News and issues on the disabled 23 Jul 2022
Azmi Anuar
Contents
1. Stuff NZ - Blind man claims work support scheme failed him
2. Shine China - Being disabled no longer means being a second-class worker
3. Prime Time India - Kamal Haasan encourages visually challenged Thirumoorthi
4. WHSV USA - JMU brings technology to campus for the visually impaired
5. The South African - Visually impaired youth wins art competition
6. Advertiser and Times UK - Royal Lymington Yacht Club hosts Visually Impaired Sailing Week
7. The Hindu India - Screen readers to the rescue for visually impaired students from Tamil Nadu
8. Blooloop - Digital accessibility for visitor attraction websites: the state of the industry
9. Berkeleyside Org USA - She fought on behalf of her blind son. Now BUSD will make online learning tools more accessible
10. Bright Green - The Green Party needs to overhaul its policy on SEND education
11. My Wabash Valley USA - Blind Dugger man climbs highest peak in U.S.
12. Aljazeera - Inaccessible Cities: The experience of those with disabilities
13. Cambridge Independent UK - Pavement parking could be banned in Cambridge
14. The Jakarta Post - Is celebrating Disability Pride Month possible in Indonesia?
15. Buckrail USA - Making GTNP more accessible for people with disabilities
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1. Stuff NZ - Blind man claims work support scheme failed him22 Jul 2022
A blind man believes a government scheme to support disabled people into work has failed him.
Richmond resident Jordan Langley applied for funding for a special high-resolution computer which, because of his disability, he needs so he can work in IT. The funding was denied.
However, a disability charity, recognising Langley’s valuable skills, dipped into its own pockets to fund the gear he requires, and employed him – using money earmarked to hire other staff with disabilities.
The Ministry of Social Development defended its decision, saying the programme Langley applied for was intended for people who were not in employment, so he was not eligible.
Langley, who has low vision and is considered legally blind, was working at his local supermarket packing bags from 7pm to 3am despite having a qualification in IT.
He was given a trial to work in an IT role by the disability charity Hāpai Foundation, and offered a permanent position in June.
Langley required a special high-resolution computer due to his visual impairment for the job.
He sought government funding through the Mainstream Programme, which exists to support disabled people into long-term work.
The programme can fund gear and also cover a portion of wages for the first 12 months of employment as an incentive for companies to hire disabled people.
Langley was shocked that his application was denied.
“I want to pay my taxes, I want to work, basically give back to the Government for what they've given me, and then try to be a normal person,” Langley said.
"As hard as it is in life being visually impaired, I want to be doing that, and the support would've been hugely appreciated."
The Hāpai Foundation hired Langley anyway, funding the gear he needed.
"We discovered that Jordan has skills and capabilities way beyond packing shelves at Countdown, so we want to give him that opportunity,” spokesman Loudon Keir said.
"Why isn't there a programme available that would allow Jordan to take up this role? I reckon there are very few businesses that will take on a blind person to do an IT role."
Keir said the Government needs to show more aspiration in supporting disabled people to find work.
“That’s what you've got to do, you’ve got to make it attractive for businesses to do that. You've got to do more to help someone in Jordan’s situation to work well in that environment,” he said.
"If that programme isn't there then does that mean that disabled are always abandoned to being shelf stackers at supermarkets?"
Keir said if Langley had received the funding for his role at Hāpai, the company would have looked to employ more staff with disabilities.
Regional commissioner Diane McDermott said the Ministry of Social Development has given Jordan assistance in the past as a part of his journey into employment, helping him with transport and petrol costs.
"At the time when Jordan applied for assistance through the Mainstream Programme, he had already successfully obtained employment,” she said.
"This meant he was not eligible to be a part of the Mainstream programme, which is aimed at people who are not in employment."
McDermott said the ministry encouraged Langley to go in and speak to staff.
“We can discuss what support he might be eligible for, including a referral to Workbridge for assistance covering this cost."
Langley said it was difficult to find work he could do because of his disability.
"To be gaining better skills, long-term skills, than stacking shelves. I do have a lot more potential than doing that, with the skill-set that I do have,” he said.
"Because I’m sure a lot of blind people wouldn't be doing that, going from stacking shelves to doing IT, on average."
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2. Shine China - Being disabled no longer means being a second-class worker22 Jul 2022
Ma Shenying, who suffered visual impairment after her premature birth 32 years ago, majored in music at university and might have ended up working as a piano player or tuner. After graduation, she had a succession of jobs as a performer, saleswoman and spice taster . What she never expected was a career in technology.
A job with a tech firm has changed her whole outlook on life.
"Modern technology opens up opportunities for people like me," Ma said. "Screen readers are available on computers and smartphones, which make work and study easier for people like me and widen our career choices."
Before the advent of such new technologies, most visually impaired people were consigned to learning to read by braille and listening to radio. But now, with podcasts and e-books going viral, visually impaired people can explore a wider world.
Ma is not the only one who is benefiting from modern technology.
In Shenzhen, former masseur Shen Guangrong became a programmer through self-study. He learned three different programming languages and is now an engineer specializing in barrier-free application development.
When he first attempted to study a computer language, he had his family read the textbooks aloud to him and recorded them with a tape recorder. He said he then listened to the tapes and transcribe the texts into braille. When screen readers were popularized, he was able to listen directly to e-books.
His experience was included in a documentary series entitled "The Outsiders."
"It is not easy to find such courses for the visually impaired at school, so you have to be very motivated to keep digging up study materials that you can use," Shen said in the documentary.
According to Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation, most of the 130,000 work-age disabled people in Shanghai have jobs of various sorts. Apart from traditional office clerks and production line workers, many have found jobs not usually associated with the disabled, such as programmers, baristas, and graphic designers.
Earlier this year, online food delivery service platform Ele.me said it had more than 3,000 hearing-impaired couriers, and podcast platform Ximayala FM said it employed more than 8,000 disabled uploaders. Even more of the disabled are engaged in e-commerce, running online stores or working as customer service specialists.
Job training for the disabled has also expanded to encompass more fields than ever before. The federation said it will introduce training on drone operation and livestreaming skills this year.
"Take baristas, for example," said Chen Dongyuan, director of education and employment at the federation. "We believe that it is a good way of career building for disabled people. Coffee is popular in Shanghai, so it's a large market. Furthermore , it doesn't require much to become a qualified barista, making it relatively easier for disabled people to give it a go. Currently our district branches are carrying out training on disabled baristas, hoping that they will find a job in the near future. "
While disabled people are making big strides in the workforce, public perceptions of their capabilities have been slower to change.
Ma said she once tried to submit her resume to common recruitment websites but didn't have much success.
"It seems that people are still quite ignorant about what we are capable of doing, and assume we can do only very basic jobs," she said. "Sometimes when employers saw me walking with a 'white cane,' they were immediately dismissive. "
She added, "Many people are still surprised that we can use computers or mobile devices, and they don't understand that we are capable of commuting to and from work all by ourselves. Better public understanding would really be very helpful."
According to the current municipal policy, companies may be exempt from paying into employment security funds for the disabled if 1.5 percent of their workforce have disabilities. Further benefits are on offer if they recruit the visually impaired.
However, some companies remain reticent, often citing the effects of the coronavirus pandemic among their reasoning.
One e-commerce company, which preferred to be anonymous, said it was recruiting the disabled until the pandemic broke out.
"You have to admit that disabled employees are more likely to suffer from work-related injuries than others, and barrier-free facilities in an office are a big cost," the company director said. "Three years into the pandemic, we have enough on our plate, so we're not considering hiring disabled employees at the moment."
The federation said it has been keeping an eye on lay-offs of disabled people before and after this year's two-month lockdown in Shanghai.
"We have tried to intervene early if we noticed that certain companies were going to lay off disabled employees," said Chen. "We found as many new jobs as possible for those who were laid off and attempted to give companies more support. Of course , we're always working on improving barrier-free facilities to enhance the mobility of disabled people getting to and from work."
