The Canadian



The Canadian

BLIND MONITOR

Volume 30, Summer/Fall 2010

Voice of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The Journey Towards Independence

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Climate Change and Disability

- Changing Language, Changing Attitudes

- What Helen Keller Taught Us

- Supporting Parents with Disabilities

AEBC

“The Key to Equality”

SPRING/SUMMER 2010 ~ CANADIAN BLIND MONITOR ~ VOLUME 30

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The Journey Towards Independence

The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians

PO Box 20262, RPO Town Centre, Kelowna, BC V1Y 9H2

Phone toll free: 1-800-561-4774 Email: info@blindcanadians.ca

Website:

 

The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC) is a not-for-profit consumer group of blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted persons of all ages, their parents and family members, and other interested individuals, who have joined together to preserve and enhance the rights of vision-impaired people in Canada.

 

We are proud to be involved in the myriad of issues affecting persons with restricted vision, and to advocate advancement in such areas as employment opportunities, access issues, and equality. Our programs and services include public education and information, advocacy, an annual scholarship program for blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted post-secondary students, a mentorship program linking newly blind children, youth and adults with experienced vision-impaired role models, and an email list linking blind Canadians across the nation. We publish the Canadian Blind Monitor (CBM) two times a year in audio, print and braille formats.

 

Call toll free or visit our accessible website for more information and to learn how you can support us in our important work.

You will find information about making a donation, AEBC membership and a CBM magazine subscription on our website.

The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians welcomes articles, resources and letters to the editor for possible publication in the Canadian Blind Monitor. For

further details, or to make a submission, contact us at the above information.

Views herein represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the AEBC, its Board of Directors, Staff, members or the editors. Likewise, any advertisements herein, do not necessarily represent endorsement.

 

EDITOR: Brenda Cooke

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Sara Bennett

FRONT COVER DESIGN: Laurie Reynolds

RECORDING & NARATION: Garry Gaudet

Braille Production: MarvelSoft Enterprises, Inc.

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR: Public Sector Publications

For advertising opportunities call: 1-800-663-1563 or

Email: prepress@public-

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Editorial: The Disability Industry, Alive and Well

2009 AEBC Scholarship Winners

Headlines & Highlights

Canada's Social Policy: Changes and Challenges

Competing Models of Disability

Human Rights Coverage: The Unrealized Promise

Marjorie Fulton: Lifelong Advocate

In Memoriam: David Leclair

Then and Now: Is Anyone Listening?

Taking Aim at Touch-Screen Terminals

Technology and Independence?

Blind Still Rely on Braille

Employment and Technology

Wheelchairs Don’t Make Employees Perfect

Human Resources Grads and Disability?

A Theatre Experience Like No Other

Movie Series Shatters Image of the Disabled

What Helen Keller Taught Us

Evolving Disability Discourse

Changing Language, Changing Attitudes?

When the World Speaks, UofT Listens

"It Takes a Village"

Getting There: Past and Present

Pedestrian Signals Needed 24/7

"Green" Cars Called a Threat

Right to Use Service Dogs Often Violated

GPS Device a "Sixth Sense"

Making Home Improvements Count

The New Vision of Artificial Sight Technology

Hope for Future Cancer Patients

Network for Parents with Disabilities

UK's First Educational E-Book Library

Climate Change and Disability

New Resources

EDITORIAL: THE DISABILITY INDUSTRY, ALIVE AND WELL

By: Brenda Cooke

Our vision for volume 30 of the Canadian Blind Monitor was to review what has taken place for people with vision limitations, and for those with disabilities in general, over the past three decades, from around 1981 (International Year of Disabled Persons) to 2010, when Canada ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Since I was a little dubious about just how much progress has been made, I procrastinated as long as I could before finally sitting down to write this article. I wanted it to be positive and encouraging, but was afraid it might not be. As it turned out, I was feeling pretty good about this editorial by the time it was finished.

In 1982, the UN declared December 3rd to be International Day of People with Disabilities. Since the late nineties, themes have highlighted specific disability issues. Examples include: Arts, Culture and Independent Living (1998); Making Information Technologies Work for All (2000); and Action in Development (2005). The theme this year is Making the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Disability-Inclusive: Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Their Communities Around the World.

According to the UN's "Enable" website () the Day's purpose is to "...promote an understanding of disability issues, the rights of persons with disabilities, and gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of the political, social, economic and cultural life of their communities. The Day provides an opportunity to mobilize action to achieve the goal of full and equal enjoyment of human rights and participation in society by persons with disabilities..."

