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January 20, 2011

US Federal Court Allows Modern Technology to Assist in Professional Examinations for the Disabled
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Scales of Justic. Image: The Liberal Orange County.

A ruling was made by a US federal appellate court ruling affirmed the right of a blind California women to use screen access technology to take professional examinations in order to receive her license to practice law. The ruling was handed down unanimously by a panel of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninths Judicial Circuit, upholding preliminary injunctions granted by a federal district court requiring the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to provide electronic copies of its legal examinations to Stephanie Enyart so that she could read the questions with text-to-speech and magnification software.

In a recent press release

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by the National Federation of the Blind
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, President of the organization, Dr. Marc Maurer, acknowledges this as a step in the right direction:

“The National Federation of the Blind welcomes this ruling, which means that testing agencies must afford the accommodations and auxiliary aids that are most likely to level the playing field for the blind and other test takers with disabilities.  The court made it clear that law and equity simply do not permit the NCBE to dictate a one-size-fits-all solution for all bar candidates with disabilities.  The ruling stands solidly for the principle that the NCBE and all testing organizations must consider the individual needs of each examination candidate and that accommodation policies must change as access technology continues to improve.  It is our sincere hope that the NCBE will change its rigid and outdated accommodation policies to reflect the letter and spirit of this ruling, and that other entities that administer educational and professional examinations will take note and do likewise.  The National Federation of the Blind stands ready to fight for the rights of blind students and aspiring professionals and to make sure that this ruling is faithfully followed.”

The court has upheld the validity of a Department of Justice regulation, promulgated pursuant to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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, requiring that exams are chosen and administered so that exam results can accurately reflect aptitude or achievement rather than disability.

The court has also acknowledged that as technology advances, testing accommodating should advance as well. Accessibility should take place across all areas of modern life, from removing barriers to education to improving physical access

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at home.

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September 16, 2010

Introduction To Web Accessibility
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Millions of people worldwide are restricted in their use of the Internet

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because of poor accessibility. There is a huge movement to redress this problem and to create standards that will prevent any new content or services being created that aren’t as accessible as possible to the widest cross-section of the world.

Because the web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life, from employment, health and education to leisure, travel, research and, of course, commerce, it actually has the potential to help people with disabilities participate more actively in society.

The Web Accessibility Initiative

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(WAI) has a massive (and ever growing) online presence. It’s part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and, right now, is working with dozens of partner organisations around the world on various projects. These include sharing guidelines to ensure the widest possible awareness about the importance of accessibility, and strategies to improve and implement current standards even further.

The WAI website is extremely thorough and gives many different examples of how improved accessibility standards can make the web easier to use for a range of different people with different disabilities. For example, they explain how a few simple changes, such as removing time-limited responses or forms that can’t be ‘tabbed-through’ logically, can vastly improve the online experience for a person with mobility issues.

One of the ways a disabled person’s experience with the web can be improved is, depending on their disability of course, by using specialised kit. For example, for a person with mobility issues, alternative pointing devices or voice recognition software could be a great help. An accessible workstation

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that is flexible enough to accommodate this kind of equipment is therefore immensely important.

If you have a website and are concerned about its accessibility to people with disabilities, there are lots of steps you can take. First of all, if you use a web developer, talk to them about their awareness of WAI standards and ask them to implement the recommendations on your site. If you’re more interested in making the changes yourself, there are lots of resources

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available on the WAI website that will help you on your way.

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September 9, 2010

Lodging Complaints to Dislodge Inaccessibility
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Even if the country you live in has robust legislation about discrimination against people with disabilities, chances are, either those laws aren’t enforced quite as thoroughly as they could be, or there are (yet undiscovered) loopholes that need sorting out. If you feel you or someone you know has been treated unfairly because of a disability, you have a right to lodge a complaint and receive a response. 

Many people, however, find the process of formally complaining to be difficult, or think that it’s not worth the effort. However, a recent story about AirTran 

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suggests otherwise… 

AirTran Airways, an American low-cost airline, is to be fined $500k for violating rules about the accommodation of passengers with disabilities on its flights. Although this might not seem like much for a company that made $134.7 million in profit last year (a record, despite the recession), the fine will surely raise awareness and ensure that AirTran improves its service. 

As for the actual charges levelled against the airline, three main criticisms have been made: 

  • they failed to provide adequate assistance to people with disabilities when boarding the flights; 
  • they failed to respond to customer complaints on this matter; 
  • they failed to correctly categorize these complaints when reporting to the government. 