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3. Prime Time India - Kamal Haasan encourages visually challenged Thirumoorthi23 Jul 2022
Kamal Haasan met visually challenged vocalist Nochipatti Thirumoorthi as of late and has guaranteed that he would get him signed up for AR Rahman’s music school to officially learn music. The vocalist had sung the song Vaa Saamy in Rajinikanth‘s Annaatthe recently.
Kamal, who had met Thirumoorthi in between his shoot, welcomed him with a bouquet. In a video that has now gone viral, Thirumoorthi is seen telling the Ulaganayagan that he wanted to take a pic with him when he had attended an awards function in 2020, but he was happy that he had finally got a chance to meet him.
The vocalist then, at that point, sang a part from Pathala Pathala, the melody from Kamal’s new blockbuster Vikram, procuring appreciation from the star. The actor then asked him what his next plans were and if he intended to just remain a singer. To this, Thirumoorthi can be seen replying that he wanted to learn music formally and improve himself. “Okay, will you learn music if I get you enrolled in Rahman sir’s KM Music Kamal asks the vocalist, to which he says he’d learn, and that it has been a dream for him to learn music.
Kamal’s movies have been winning acclaim from fans and, surprisingly, those in the entertainment world. D Imman, who had roped in Thirumoorthi to sing in Annaatthe, said thanks to the actor for his help. “I’m so elated with all the proceedings of Singer Thirumoorthi! May you Rise Higher and Higher! I will be always a happy man adoring your baby steps towards Mighty Achievements! Thanks to Kamal Sir for your kind support!, ” he tweeted, sharing his pleasure.
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4. WHSV USA - JMU brings technology to campus for the visually impaired22 Jul 2022
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - James Madison University hosted a group of high school students this week to try out a new navigation app, with hopes of figuring out whether or not college is a good fit for them.
JMU, Central Region Nordic Alliance (CRNA), Microsoft Soundscape, and Virginia Department for the Blind and Visually Impaired (VDBVI) came together to give the students a taste of college life. They slept in the residence halls, ate in the dining halls and most importantly, learned to navigate a larger space with new technology.
Microsoft Soundscape is a GPS app that uses a series of ticks and bells to track every step and give directions.
“We can create points literally anywhere in the world, and if they keep the tinker bell in sight, they will reach that point,” said Russ Myer, Executive Director for CNRA.
Those involved hope this fresh technology will make higher education more accessible and more appealing to students who are visually impaired or blind.
“The overall point of us partnering with James Madison University is to help [the students] understand all the opportunities the university can provide when they are making choices about what they want to do post-high school,” said Pam Cato with VDBVI.
She says the program also enhances the student’s sense of independence.
Tish Harris, a JMU alum, adds the program is all about empowering the students.
JMU is the first institution in Virginia to have Soundscape on campus. This emphasizes the university’s vision to create an inclusive community.
“The first thing you’ll find at JMU is the desire to create opportunities for all students to be successful... and create an experience that will allow those students to feel confident about their college experience,” Arthur Dean, Vice President for Diversity and Equity said. “We’ll always embrace something new, and we’re always looking for ways to serve students better.”
Jaquon Evans, a program mentor, says this app could be useful to everyone.
“This is definitely something that is the future. It definitely helps people who are visually impaired and have disabilities but even people who don’t have disabilities, who are fresh to an environment or don’t have a good sense of direction,” he said.
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5. The South African - Visually impaired youth wins art competition22 Jul 2022
From being born with a visual impairment to fighting against homelessness and family abuse, Marco Hartse recently won first prize as part of a national COVID-19 vaccine awareness art competition for young people.
The #KeReady2Flex Challenge was initiated by the DG Murray Trust in March 2022 with the objective of getting young people to produce creative work that promotes getting vaccinated.
The artwork represented Hartse’s emotions and feelings, carrying a story of the struggles that he has overcome to achieve recognition and victory.
“The drawing with the road represents the road to healing. If everybody decides to get vaccinated, we can fast-track the road to recovery, which is in our hands,”
Hartse said.
The competition invited non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from across the country to host an event that creates an opportunity for their members and communities to showcase their talent.
The competition produced more than 100 winners between the ages of 12 and 34. Hartse, a beneficiary at Cape Town Society for the Blind (CTSB), won first prize for his two art pieces.
Hartse joined the CTSB in 2017 to learn cane weaving and later became a small business unit owner at the training facility in Salt River.
The CTSB teaches skills to blind and visually impaired persons in the Western Cape and more than 120 students attend a multitude of accredited training programmes such as End-User Computing.
The learning programmes at the CTSB not only teach skills, but also encompass recognition of the whole person and this is how his talent as an artist came to be recognised.
“Having worked with artists in a programme specifically geared towards developing emerging artists with disabilities – when I saw Hartse’s artwork I saw potential. I saw the passion and the story he was trying to communicate through his art,”
CTSB Business Development Manager Veronica Pronk said.
The CTSB encouraged Hartse to enter his artwork in the #KeReady2Flex Challenge.
When he received the news that he had won first prize in the final week of the #KeReady2Flex Challenge, he was very emotional and has used most of his prize money to assist his Wesbank community.
“It felt good being able to help people who have nothing; to see a smile on their face when I gave them some food or groceries. That made me happy,” Hartse said.
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6. Advertiser and Times UK - Royal Lymington Yacht Club hosts Visually Impaired Sailing Week22 Jul 2022
FORTY people with visual impairments enjoyed a taste of life as a sailor thanks to the Royal Lymington Yacht Club.
The club recently hosted its first Visually Impaired Sailing Week since 2019, having been repeatedly cancelled by the pandemic.
Seventeen yachts, skippered by their volunteer owner and two sighted mates, each gave two visually impaired crew the chance to get out on the waves for a week.
Living aboard their yachts, crews visited Chichester and Poole before returning to the yacht club in Lymington.
Yacht club vice-commodore Stephen Crates said: “Visually Impaired Sailing Week is a highly worthwhile and memorable event for all participants.
“As a club we were able to facilitate arrival and departure arrangements for those involved, provide a central venue, and host the welcome and departure dinners.
“It was a privilege to meet with many of the attendees at the end of their time on the Solent and to see the smiles on participants’ faces and hear everyone’s seafaring stories at the end of the week.
“We very much look forward to being involved in the event in future years.”
During the week, visually impaired Londoner and sailing novice Jean learnt safety drills, winching and how to tie knots by touch.
On the water, the club’s motorboat section gave participants a safe yet thrilling experience on board a rigid inflatable boat and driving a motor cruiser.
Having taken the wheel in the open sea, one participant said: “I’ve never driven a motorbike or a car – how amazing to be at the wheel of a 100hp powerboat.”
Another said: “This trip has made my year. I never thought I would do this.”
At the end of the week the crews enjoyed a dinner at the yacht club, complete with salty stories about life as a mariner and sea shanties.
Royal Lymington Yacht Club members volunteered for shore-based duties during the week, including distributing sailing gear and meeting visually impaired participants arriving in the county.
A yacht club spokesman said its members and local businesses were “generous in their support for the event and victualling the yachts”.
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7. The Hindu India - Screen readers to the rescue for visually impaired students from Tamil Nadu23 Jul 2022
Oviya is the first Tamil Nadu student to have used a laptop with a screen reading software for writing Class XII exams
G.V. Oviya, a visually challenged student of Yuvabharathi Public School in Somayampalayam, Coimbatore, is the first student from Tamil Nadu to have used a laptop with a screen reading software for writing the CBSE Class XII board exams.
She scored 91.4% (457/500). This is not the first time Oviya has done this. She was in the news two years ago for being the only person to have written the exams online using a screen reader when she was in Class X.
She now wants to pursue a Bachelors degree in Commerce, and has applied for the same in colleges in Chennai and Coimbatore. “I want to write the civil services exam,” she said. Her father A. Vijayaraj and mother M. Gokila said the school gave special attention to her and even provided an attender to help her on campus.
Like Oviya, Angelin Lipika E.J. from The Packianath Public School, Kanniyakumari, has cleared her CBSE Class X exams, scoring 371/500. Her father T.K. Edwin Jose said Lipika lost her vision when she was one-and-a-half years old. In 2019, she was taken to Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, where she was provided training in typing and screen reading. “When we were at the hospital, we heard about Oviya and immediately connected [with her] to understand how she wrote the exams two years ago. Lipika’s school was also very supportive,” Mr. Jose said.