While some in the disability consumer movement are somewhat unsure, others see Canada's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on March 11 of this year as a specific outline of what rights we can expect to have realized--more specific than prior human rights legislation. The Convention also contains mechanisms and reporting to hold societies and governments accountable. Considering the benefits for both society and people with disabilities (PWDs), the CRPD should be a win-win endeavour.

It's good to see that disability is still on society's radar, but I have to wonder if December 3rd has become the same as all of those other special days of the year--once the day is over, we go back to "business as usual". I also can't help but wonder how much attention the religious and commercial sectors of society pay to disability just prior to Christmas and other faith-based celebrations, not to mention the distractions that season entails.

Since 1981, a generation has grown up exposed to a more progressive value system concerning disability, and yet most people in the disability rights movement would agree that we are a long way from a time when disability is considered to be just a reality of life and PWDs are an integral part of our society, where they enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as those without disabilities.

Canada is, in my estimation, 20 years behind our neighbour to the south, especially in the area of blindness. For example, our American cousins have managed to establish democratically structured consumer-driven rehabilitation services, such as Blind Inc. in Minnesota. Not the case in Canada. Some centres in the U.S. also employ persons who are blind to teach orientation and mobility--not permitted in Canada. This is one instance where Canada's sparse population and conservative nature are not positive characteristics; there aren't enough blind consumers to warrant several alternative community-based training centres, and Canadians are typically quite accepting of the status quo.

How much more time is needed, or will there always be a booming disability industry? If so, I look forward to the day when 90 percent of people who benefit from it are PWDs--through the services they receive to improve their lives, and through the careers and money made by being the ones to determine and deliver those services. I also look forward to the day when the majority of those being consulted by mainstream decision makers about disability issues represent consumer groups and are democratically elected by members, the majority of whom are PWDs. People with disabilities, however, should not be ghetto-ized or pushed into only working in the disability field, as that would hinder attempts of PWDs to integrate into mainstream society.

My experience is that the general public still thinks of disability and accessibility as being about wheelchairs. One reason for this is high-profile personalities who use wheelchairs, as well as what they talk (and don't talk) about. I look forward to the day when a person who is blind is afforded the same level of support and profile. Meanwhile, those of us with seeing limitations are way at the back of public consciousness, and we continue to "enjoy" the public’s lack of knowledge about and comfort with, those with vision loss, and unemployment and poverty rates of at least 60%. Wait a minute! The UN did appoint Stevie Wonder (a blind musician) as the Ambassador of Peace. Unfortunately, as far as I know, Stevie doesn't use his profile to specifically improve things for his brothers and sisters who are blind.

In this editorial, I was hoping to report positive changes in the area of disability from over the last 30 years, as well as relevant statistics, but I discovered that comparative numbers are next to non-existent, and that the UN has only this year initiated a guideline for CRPD-signing countries to gather and report statistics in a consistent manner. It has taken 29 years to create a standardized method of showing improvement, or lack thereof, in the lives of PWDs. At this rate, persons employed and in leadership on the journey toward equality will be assured of "a job" for many years to come.

What has taken place in the blindness consumer movement, and specifically in AEBC, over the last 30 years?

In 1981, blind Canadians did not have a strong progressive voice in advocating and educating Canadian society about the achievements and challenges associated with vision impairment. The national consumer group that did exist focused on social/recreational activities, philosophically and financially aligned itself with the only service provider in the country, and appeared not to speak against things that did not suit the service provider or that might imply changes to the way that service provider did business.

There had been small groups in various areas of Canada, but due to inexperience, burnout and lack of resources, they soon folded. An Ontario group had gone so far as to design an alternative service model, but to this day that model has not been tried, due to a struggling and reticent consumer movement and the preference of government and Canadian citizens--when they do happen to think about blindness--to believe that one service provider can take care of all blind Canadians' needs. What happened to democracy and choice for blind people?

In the early nineties, the National Federation of the Blind: Advocates for Equality (NFB:AE) was founded and later became the AEBC, when the majority of members recognized that a national consumer group in Canada should have a Canadian approach to advocacy rather than the American style it had been using. Presently, Canada has about five national blindness consumer groups that have fairly different philosophies and purposes. Just recently, however, AEBC initiated discussions on establishing a mechanism by which some groups can work together on areas of mutual concern.

