News and issues on the disabled 18 Jul 2024
Azmi Anuar
Contents
1. Laughing Squid - A Powerful Film About a Blind Educator Who Uses Clicks and Echoes to Navigate the World
2. NBC New York USA - Blind theater takes audience from NYC to Buenos Aires in the dark to tell a love story
3. The Standard (HK) - Union for the blind wades in over two taken off flight
4. Times of Malta - How technology is helping a visually-impaired man see
5. Hürriyet Daily News Turkeye - Blind Spanish actors take on Chekhov's 'The Seagull'
6. Zawya Saudi Arabia - Zain launches "Light Along Their Journey" to empower the blind and low-vision community
7. 90.5 WESA USA - Accessible to all? Pa. Capitol an obstacle course for many citizens living with disabilities
8. West Virginia Public Broadcasting USA - New Program Paves Career Pathways For Blind, Deaf Highschoolers
9. Yahoo Finance - Accor prioritises accessibility for 2024 Paris Olympics
10. dtnext India - Blind commuters request for better accessibility in rail stations in Chennai
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1. Laughing Squid - A Powerful Film About a Blind Educator Who Uses Clicks and Echoes to Navigate the World16 Jul 2024
“Echo” by Ben Wolin and Michael Minahan is a powerful short film about Daniel Kish, a blind educator who uses clicks and echoes to navigate the world around him. This practice is known as echolocation, a subject of which Kish is a pioneer.
If I click at a surface, it answers back.
Wolin and Minahan wanted to the audience to experience how Kish uses echolocation, using elaborate sound design and a special microphone that Kish uses for teaching. It picks up the slightest noise and immerses the viewer in a world of sounds that would otherwise go unnoticed.
The sound design and auditory experience has a vivid, spatial quality that’s rare with a film of this scale. …It’s through these rich sounds that we’re immersed in and transported to Daniel’s world.
The animated portion of the film features Kish in a cave, teaching a young, visually impaired student about echolocation.
It isn’t about what you should or shouldn’t do. It’s not about presumptions about what you can or can’t do. It’s really about what do you want to do?
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2. NBC New York USA - Blind theater takes audience from NYC to Buenos Aires in the dark to tell a love story16 Jul 2024
How do you watch a show that's in total darkness?
There are no cheap seats at "Odd Man Out," an immersive theater performance at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in Lower Manhattan. The show tells the story from a blind musician's perspective and he boards a flight from New York City back home to Buenos Aires after years of self-exile.
The "immersion" begins before the audience enters the door.
With flight departure signage, airport lobby music, and even a safety video featuring an enthusiastic flight attendant, showgoers are transported to JFK without taking off their shoes and dealing with TSA. As the show is about to begin, audience members are escorted to their seats in small groups and single-file lines. To find your seat and not get lost, you must keep your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you as an attendant leads you through pitch darkness and the bright red EXIT sign disappears.
Once seated, VIPs are given a glass of wine, a piece of paper, a piece of candy, an empanada and an Argentinian alfajor --- a sweet cookie sandwich. The show begins when Alberto, the protagonist, joins the audience on the flight and converses with his seatmates about his past.
There are no lights, no set, no costumes and no make-up. "Odd Man Out" aims to stimulate all your other senses: hearing, touch, taste, smell --- to tell a love story.
"What happens in the dark can be very, very activating. So once you get rid of your sight and you have to experience and perceive the world, all of your other senses get activated highly. Your mind starts working in a different way, and it starts opening you up to different experiences," co-director Carlos Armesto explained.
The show was inspired by the experiences of its co-directors: Facundo Bogarin, who is blind, and Martin Bondone's family members were detained during what's known as Argentina's Dirty War. It was a brutal military dictatorship from 1974 to 1983.
Bondone and Bogarin have dedicated their careers to developing theater techniques in the dark. With Teatro Ciego, the Argentine company that works with many blind actors, Armesto created PITCHBLACK -- a nonprofit to bring blind theater to U.S. audiences.
However, not everyone can handle being in total darkness. Some audience members find it too overwhelming, so the show offers a lobby where they can still experience the show through a headset and blindfold.