Currently, Lipika is learning to work on Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. She intends to choose the Commerce group in Class XI.
The fathers of both the girls said the government should encourage and help more visually challenged students to take exams online at the school and college level. “With digital India we should encourage such children to take exams online by themselves without the help of scribes. This will also enhance their skills,” Mr. Vijayaraj said.
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8. Blooloop - Digital accessibility for visitor attraction websites: the state of the industry21 Jul 2022
Chris Winter presents findings on how accessible the websites of visitor attractions are and explains how to improve
Internet-enabled online digital services are one of the best things to have happened for the world’s more than one billion disabled people (15% of the world’s population). However, 96.8% of the world’s top one million web homepages have digital accessibility errors.
The most prolific of these errors are poor contrast, which impacts many people with visual impairment, as well as images without a descriptive text, which confound the assistive screen reader technologies on which people with a variety of disabilities depend. These errors can significantly impact the usability of websites for people with disabilities and lead to the exclusion of many.
Exclusion is both a social challenge and a commercial one as it excludes disabled people from websites.
How does the visitor attraction industry compare with the accessibility of websites in general?
For over twenty years, the W3C organisation has published guidelines on the accessibility of websites.
The guidelines state:
“Following these guidelines will make content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including accommodations for blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these, and some accommodation for learning disabilities and cognitive limitations; but will not address every user need for people with these disabilities”
This report answers the question ‘how does the visitor attraction industry compare with the accessibility of websites in general’?
This report was initiated jointly by the author and blooloop.
Attractions can, and should, do more
Organisations in the attractions industry, especially theme parks and water parks, have the potential to make their websites more accessible for disabled people, thereby improving social inclusion and increasing customer numbers reached.
This report concludes that the visitor attraction industry could greatly improve the inclusivity of their websites for people with a disability. This would, in turn, also provide the potential to increase the customer base of the attractions.
Furthermore, it concludes that the websites of museums, while not completely error-free, are more accessible.
This report recommends that organisations take an inclusive approach to people/potential customers with disabilities. As a first step organisations should perform their own assessments of their websites to determine accessibility.
Theme parks and water parks have digital accessibility errors
96.8% of the world’s top one million web homepages contain digital accessibility errors; the digital accessibility of theme parks and water parks is comparable
This report was triggered by the generally poor state of digital accessibility of the world’s top one million websites. The WebAIM organisation conducts an annual survey of the world’s top one million websites, and then publishes its findings in the WebAIM Million report. The WebAIM Million report states that 96.8% of the top 1 million global websites’ homepages contain accessibility errors when evaluated against the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
WebAIM’s report does report on the digital accessibility of different industries. However, the visitor attraction industry is not one of the recognised industry categories. Therefore, it was jointly decided, in collaboration with blooloop, to perform a specific evaluation of the top 30 homepages in the visitor attraction industry (theme parks, water parks and museums). This provides a unique industry perspective.
The high-level conclusions from this research are as follows:
- The digital accessibility of theme parks and water parks is poor, with all twenty homepages evaluated containing accessibility errors.
- The homepages of the museums evaluated were better, containing fewer digital accessible errors with two of the museum homepages evaluated containing zero errors.
- There is significant scope for the visitor attraction industry to improve the digital accessibility of their websites.
It is the experience of the author that many organisations are simply unaware of the poor accessibility of their websites. This is probably true for some, but not all, of the visitor attraction organisations.
Recommendations
This report recommends:
1. Organisations make digital accessibility a mandatory feature of their websites.
2. Organisations should establish the digital accessibility of their website by:
- For those organisations included in this year’s WebAIM million report, they can look up the results of the evaluation performed by WebAIM. A link is in the WebAIM Million report.
- Evaluate their homepages and potentially other individual webpages using the WebAIM WAVE tool. The WAVE tool has the added benefit of identifying individual errors together with detailed descriptions of the error and ways to make improvements.
3. Organisations determine how they should move forward. This could include the establishment of an organisational strategy and business case for digital inclusion, followed by then adopting a more inclusive design approach.
Methodology
This report aims to determine the digital accessibility of visitor attraction websites. 30 websites from the global visitor attraction industry were chosen.
These 30 visitor attraction homepages were selected from the TEA /AECOM Theme and Museum Index 2019. Ten homepages were selected from each of the categories used in the TEA Index (which is based on the number of visitors that attended the attraction and not visits to websites), namely:
- Top 25 amusement/theme parks worldwide.
- Top 20 water parks worldwide.
- Top 20 museums worldwide.
To improve the coverage, the selection process was further refined to ensure that key industry groups, such as Merlin, were represented. Additional refinements reduce duplications of attractions, e.g. removal of multiple Disneyland homepages that occur on the same website.
Finally, the number of museums within a single geography, such as London, was reduced.
Sample size
The primary reason for evaluating a small sample of 30 homepages was because the visitor attraction industry does not feature as a defined industry within the WebAIM Million report. To maintain consistency, the research undertaken to produce this report was closely aligned with the approach used by WebAIM in the production of its report. The report only evaluates homepages, as they provide a strong indication of the health of whole websites.
The research included detailed evaluations of 30 homepages performed using the Mozilla Firefox add-on version of the WebAIM WAVE tool. To quote the WebAIM description of their WAVE tool:
WAVE can identify many accessibilities and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content.
The report uses the same tooling used in the production of the WebAIM Million report to evaluate these homepages, i.e. the WebAIM WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. Furthermore, the industry categories used in the production of the WebAIM Million report were determined to allow a level of consistency checking.
All data evaluated in the production of this report is in the public domain. In addition, all tools employed were free to use.
The data in detail
The trigger for this report was the WebAIM Million annual report which evaluates the top one million homepages in the world. Only 3.2% have zero automatically detectable errors when evaluated against level AA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. This figure is a slight improvement on the years 2020 and 2021.
Based on the limited sample of the 30 visitor attraction homepages evaluated the following table contains a summary of the results. The table contains the average number of errors and the range of errors detected in each of the three visitor industry subcategories of theme parks, water parks and museums.
(*) The high number of contrast errors (151) on a single homepage distorts the average number of contrast errors for museums, thereby increasing the average.
It is not possible to correlate the above results absolutely with those in the WebAIM Million report. This is because the visitor attraction industry sits within in a multitude of industries such as travel and news & media.
Conclusions
However, the report draws the following conclusions:
- The homepages of the top visitor attraction industry sites do contain a large number of digital accessibility errors, i.e. non-conformance with the W3C Accessibility Guidelines. This also correlates to the findings of the WebAIM Million report.
- The most common error types that occur in the
visitor attraction homepages are low contrast text together with images
that lack alternative text that describes the image. This correlates to
the findings of the WebAIM Million report.
- Low contrast errors. Adequate contrast of text is necessary for all users, especially users with low vision or those with colour-blindness.
- Missing alternative text means that images lack a text description field that would help people with sight impairments understand non-textual content. This error typically results in empty links and impacts screen reader assistive technologies. So, this adversely affects anyone who is dependent on the use of screen readers.
- Museums are more digitally accessible than water parks, which are more digitally accessible than theme parks.
- As stated previously, it was not possible to directly map visitor attraction websites to the industry categorisation used by the WebAIM Million report. However, using the same categories as the WebAIM Million report, 19 of the 30 websites are in the travel category and five of the museum websites are within the education industry. There is a loose correlation with the findings by industry in the WebAIM Million report i.e. the education industry websites have fewer errors than those in the travel industry. The WebAIM Million report used Web Shrinker to identify industry categories.
Accessibility information
Four of the 30 websites evaluated are aware of the importance of accessibility to their attractions. The fact that they publish guidance on the physical accessibility of their visitor attraction is evidence of this. Three of these four organisations’ websites also describe the digital accessibility of their websites. However, only two of the 30 homepages evaluated have zero accessibility errors.
The evaluations of the organisation’s homepages took place in April and May 2022, using the WebAIM WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool.