 

In the meantime, AEBC, in a quiet and steady manner, has also been doing advocacy and public education on several blindness issues such as: accessible voting, websites and household products; assistive devices; and the danger of hybrid cars. One positive change presently taking place is working toward library services and materials for print-disabled Canadians being paid for and administered through tax dollars--like mainstream public library services--rather than through charity. We probably have the recession to thank for this turn-about in that charity dollars are less plentiful.

I am very proud of being an AEBC activist and of my vision-impaired colleagues who volunteer hundreds of hours per month "to continue to fight the good fight", as AEBC Second Vice President, Donna Jodhan, says. We all just have to keep our irons in the fire, learn from our mistakes and be patient with each other. The alternative is possibly losing what we have gained, sitting on the street corner with a tin cup or selling pencils, sitting at home in isolation "out of sight and out of mind", and remaining in a life of poverty without hope. Don't wait another 30 years. I invite you and other progressive thinkers to join and support us now as we strive for the just society in which we want to live.

Best Wishes.

Photo: Brenda Cooke - Editor of the

Canadian Blind Monitor.

ANNOUNCING OUR 2009 AEBC SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS

By: Valentina Gal

Editor's Note: Valentina Gal is Secretary of AEBC's Toronto Chapter and also sits on AEBC's Scholarship and CBM committees.

- The AEBC Rick Oakes Scholarship for the Arts is presented to Mr. Allan Angus, a Dean's List student at the University of Oshawa in Ontario. Despite his retinitis pigmentosa, Mr. Angus continues to pursue his Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. Allan volunteers with both Oshawa and Ajax Town Councils with regard to Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act standards, and to projects such as audible pedestrian signals.

- This year's winner of the AEBC National Achievement Scholarship is Mr. Anthony Tibbs, who was born with albinism and whose sight deteriorated in his final year of high school. As well as serving the AEBC as National Treasurer, Anthony has volunteered with organizations like the Council for Canadian Refugees and the Centre for Legal Information on Aging. He also has a part-time job to help make ends meet. Mr. Tibbs plans to graduate this spring from Montreal’s McGill University with his Law degree and work in law, business, technology, teaching--or some combination thereof!

- This year's Alan H. Neville Memorial Scholarship goes to Ms. Helen McFadyen, a student at the Atlantic School of Theology. Losing her vision after age 50 due to a combination of diabetes and retinal degeneration, she is currently enrolled in the pre-ministerial program for seminarians, where she is working on her Master of Divinity. Ms. McFadyen has most recently volunteered with her local Municipality Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities, Tenant Appeal Board, AEBC and church. She also sings in a choir and writes a blog.

- Mr. Koceïla Loualin is the recipient of the Reverend Leslie Ball Bursary for the Performing Arts. Employed as a journalist until he was diagnosed with Stargardt Syndrome, he now attends Vanier College where he hopes to achieve his dream of becoming a Classical guitar player, singer and composer, and go on to study at the Université du Québec or Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal. Mr. Loualin has had to learn how to use low vision aids, and English as a second language has been another challenge for him. He is a spokesperson for the Louis Braille Institute, is involved in politics, and is a soccer player and coach.

- Ms. Stephanie Berry is this year's winner of the Reverend Leslie Ball Bursary for Vocational Training and Trades. Enrolled in the Masters of Education in Counselling-Clinical Psychology Program at the University of New Brunswick, she hopes to work in a counselling/social work capacity. Stephanie says her retinitis pigmentosa, the rural nature of her province, and the bilingual requirement of many jobs in New Brunswick have all combined to make finding employment difficult. Ms. Berry volunteers at hospitals and crisis helplines, has spoken at various groups, and interned at CNIB and the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work. She also enjoys horseback riding and writing poetry.

Author’s Note: I would like to thank the AEBC for asking me to sit on the Scholarship Committee. It has been an honour and privilege. I am most impressed with the quality and scope of the applications. Their interests covered everything from the practical to the artistic and the spiritual to the scientific. Any one of them could have made the AEBC proud.

Photo: Allan Angus, Ontario

Photo: Helen McFayden, Nova Scotia

HEADLINES & HIGHLIGHTS

Recent AEBC Activities

Compiled by: Brenda Cooke

The national board of AEBC consists of a board of seven directors and many committees and working groups made up of members from the fifteen chapters across Canada who work on national activities and issues. Each chapter has an executive and committees that concentrate on local activities and issues. Below is a small sample of national and chapter activities that have taken place in the past six months or so. For further information about the items below, visit our website at: blindcanadians.ca or call our toll free number 1-800-561-4774.