"I think this is this show, in particular, should be seen and can be seen by everybody, not well 'seen,' can be experienced so often I make that mistake, by everybody because not only is it inclusive in terms of folks with disabilities, we make it very inclusive in terms of like accessing the space and or being taken out of the space in case anybody needs to and offering another way of experiencing the play as well," said actor and show producer Giorgia Valenti.
To open the doors to as many people as possible, Odd Man Out has one show a week in Spanish. Valenti said she thinks the Spanish performance has "so much more depth" because the show talks about Argentinian history.
"For me, it's all about inclusion. We did this play because we were very excited about the fact that we could present a play in two languages, but also a play that shows an experience that you might not have," Armesto added.
You just have to see the show for yourself...to see where they are coming from...and you'd better watch out...do you see what I'm up to?
Our language is steeped in visual imagery. Seventy percent of our body's sensory receptors are located in our eyes. They work by gathering light, and in 1/10th of a second, our brain's visual cortex (aka the mind's eyes) receives the images.
So, how do you paint a picture for the audience without any lights? Through sound, of course.
The actors were cast for their voice-acting abilities, Armesto said. The show's audio designer also created a 3D-surround sound experience using virtual reality to transport sound through the theater. And we can't forget about the music. It's a language you don't need to understand to feel the emotion it's trying to convey.
As Diane Ackerman wrote in her book "A Natural History of the Senses," music "frees us from the elaborate nuisance and inaccuracy of words."
For smell, Armesto said many scents used during the show are organic but some were created by Firmenich, a chemical company that specializes in perfume.
"Smell is such a primal sense and because of that, it activates memories, your own memories, immediately about what you do. They have a sweet smell in the show and everybody just goes 'that's home, that's where I went, I was having dinner with my family when I was six years old,'" he added.
For touch, other than using your hands to find your seat, you'll get to read braille and it may or may not rain at one point. Once the audience arrives in Buenos Aires, they get to taste all the food and wine just as the characters in the show did (if you didn't get the VIP experience.)
While the show's main character was born blind, there are several ways millions of people across the world lose their vision. The most common are refractive errors, cataracts, glaucoma, aging and diabetic retinopathy. The majority of people affected are the older population and people in low-income communities who don't have equitable access to prevention measures and treatments.
"Most people don't don't have a disability," Armesto said. "And it's about how they try to deal with the world and what I hope this play generates is empathy and open communication and ways to figure out ways to talk to people when you don't have the same perception."
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3. The Standard (HK) - Union for the blind wades in over two taken off flight16 Jul 2024
The Hong Kong Blind Union has invited Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung to a meeting and called for Cathay Pacific to follow up on an incident in which two visually impaired travelers were removed from a flight to Tokyo operated by its budget airline HK Express in May.
In an open letter to Lam yesterday, president Billy Wong Chun-hang said the union "expresses deep regret" at HK Express' disregard for the rights and interests of visually impaired people.
"It is meaningless to continue to be entangled in the details of the incident in the face of such a poorly-managed local airline," he wrote.
The union also condemned Cathay Pacific for failing to respond to the incident or launching an independent probe as of yesterday afternoon.
Wong also called for a meeting with Lam, to discuss how to enhance current guidelines from the Civil Aviation Department and the Equal Opportunities Commission.
A Cathay Pacific spokesman said last night: "Cathay is aware of the complaint and takes the issue very seriously. We have maintained close communication with HK Express to ensure that the case is properly followed up and that relevant handling procedures are improved.
"We also recognize that the service-handling procedures of HK Express in this instant were not ideal."
The spokesman added HK Express would continue to liaise with the two passengers over compensation.
In a statement yesterday, the budget airline said it had provided a compensation plan last week that included a full refund of the delayed flight's ticket costs, all personal expenses incurred due to the delay and an additional set of tickets as compensation.
"During this incident, the judgment of our ground staff and cabin crew differed. Thus to remain cautious and ensure passenger safety, the two passengers were unable to take the originally scheduled flight," it said.
"However, the two passengers have yet to accept the offer. We respect their decision and will continue to communicate with them to reach a satisfactory resolution."