 

The combined affect of these three oversights meant that the chances of the problem being brought to light were slim. However, if no-one had complained, nothing would ever have changed. The Transportation Department’s intervention is already bringing about improvements to the treatment of passengers with disabilities because of the way the fine is being implemented. 

Of the $500k, $60k can be used by the airline to make sure they keep up-to-date with accessibility rules and best practice, while a further $140k will be used to improve the provision of wheelchairs

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 by the introduction of an automated wheelchair tracking system at AirTran’s major hubs (currently listed
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 as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and General Mitchell International Airport). 

These changes, particularly the $60k spent on future compliance, will have a very real and very lasting positive effect on the experience of air travel for people with disabilities in the US. This change is due, in no small part, to those passengers that lodged initial complaints, even if they were ignored to begin with!

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September 1, 2010

Shaw Communications Confronted by Accessibility Needs
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An article was recently published

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that accused Shaw Communications Inc., a huge communications company in Canada, of neglecting accessibility in its takeover plans for Canwest Global, one of the main TV broadcasters in the country. This follows Canwest’s move to protected bankruptcy in late 2009 and the selling off of various parts of the company.

A collection of groups and individuals in support of Canadians with disabilities expressed their concern with Shaw’s plans, drawing attention to the lack of coverage of accessibility issues in their bid of approximately $2 billion. Beverley Milligan, President and CEO of a group that advocates on behalf of Canadians with disabilities, Media Access Canada, had this to say: “Frankly, we were shocked that in applying for control of so many TV stations and specialty services Shaw didn’t even mention issues like closed captioning and descriptive video.”

The group has entered an intervention to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), in which it lists ten features that would improve Shaw’s bid in terms of accessibility.

As it stands, closed caption television (i.e., where text is displayed on a television screen to provide information to viewers who wish to access it) is now required across the whole TV schedule, but as Milligan points out, this has taken 20 years to establish. Concern for a similarly slow introduction of descriptive video is at the top of Milligan’s agenda: “how long [are] Canadians who rely on descriptive video… supposed to wait before they can access television like everyone else? The year 2030?”

In 2008 and 2009, the CRTC undertook a large overview of accessibility policy (in which, by the way, Shaw acknowledged the importance of accessibility in communications). This extended across a huge range of accessibility issues, including for example, the necessity for cell phone companies to provide at least one model that caters to the requirements of people with disabilities (not excluding mobility problems).

At Barrier Free Living, we recognise the rights of everyone to live an accessible lifestyle, and so we proudly promote universal design through our provision of innovative architectural products

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, such as handicap showers
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and accessible education
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furnishings.

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August 27, 2010

Getting Clear on Universal Design
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We touched on the subject of ‘universal design’ in our recent post on Barrier-Free Living in Ontario, and thought it might be interesting to go into the principal with greater depth. So, what exactly is ‘universal design’?

To use the definition provided by The Institute for Human Centred Design

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, universal, or inclusive, design can be defined as “the design of products, environments, and communication to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design”. This simple definition houses a simple, yet incredibly important idea. The adoption of universal design signifies more than an acceptance of equality across all members of society; it recognises the importance of equitable living, without the need for distinction or paternalism.

Two key factors contributed to the growth in popularity of universal design. Firstly, more and more people are living with a greater range of disabilities. Secondly, we are living in an ageing population, and it’s not getting any younger! Making accessible design the norm rather than the exception makes a lot of sense given these two facts.

The Institute of Human Centred Design lists the seven principals of universal design as the following:

  1. Equitable Use – the design does not single out a group or groups of individuals in any particular way.
  2. Flexibility in Use – lots of different people can use the design in lots of different ways, according to their needs and wants.
  3. Simple, Intuitive Use – the design shouldn’t take any expertise or particular skills to use to optimum performance.
  4. Perceptible Information – the lines of communication between the design and the user are as clear as possible,
  • Tolerance For Error – if something goes wrong, the design will not break easily or become dangerous to use.
  1. Low Physical Effort – the design can be used by anyone, despite their current energy or strength levels.
  2. Size and Space for Approach & Use – the design is accessible and usable for anyone, regardless of their size, posture or mobility.

Although the phrase ‘universal design’ has been around for about 50 years, it has only become mainstream recently, so do look out for it! We promote these principals in our company through, for example, in our holistic handicap shower

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designs.

