Abled Body Where can-do is done different

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has been quite active in the last couple months. On Friday, the NFB, along with Massachusetts General Martha Coakley, reached an agreement with Apple Inc. to make Apple’s iTunes — the most popular music retail outlet in the U.S. — more accessible to blind and visually-impaired Internet users. In September, Apple released, and was praised for, its 4th generation iPod Nano and iTunes 8, which is screen-reader friendly on both Macs and PCs. These new features let blind users manage their libraries as well as purchase and download content from the iTunes store. The new iPod itself is also equipped with talking menus and large font options. On a Mac, iTunes is compatible with Apple’s built-in VoiceOver screen reader; on a PC using Windows XP or Vista, it’s compatible with GW Micro’s Windows-Eyes (and soon, Freedom Scientific’s Jaws for Windows) screen readers, which must ... keep reading »

President Bush on Thursday signed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, a little more than 18 years after his father signed the original ADA. Bush’s father stood by his side as his son signed the bill into law. Barack Obama, one of the bill’s co-sponsor’s, made a statement saying “it must be a priority for our government to do everything it can to protect and respect the needs of these Americans….Eighteen years ago, enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act was a historic milestone for millions of Americans when it was signed into law. It gave Americans with disabilities better access, more opportunities, and increased independence…While we still have much more to do, this law is an important affirmation of our commitment to Americans with disabilities.” For the record, McCain is a supporter of the 1990 law. Palin, who has a son with Down Syndrome, says she will work to “speed research” ... keep reading »

If you would like to understand more about the world of disabilities, you can read the book, Reading Lips and Other Ways to Overcome a Disability, edited by Diane Scharper and Philip Scharper, Jr., M.D. Released in April 2008, Reading Lips is a collection of first-person prose from people with all kinds of disabilities, from deafness to paraplegia. I wrote a story for the book titled Catching Kate, where I describe my experience as a deaf high school cheerleader. I’m not promoting my writing here, rather, I’m promoting a nice review of the book from one of my favorite websites, Disaboom. Read the review here. If you’re looking to get a copy of the book you can buy it at Amazon.com here. keep reading »

Last August, the US Chamber of Commerce, an association of three million businesses, sent a letter to Congress opposing a bill that would amend the Americans with Disabilities Act. Calling it an essential “re-writing” of the Act, the Chamber said it believed such changes would open the floodgates for litigation by “virtually all of the entire working population in the United States ” who believed they may have been discriminated against due to disability. “The bill would change the definition of ‘disability’ so that any individual with an impairment — such as poor eyesight correctible by wearing glasses — would be considered disabled and would trigger the employer’s duty to accommodate them.” I wrote about disability discrimination litigation for BusinessWeek Online. In a famous 2002 case, Toyota v. Williams, the Supreme Court sided with Toyota Motor Manufacturing, which refused to tailor a job for an assembly-line worker who claimed she developed ... keep reading »

If you haven’t heard of Disaboom, you should definitely check out their site. It’s a strong community of PWDs who are learning from and interacting with each other. I was the subject of an interview for their Living Forward section that was published today. An excerpt: Suzanne first fell in love with assistive technology (AT) when she started her second New York City job at Businessweek Online. She was originally hired to cover stock market reports, but was soon asked if she wanted to write a weekly column on assistive technology. “I’ve always had people helping me—sign language interpreters, note-takers, etc.—never technology. It struck me how much independence I could gain through technology.” Writing about AT was a way for Suzanne to help people with disabilities gain independence. She is fascinated by the way assistive technology can be as simple as a mainstream product used in a special way, but still have ... keep reading »

I was taking the Greyhound bus from Boston to New York earlier this week, and the bus driver decided to stop at Arby’s for dinner – my favorite place (NOT!) This is a roast beef chain where, I’m told, the meat comes out of a can. Like Playdoh. I was placing an order of chicken fingers, when Arby’s saving grace appeared to me in a laminated sign just above the cash registers. It read something like this: If you need help with anything please don’t hesitate to ask us. If you’re visually impaired we can read you the menu aloud. If you’re hearing impaired we can speak slower or offer you a pen and paper to write down your order. If you’re mobility impaired we can bring your food to your table. etc. I read this notice a few times, then looked over at the teenagers at the cash register, and then spotted the shift manager. ... keep reading »

This is interesting. MTV is profiling Deaf teens for an episode of MTV’s True Life. In “I’m Deaf,” the show follows two Deaf teens, Chris and Amanda, who struggle to thrive in a hearing world. Chris relies “solely on text messages, IMs, and email as forms of communication” and can’t hear the sound of his mother’s voice. Boy, I remember not having these forms of communication growing up: it was the telephone or nothing. Needless to say, the social calvacade skipped my house. Chris ends up getting a cochlear implant, and it changes his life. Amanda, meanwhile, learns to dance by feeling the vibrations and memorizing choreography — something I used to do as a high school cheerleader. She hopes to make Baltimore’s ballet troupe. What a great inspiration for other teens to see. Though this show already has aired, I’m sure they’ll have a repeat. Let’s see if we ... keep reading »