HK Express also apologized for its insufficient implementation of guidelines, which resulted in the two passengers' travel delay. It said it would continue to improve the training and performance of staff to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
On May 22, the two men - Andy Chui Man-chun, 34, and John Li Chun-yin, 27, both capable of traveling independently - were told to disembark just two minutes before takeoff, despite ground staff and the cabin crew having provided them with assistance throughout the way and changed their seats to the front of the plane.
Ground staff told them at the terminal that they could get on the 5.35 pm flight, but the pair refused. With the help of the union and the department, they caught another HK Express flight to Tokyo around 11 pm.
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4. Times of Malta - How technology is helping a visually-impaired man see17 Jul 2024
When 70-year-old Joe Cauchi needs to know what is in front of him, he scans his surroundings with an app on his mobile phone and a digital assistant lists all the items he cannot see due to his visual impairment.
“What you do in a second, takes me one minute – but I can do it,” he says, sitting at his desk at his Marsascala home.
He uses his voice to activate the app, called Be My Eyes, and uses a screen reader on his computer to keep up with the news and to write reports and emails. It includes the email he sent to Times of Malta in which he attached his unpublished manifesto for the blind called ‘A Journey Through the Dark’.
From the distress and guilt parents experience when learning their child is blind, to the support needed by the parents and child as they grow and transition into schooling years – the manifesto covers the needs of the blind community through the eyes of a blind person and educator.
His message is clear: blind people and visually impaired need improved, coordinated support. Children who are born blind need a more supportive education system and those who lose their vision later in life need to be taught how to cope and make use of assistive devices that could immensely improve their quality of life, he says.
Malta does not have a comprehensive register of the blind and visually impaired. In fact, there is no disability register. According to the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability, there are some 1,400 visually impaired people in Malta. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to EU estimates, one in 30 people suffer some form of visual impairment in their lifetime – that would push the numbers up to over 15,000 in Malta.
“So where are they? Somewhere feeling helpless,” says Joe. He notes that research shows that majority are elderly.
According to the European Blind Union, 90% of visually impaired people in Europe are over 65.
The power of education
Joe is one of those people. He started losing his vision when he suffered a stroke in his mid-40s and, after that, experienced various eye conditions including glaucoma. He is completely blind from his left eye and can see a bit of light from his right.
Each time his eyesight deteriorated over the years, he had to relearn how to navigate the world. But the retired teacher will not give up. He believes in the power of education – for all ages – to continue living the best life one can live.
“Every time you lose a bit of sight, you pass through the five stages of grief [denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance]. Each time, everything changes… Imagine someone who read all his life – unless he knows how to download audio books, it’s over,” he says.
As an example he mentions an intelligentelderly friend who lost his vision and now does not know how to make a phone call because he cannot activate a voice call.
“The lack of independence hurts,” he says. Before he lost his vision, Joe used to like cooking but now “it is dangerous”.
Of course, solutions exist – but at a cost. He gives the example of an oven designed for the blind which he can order from the US. It is not very expensive, but the shipping costs make it unaffordable.
He also recounts how, when he started losing his vision, he reached out to local companies that imported assistive devices, but they would not allow trial models. The only option was buying devices.
That was why he set up an NGO, called Advice, to provide such trial technology.
The NGO was dissolved during the pandemic and its assets were transferred to the Malta Trust Foundation that continues its work.
“As I am a teacher, I prioritise children,” he says. “The NGO had organised an Erasmus programme about five years ago to understand the needs of blind children. It emerged that Malta needs an extended core curriculum.”
This extended core curriculum would incorporate pockets of time – outside of normal school hours in mainstream schools – to teach blind children compensatory skills that include braille, social skills and advocacy. He stressed the importance of teaching blind children braille as “it impacts the brain like ordinary literacy so a child can make up for access to visual literacy with access to braille”.
“The education system treats blind children as other children but does not give them compensatory skills to function well in the education system,” he says, adding that while the services existed, they were not coordinated.
But support was not limited to the young. Parents of blind children needed psychological preparation to teach them how to handle their children without getting over-protective.
And those who lost their vision later in life also needed educational support. “Most people who are visually impaired are elderly and they are the least tech savvy. Technology and AI can allow the blind to ‘see’ and read. We need improved access and awareness of assistive devices… There is no organised way of teaching these life skills,” he says.
