For four years, I have lived within three blocks of two major movie theaters on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, yet, as a deaf person, I have never gone to a movie in these theaters because they do not use captioning systems. Consequently, my wife and I are forced to go across town to [...]
Alan Brightman's Disability Wonderland:
In DisabilityLand, author Brightman describes the complex world of disabilities through short stories and vignettes taken from his years at Apple and Yahoo! His book shakes up perceptions about the disabled and reminds us that we're all the same.
By Melissa Feldsher In a verdict that will serve as another likely nail in the coffin for an autism theory, a federal vaccines court threw out three cases last week that dispel a belief that thimerosal — mercury-containing preservative — causes autism. I have previously covered this controversy: Some people believe vaccines with this preservative [...]
By Melissa Feldsher While I can only hope that the recent retraction of a 1998 study that claimed the vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) could increase children’s risk of developing autism will close the door on this staunchly held belief, I’m afraid the myth still will prevail. In a statement explaining its retraction, The Lancet, [...]
In a move that has been eagerly anticipated by the disability community, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday submitted its National Broadband Plan to Congress. The 360-page plan, which lays out a vision for high-speed broadband that’s both affordable and accessible, has wide implications for American with disabilities. Only 65 percent of American households are [...]
A few weeks ago, every conversational gambit began with, “Were you watching the Olympics last night when…?” Once again, televised coverage of the winter Olympics taking place this year in Vancouver, British Columbia was our quadrennial national obsession, an excuse to gather everyone in front of the T.V. to cheer on Team USA. I [...]
The Federal Communications Commission, getting ready to officially present its national broadband plan to Congress next week, is holding a conference in Washington, D.C. — live streamed with open captions — to discuss what needs to be in the plan in order to ensure equal access to high-speed Internet content for people with disabilities. FCC [...]
I recently did an interview for ABC news video. They asked me to come and talk about five new assistive technologies. I did the interview in their New York City studio, which presented somewhat of a difficult challenge as ABC News’ anchor is based in Washington, D.C. Which meant a remote feed — an [...]
Just in time for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, comes an article in Huffington Post about Avatar and the lack of chatter around disability. Despite all the excitement from people with disabilities last year at Comic Con, where director James Cameron unveiled Avatar footage for the first time, disability never emerged as a central theme [...]
By Suzanne Robitaille Ah, video and search. Frank Sinatra said it best: Try, try, try to separate them – it’s an illusion. Here’s proof of that: Speech Technology. This week, Google sealed the deal on video search capabilities for its YouTube portal, saying it would provide auto-captions for all of its uploaded videos using proprietary Google’s [...]