The report makes every effort to anonymise the evaluation results of individual organisations’ homepages. The results of the WebAIM evaluations for those homepages can be looked up using the WebAIM Million web pages look-up facility. Alternatively, and additionally, the free WebAIM WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool can help to evaluate homepages.
Examples of digital accessibility errors
This section of the report contains deliberate errors. These serve as examples of the most prolific digital accessibility errors identified in the visitor attraction industry:
- Low contrast text
- Images that lack alternative text
These errors are also the most numerous error types in the WebAIM Million report. The WAVE tool will detect these errors when evaluating a webpage.
The following examples compare the difference between different colour contrasts.
The following examples are a green square that has alternative text to support screen readers. The red square has text that is visible to the naked eye but no alternative text.
This simple image has alternative text linked to the image
Shape, square
Description automatically generatedThis image has text next to it that is visible
but it is not linked and will confound screen readers
Peer reviewers
The peer-reviewers of this report are:
- Jared Smith, WebAIM, Institute for Disability Research, Policy and Practice
- Dr Kira Allmann, Ada Lovelace Institute and Ambassador for the Digital Poverty Alliance
- Dr Maurice Perks FBCS CITP, an Independent IT Consultant and a former IBM Fellow (retired)
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9. Berkeleyside Org USA - She fought on behalf of her blind son. Now BUSD will make online learning tools more accessible21 Jul 2022
Kai Wang was in first grade when the pandemic moved his classroom at Cragmont Elementary behind the screen of his laptop. And for all the challenges of virtual learning, Kai, who is blind, faced even more of them.
Virtual learning hastened the arrival of a new era in educational technology. The problem, though, was that many of these tools were not built with students with disabilities in mind.
Math, for instance, was no longer a paper and a pencil affair — instead, numbers flashed on the screen and students solved equations using educational technology software. But when Kai moved his cursor around the screen during his math class, the screen reader repeated the same word. “Unpronounceable,” it said over and over again. “Unpronounceable.”
The same situation repeated itself nearly every time Kai logged on for class, a situation that was documented in the SF Chronicle. Once, a teacher told him he was excused for the rest of the hour because he wouldn’t be able to see it.
“That was unbearable for us. He’s a sponge, wanting to learn every single thing. And he was just simply excluded from learning,” said Mina Sun, Kai’s mom.
As the pandemic wore on, Sun quit her job as a scientist at UC Berkeley to focus full-time on advocacy for her son and other blind students. After numerous attempts to work with Berkeley Unified, Sun said, she secured the help of the National Federation of the Blind and an attorney, Timothy Elder, who is blind himself.
After she sent a demand letter on Dec. 2, 2020, arguing that the district was not meeting its obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the district agreed to a process called “structured negotiations” that serves a more collaborative alternative to a lawsuit.
The result was a June 9 settlement — the first of its kind, according to Sun and the National Federation of the Blind — that establishes a process for reviewing the technology BUSD uses and creates a system for responding to accessibility complaints.
“Providing quality, engaging, and accessible learning in service to our students is a district priority. As a system, we will continue to reflect on our work and make continual improvements to make sure this remains true,” a BUSD spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement, saying that the district could not comment further on the settlement due to student privacy requirements.
Moving forward, any new tech purchases will have to go through staff at multiple departments with the hope of ensuring accessibility for students with disabilities. The structured negotiations didn’t result in any damages (the district paid out just $50,000 in legal fees); instead, Sun wanted systemic policy changes.
Sun and her team hope that the settlement will be the sort of experiment that, if it’s effective, could become a blueprint for other school districts.
Removing logistical barriers to learning for students with disabilities
When Kai was in preschool, he was diagnosed with retinal degeneration. As he got older, his vision would deteriorate and he would become legally blind.
Sun, who did not know anyone who was blind at the time, was terrified. It took years for her to develop the stance she now takes: Kai is brilliant, he can achieve anything he wants, and her job is to get rid of the logistical barriers that stand in his way.
“I have talked to lots of people who think, ‘You’re asking too much. You can’t expect everything to be accessible,’” Sun said.
But from her perspective, she is asking for the bare minimum: for Kai, now 9 years old, to simply have the same educational access that his younger brother, Skyler, who is not visually impaired, will get.
One time, Kai asked his mom whether she could call “just one” of the 10 or so technology companies whose tools he was supposed to be using in class everyday. Could they make their tool just “a little bit” accessible for him, he asked?
“It was heartbreaking for me to hear that,” Sun said. “It’s just the casual message our society is sending — we’re not supposed to ask for all, we can ask for less.”
While the technology schools are using may be new, the obligations they have to educate students with disabilities are not.
“The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has existed in one form or another since 1975,” said Chris Danielson, the public relations director at National Federation of the Blind, who worked with Sun. “Yes, technology has changed. But if the school can adapt to the existence of new technology, then it should also be thinking about how that technology is potentially going to affect students with disabilities.”
Though IDEA has existed for decades, compliance can be spotty, and it’s at least part of the explanation for why just 15% of blind people in the U.S. have a college degree.
Classroom use of tech has increased over the last decade or so, dictating how students turn in homework and complete projects.
“But the problem just hit an exponential curve when distance learning happened,” said Timothy Elder, founder of the TRE Legal Practice, a law firm that focuses on students with disabilities.
As a result, blind students like Kai — as well as students with disabilities like deafness — face increasing accessibility challenges.
“Some of the same technology that the BUSD is using is being used elsewhere, which means that blind kids who encounter it are experiencing the same barriers,” Danielson said.
A cause to celebrate in working toward greater accessibility
The settlement, which lays out an Instructional Software Review and Approval Process in Berkeley Unified, is intended to ensure that technology will be accessible for all students. It could apply to everything from students turning in assignments on SeeSaw to playing study games like Kahoot.
When BUSD wants to purchase a new technology, it will have to go through a review by staff in special education, technology services and educational services. Only if the technology is accessible, aligns with the curriculum and complies with student privacy rules will it be approved for purchase under the new process.
Though it sounds bureaucratic, this could mean the difference between kids getting to participate in class and having to sit out altogether.
And while Sun wishes it didn’t have to come to a legal letter or “fall on the shoulders of parents,” her attorney praised BUSD for “having the political will to … be a leader in the field.”
“Software should be accessible across the board, and we shouldn’t be expecting the school districts to have to fight for it, district by district,” Elder said.
As Sun and others work toward a more accessible world, they have cause to celebrate, and they’re hopeful that this means Kai’s life will be just a little bit easier in the future.
“He’s an exceptionally bright and talented individual and I’m sure he’s going to do amazing things in life,” Elder said. “I just want to make sure he gets every opportunity to do that.”
*****
10. Bright Green - The Green Party needs to overhaul its policy on SEND education21 Jul 2022
As co-chair of the Young Greens of England and Wales, but even more so as an undergraduate student, I am acutely aware of the issues facing the higher education sector. Whether it’s sky-rocketing tuition fees, attacks on humanities degrees, or the rising bar to accessing higher education in the first place, universities are in crisis, with staff and students alike at the sharp end. The root cause? Neoliberalism: a dogged commitment by successive governments to marketise higher education, putting emphasis on profit, not people, and valuing degree programmes on the basis of the salaries their alumni receive, rather than on the inherent value of learning.
What we talk about much less, however, is how that very same neoliberal destruction of education is not confined to higher education, or even to post-16 education. Its influence throughout our education system is undeniable, and felt no more strongly than by young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families. For the 1.1 million pupils in England with SEND, the education system can feel less like an opportunity to achieve their full potential, and more like a constant battle to be seen as a person, rather than as a price tag. I would know: I was one of them.
Having studied as a blind student in mainstream schools until I was 16, I saw the very real impacts of cuts to local education authorities: retention of specialist support staff was declining rapidly, hours of support both for me, as the student, and for the in-school staff supporting me, were cut at every opportunity, and the level of specialist resources available to me was decreasing, limiting my potential for academic attainment — none of this, it should be understood, being the fault of the individuals delivering what support they could. Then, aged 16, I was faced with a dilemma: to stay in my mainstream school to study for my A-levels without sufficient specialist support and, hopefully, obtain a place at a decent university; or to attend a specialist residential college over 100 miles from home, to complete my A-levels with appropriate levels of support, and to learn the extracurricular skills necessary for me to live independently at university and beyond as a blind person — the type of out-of-classroom support simply beyond the capacity of any existing mainstream option.