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5. Hürriyet Daily News Turkeye - Blind Spanish actors take on Chekhov's 'The Seagull'17 Jul 2024
With no scenery, few props and a handful of raised floor markers, a troupe of blind and partially-sighted Spanish actors are offering a new take on Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull."
Produced by Peruvian director Chela de Ferrari, who has a history of working with people with disabilities, the play debuts next week at the prestigious theater festival in the southern French city of Avignon.
"Chekhov's characters tend to be looking for some kind of lost paradise... with ambitions which are greater than their own abilities," De Ferrari told AFP. "I thought these characters could connect very well with a group of blind actors."
Well-versed in inclusive theater after staging Shakespeare's "Hamlet" with Down syndrome actors, she soon turned her attention to another major work, this time by Russian playwright and short story master Chekhov.
She is working with a dozen actors from Spain's Centro Dramatico National theater company, only two of whom are sighted.
The rest are blind or partially-sighted, with no more than 10 percent vision. But on the stage, there are no mobility canes, nor dark glasses, except for one scene on a beach.
De Ferrari likes to play with prejudices.
What cannot be seen with the eye is bridged by stage manager Macarena Sanz, an actor whose role is to "make the invisible visible."
Wearing a headset and with a notebook in hand, she describes the unseen set and the stage furniture to the spectators, while in turn describing them to the cast.
Playing the character Nina is Belen Gonzalez, a 25-year-old amateur actor who was born blind and moves with a particular grace and ease, sometimes seeking out the shoulder of her seeing partner Anges Ruiz, who plays Boris.
"I see Belen and feel absolutely fascinated because a sighted actor could never do it like that," says De Ferrari, who refuses to tiptoe around their abilities.
"I've told them not to hide... If they need to feel around, or if they trip, there's no problem. Some thought it was going to be a performance in which they would be pretending to act as if sighted, but it's not."
A plot twist
Their visual impairments even add a plot twist as can be seen in the sex scene between Nina and Boris on a dance floor in the middle of a crowd of unseeing actors.
"We have this amazing scene where they make love in the middle of everyone, taking advantage of their blindness," De Ferrari said.
Gonzalez said that given her upbringing, it was easy for her to infuse the character of Nina with a sense of both "vulnerability and a fighting spirit".
"Since I was small, they always told me: 'Being blind, everything is more difficult'," she told AFP, saying portraying Nina as blind accentuates her character.
"Chela loves the way I move.. she tells me: 'When you're searching for something that you can't find and you have to keep looking for it, that frustration works well for your character'."
With only 38 days of rehearsals, they work meticulously on set design and several scenes involving group choreography, one with Chekhov lines set to a heady techno beat in the style of Belgian superstar Stromae, and another exuberant karaoke number.
"Adapting the space on stage is essential," said Lola Robles, who plays Arkadina and can see "absolutely nothing" but is no stranger to the inclusive stage.
As the play's "accessibility adviser", she has set up a system of tassels suspended behind the curtains to let the actors know which backstage area they are in.
On the stage itself, several thin strips of wood have been nailed to the floor to let the actors know where they are, their feet being their guide.
"We who can't see find our way around by what we feel underfoot on stage," Robles said.
"If I can't reach somewhere or I need to go, I will sigh and they will direct me by clicking their fingers," she added.
The important thing for her is to avoid emphasising any sense of disability, "so I can go onto the stage alone without someone grabbing my arm and taking me on stage," she noted.
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6. Zawya Saudi Arabia - Zain launches "Light Along Their Journey" to empower the blind and low-vision community17 Jul 2024
Zain has announced a strategic partnership with Be My Eyes, the largest and fastest-growing app for assisting the blind and visually impaired community worldwide. Through this initiative, the first of its kind in the region, Zain aims to expand its volunteerism scope to engage the Zain community, connect with visually impaired groups, and integrate advanced technology.
This aligns with its strategy to empower employees to practice social responsibility. It reflects the values of Zain, extending beyond its telecommunications and digital services role where Zain is a catalyst for diversity and inclusivity, fostering a society where everyone has equal opportunities to dream and succeed.
