Site advocated using kids with Down syndrome for target practice

From Reuters, New York Time,  Agence France Press:

Italy’s equality minister threatened legal action against the “thousands of idiots” involved in an Italian Facebook group that called for children with Down syndrome to be used for target practice.

The page, which has been shut down in the wake of public outrage, proposed the activity as an “easy and amusing” solution to rid the world of “these foul creatures.” It carried a photo of a baby with Down syndrome, with the word “imbecile” written on its forehead. As of late Sunday, the page had attracted 1,700 members.

“Italy will not tolerate incidents of discrimination of any sort, let alone against the disabled,” Equality Minister Mara Carfagna told Italian television Tuesday. “Those responsible for creating this madness will be prosecuted by the law.”

The outrage over the Facebook site comes as four Google executives are on trial in Milan facing criminal charges of defamation and privacy violations in a case involving videos posted on a Google website. The videos show a boy with autism being bullied by peers. Prosecutors allege that the company should have removed the videos after it was made aware of their content.

Google representatives say a guilty verdict might require the company to review content before allowing it to be posted on YouTube.

Software improvements are already bringing a ‘new era of empowerment’ for those with disabilities

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Berin Szoka notes that recent technological innovations are radically improving access for people with disabilities. For example, he says, a speech-recognition application for the iPhone now allows users to dictate email, text messages and full documents. Apple and Microsoft have built powerful accessibility features into their latest operating systems, and Google has announced it will caption all the videos on YouTube.

Szoka argues that these and other improvements were spurred by competitive forces, and will improve profits for tech companies. He opposes using regulation to force manufacturers to expand access for people with disabilities. An excerpt:

“Equal access” to the latest gadgets may sound appealing, but policymakers should recognize that regulation will only stifle the innovations that could most help the disabled.

Szoka is director of the Center for Internet Freedom at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, which is supported by Google, Microsoft and a host of other technology and media companies.

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 [UK] Independent:

Proloquo2Go, a speech-generating program that gives a voice to people who have difficulty speaking, is among Apple’s 30 top-selling applications for the year 2009. The program comes in at number 23 — ahead of ESPN, CNN and Family Guy.

The program retails at $189.99, making it an affordable alternative to conventional speech-generating systems that can cost thousands of dollars, and is used by people with autism, cerebral palsy, Lou Gehrig’s disease and many other conditions. The technology turns an iPhone into a voice-output communication device, and allows children to integrate more seamlessly with their peers.

Medicare and private insurers have resisted paying for the system, limiting coverage to bulky, expensive proprietary equipment.

Here’s a list of other text-to-speech products that are on the market.

From the [Wichita Falls, TX] Times Record News:

A mother in Texas says text messaging via cellphone has allowed her 15-year-old son with autism to communicate effectively for the first time.

Vera Word said she and her son, Jonathon, had tried all the conventional therapies and devices used to facilitate communication. She said he is now texting with a Verizon Blitz phone, which works better than anything else he has tried and helps him fit in with other teenage boys with cellphones.

From MSNBC:

Some revolutionary companies around the globe are leading a new movement to transform the unique attributes of high-functioning autism into sought-after job skills.

Companies like Specialisterne in Denmark and the non-profit Aspiritech in Chicago train people with autism to be software testers, data entry personnel and assembly workers. Such positions, which might be boring and monotonous for many, can capitalize on the detail orientation and repetitive nature that are often displayed by people with autism.

“My career would not have existed at all without the autism,” says Ron Brix (above), a longtime computer systems developer for Wrigley.

Robert Austin, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, wrote about Specialisterne for the Harvard Business School and says, “there’s no reason this couldn’t work in the United States.” He says that redefining conditions like autism as differences, rather than disabilities, is important for a developed economy.

… Austin says we need to recognize special abilities in people, realize that these may come with challenges to working in a traditional workplace, and find a way to minimize disabilities and take advantage of differences.

(MSNBC 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.