At the National Level:

* The AEBC 2010 national conference and annual general meeting was in Montréal the weekend of May 22. The theme of this year's conference was "Our Rights, Our Future". Workshops were presented on topics such as technology, human rights, using the media, and library services. There was time throughout the AGM to discuss future directions for the AEBC and the 2010/11 National Board was elected. 

* In order for all information and services provided through Federal Government websites to be accessible to persons with print disabilities, AEBC encourages everyone to read and sign the online petition which asks the Government of Canada to ensure that all information and services provided through their websites be made to comply to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.0 by December 31, 2010. See the petition at .

* A presentation was given in Ottawa at the first national Conference on access to museums and art galleries. To read the paper, visit

blindcanadians.ca/press_releases//index.php?BriefID=54. The presentation was also made at an Ontario Historical Society seminar in Barrie, Ontario.

* The AEBC's position is that access to library services is a right. The best way to ensure that this right is respected is through the integration of accessible library services into the mainstream, taxpayer-supported, public library system.

In Canada, library services and materials in alternate format for persons who are print disabled have been mainly provided with charity dollars. This has resulted in inferior services and production of materials that seriously lag behind those provided to sighted users of the public library system. In an initiative to establish equitable and more mainstream library services, AEBC and several other organizations speaking on behalf of print disabled Canadians have been entered into discussions to come up with a proposal to Library and Archives Canada and the Federal Government to provide library services and materials using tax dollars rather than charity. This is a complicated issue that will be evolving for several years. If you would like more information email: info@blindcanadians.ca or call 1-800-561-4774. 

* An AEBC board representative attended the Council on Access to Information for Print Handicapped Canadians.

* AEBC made its first presentation to the annual CNIB Braille Conference. AEBC members talked about using Braille at various stages of the life cycle, and also emphasized the need to increase the teaching of Braille and the need to produce more materials in what we consider "a blind person's road to literacy".

* First Vice President John Rae has attended a variety of meetings concerning the development of Accessibility Standards under the Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act. Former cabinet Minister Charles Beer is reviewing progress made to date under the Act and his report is expected shortly. John appeared at one of the many public meetings Beer has held. A brief summarizing some of his comments can be found at

blindcanadians.ca/press_releases//index.php?BriefID=55.

At the Chapter Level:

Edmonton:

Over the last few months, Marc Workman and Diane Bergeron have been meeting with city councillors, transit officials, and bus operators to promote increased accessibility of the Edmonton Transit System. The main issue under discussion has been the installation of an automated voice annunciation system that would announce all bus stops on ETS operated routes. They have found the response received thus far encouraging. However, the long-term goal is to develop lasting relationships between blind transit passengers and the officials and operators that work for the Edmonton Transit System. The hope is that building these relationships will allow the chapter to more systematically deal with issues of accessibility related to public transit in Edmonton.

Montreal:

* A comedy night was hosted at the Comedy Nest, a local stand-up comedy club, in support of the 2010 conference and AEBC generally.

* The group sold large print & Braille 2010 calendars as a fundraiser.

* The Greater Montréal Chapter of the AEBC hosted the 2010 national conference and annual general meeting on the weekend of May 22 and therefore has been very busy with planning.

Saskatoon:

* For two weeks in December several members attended a two-week computer course that was offered to those who were beginning or wanted a refresher course in the use of a computer.

* Members and National President Robin East have been doing follow-up with city transit on the calling out of bus stops, differently shaped bus stop sign poles and the new system of paying bus fare. There will be a pilot project with a GPS (Global Positioning System) to call out bus stops starting in June of 2010.

South Georgian Bay:

* In February a member did 3 speaking engagements at schools in Stayner and Wasaga Beach, Ontario.

For more information about the South Georgian Bay chapter email: wilkins@blindcanadians.ca.

Toronto:

* Several members attended an experimental lecture given by Gillian Mcintyre from the Art Gallery of Ontario where she explained several differing schools of art.

* Some members joined Toronto’s annual Achilles fundraising run to raise funds for AEBC.

* Since the library at CNIB is being phased out, Toronto members set up an educational meeting to learn about the services offered by the Toronto public library.

* There was a blind-friendly Community fair on May 2nd with both venders and community presenters. 