In collaboration with Be My Eyes, Zain KSA volunteers will receive incoming calls from the app's user base, which includes over 600,000 visually impaired users worldwide. Once the volunteer gets the video call, they will act as eyes for the caller, providing necessary support such as reading a document, identifying a medication, offering navigation guidance, and other potential scenarios.
Commenting on this initiative, Loluwah AlNowaiser, Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Zain KSA, stated: “Zain KSA’s commitment to innovation and growth has never been only about technological advancement, but it is rather rooted in our responsibility to harness advanced technology in serving people and the community. While we continue to innovate to deliver the most advanced digital services and user experiences, our core goal is to unlock the potential of every member of our community. In doing so, we aim to uplift our society and support the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and the aspirations of our visionary leadership in enhancing the quality of life. We prioritize Diversity and Inclusion as part of our core values and support societal integration for all segments, with a particular focus on individuals with disabilities. By partnering with Be My Eyes, which exclusively caters to one segment of this community, Zain KSA provides its employees with a new volunteering opportunity, expanding our impact to help create a wonderful world for people from all segments while directly engaging the Zain KSA family.”
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7. 90.5 WESA USA - Accessible to all? Pa. Capitol an obstacle course for many citizens living with disabilities16 Jul 2024
Inside and outside of the state’s 117-year-old Capitol, beauty eclipses accessibility for many government workers and visitors, said Pam Auer, a Harrisburg resident who frequents the building to advocate for people with disabilities living in the commonwealth.
Auer was born with spina bifida, a condition that begins before birth and can cause a range of physical problems including difficulty walking.
Auer is reliant on a motorized scooter to get around, and on her trips to the Capitol, only one entrance can accommodate her scooter — the East Wing entrance.
This is one example of how visitors with disabilities are left to navigate a building largely frozen in 1906, despite the passage in 1990 of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, including in accessing public spaces.
Pam Auer, director of advocacy at Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania, uses a mobility scooter on a ramp In the Pennsylvania Capitol complex in Harrisburg Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
About 26% of Pennsylvania adults were living with a disability in 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around 12% of Pennsylvanians were living with mobility disabilities that year, the CDC said. Seven percent were deaf or hard of hearing, while 4% were blind or had low vision.
Pew Research ranks Pennsylvania as one of three states with the highest percentage of elementary and secondary students living with disabilities in the country.
The Capitol website calls spring its “school field trip season.”
“Students are all going into the Rotunda because all that great history is there. And here you are with your peers, and they all run up the steps,” Thomas Neuville, professor of disability studies at Millersville University, said. “It’s sort of representative of who’s welcome.”
As an educator who has studied disability issues since 1975, he said he would not allow nondisabled students to enter through one entrance and others through another.
That accessible entrance, which Auer uses with her scooter, has automatic doors reachable by a pair of ramps.
On weekends or holidays, anyone who needs ramp access must pre-arrange visits with the tour guide’s office or call Capitol police on a phone attached to the wall beside the entrance, out of reach to many wheelchair or scooter users.
Police have taken up to 20 minutes to arrive, Auer said.
Fortunately for Auer, and the reporter accompanying her, the doors were unlocked.
Auer is the director of advocacy for the Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania, and she agreed to show how the building is a series of obstacles for people with mobility and vision disabilities.
“There’s one entrance for people with disabilities, and everyone else can get in there however they want,” Auer said. She referred to the disparity as “separate but unequal.”
Auer said she worries about what might happen to those with disabilities in an emergency, particularly in the case of a fire, since they must rely on the building’s single entrance for wheelchairs and scooters.
Challenge for the visually impaired
Pam Auer, director of advocacy at Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania, reaches for the phone used to call Capitol Police at the East Wing entrance to the Pennsylvania Capitol complex in Harrisburg Tuesday, June 4, 2024. According to Auer, on weekends and holidays, people with physical disabilities need to call Capitol Police to access the complex. This entrance is the only entrance to the capitol that can be entered using a wheelchairs of scooter.
Inside the Capitol, Auer noted the inconsistent availability of signs in Braille for low-vision visitors and how some legislative offices require visitors to navigate more stairs without any accommodation for wheelchairs or scooters. Heavy doors and bumpy flooring are also a challenge.