I resented having to make this choice. No teenager should be faced with the proposition that in order to receive an education which allows them to meet their potential, in both an academic and holistic sense, they will have to leave their home, family, and existing support networks behind and move halfway across the country for eight weeks at a time.
What I resented even more, though, was having to fight to have my decision respected — and the fact that this fight was solely a matter of cash. Having opted to attend a specialist college, the next step took 18 months, attempting to convince the local education authority that I was a worthy investment — or, more honestly, that I would be a bigger dent in their budget if I stayed in my mainstream school. Never mind what was best for me, where I would be best-placed to achieve my potential given the circumstances, what mattered was how high the price next to my name on their piece of paper was — and crucially, how it could be reduced. With the sheer level of pressure local authorities were under then – and the somehow increased pressure they’re under now – from central government to cut spending to a bare minimum, and then to cut some more, this is far from surprising.
There is some division over the solution to the situation in which I found myself: some say that our aim should be to eradicate specialist schools, like the one I attended, and guarantee that mainstream provision is suitably funded and equipped to include all pupils. Others argue that, sometimes, the holistic provision offered by specialist schools and colleges is simply unachievable in a mainstream placement, and that this provision ought to be safeguarded for those who would benefit from it — I find these arguments more convincing. The driving factor behind my own choice was the inability for my academic potential to be realised in my mainstream school, but there’s no understating the importance and the value of the skills I learnt alongside studying for my A-levels, including cooking, cleaning, and traveling independently.
Focusing our attention on which of these two options is best fails to acknowledge the broader point: that each individual is different, and that their needs will be met in different ways — those options should be open and available to all young people, and their voices should be front and centre in the decision-making process. I have never felt more dehumanised than when sitting in a meeting about my future — a meeting, I should add, which I wasn’t initially invited to attend — arguing that I should be allowed to pursue my ambitions, and each response being one concerned merely with cost.
At Autumn Conference, the Green Party will vote on an enabling motion put forward by the Education Policy Working group, to rewrite the Education chapter of Policies for a sustainable Society. At the moment, our policy is agonisingly vague about specialist schools, bizarrely and inappropriately conflating specialist schools for disabled students with specialist music and dance schools, “ED168 There will be a programme to increase the capacity of all mainstream schools to include disabled children which underpins the UN Convention for Persons with Disabilities. Ultimately some special schools may continue to exist. This will include schools for extremely gifted and talented students, for example specialist music schools, dance schools and sports colleges.”
I hope that this enabling motion, if passed, will set the wheels in motion for an overhaul of our education policy, updating it to address the crisis of neoliberalism facing students of all ages, and putting forward the Green solutions we know can resolve it, creating a vision for education far superior to the marketised dystopia students and staff are fighting back against today.
However, I strongly believe that this cannot be confined to higher education: the catastrophic consequences — for young people, for their families, and for teaching staff working alongside them — are endemic throughout all stages of our education system. Clear parallels can be drawn: the industrial action taken by UCU in recent months in response to real-terms pay cuts and unrealistic workloads mirrors the failure of local authorities, facing ruthless cuts from central government, to retain specialist support staff, as skills leave the public sector for better paid, better supported jobs in the private and charity sectors. Disabled students are being failed by a system which views us as an always-too-high price tag. it’s no surprise to anyone who has experienced that system that the percentage of disabled school-leavers attending university is below that of the general population, and that our degree results, and employment prospects, are consistently lower than that of our peers.
Societal inclusion, in this case contextualised by an acceptance of the social model of disability, is at the heart of Green politics and values. I hope this understanding leads to a policy outcome which puts people, not profits, first, and which prioritises the inherent value of education over any remnants of a model which views our young people as nothing more than an inconvenient additional charge.
*****
11. My Wabash Valley USA - Blind Dugger man climbs highest peak in U.S.21 Jul 2022
DUGGER, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – A Dugger man lost his sight 25 years ago in a hunting accident. Despite being blind, he continues to set big goals for himself. He recently completed a feat many of us would never attempt. He climbed the highest peak in North America, Mount Denali.
“It was a challenge. It was a definite challenge, probably the hardest physical challenge that I’ve had since losing my eyesight,” Lonnie Bedwell said as he laughed.
Bedwell trained for months by running a seven mile course near his home. He also received instruction and help from his “Sightless Summits” team.
“They were an incredible team, incredibly strong, incredibly driven,” added Bedwell. “And they got me to the top.”
But almost every step to more than 20,000 feet above sea level was dangerous. According to the National Parks Service, three people had already died in 2022 before Bedwell began his ascent.
Bedwell described how they sometimes had to navigate ridges only a foot wide. At one point, Bedwell fell into a crevasse. Thanks to his team and his own tenacity, he was able to pull himself out.
So what motivates a man to scale to the top of a mountain when, once he gets there, he can’t enjoy the view?
“The motivation for me to get to the top was to get there, just to prove what’s possible,” Bedwell said.
He hopes his efforts to prove what’s possible encourages others to believe in themselves and to know it’s ok to receive help along the way.
“Where can your vision take you? Where can our vision take us?” Bedwell asked as he began to get emotional. “You know, a blind man, cannot do what we did, but together we did it.”
Bedwell’s next goal is to climb the tallest peak in the world, Mount Everest.
*****
12. Aljazeera - Inaccessible Cities: The experience of those with disabilities22 Jul 2022
One in seven people worldwide live with some form of disability and many of them face daily challenges that include just getting around. Al Jazeera’s innovation studio, AJ Contrast, tells the story of three women with different disabilities in Mumbai, Lagos, and New York City. In this episode, we speak with AJ Contrast Senior Producer Viktorija Mickute to learn more about these women and what can be done to make the world more accessible for all members of society.
In this episode:
- Viktorija Mickute (@VikVicariously), senior producer, AJ Contrast
- Nidhi Goyal (@saysnidhigoyal), activist and comedian
- Rebecca Lamorte (@RebeccaLamorte), former New York City Council candidate
- Olajumuke Olajide, athlete
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Ruby Zaman with Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke, Ney Alvarez, Negin Owliaei, Chloe K Li and Malika Bilal. Alex Roldan is our sound designer. Adam Abou-Gad and Aya Elmileik are our engagement producers.
Full episode transcription:
Malika Bilal: Nidhi Goyal is a woman of many talents and many accomplishments.
Nidhi Goyal: I’m the founder and executive director of an Indian nonprofit called Rising Flame. And I work as an advisor to UN women.
Malika Bilal: She’s also a standup comedian who uses humor to poke fun at another major part of her identity.
Nidhi Goyal: I’m blind, but so is love guys. Maybe you should get over it. (laugh)
Malika Bilal: Nidhi is visually impaired, and has made her disability a focus of her comedy.
Nidhi Goyal: There are such entertaining reactions to our disability that we just cannot help, but laugh, because the ultimate joke is on the people who don’t get it.
Malika Bilal: But she admits life’s not always funny. Especially when it comes to navigating a city as big as her hometown, Mumbai, while blind.
Nidhi Goyal: I am from India. I have been based out of Mumbai for most of my life. When that local train, as a disabled person, is inaccessible, what is that doing to the cost on my time?
Malika Bilal: One in seven people around the world has some form of disability. And many of them, like Nidhi, are living in some of the biggest cities in the world yet still face major obstacles.
What’s that like, and how can things be improved? That’s what one team of Al Jazeera journalists went to find out.
I’m Malika Bilal and this is The Take.
Viktorija Mickute: My name is Viktorija Mickute and I’m a senior producer at AJ Contrast, which is Al Jazeera digital’s media innovation studio.
Malika Bilal: AJ Contrast is like a documentary team, but way more advanced. They use tools like 360 cameras, augmented reality and interactive storytelling. They don’t just tell stories. They help you experience the stories, using immersive technologies. And we’ll get to more on that later. First, I want to start with what I think is one of their most fascinating projects to date – Inaccessible Cities.