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Celebrating the ADA’s Positive Impact
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This year is the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so it’s a perfect opportunity to either learn about or remember where the legislation first came from, and what it has achieved over the twenty years of its existence. Accessibility is integral across all levels of our society, but it wasn’t always so…

The disability rights movement was around long before the ADA came into being in 1990; the act’s very existence is due to the thousands of people involved in protests, lobbying, administration, recruitment and awareness raising that took place for years before any legally enforced changes took place. In terms of legal advances, the most significant precursor to the ADA was probably Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which made it illegal to discriminate on grounds of disability.

The first version of the ADA was introduced in 1988, and went through many rounds of changes and redrafts over the next two years. During those two years, those involved in the disability rights movement orchestrated a massive publicity campaign to raise awareness of the high levels of discrimination and to persuade the general public that these discriminations represented injustice on a massive scale. One of the ways this was achieved was by publicising some of the thousands of first-hand accounts of discrimination submitted by individuals around the country.

So what did the ADA actually achieve? Arlene Mayerson wrote an excellent history of the Act

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in 1992, and has this to say on the question: “The ADA is based on a basic presumption that people with disabilities want to work and are capable of working, want to be members of their communities and are capable of being members of their communities and that exclusion and segregation cannot be tolerated.”

Presently, the ADA affects every facet of life in the US. Perhaps most significantly, in the marketplace, anything with the ADA compliance stamp can be bought in the highest confidence.  This includes a lot of the products offered through our store; for example, our entire range of accessible shower chairs

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, products by virtue of which we join in celebrating two decades of the ADA and its positive impact on civil rights.

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August 25, 2010

Lemon Laws Provide Protection in Sour Times
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Here is an interesting item of news straight from Disabled World

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that involves the well known Lemon Law
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in the United States.  Lemon Laws are so named because of the sour pucker one gets from biting into a lemon (the fruit) or meeting a ‘lemon’ (a jerky person), the embodied equivalent  to the jolting  taste left in your mouth; one that follows from being on the receiving end of a bitter deal.

The Lemon Law is designed to protect the public from unscrupulous dealers and /or plain bad luck, and covers motorized vehicles that undergo problem after problem, or suffer continuous repetition of the same problem. Actual Lemon Laws can vary from state to state, but the basic premise remains constant: if a person purchases a car, truck, SUV, RV, or other motorized vehicle that proves to be a dud, it can be exchanged or perhaps returned for full refund. Yay!

If the Lemon Law was not practical and positive enough, according to an article in Disabled World entitled Lemon Laws for Motor Vehicles and Disability Products

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, US lemon laws can also cover motorized wheelchairs, scooters and other motorized equipment designed to serve the disabled. So if you have recently purchased a motorised vehicle or device and believe you may have a ‘lemonesque’ piece of machinery on your hands, it may be a good (and refreshing) idea to check the parameters of the Lemon Laws in your state. Depending on where you live, you will likely find you have some form of protection. This may be true even if you have purchased used disability equipment.

At Barrier Free, we consider the quality of our accessibility and handicap equipment to be of utmost importance. Whether you are purchasing a swing door opener, roll in shower

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, or even any one of our clearance items, you can take comfort in the fact that you can safely and conveniently operate our equipment, every time.

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August 20, 2010

Ontario Committed to Barrie-Free Living
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The Canadian government takes barrier free living very seriously. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA), established in 2001, seeks to improve opportunities for people with disabilities, chiefly by getting them involved in the identification, removal and/or prevention of barriers. This creates circumstances where they can participate in everyday activities to the fullest degree. This Act

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applies to the following areas of public living: Customer service, Transportation, Information and communications, Built environment and Employment.

What’s really interesting is how this Act conceives of ‘barriers’. All too often, a ‘barrier’ is simply seen as some kind of physical impediment that prevents the movement or positioning of a person with disabilities. In contrast, the ODA refers to all of the following when it talks about barriers:

- physical barriers – such as inaccessible stairs or doors without a swing door operator

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or public showers that do not include ada showers
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;

- communication barriers – for example, a publication that is not available in large print;

- attitudinal barriers – an attitude held by anyone in the municipality that withholds the possibility of an ‘all access’ lifestyle for people with disabilities;

- technological barriers – a situation where a technological system isn’t compatible with an accessible experience for people with disabilities, for example, an office desk

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that doesn’t allow a person in a wheelchair access;

- policy or practices – a situation where policy makes it difficult for people with disabilities to complete the task or requirement; for example, long queues to renew a passport.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing posits the solution of ‘Universal Design’ to combat all the potential or existent barriers described above, positioning it as “an evolution from accessible or barrier-free design to one that is even more inclusive”.