Signs for accessible routes are visible, Auer pointed out.
Even so, after pressing her hand to the first sign she passed, she noted the building’s directional signs do not feature Braille or raised lettering, complicating unaccompanied travel for blind or low-vision visitors.
Auer noted that the elevator up and down buttons often feature Braille and textured symbols. Once inside, though, the lack of raised lettering on the floor buttons leaves vision-impaired riders to guess which button will get them to their destination.
On the way down, she described how a friend with low vision once mistakenly took the elevator to the employee parking garage.
Some, but not all, Capitol elevators are spacious enough to fit multiple wheelchair users comfortably. During the tour, Auer waited for more than five minutes for an empty elevator to arrive. Once inside, it was a tight squeeze for three people. Fortunately, Auer is a nimble pilot of her scooter.
“We’re often late,” Auer said, laughing. “But you can see why.”
Then there’s the lighting.
On the recent tour, Auer ran into friend Tom Earle, disability advocate and chief executive of Philadelphia-based Liberty Resources. Earle has retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive form of blindness, and uses a white cane to navigate.
“When I walk through this hallway, it feels like all the lights are out,” Earle said, referring to the dimness in the passageway approaching the East Wing.
Throughout the walk, Auer stopped to assess several restrooms. Some, to her surprise, were easy to navigate. But in the Capitol’s East Wing, Auer must use ambulatory toilets — compartments set up inside the bathrooms made for those using mobility devices like walkers or crutches.
They do not easily accommodate wheelchairs or scooters, Auer said.
Accessibility and history
Pam Auer, director of advocacy at Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania, exits a chair lift near Senate hearing rooms inside the North Office Building In the Pennsylvania Capitol complex in Harrisburg Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
The ADA requires 60% of public entrances to be accessible in new buildings, with an overall goal of ensuring equitable access to public spaces for people with mobile, visual and auditory aids.
Older buildings complicate compliance.
Properties registered with the National Register of Historic Places, like Pennsylvania’s Capitol, can pursue alternatives to the disability features required in new buildings. For example, videos of spaces can be made available if retrofitting a historic building would “threaten or destroy the historical significance” of the structure.
David Craig, executive director of the Capitol Preservation Committee, said that making the building fully accessible would be a challenge and that accessibility is only one of many factors that must inform ongoing renovations and repairs.
When asked how much it would cost to make the Capitol meet current ADA rules, Craig suggested reaching out to the Department of General Services, as the number could not be calculated without considering actual plans to complete such renovations.
“I’ve got no idea,” Craig said. “I wouldn’t even know how to get that answer.”
The Capitol must balance these accessibility concerns with proper preservation of an aging building. The complex is well-respected by those in preservation circles, Craig said.
“You’re looking at a monumental building that’s tough to get your arms around,” Craig said.
Theo Braddy, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living and the leader of Auer’s Pennsylvania group, said people with disabilities are not a legislative priority.
“If this was an issue of another marginalized group having to go through the back, I guarantee you it would’ve been done already,” Braddy said.
While they appreciate the Capitol’s historical significance, some legislators said accessibility needs to be a higher priority.
“The ADA is a very weak law, and we should be doing better than that,” said state Rep. Jessica Benham, D-Allegheny County.
As the only openly autistic member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, Benham has sponsored legislation advocating for people with disabilities. She introduced a bill to create a consolidated government department for disabled communities and add a secretary of disability position to the governor’s cabinet.
“The people who are here now are more important than whatever small piece of history we might lose by taking out a chunk of steps and putting in a lift,” Benham said, adding that she understands that those in charge of preservation have constraints they have to abide by.
The Department of General Services confirmed in an email that they infrequently receive mobility complaints from visitors.
This month, the Department of General Services will begin renovating the East Wing to address some accessibility concerns.
An accessible 20-person passenger elevator will replace a spiral staircase in the East Wing atrium and a wide staircase will replace a set of aging escalators. Construction is scheduled to end in August next year.
Other renovations scheduled this year include new, accessible and single-use restrooms in the Forum Building and the Labor and Industry Building. New and accessible elevators will also be installed in the Forum and Finance Buildings, the agency said.
