[gui-talk] Fwd: E-Access Bulletin, April 2010: Campaigning Peer Blocks Weakening Of Web Access Law.

[Steve Pattison]

 From:    Dan Jellinek dan at headstar.com
 To:      eaccess at headstar.com

++E-ACCESS BULLETIN
Access To Technology For All, Regardless Of Ability
- ISSUE 124, April 2010.

A Headstar Publication.
http://www.headstar.com/eab/ .

Please forward this free bulletin to others (subscription details 
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++Special Notice: e-Access '10: Technology For All
- 13 July, Olympia 2, London
- Co-Hosted by OneVoice for Accessible ICT Coalition.

E-Access Bulletin's sixth annual conference and exhibition on 
access to technology by people with disabilities, is taking 
place on 13th July 2010 at Olympia Conference Centre in 
London.

This year we welcome as co-hosts OneVoice for Accessible 
ICT Coalition, the UK's leading umbrella body uniting a range 
of organisations in the joint cause of access for all. Members 
include AbilityNet, BCS, Intellect and the Society for IT 
Management (Socitm).

Our programme this year covers the business, legal and 
ethical drivers for accessibility, and the path to success for 
organisations of all sizes, whatever their track record so far. 
Technologies covered include everything from the web to 
smartphones and cloud computing.

For more information and to register today, please visit:
http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess10/

[Special notice ends].


++Issue 124 Contents.

01: Campaigning Peer Blocks Weakening Of Web Access Law
- But parts of new Equality Bill are "borderline impenetrable"

02: US Government Helps Job Applicants With Disabilities
- Mass 'hiring event' plus Rehabilitation Act overhaul.

03: E-Book Guide Highlights Benefits And Obstacles
- Readers, literature and retailers under the microscope.

News in Brief: 04: One Voice - Accessible ICT business 
benefits; 05: Instant Messages - speaking app for 
smartphones; 06: Digital Consolidation - Inclusion taskforce 
merged.

Section Two: Conference Report - CSUN 2010, San Diego.
07: The 25-Year Buzz: The California State University 
Northridge (CSUN) Technologies and Persons with 
Disabilities Conference, the largest assistive technology event 
in the world, celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. Held in 
San Diego, the theme of this year's conference was 
employment, featuring a keynote speech from the only 
serving blind person in the US Special Forces. John Lamb 
was there.

[Contents ends].


++Section One: News.

+01: Campaigning Peer Blocks Weakening Of Web Access Law.

A campaigning peer has ensured that the new Equality Act, an 
update of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), includes a 
commitment to online accessibility, by successfully moving 
an amendment as the law passed through the House of Lords. 

Lord Low of Dalston, vice president and former chairman of 
the Royal National Institute of Blind People and himself 
blind, moved a change of wording to the Act to state that 
when providing information, organisations' processes should 
"include steps for ensuring that. the information is provided 
in an accessible format." 

The Act ( http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2009-
10/equality/documents.html ) passed into law last week after 
being rushed back through the Commons without a vote in 
the 'wash-up' period before this week's dissolution of 
Parliament for the General Election. 

Lord Low said the change would allow for easier regulation 
by enforcement authorities such as the Equalities and Human 
Rights Commission (EHRC). The EHRC has separately 
released a draft code of practice on the law ( 
http://bit.ly/aN8W5i ) which refers to website accessibility: 
"As well as giving rise to an obligation to make a reasonable 
adjustment to their website, [failure to make a website 
accessible to those with visual impairments] will be unlawful 
(unless they can justify it)." 

However, the Equality Act has been criticised for its complex 
language and ambiguity. Struan Robertson, a technology 
lawyer with Pinsent Masons and editor of legal news website 
Out-Law.com ( http://www.out-law.com/ ), told E-Access 
Bulletin that parts of the new law are "borderline 
impenetrable". 

"For me, the biggest disappointment about the Equality Act is 
that for an act on accessibility, it's difficult to access," said 
Robertson. "That's unfortunate, because one of the great 
things about the DDA was that it was easy to identify the 
duties that people were under". 

Robertson said that although the new Equality Act as 
amended may provide clarification on web accessibility for 
some businesses, the law remains broadly the same as its 
predecessor, the DDA. "The differences are quite subtle and 
it will not have a material impact on the state of accessibility 
of website across the UK," he said. 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=415


+02: US Government Helps Job Applicants With Disabilities.