A sizable chunk of Ontario’s population is made up of people with disabilities and this number is obviously set to increase as the population ages. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for any new builds to take this vision of ‘Universal Design’ into account right from the start, therefore avoiding the costly process of retrofitting or even, in extreme cases, having to completely rebuild inaccessible places.

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North Americans Fear Disability
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A recent survey called the “Eye on Eyesight” found that Americans fear blindness more than heart disease, even though the latter is the biggest single killer of both men and women in the United States. This news was covered in Earth Times

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.

Choice Magazine Listening commissioned the survey, which was conducted by Surge Research Incorporated. Choice Magazine Listening is a non-profit organisation that records and distributes audio recordings of reading materials (including anything from magazine articles to poetry) to anyone who struggles to read because of disability.

The results of the survey are particularly surprising when you learn that the group questioned were those with the highest risk of serious heart disease (men and women between the ages of 50 and 64), and that they were nearly twice as scared of blindness than of heart disease!

Furthermore, the survey found that 79% of Americans consider losing one’s sight to be the “worst thing that could happen to me,” other than their own death or the death of a loved one.

Whence cometh this fear? Although the Americans that took this survey answered that death is their greatest fear, why are they more afraid of a non-fatal disability than of a sudden, often fatal, attack of the heart? As Sondra Mochson, Editor-in-Chief of Choice Magazine Listening, puts it: “Many of us take our vision for granted. The thought of losing abilities that are basic to us, including important day-to-day functions like reading, creates tremendous fear.”

All this goes to confirm the importance of the implementation of accessible design for the American lifestyle; if visual impairment came to be less of an issue in day-to-day life, perhaps it would become less feared. This means building barrier free living into the infrastructure across public and private living, making accessible kitchens

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, handicap showers
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and accessible offices
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the status quo, rather than the exception. The knock on effect of reducing the fear around something like blindness might even go as far as to increase awareness of heart disease and the steps that can be taken by individuals to lower their risk levels.

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August 6, 2010

Accessible Cities USA
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A recent report by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation

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has ranked some of America’s largest cities based on their accessibility and livability for wheelchair users. The report was commissioned to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and 100 cities were ranked using a list of criteria to determine the degree of flourishing that people in wheelchairs could achieve there.

While the top 20 covers several regions across the country, climate was one of the first criteria used to narrow down the list. Any cities that had extremes in temperature or a lot of snowfall were avoided, as the goal was to find those cities with the most hospitable climates for wheelchair users. So, while some cities may have ranked higher with regard to the other criteria used, climate played a major role in knocking them out of contention.

The cities that remained were ranked on things like air quality, types and availability of accessible housing, supply of doctors, rehabilitation centers and therapists, accessible fitness and recreation centers, and public para-transit systems. The number of physically disabled people already living in the city was looked at, as well as whether they were employed.

The age of the city was taken into consideration, as older cities will have older buildings. These buildings are sometimes a challenge to make accessible, so there may be more buildings that are still inaccessible for all members of the population. The final factor used in the ranking was the amount of funding for, and availability of, Medicare, including the eligibility requirements  for attaining some kind of health care.

The report by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation indicates that, while the top 20 cities are highest on the list, it doesn’t mean that they are completely accessible. The goal of the list was to highlight those cities that are the best accessible and also those on the right track to providing livable environments for wheelchair users.

Here are the top cities as ranked by the Foundation:

  1. Seattle, WA
  2. Albuquerque, NM
  3. Reno, NE
  4. Denver, CO
  5. Portland, OR
  6. Chicago, IL
  7. Birmingham, AL
  8. Winston-Salem, NC
  9. Orlando, FL
  10. Lubbock, TX
  11. Miami, FL
  12. Tampa, FL
  13. Durham, NC
  14. Fort Worth, TX
  15. Virginia Beach, VA
  16. Arlington, TX
  17. Baltimore, MD
  18. New Orleans, LA
  19. Arlington, VA
  20. Atlanta, GA

Don’t fret if your city isn’t on the list.  If your greater environment is still on its way to becoming more accessible, you can take steps towards making your local environment more liveable first.  This can be done by installing wheelchair ramps

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and putting in place automatic door openers
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to ensure barrier-free movement in your more immediate surroundings.

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