Malika Bilal: So let’s dive right into Inaccessible Cities, which is an interactive feature that’s won lots of awards and for good reason. Can you tell me more about the project and where the idea came from?
Viktorija Mickute: Yeah. So we wanted to talk about people with disabilities as a community that doesn’t get a lot of attention in the mainstream media, and when we looked into it we wanted to focus on women because the majority in low and middle income countries in the world are actually women. So what struck us is that when we are thinking about these bustling centers of cultural life, financial, political worlds, we sometimes don’t think about how people with disabilities, whether it’s challenging for them to navigate, whether the cities are accessible for all, whether cities are created for all. And interestingly enough, we found a lot of things that surprised us.
Malika Bilal: Tell me about Nidhi Goyal. She’s one of the characters in your story. How did you get to know her?
Viktorija Mickute: For this project we wanted to find three women living with disabilities in these megacities, which is Mumbai, Lagos and New York City. So Nidhi, I found her as this super interesting woman, an advocate for disability rights, especially for women and youth. She uses comedy as a way to talk about her disability, about her gender as well. And, and when we started talking with her about the project, she was very excited and she had so many things to say about Mumbai.
Nidhi Goyal: I am, uh, India’s first female disabled, standup comedian. I always forget that…
Malika Bilal: Nidhi grew up in Mumbai. And lost her sight gradually as a teenager. So she remembers what her city looks like.
Nidhi Goyal: When I was 14 or 15 I was diagnosed with an irreversible incurable, degenerative, progressive eye disorder. So it’s very interesting because disability was a part of my life since my childhood.
Malika Bilal: And she’s had to adapt to the changes in her life.
Nidhi Goyal: When you start losing sight and whenever a disability is acquired, you basically have to relearn everything. So I relearned how to walk, how to read, how to write, how to see the world without seeing, um, how to identify colors without seeing, how to imagine, um, how to choose and many, many more things. So you’re swimming harder and harder. The waves get bigger and bigger.
Malika Bilal: And a lot of those waves – her obstacles – involve just getting around.
Nidhi Goyal: It was so challenging because today I could walk the same street and tomorrow I nearly stumbled into a ditch or I missed meeting with an accident by a couple of inches.
Malika Bilal: She talks about how she started to become aware of accessibility in a way she hadn’t been before. Her life changed. And so did her commute.
Nidhi Goyal: We have buses which are not accessible to people who have locomotor disabilities, who are using crutches, who have any kind of limb deformity, or limb disability who find it difficult to walk, to move around, who are wheelchair users. We are also not inclusive for people who live with blindness. They’re waiting at the bus stop and it’s not like you know which bus is approaching.
Malika Bilal: I asked Viktorija what struck her about Nidhi’s story?
Malika Bilal: As a blind woman, living in a busy mega city, like Mumbai. Nidhi has to get around on public transportation or on foot. And of course that comes with challenges. Were you surprised by what she has to do to get around?
Viktorija Mickute: Yeah, she’s fortunate enough that she can take a lot of taxis so that helps her a lot so she doesn’t need to always just rely on public transport. But while navigating the streets, while walking somewhere, to the let’s say a post office or something like that, one thing that really was interesting, what she said is that Mumbai is accessible because of people. Like in a way that people are really helpful. Like if you ask for help everybody will take your hand and, you know, show you, guide you to, to this I don’t know, bus station or something like that. But what she said, that actually takes away your agency and as a woman in the street, just let someone else guide you for example, a man or someone you don’t even know who.
Malika Bilal: Nidhi mentioned some of those issues.
Nidhi Goyal: I have to cross a street, which means I have to seek support from a stranger. Many women living with blindness will report that they have either been groped or harassed or pulled or had their agency taken away while a stranger is supporting them. All on the guise of at least we are helping you, right? Because you don’t have any other options. Your life is literally in that person’s hand.
Malika Bilal: Viktorija, you also talked to two other women in two completely different parts of the world. What can you tell me about them and how their experience was different from Nidhi’s?
Viktorija Mickute: So in New York City, we focused on Rebecca Lamorte. At that point, she was running for New York city council. One thing about Rebecca, is that she acquired this disability later in life.
Rebecca Lamorte: I have what’s called complex regional pain syndrome.
Malika Bilal: Rebecca was pushed on one of the New York subway trains and her injury was severe.
Rebecca Lamorte: And my leg was crushed in the gap between the train and the platform. I have permanent degenerative nerve damage and struggle with mobility. I struggle getting around our community and city and I’m running to change that for everyone. I’m running to fight for people that feel overlooked, unseen, and completely disregarded because of how inaccessible our community and city is.
Viktorija Mickute: And this was so important for us to explore as well because people with disability. It is a marginalized community that anybody can in their lifetime become a part of. Someone can develop disability due to illness, old age or anything like that or an accident, like what happened to Rebecca. What she always says is that she never thought about those things before she became disabled herself, and then her life and her just connection to the city completely changed. A quarter of the subway stations are inaccessible for people using wheelchairs. Talking to so many people living here in New York City and learning how frustrating it is. It like even evokes hopelessness, the fact that it’s just the system is not possible for you to use.
Malika Bilal: But the problem of inaccessibility is not unique to New York or Mumbai. Lagos, one of the largest cities in Africa, has a public transport system of taxis, motorbike taxis, and buses that are also not easy for people with disabilities to use.
Viktorija Mickute: So the third character of our story is Olajumoke Olajide, a professional athlete from Lagos, who is an African record holder in a wheelchair race.
Olajumuke Olajide: My disability is polio. I do sports for a living.
Malika Bilal: Olajumuke became disabled after contracting polio at a young age.
Olajumuke Olajide: My mother told me that I was sick and from then take me to hospital. And where they give me injection from that place. I’m like this, because of when I was, I think when I was six to seven, I’m like this.
Malika Bilal: It was as a disabled woman, that she became a star athlete using her wheelchair to compete. But using a wheelchair just to get around the city. That was still hard. Even as a champion.
Olajumuke Olajide: They will not wait for me or they will not have patience for me.
Viktorija Mickute: And she said, sometimes she used to wait you know, three buses, for someone to actually say like okay, I’m gonna help you, uh, to put your wheelchair on a bus and to help you board the bus as well.
Malika Bilal: Viktorija’s team spent about a week with Olajumuke and the other women in the piece to get a sense of their everyday lives and the people in them.
It’s through staying with those stories that you learned some sad news about Olajumuke. Can you tell us what happened?
Viktorija Mickute: So after the project was published in December 2021 several months later, we learned that Olajumuke passed away. The photographer who was documenting her story let us know that Olajumuke developed an illness due to bedsores.
Malika Bilal: Oh, no.
Viktorija Mickute: Yeah, losing her was really heartbreaking for everyone involved.
Malika Bilal: Aside from their disabilities, these three women do have another common thread, and that is that they are involved in advocacy work, to change things, to highlight the difficulties in accessing things like public transportation.
Nidhi Goyal: …issues around disability, and I use humor to have people reflect on their behaviors on the stigmas that they perpetuate on the stereotypes that they hold against people with disabilities.
Malika Bilal: Nidhi uses her comedy. She has her own NGO. Rebecca ran for office…
Rebecca Lamorte: Today New York City remains largely inaccessible. I’m running for New York City Council to change that.
Malika Bilal: …and Olajumuke used her athletics to challenge negative stereotypes and perceptions.
Olajumuke Olajide: I play tennis table. I train hard and I want to be the best.
Malika Bilal: Did you see that as a common thread? And how would you explain that?
Viktorija Mickute: Definitely. And it’s something we wanted to highlight the stories of women who are advocates. So the idea was not only focus on their disabilities as something that makes them different or take away their agency to do things. It’s also focusing on the things that they do in everyday lives and the ideas that they bring to the table and their spirit in terms of advocacy and actively doing something.
Malika Bilal: But it wasn’t enough for Viktorija and her team to simply share those stories. They opted to make them interactive. So people like you and I could get a sense for what life in these cities is really like for Nidhi, Rebecca and Olajumuke.