An executive order signed in May by Gov. Josh Shapiro mandated that the Department of General Services conduct an accessibility study to assess mobility for disabled communities in and around the Capitol complex.
The department recently finished designing the scope of the study and hand-selected professionals who will carry out the assessment. The work will begin this month and is expected to end by spring 2025, the agency confirmed in an email.
Offices, meeting spaces
Pam Auer, director of advocacy at Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania, points out braille letters inside the North Office Building In the Pennsylvania Capitol complex in Harrisburg Tuesday, June 4, 2024.
Where no elevators exist inside the Capitol, there are long ramps that can be tricky to find without assistance. This includes a long ramp to enter the Matthew J. Ryan Building that features multiple 180-degree turns that Auer said are problematic for manual wheelchair users.
Peeking into a senator’s office, Auer pointed to multiple steps required to enter. Several other legislative offices have similar layouts.
While senators may invite wheelchair users to talk in the hallway instead, Auer faulted the lack of privacy granted to constituents with disabilities when discussing personal concerns.
“Standing out in the hallway is just not dignified,” Auer said.
Wheelchairs and other mobility devices tend to take up more space, so every member of a delegation of disability advocates is often unable to fit into an office or hearing room even without steps, Auer explained.
The House and Senate galleries, where visitors and reporters can observe sessions, have only a single row for wheelchair-accessible seating. Disability advocacy organizations like the Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania gather at the Capitol three to six times per year to rally for various causes, Auer estimated, with their groups often numbering in the hundreds. Only a handful can watch proceedings from the galleries.
“It’s just stifling people’s voices,” said state Sen. Christine Tartaglione of Philadelphia, the only state legislator to use a wheelchair. “This is their Capitol. We want people to come in and be able to have access to everything.”
To get to the Senate hearing rooms in the North Office Building, those unable to take the stairs must use a vertical platform lift, a machine that transports people and their mobility devices between levels.
Before driving onto the machine, Auer described past instances of getting stuck and needing maintenance to assist her.
When discussing renovations, Auer emphasized the importance of including disabled communities in the conversation. She said that disability advocates have previously made this request but saw no follow through from the Department of General Services.
Braddy said state officials often tell disabled communities “they’re going to look at it, but nothing ever happens.” He attributed this issue to financial and historical preservation burdens.
“Nothing about us without us,” said Auer, reciting a popular slogan in the disability rights community. “How do we make changes for people with disabilities without including them in the decisions?”
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8. West Virginia Public Broadcasting USA - New Program Paves Career Pathways For Blind, Deaf Highschoolers16 Jul 2024
As college tuition prices continue to rise, West Virginia educators are looking to expand career readiness resources for students who don’t want to pursue a traditional four-year degree.
That’s a mission Clayton Burch said he held as the state’s superintendent of schools from 2020 to 2022. And it’s one that has followed into his current role as superintendent of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (WVSDB).
Providing students with resources for career readiness now means “more than just going to a four-year college,” he said. “We got a lot of students that can come out with the skills right out of high school to enter the workforce.”
But the path to full-time employment can be more complicated for students with disabilities, who often face added barriers to job opportunities, he said.
“What we see is struggles that our deaf, hard of hearing and visually impaired students have. We see higher dropout rates. We see higher unemployment rates,” Burch said. “We don’t believe that’s just a lack of foundational skills. We actually think it’s a gap they have in support.”
To amend this gap, Burch and his colleagues at WVSDB have launched a new initiative: the Discovery P.O.I.N.T. program, which gives deaf and blind high school students a career readiness crash course.
The Discovery P.O.I.N.T. program helps connect
deaf and blind high school students with industry leaders in the town of
Romney, located in Hampshire County.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Students from across West Virginia can visit Hampshire County to practice job interviews, learn about day-to-day work responsibilities and collaborate with local leaders-of-industry in a variety of fields — from entrepreneurship to hospitality to music and beyond.
For students who want to pursue a four-year degree, Burch said there are more traditional college prep resources, too. The school wants to provide students with whatever resources will set them up for career success after graduation, Burch said.