The Obama administration is undertaking two major exercises 
to help people with disabilities apply for government jobs, 
delegates heard at last month's California State University 
Northridge (CSUN) Technologies and Persons with 
Disabilities Conference. 

Employment was the central topic at CSUN, the largest 
assistive technology event in the world, this year celebrating 
its 25th anniversary. Less than a third of blind people of 
working age in the US have a job, delegates heard. 

On 26 April, federal agencies will be interviewing an 
estimated 600 disabled people selected from around 4,000 
applicants to a special 'hiring fair' in Washington organised 
by the Office of Personnel Management and the Labor 
Department's Office of Disability Policy ( 
http://www.usajobs.gov/DisabilityHiringEvent.asp ).

The US government is also set to overhaul Section 508 of the 
country's Rehabilitation Act, the law that obliges federal 
agencies to buy accessible equipment for disabled employees 
including computers, photocopiers and telephones.

At CSUN the government held a public hearing at which 
delegates were able to respond to proposals to refresh Section 
508 to include newer technology such as mobile technology 
and electronic books. The overwhelming message was that 
change should come as quickly as possible. Further 
comments are invited by June 21: 
http://www.access-board.gov/news/ict-draft-rule.htm  

The Access Board also proposes to supplement its ADA 
Accessibility Guidelines, which cover access to facilities, to 
broaden coverage to include certain types of interactive 
transaction machines such as point-of-sale machines and self-
service kiosks. 

NOTE: This month's E-Access Bulletin carries exclusive 
reporting from CSUN from Ability Magazine editor John 
Lamb. See Section Two. 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=418


+03: E-Book Guide Highlights Benefits And Obstacles.

A guide to the accessibility benefits and obstacles of major 
electronic book formats, including technical formats, e-book 
readers and reader software, has been published by the Royal 
National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). 

E-book readers covered by the document ( 
http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/readingwriting/ebo
oks/ ) include dedicated e-book readers; e-book reading 
software; and e-book readers for mobile phones. 

Dedicated readers include the Amazon Kindle (benefits 
include text-to-speech; obstacles are that text-to-speech 
currently applies to book content only, though Amazon have 
announced it will have audible menus by mid-2010); plus the 
Bookeen Cybook Gen 3, Sony Pocket and Sony Touch 
(benefits of all three include various text size options; 
obstacles include no text-to-speech feature).

The guide also provides a list of retailers and websites from 
which e-books and readers can be purchased or downloaded. 

E-books are becoming more widespread in public libraries 
around the UK, with many branches embracing the lending of 
digital books, a model already widely adopted in the US. 
According to a report in a recent issue of E-Access Bulletin's 
sister publication, E-Government Bulletin, the new breed of 
library will not only make an ever-wider range of research 
and searchable reference information available over the web 
to their users, but promote the temporary lending of electronic 
books of all kinds: http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=433 . 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=421


++News in Brief: 

+04: One Voice: A report on the business case and other 
drivers for accessible IT, 'Accessible ICT: Benefits to 
business and society', has been published online in accessible 
PDF format by the OneVoice for Accessible ICT Coalition: 
http://www.onevoiceict.org/tools/tr-tools.asp 
OneVoice, an umbrella group of charities, businesses and 
professional associations, will this year be co-hosting E-
Access Bulletin publisher Headstar's annual conference on 
access to technology by people with disabilities, e-Access 
'10: 
http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess10/  

+05: Instant Messages: A text-to-speech application that reads 
emails and text messages aloud from a BlackBerry 
smartphone, developed as a 'hands free' safety aid for 
motorists, could benefit blind and visually impaired users, say 
the Royal National Institute of Blind People. The SafeReader 
from Vlingo, developers of voice-activated interfaces for 
mobile devices, is operated by voice commands and reads all 
text messages and emails received to the user: 
http://www.vlingo.com/safereader/ 

+06: Digital Consolidation: The government's Digital 
Inclusion Taskforce, charged with bringing online the millions 
of people who have never used the internet, has been merged 
into the Digital Participation Consortium of broadcasting and 
telecommunications regulator Ofcom. The taskforce, a team 
of experts on education, health, government and social 
inclusion including RNIB Chairman Kevin Carey, lost its 
home as advisory team to former Digital Inclusion Champion 
Martha Lane Fox when Lane Fox's role was broadened to that 
of the government's overall 'Digital Champion': 
http://www.digitalparticipation.com/ 

[Section One ends].