So I have pulled up Inaccessible Cities on my laptop, and I’m going to click start the experience, walk me through what the viewer will see.
Viktorija Mickute: We start the project with three women living with different disabilities.
Malika Bilal: But when I’m looking at it – I only see their backs. We see the back of Rebecca crossing the street with her cane. Olajumuke in her wheelchair, going up a steep ramp. And someone helping Nidhi to cross the road. And that’s on purpose, Victoria says.
Viktorija Mickute: We don’t see their faces. We don’t learn about who they are and the idea of this introduction is to ask the question, what if this was you? What if you had to navigate these cities that seem to be not easy to navigate at all.
Malika Bilal: In the first intro we are in New York City. There is a woman waiting on the subway platform, a woman going down a long escalator.
Viktorija Mickute: After the introduction, the viewer can actually experience the daily routes of our characters. The person can choose which mode of public transport they’re gonna take. For example, if it’s a train or a bus or a taxi, and then with every step, there comes a challenge. So for example, in New York City, when you try to reach your subway station, there is a ramp that is broken. So the idea is to evoke frustration and hopelessness. The feelings that people with disability impacted by the inaccessibility of our cities face every time they go out and try to reach their destinations.
Malika Bilal: And then the site asked if I was in a wheelchair.
Viktorija Mickute: Are you in a wheelchair? Can you, you know, do you need a good ramp? If you do that adds another minute. You have to find a ramp, then the elevator might be broken in the station. What do you do then? Then you have to find another station.
Malika Bilal: But for many people around the world, this is not a game. The World Health Organization says that almost everyone is likely to experience some form of disability, whether that’s temporary or permanent at some point in their life. So though these stories are not ones that come to the forefront very often, they are so likely to touch each and every one of us in some way. What did you walk away with as an understanding after doing this story?
Viktorija Mickute: As a journalist focusing on the stories from marginalized communities and communities hit with injustice, this is definitely the community that I hope more media is focusing on.
Malika Bilal: Have you heard feedback from people as to what the reaction is? To figuring out, to learning, how challenging it is or if they have disabilities to seeing that acknowledged.
Viktorija Mickute: Yeah, exactly. Like we’ve heard the feedback in terms of that you have the pop-up messages ‘you are late for your meeting’ like that, that’s everybody was like, ‘I felt the frustration. I felt the frustration being there.’
Malika Bilal: Have you heard anything from local officials, from government officials, from people who design these cities and design these modes of inaccessibility?
Viktorija Mickute: Major news from New York City. The authorities are saying that they’re gonna make 95% of the subway stations accessible by 2055 while currently around 25% is only accessible. So that’s big news. Things are slowly changing.
Malika Bilal: It seems like such a light thing in comparison to someone who has to navigate a city in a wheelchair, but every time I’m walking with my roller suitcase and I get to a part of the sidewalk here in the US that’s not dipped down. I think about how much more difficult this would be if I was in a wheelchair and anytime I see an elevator or something that makes transport easier, I do thank the community of people with disabilities for making it so that life is a little bit easier for everyone.
Viktorija Mickute: For sure. At AJ Contrast, any project we do, it’s super important for us to collaborate and co-create with the community that we cover and this was what we did for this project as well. So we worked with Sarah Kim, a journalist with cerebral palsy from New York City and Kelechukwu Ogu, a blind journalist from Lagos and we crafted narrative together. And what they really helped us with is to find the most important, the most critical issues that we need to cover, and, and focus on them whilst grounding them in the human stories of people with disabilities.
Malika Bilal: And of course it’s important that the people you’re reporting on are able to access the story as well. The work that you did was produced using features to make it an inclusive experience itself, which of course is very important if you’re gonna talk about inclusivity or accessibility, then the product itself needs to be inclusive and accessible.
Viktorija Mickute: We spent a significant amount of time and resources to make this project fully accessible to the visually and hearing impaired and other people with disabilities. It’s definitely a learning curve. It’s the first project that we are doing that is fully accessible, so many things to think about. It was, adding audio descriptions to the videos, adding the alternative text for images, which means that we are describing every image and giving an opportunity for people who cannot see those images for their text reader to read what the image entails, what is in that image. If they’re not able to access what is out there online, they cannot access information. They cannot read about things or watch or see or hear then it’s, it’s really difficult for them to be a part of the society’s conversations.
Malika Bilal: And it’s those conversations that can contribute to change, change that Nidhi and Rebecca are still fighting for. And change that Olajumuke had dreamed of.
Olajumuke Olajide: In future, I want to be a better person to bring athletes more, people with like my own disability. I want to bring them up to build the best of themselves because people with disabilities, we are not worst. We are the best.
Malika Bilal: And that’s The Take. You can explore more of the Inaccessible Cities story at AJContrast.com. We’ll also add a link in the description to this episode. This episode was produced by Ruby Zaman with Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke, Ney Alvarez, Negin Owliaei , Chloe K Li and me, Malika Bilal. Alex Roldan is our sound designer. Adam Abou-Gad and Aya Elmileik are our engagement producers. We’ll be back.
*****
13. Cambridge Independent UK - Pavement parking could be banned in Cambridge22 Jul 2022
A motion calling for the cost of introducing a pilot scheme to be determined and a budget set aside was approved by Cambridgeshire County Council on Tuesday (July 19).
The restrictions would be subject to traffic regulation orders (TROs), with the trial starting in Cambridge before assessing whether it could be rolled out elsewhere in the county.
Cllr Alex Beckett (Lib Dem, Queen Edith’s), chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, put the motion forward.
He said: “Problem pavement parking within our urban environments is a constant problem. It obstructs free passage and creates a hostile environment for many people, particularly the most vulnerable in society with visual or mobility impairments.”
Cllr Beckett accepts that restrictions would not be appropriate on all streets, and added: “While in some areas due to the width of the highway, pavement parking is difficult to avoid without removing all parking, there are large areas where there is simply no reason to park on the pavement and where a lack of enforcement is abused by antisocial drivers.”
He cites a confused.com survey of 2,000 adults which found that 72 per cent had been forced into the road to avoid a car parked on the pavement and 44 per cent had felt unsafe because of this.
A YouGov poll by Living Streets found a staggering 87 per cent of parents with children aged 4-11 had to step into the road due to a parked vehicle.
There is currently a government Bill to amend the law to make it an offence to park on pavements, however timescales are not known.
Cllr Beckett said: “Pavement parking can be prohibited via a traffic regulation order and then enforced by civil parking enforcement. However, this can be expensive and there is currently no way to implement this outside the already overburdened local highway initiative scheme.”
The motion follows a call from Green Party councillors in the city to ban vehicles from parking on pavements.
In addition, campaign group Living Streets Cambridge has been working with the RNIB and Cam Sight to tackle the problem of pavement parking.
The motion was seconded by Cllr Alex Bulat (Lab, Abbey), who said: “I could give a lot of evidence on this topic, but Cllr Beckett already did this and so I would like instead to bring members with me on a brief journey through my division in Abbey.
“You’re waiting at the bus stop outside the Tesco on Newmarket Road. You quickly figure out you’ll actually not be late to your appointment if you walk instead of waiting for the bus.
“So you walk on Newmarket Road towards the Cambridge Airport direction, and soon you cross the bridge, if not earlier, you see cars parked on almost every single verge of the road. Of course, the problem is worse when the football is on, but it’s not exclusive to football time.
“You ask yourself why are we wasting thousands of pounds taxpayers’ money to re-seed and re-level grass verges when they will be in the same terrible state just a month or so after.
“You then find yourself trying to squeeze between a big car parked half on the pavement and half on the grass verge, and several e-scooters scattered across the pavement in a rush. As you continue enjoying your walk, you think how would someone be able to get through with a buggy or a mobility scooter. They won’t, they will have to go on the road, or cross the road, only to face the same obstructions later on.
“The question you ask yourself as a pedestrian is, should I risk walking on the road? Should I walk on the road in a 20 mph zone where the speed limit is not respected, let alone on a busy road such a Newmarket Road.”