The program will be held six times per school year, with its official launch in September. Each session lasts for six weeks, with students receiving on-campus lodging and free transportation to the town of Romney, where the school is located.
“We’re really excited that the state’s school for the deaf and blind is going to have this academy dedicated specifically to career readiness,” he said.
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9. Yahoo Finance - Accor prioritises accessibility for 2024 Paris Olympics16 Jul 2024
Hotel industry leader Accor is ensuring that its disabled guests are welcome for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games which will be held in Paris from 26 July to 11 August.
Accor chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin stated that the Games have been “a catalyst to improve the way we cater for disabled travellers.”
380 Accor brand hotels have received or are in the process of receiving "Tourisme & Handicap" government certification, managed by Atout France (the France Tourism Development Agency). On 5 June 2024, the Accor Group received Atout France’s Gold Award for accessible tourism.
The certification recognises the commitment of tourism establishments to ensuring and improving the accessibility of tourist destinations and addresses all four types of disability: auditory, cognitive, physical and visual.
The company has also accelerated its rollout of "Smart Room" features which seek to end the demarcation between PRM (Persons with Reduced Mobility) rooms and other room types.
Smart rooms include an adaptable wardrobe (low or high position), adjustable bed, curtains and washbasins, as well as a sliding door to the bathroom.
All Accor hotels have access to a catalogue of features to improve the accessibility of its guestrooms and new filters have been added to the group’s reservation platform, ALL.com, to highlight available accessible rooms.
The group has also upgraded its digital solutions to facilitate access for guests with disabilities before, during and after their stay.
For the 2024 Olympics, Accor will distribute 1,000 remote controls to visually impaired athletes and travellers staying at the Paris 2024 Athletes' Village or branded hotels. These remote controls connect to voice-activated terminals in hotels, in the Paris 2024 village, and at pedestrian crossings to facilitate safe travel for blind and visually impaired people.
Accor employees have also attended training modules on accessibility which will be extended to other countries after the Paris Games.
Hotels in France have seen high demand since Paris was announced as the host of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
"Accor prioritises accessibility for 2024 Paris Olympics" was originally created and published by Hotel Management Network, a GlobalData owned brand.
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10. dtnext India - Blind commuters request for better accessibility in rail stations in Chennai17 Jul 2024
CHENNAI: Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are waiting for the upcoming railway budget, hoping that it would soon address their long-pending demands.
One of the major demands from the disabled community is the installation of a Braille system across all stations, and concessions for long distance journeys.
The visually-challenged vendors who sell snacks and other eatables in stations lament over the lack of accessibility in the trains. “It’s difficult to board and deboard trains. Most of the time, the public helps us, as we cannot see the steps,” said K Nehru, a seller.
They also urge the railways to extend the renewal time of their concession card, as they point out the logistical difficulty in visiting the offices on time. For long-distance journeys, PwDs are provided with a concession card which should be paid using the disability card. There are both physical and online modes of applying for the card.
“The concession card is provided after a long process, which is very difficult for us to go through each time. We have to wait for months to get the card,” said K Raghuraman, assistant professor, Government Arts College, Nandanam. “We also need information about the trains on which the disabled coaches are available.”
“The once-in-five-year concession takes several weeks for renewal. The railways must provide lifelong or long term renewable concession cards, and the documentation process should be less cumbersome,” said R Kannan.
Concurring with both of them was S Namburajan, state VP, Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of the Differently Abled and Caregivers, who added: “For the visually-challenged people, platforms must have tactile floors, and announcements must be made intermittently. The Braille system must be available at all stations. Currently, it’s available only in coaches.”
When contacted, an official attached to the Chennai division of Southern Railway, said that the space between the platforms and coach floors was according to the Railway Board’s rule. “There are also signage boards, tactile floors, and announcements in major stations. There is an app that provides details about stations,” he added.
“The concession is provided according to the percentage of disability they have. There is a maximum of 75% and a minimum of 50% of disability. The renewal time is also according to the percentage of disability. For people with maximum disability, the concession is given for life. Currently, there are also facilities to apply online for the concession.”
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This Google Group news service has been made possible by courtesy of the Society of the Blind in Malaysia