[il-talk] Apple's Accessability Emoji

[Robert Hansen]

That sounds like a very disgusting Emoji. I cannot stand those short pains
like that because they are very dangerous. And I'm very glad that somebody
is going to get in contact with apple and thank you for doing that Kelly.
And I don't know why they did not consult the nfb. That always discuss me
when we're not consulted first because we know the truth and we know what's
best for blind people. I don't know why the ACB is always contacted because
we have it all. They don't need to be calling the ACB on anything. The nfb
as far as I'm concerned is the official blindness organization. And we know
what's right we know what's best we speak for ourselves. We don't hide
behind these organizations that don't speak up for us because we speak for
us not a bunch of institutionalized bureaucrats. But thank you Kelly and I
hope that they can get rid of that awful emoji and sit down and consult
with us because we'll tell them the truth. And we'll show them about how
Independence is and what it stands for and why it is we do what we



Robert Hansen

hansen.robert70 at gmail.com


On Sat, Mar 24, 2018, 9:17 PM Kelly Pierce via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> In the last few days, Apple proposed new emoji to the worldwide
> standards body of images that reflect accessibility. Two of these
> images show a male and a female figure with white canes. I became
> suspicious when I noticed that the only blindness organization
> consulted by Apple in press reports was the American Council of the
> Blind. A sighted friend examined the emoji’s and found the canes
> appear to only extend to the elbows of the blind people, who appear to
> be age 12. This cane length is below the sternum, which is the minimum
> cane length advocated by the Association for Education and
> Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired. ACB regularly
> affiliates with AER.  The National Federation of the Blind recommends
> that white canes extend past the chin.  It is sad Apple has brazenly
> picked a political side in the white canes and travel debate rather
> than develop an image representative of independent blind travel. The
> blind people in the emoji’s are holding really short white canes with
> red tips and a black golf grip with the nylon cord around their
> wrists, which can often be a safety hazard. If blind people have their
> canes caught in the doors of rapid transit or light rail trains, they
> could be dragged to their deaths when the train rapidly accelerates
> rather than having the cane just knocked out of their hand if a strap
> is not wrapped around their wrist. It sets a poor example of cane use
> to the public and blind people everywhere. I will ask Apple to
> withdraw its submission and create new emoji that actually
> demonstrates safe independent travel.  I hope the national office will
> examine the emoji and follow up with Apple about this imagery.
>
> Kelly
>
> _______________________________________________
> IL-Talk mailing list
> IL-Talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/il-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> IL-Talk:
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/il-talk_nfbnet.org/hansen.robert70%40gmail.com
>