Cllr Bulat continued: “I can go on for ever about this as I feel really strongly about this topic as I do experience this every single day as a pedestrian in Cambridge.”
The issue has also been raised previously by Cllr Gerri Bird (Lab, Chesterton), who has been campaigning for some time for action to be taken.
After the meeting, she said: “I’ve been an activist for nearly 40 years in Cambridge and for many years, I’ve been trying to get pavement and verge parking banned. I want to make disabled people’s life easier not harder. We are never thought about and this issue is a safety one because if we want to go shopping, we have to fight all the cars, vans, etc on our pavements and end up on the road which would mean we could be run over.”
Cllr Hannah Copley (Green, Abbey), who sits on the city council, said: “I am constantly hearing from residents about how poorly-parked cars obstruct the pavements, putting children’s safety at risk and posing huge problems for wheelchair users, parents with buggies and people who are blind or partially sighted.
“Pavements also get damaged, with cracks and potholes adding to the accessibility problems. I have spent a lot of time speaking to the police and parking enforcement officers on residents’ behalf, and what I’m finding is that parking rules are completely unenforceable at the moment. We need a comprehensive pavement parking ban in Cambridge.”
Cllr Naomi Bennett (Green, Abbey) added: “As a mobility scooter user myself I know first-hand how cars blocking the pavement turn what should be an easy journey into an obstacle course. We’re clearly not going to make any progress on this without a blanket ban on pavement parking.”
Cllr Copley also asked the county council to provide docking stations and racks for e-scooters to tackle the increasing problem of scooters cluttering up pavements.
A paper will now be prepared for the council’s strategy and resources committee exploring the costs of a pavement parking ban trial.
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14. The Jakarta Post - Is celebrating Disability Pride Month possible in Indonesia?23 Jul 2022
For people with disabilities in the United States, July is celebrated annually as Disability Pride Month. Before it became a month, there was a Disability Pride Day in Boston that began in 1990. In 2015, July was declared Disability Pride Month to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
I was amazed when I first learned about Disability Pride Month. Celebrating disability as source of pride can seem strange, as many consider disabilities a form of inferiority. Such pride may even be nearly impossible for people with disabilities other countries such as Indonesia.
As a person with a disability, I reflect on how difficult it is to be proud of my disability in the Indonesian context. That’s why, perhaps, I could not find any Instagram post by Indonesians on disability pride month. While some Indonesians posted about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month in June, there has been little to no acknowledgement of July’s Disability Pride Month in the country.
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15. Buckrail USA - Making GTNP more accessible for people with disabilities22 Jul 2022
MOOSE, Wyo. — Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) has partnered with Teton Adaptive (TA) to make park trails more accessible to individuals with mobility disabilities.
While much of the park’s front-country infrastructure, like visitor centers, paved walkways and bathrooms, is wheelchair-accessible as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), that level of access stops as soon as you get to the trailhead. From that point on, access is governed by the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA), which “applies to facilities designed, built, altered or leased with federal funds.”
According to Joe Stone, TA’s Director of Mission, the ABA guidelines are not as strict as ADA, but the laws still aren’t being enforced.
“Part of the reason is that not a lot of people know about these laws,” Stone said. “The other part is the technology just hasn’t been there for people to access these things.” He cites the example of hiking a few miles into the backcountry on a narrow, rough trail and seeing a wheelchair-accessible bathroom. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.
Now there are countless mobility devices that can get people with a wide range of disabilities into the wilderness, so it’s time for the trails to catch up.
Last summer, Stone teamed up with Quinn Brett, formerly a climbing ranger for Rocky Mountain National Park who sustained a spinal cord injury in 2017. Now working for the National Park Service (NPS) as a program analyst, Brett visits different national parks to check accessibility and bring awareness to trail crews and interpreters. When she visited GTNP in 2021, the duo tried out a half-dozen trails in the park over the course of what Stone described as a “magical week.”
This winter, Stone went to cross-country ski in the park and had a challenging time getting from the parking to the groomed trails. Afterward, he sent some emails and met with park officials, and they were quick to create a better entrance, upgraded parking and an improved access point.
“They’re so gung-ho about wanting to do better for everyone, it’s really just a pleasure to partner and work with GTNP,” Stone said. “I’m blown away by their motivation and plans for the future.”
The plan for this summer involves Stone and other adaptive hikers hitting the trails with different mobility devices, park employees, trail building crews and interpreters to identify how accessible trails are currently.
“Some trails work well now that we can direct people to, some trails require simple changes and other trails will be put on the list for future maintenance to make them work,” Stone said.
One that’s a great possibility is the eight-mile loop at Colter Bay called the Hermitage Point Trail. With a few improvements, the entire trail can be accessible to a variety of powered mobility devices.
Trail conditions
According to the ABA guidelines, technical requirements for trails include a firm and stable surface, minimum clear tread width, passing spaces, tread obstacles, openings, running slope (grade), cross slope, resting intervals, protruding objects and trailhead signs. All of this information can be measured with a High Efficiency Trail Assessment Process (HETAP) machine and then printed on a sign at the trailhead or made available online. Having hard data available would help all hikers, including individuals with disabilities, make an informed decision as to whether the trail is suited to their abilities.
“Trail signage is there for everyone to help people not get in over their heads,” Stone said. “This is more about universal design than it is accessibility. A few minor tweaks will allow it to work for everyone. It’s not an ‘adaptive’ trail.”
David Reus is the Facility Management Systems
Specialist for GTNP, a role that includes being the Accessibility Coordinator.
He’s been involved in national park accessibility for almost 19 years, the last
eight with GTNP and with the Appalachian National Scenic Trail before that.
Reus says, “Accessible trails are good trail design for everybody.” They
require less maintenance, are more sustainable and protect natural resources
because they encourage people to stay on the trail. “It’s a win-win-win for
trail improvements.”
A history of access
Stone says GTNP is one of the most wheelchair-friendly national parks already, and they’re motivated to make it even better in the coming years.
“I’ve spent time going to many parks as a wheelchair user, and GTNP does more than most parks,” Stone said. “They’re already doing the work, this was just taking it to another level by opening eyes to the technology that exists, bringing awareness and building on previous improvements.”
In July 2019, GTNP released the Accessibility Self-Evaluation Transition Plan (SETP) that lays out various projects to improve accessibility park-wide. The assessment took an inventory of the existing facilities, programs and barriers to access for people with disabilities, and it provided an approach to upgrading each aspect of the park experience.
Last year, the Pacific Creek project included
redoing the landing with toilets, parking, pathways and making the lake
accessible. This year they’re focusing on Jackson Lake Dam, putting in parking,
pathways and an accessible fishing platform right below the dam.
“Increasing access for those with disabilities is definitely an NPS-wide
initiative, and prior to the plan, [GTNP was] involved in making improvements
to accessibility, but we were doing it more piece-meal as we had projects come
up,” Reus said. “Now with the plan, one of our biggest tasks is putting it into
place.”
That’s where Stone and Teton Adaptive come in. “He provides a perspective that we don’t have in the park,” Reus said. “Stone has been very proactive in reaching out to the park and establishing that relationship.”
Help from friends
Each year, GTNP receives funding from the government for specific trail projects, but additional funds will come from the Grand Teton National Park Foundation (GTNPF). This donation-based nonprofit aims to enhance the park’s resources and help others learn about and protect the park.
Stone says GTNPF will be instrumental in implementing some of these changes because they’re not restricted by bureaucratic processes. For example, the foundation will most likely purchase the HETAP machine so trail crews can efficiently and quickly gather data for signage.
“Not every national park has a foundation attached to it that helps fund all these projects,” Stone said. “That opens the door for people to visit or live here and have more opportunities. When you have a nonprofit that’s focused on creating a better experience for more people, you start having a better experience.”
Stone, Reus, TA and GTNP are in it for the long haul, slowly chipping away at trails throughout the park for the foreseeable future. Stone said TA will also step in to provide mobility equipment for those who don’t have their own when they visit the park.
“When we tell trail crews what is required, none of them say it is too much. They all say it’s easy-peasy; it will just take a little bit of time.”
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This Google Group news service has been made possible by courtesy of the Society of the Blind in Malaysia