From the Washington Post:

Consumers with disabilities say the Internet and many mobile devices are leaving them behind, but legislation pending in Congress would pressure electronics companies to improve accessibility for all.

“This is simply about inclusion. You have an industry that is known for innovation, but they don’t have a cultural understanding of what universal design truly means,” said Rosaline Crawford, a legal director at the National Association of the Deaf.

Earlier post here.

Competing in Olympics, Paralympics with ten percent of his vision

From the Seattle Times, MacLean’s magazine and elsewhere:

Canadian skier Brian McKeever is the first winter-sport athlete ever named to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic teams. Like his father, McKeever has Stargardt’s disease, the most common form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration. An excerpt:

“There’s not a day goes by that I don’t wish that I saw better,” McKeever, 30, said, talking to a small group of reporters earlier this week. “And yet, it’s made me who I am. It’s a part of who I am and I like the person I am. If that’s the case, then this can’t be all bad. But I certainly wouldn’t wish it on anybody else.”

“… I looked at my dad, who has the same disease, and saw how it never stopped him. I realized it didn’t have to be a limiting factor and it’s best just to get on living life. To be honest with you, I don’t think this has taken much away from me.”

(Photo from Maclean’s)

From Bloomberg/Business Week, AP/MSNBC, PC World, AP/ABC News:

Three universities say they will stop promoting the use of Amazon.com’s Kindle DX e-book reader in classrooms in the wake of legal complaints that the device doesn’t allow students with disabilities equal access to information.

The Department of Justice announced settlements involving Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City and Reed College in Portland, Oregon. The schools were among six that had participated in a pilot program testing the use of the device in the classroom.

Earlier in the week, Arizona State University, announced it had settled a lawsuit with disability rights organizations challenging its participation in the Kindle pilot program. Advocates had alleged that the device’s inaccessibility constituted a violation of federal law. Arizona State denied that its pilot program violated any law, but said that “it will strive to use devices that are accessible to the blind” if it does decide to use e-book readers in the future.

Three other schools announced last year that they will not use Kindle in the classroom.

Amazon has said it is working to improve the device’s accessibility with audible menus and extra-large type.

The 32-member marching band is the first all-blind group to participate in the Rose Parade

From the Los Angeles Times, Pasadena Star-News:

“We’re normal people living a normal life,” said 19-year-old Chris Harrington, who plays the tuba. “This just happens to be something we’re good at.”

Each white-uniformed student musician is accompanied by an assistant along the parade route. The red-coated assistants guide the musicians either by placing their hands on their shoulders or by using straps on the lower backs of the musicians’ uniforms.

Said one assistant: “They don’t want to be known as the blind band. They want to be the talent band.”

Photos of the band and a performance video are here.

(Los Angeles Times photo)

By David Kravets on Wired magazine‘s ‘Threat Level’ blog:

The Obama administration has announced its support for a proposed international treaty that would loosen copyright restrictions to make accessible reading material available across borders.

The administration’s position, announced at a subcommittee of the World Intellectual Properties Organization in Geneva, places it squarely in opposition to  American business interests, including software makers, book publishers, and motion picture and music companies.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has argued that the plan could promote internet book piracy.

Advocates for people who are blind or have other reading disabilities have promoted the proposed treaty, which would allow the cross-border sharing of digitized books without payment to the publisher.

Many nations have copyright exemptions that allow nonprofit companies to market copyrighted works in accessible formats without permission, but not across international borders. The formats make it possible for tens of thousands of people with print disabilities to access books with the help of devices that convert text to speech or Braille.

See also:

Copyright Owners Fight Plan to Release E-Books for the Blind – Wired

Earlier posts here.

From the New York Times:

Producers have cast a 10-year-old with a vision impairment as the understudy for the role of Helen Keller in the upcoming production of “The Miracle Worker” on Broadway. The production had drawn criticism last month for casting a non-disabled star actress, Abigail Breslin, in the role.

In response to advocates’ protests, lead producer David Richenthal launched a nationwide search to find a deaf or blind actress to work as Breslin’s understudy. With the help of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, he found Kyra Ynez Siegel of Eugene, Ore., who lost most of the vision in her right eye after an accident.

Mr. Richenthal has also decided to offer audio and caption devices, known as D-Scriptive and I-Caption, free to blind, low-vision, deaf or hard-of-hearing audience members. The technology, which cost the production about $30,000, is in line with an effort by some Broadway producers to start offering such help to audience members.

See also:

Eugene girl wins Broadway understudy role – AP/Oregonian

(New York Times photo)

From the Associated Press/MSNBC:

Amazon.com Inc. has announced that it will add two features to the Kindle that are intended to make the e-book reader more accessible to users who are blind or have limited vision.

The company has come under fire from disability advocacy groups for allowing publishers to opt out of a read-aloud feature on the device that converts text to robotic speech. They say the decision will unfairly limit access for the estimated 15 million Americans who have difficulty reading printed material, including people with limited vision; dyslexia; learning or processing issues; seniors; people with spinal cord injuries, and people who have had strokes.

Amazon said it is developing audible menus and an extra-large font for people with limited vision.

Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have said they will not adopt the device until it is accessible to all students. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have launched legal challenges to the use of Kindle for distribution of textbooks.

Earlier posts here.