From Associated Press:

American businesses are increasingly working to make their websites more accessible, concluding that it is good business to welcome a growing population of potential online customers with disabilities.

Experts say the threat of civil rights lawsuits has also motivated some companies. Target Corp. last year agreed to pay $6 million in damages to plaintiffs with disabilities who could not access its website, and Apple. Inc. reached an agreement with the state of Massachusetts to make its iTunes software more accessible.

Most federal government websites are required by law to be accessible, but those operated by business are not.

From the San Francisco Chronicle (with video), New York Times, BBC:

Google has announced a plan to use speech recognition technology to automatically bring text captions to millions of YouTube videos, making them accessible to people with hearing impairments and making them more searchable.

Analysts expect the change to open the videos to a wider foreign market and potentially make them more profitable.

Engineer Ken Harrenstein, who helped develop the translation  system, said it was imperfect but “will continue to improve with time.” Harrenstein, who is deaf, said in a Google blog that the majority of user-generated content on Youtube has been inaccessible to “people like me.’

From Examiner.com:

This week’s episode of  the Fox series Glee, which chronicled a high school team’s effort to raise money for an accessible bus, ranked as the third most popular video on Hulu.com. The ‘Wheels’ episode explored questions about human diversity, and featured Kevin McHale’s character Artie Abrams, who uses a wheelchair on the show, and Lauren Potter (left) and Robin Trocki, two actresses with Down syndrome.

The full episode is available on Hulu.com here.

Writing on the New York Times Arts Beat blog, Mike Hale said he felt the show’s take on diversity delivered “a mixed message at best.” An excerpt:

Also problematic was the way Lauren Potter, a 19-year-old actress with Down syndrome, was used as a prop in the continuing humanization of [character] Sue Sylvester [played by Jane Lynch]. Forced by the principal to hold open auditions for the cheerleading squad, Sue chose Ms. Potter’s character, the cheerfully determined but not very skilled Becky Johnson… When the big reveal came, we discovered that Sue’s motives were pure: her own older sister has Down syndrome. This development is being praised throughout the Gleeverse, but the view from here is that it felt smarmy and artificial (and not artificial in a good way).

Entertainment Weekly’s Dan Snierson (on MSNBC.com) has a different view of Lynch’s tender scene with Trocki, in which Lynch’s character read “Little Red Riding Hood” to her older sister.

A little manipulative? Probably. But I didn’t care in that glorious moment.

Earlier posts here. and here.

(Photo from the Riverside [CA] Press-Enterprise).

From USA Today:

Crumbling sidewalks across the nation don’t meet federal requirements for disability access, putting people in wheelchairs at risk as they take to the streets.

Although there are no specific statistics on the number of accidents involving wheelchairs in streets, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, disability was a factor in 617 pedestrian traffic fatalities last year.

Disabled residents here take their lives in their hands getting from point A to point B, says Scott Crawford (above), a disability-rights advocate.

([Jackson, MS] Clarion-Ledger photo from USA Today)

See also: Cape gets mixed grade for access — Cape Cod Times

From Newsweek:

A landmark ruling by the Justice Department last year is forcing museums around the country to reexamine the way they make their facilities accessible to people with impaired vision. Increasingly, museums are concluding that they must expand accessibility to include the whole museum experience, not just ramps and handrails.

Kareem Dale, the president’s special adviser on disability policy, has taken a personal interest in the matter, convening a meeting of museum directors to discuss best practices and backing a website to aggregate accessibility information on public venues across the country. Dale is partially blind.

To be sure, many museums are already doing more than the bare minimum. The actual question of how to bring the visual arts to those without sight may seem both impractical and impossible. When we think of visiting museums, we tend to think of quiet, meditative places, where we keep our hands to ourselves and our voices down. But museums at the forefront of accessibility are beginning to offer touch tours, tactile maps, and extended verbal descriptions. Some are even incorporating scent into their educational programs.

From the New York Times:

Amid claims that California is experiencing widespread fraud by people falsely claiming disabled parking privileges, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week signed a measure that  will hike fines to $1,000 for repeat offenses. Parking experts say abuse of parking placards robs the transit system of needed revenue, and makes it harder for people with disabilities to find a spot when they need one.

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat who sponsored the new law, said she had seen placards advertised on Craigslist, as well as fakes.

“They are really hard to identify,” Ms. Ma said. “Only a trained eye could tell the difference.” All of which, she said, has made the law a people pleaser.

“We’ve gotten so many positive responses to this,” she said. “People are saying, ‘It’s about time.’ ”

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Some 200 disability advocates rallied at the Georgia state capitol Monday, dispersing only after securing a meeting with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s chief of staff. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

The protesters are seeking state compliance with the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision, which directed states to provide community-based supports for people with disabilities rather than continue unwarranted segregation in institutions. They are members of ADAPT, a national disability rights organization.

“It’s a shame that 10 years after Olmstead, more people are going into nursing homes than before, “said Bernard Baker, an organizer with ADAPT’s Atlanta chapter. “Living in the community isn’t a privilege, it’s a civil right, and we are being denied our civil rights.”

Earlier post here.