in my combat helicopter when I served as an Israel Air Force pilot that left me paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair – that I truly grasped the difficulty of living with a disability in an inaccessible environment…

Insight: Why disabled artists can’t go back to normal

December 6, 2020 | Source: The Scotsman- Scotland

Dundas, who lives in Edinburgh, suffers from two long-term and fluctuating conditions: fibromyalgia and ME. The first causes chronic pain and fatigue, the second a crushing flu-like exhaustion and post-exertional malaise, which means, if she does any activity – from going to a show to chatting to friends – she risks being wiped out for some time afterwards. These conditions have an impact on her as both a consumer and creator of art, making it more difficult for her to attend promotional events and writers’ retreats…

Report: Banks should ease services access to people with disabilities

December 6, 2020 | Source: The Standard- Africa

Banks should identify customers with disabilities for engagement when developing products and services, a new report recommends. The Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Pilot Project Report by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) further asked lenders to develop an “accessibility roadmap” to ensure that their PWDs customers have access to banking halls and digital services. “Banks should ensure that all banking areas are accessible through ramps, lower ATMs or counters,” said the report that was also done in partnership with seven local banks…

Advocates laud ‘inclusive’ provisions in 2021 budget, but still a long way to go for PWDs

December 6, 2020 | Source: Philstar- Philippines

Advocates for persons with disability or PWDs lauded the government’s 2021 budget bill as a step forward in issues affecting the disability community. In a statement, Advocates of Inclusion, a network of development professionals, said that next year’s fiscal plan included proposed amendments that promoted disability inclusion in all infrastructure projects of the government, particularly public schools, all of which were accepted by the Senate Finance committee…

Accessible tourism identified as ‘game changer’ for destinations

December 7, 2020 | Source: BW Businessworld- Europe

A new set of Inclusive Recovery Guides from the World Tourism Organization, produced in partnership with the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), the ONCE Foundation of Spain and Travability from Australia, makes clear the importance of placing inclusivity at the centre of recovery plans and provides key recommendations for achieving this. Launched on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the UNWTO Inclusive Recovery Guide – Socio-Cultural Impacts of COVID-19: Issue I Persons with Disabilities, draws on the expertise of UNWTO’s Ethics Culture and Social Responsibility Department and its partners…

‘Disabilities don’t discriminate’: City gathering public feedback on accessibility changes

December 7, 2020 | Source: CTV News- Canada

You can help make Edmonton more accessible for people with disabilities by sharing feedback on some proposed new ideas. The actions are meant to improve accessibility to waste collection, transit, elections, recreations and more. These are some of the ideas being presented: Developing a process to ensure that all projects consider accessibility and universal design at all stages. Virtual information sessions for elections and support for people who want to participate in the election process…

Job taken off table night before interview

December 8, 2020 | Source: The McIvor Times- Australia

On Tuesday, the Disability Royal Commission heard from 25-year-old Oliver Hunter. He told commissioners he had applied for a job as a residential adviser at his university and received a call from the head of campus the night before his interview. “I went into his office and he told me pretty directly that due to my physical restrictions I won’t be able to do the job,” he said. It included doing rounds to check on other students, and Mr Hunter believed he could make the role work. “He wasn’t coming to that party with me,” he said…

Hyderabad Doc Who Returned From US to Help the Blind Wins $3 Million Global Prize

December 9, 2020 | Source: The Better India

LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), a World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centre for the prevention of blindness, is a comprehensive eye health facility headquartered in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Recently, it was chosen for the Greenberg Prize — End Blindness 2020 and the Outstanding Achievement award, which will be presented to its founder Dr Gullapalli Nageswara Rao. The purpose of the Greenberg Prize is to create a worldwide research community that will contribute its collective skills and resources to end blindness…

Building inclusion and accessibility during the COVID-19 pandemic discussed at online forum in eastern Ukraine

December 9, 2020 | Source: UNDP- Ukraine

The annual Interregional “Life without Barriers” Forum was held on 4-5 December for discussion of the development of inclusion and accessibility in eastern Ukraine, the challenges facing people with disabilities, and the search for joint solutions to overcome them. Held for the first time online this year, the forum was organized under the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, with financial support from the governments of Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands…

A failed study shows a promising treatment for blindness

December 10, 2020 | Source: The Economist- UK

In the textbooks, science is simple. You come up with an idea, put it to the test, and then accept it or reject it depending on what your experiments reveal. In the real world, though, things are rarely that straightforward, as a paper just published in Science Translational Medicine shows. In it, a group of researchers led by Patrick Yu-Wai-Man, an ophthalmologist at Cambridge University, investigated a promising new genetic therapy for a hereditary form of blindness. Officially, their study was a failure, for their experiment did not show what the researchers hoped it would…

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