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++Section Two: Conference Report 
CSUN 2010, San Diego 

+The 25-Year Buzz 
by John Lamb. 

Gatherings of technologists always have an atmosphere of 
excitement about them whether it's generated by the thrill of 
discovering the next big thing or just catching up on the 
gossip about what's hot and what's not. 

But there is an even more special buzz to the California State 
University Northridge (CSUN) Technologies and Persons with 
Disabilities Conference, the largest assistive technology event 
in the international calendar and this year celebrating its 25th 
anniversary. 

Some 5,000 people thronged the massive towers of the 
Manchester Hyatt Hotel in San Diego at the end of March, 
many of them vision-impaired. Some 200 hotel staff had 
received special training in disability awareness from the 
university, not that those walking flat out across the lobby 
with a white cane in front of them looked as though they 
needed much help. 

Harry Murphy was the man who started it all back in 1985. 
He was working with deaf students at the time. "I kept getting 
questions such as 'what are you doing for students with 
learning disabilities, or what are you doing for students with 
computers?'" he recalls.

Initially, Murphy envisaged a conference of 200 people from 
Southern California, but 600 turned up from around the 
world. "It was like having a tiger by the tail: you can't stop 
swinging or it will bite you. We ended up occupying two 
hotels at Los Angeles airport."

The setting up of Northridge's own Center on Disability grew 
out of the event. "People just kept asking what sort of 
technology we had in our university, so we raised $300,000 
to establish a computer contact center."

This year's central topic was employment. The keynote 
speech was delivered by Captain Ivan Castro, the only 
serving blind person in the US Special Forces, who 
highlighted the fact that less than a third of blind people of 
working age in the US have a job, a situation that the feisty 
Dinah Cohen is keen to rectify. 

"The problems are huge but it isn't a hidden issue anymore. 
Best practice doesn't work; we are looking for next practice," 
said Cohen, who is director of the Computer and Electronic 
Accommodations Program (CAP). 

Her organisation provides training and equipment to disabled 
federal employees and disabled service people. Over the past 
20 years CAP has provided assistive technology to over 
85,000 civil servants, including 14,000 wounded service 
personnel. 

However, with disabled people representing a decreasing 
proportion of the government workforce, CAP is involved in 
educating federal officials on how to hire more of them. At 
the end of April, federal agencies will be interviewing 600 
disabled people in a single day for jobs.

"People want to see Federal Government walk the walk rather 
than just talking about it. People without evident disabilities 
are ignored, we want to breakdown the silos in government 
and work together," said Kathleen Martinez, Assistant 
Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy and 
another of the star speakers at this year's CSUN.

Martinez, who is blind, had just completed a six-city listening 
tour to gather information on barriers and best practices 
relating to the employment of people with disabilities. 

One lever in promoting disabled employment is Section 508, 
the law that obliges federal agencies to buy accessible 
equipment for disabled employees. The legislation requires 
suppliers to adapt office equipment such as computers, 
photocopiers and telephones. 

At CSUN the legislators held a public hearing at which 
delegates were able to respond to proposals to refresh Section 
508. The US Access Board aims to update the legislation to 
include newer technology such as real time text, ATMs, 
mobile technology, electronic books, video and voice texts. 
The overwhelming message was that change should come as 
quickly as possible.

Not everyone was so keen, however. Book publishers are 
arguing for exemptions to Section 508 to preserve digital 
rights management to protect copyright, potentially preventing 
the creation of machine-readable copies of texts accessible by 
people with reading difficulties.

This is one issue that will go on generating excitement long 
after the Hyatt Hotel has put away its CSUN guide-dog water 
bowls for another year.

NOTE: John Lamb is editor of Ability magazine 
http://www.abilitymagazine.org.uk/
[Section Two ends]. 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=424

[Section Two ends].


++Special Notice: Fortune Cookie
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Julie Howell is our Director of Accessibility. Email Julie at:
Julie.Howell at fortunecookie.co.uk .

[Special notice ends]


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[Special notice ends].


++End Notes.

+How to Receive the Bulletin.

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Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek 
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Copyright 2009 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com .
The Bulletin may be reproduced as long as all parts including 
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is also cited.

+Personnel:
Editor - Dan Jellinek.
Reporter: Tristan Parker.
Editorial advisor - Kevin Carey.

ISSN 1476-6337.

[Issue 124 ends.]

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
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Skype:  steve1963
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