Vancouver:

* Through their representative on the city’s Accessible Transit Committee the chapter is giving valuable input.

For more information about the Vancouver chapter email: christine_ann@shaw.ca.

About AEBC Members:

* Marcia Yale of Ontario received an award in the poetry category at Toronto’s 2009 celebrations of International Day of the Disabled. You can read her poem called The Second at .

* John Rae of Ontario received the Access Award from the City of Toronto.

* Robin East of Saskatchewan is the 2009 Labour Community Service Award Winner in Saskatoon.

* John Rae was elected to the Board of ARCH Disability Law Centre for a two-year term.

* David Swiderski received an Unsung Hero award from the City of Toronto.

* In February, journalist Paul MacNeil from the Shaunavon Standard newspaper in Saskatchewan published an excellent full-page story about AEBC member Brenda Cooke and her work with the AEBC.

CANADA’S SOCIAL POLICY

Positive Changes and Persistent Challenges

By: Michael J. Prince

Editor’s Note: Michael Prince is the Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and is a board member with the BC Association of Community Living.

For persons who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted, what in Canadian social programs has changed over the past 20 years that positively affects their quality of life and status of citizenship? And, just as importantly, what has not changed?

 

The specifics of reform no doubt vary by provincial and federal jurisdiction. In a political system of federalism, it is more useful to think of a multiplicity of policy records. Ideally, then, to answer the question of the Canadian record of progress, we would need a series of case studies that cast light on results spanning an array of government jurisdictions, communities, services and instruments of public policy. Moreover, the timeframe to assess changes in approaching disability issues, and the expectations for major changes, likely vary among interests within the Canadian disability community. Here, I can offer only a selective overview assessment.

Positive developments over the last few decades in advancing access and inclusion for Canadians with disabilities include:

. New tax benefits recognizing additional needs and costs of persons living with prolonged or severe disabilities, and their families. Examples include the Child Disability Benefit, Disability Supports Deduction, and the Registered Disability Savings Plan.

. Public education and social awareness campaigns by governments, employers and broadcasters that contributed, along with other factors, to a shift in discourse from a personal tragedy to a public participation viewpoint.

. Changes to federal, provincial, and some municipal election laws and procedures, including outreach measures to improve the accessibility of voting for citizens with disabilities. From a survey of almost 200 associations representing people with disabilities about the 2000 federal election, 89 percent reported a positive impression of Election Canada's role, 75 percent were satisfied with services to Canadians with disabilities, and 72 percent were aware of these access services.

. Technological advances in communication that include captioning of all national programming by Canadian television stations and some local programming, TTY (teletypewriter) access through telephones, video relay services and, most recently, wireless pagers and messaging services.

. Legal developments regarding disability and political victories, such as the right to sign-language interpreters in health-care services; Québec legislation in 2004 to further secure handicapped persons their rights to achieving social, school and workplace integration; and passage in 2005 of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

. A concerted effort by Statistics Canada since the 1980s to conduct surveys on Canadians with disabilities in order to identify their lived experiences, the barriers they face, and trends over time. Other federal departments and think tanks also have greatly assisted in the development, interpretation and dissemination of much disability information.

. Adoption by the United Nations General Assembly, in 2006, of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Canadian government in 2007 signed the Convention and fully ratified on March 11, 2010. The Convention covers civil, political, cultural, economic and social rights--a multidimensional conception of citizenship--supported by a monitoring body to encourage the compliance of states to their obligations.

Hence, there have been many achievements in Canadian disability policy and practice in recent decades, but they have been uneven and incomplete.

There have also been setbacks. For example, in the mid 1990s, the federal government withdrew from cost sharing with the provinces the provision of core social services and social assistance across the country. In the late 1990s, the federal and most provincial governments approved reductions to CPP (Canada Pension Plan) Disability benefits. Federal expenditures on employment services for persons with disabilities remain modest and, more significantly, stagnant in real terms over the last decade. As grounds of discrimination, disability is by far the most common type of complaint brought to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Serious gaps persist in access to affordable, quality disability-related supports for a considerable number of Canadians with disabilities. The default is informal family care and charitable services where possible, and where not, social isolation and unmet basic needs with everyday activities.

The general picture in Canada on employment for persons who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted continues to be one of relatively high rates of unemployment and underemployment, with barriers to training and placement services, along with inadequate supports for employment preparation and accommodations in workplaces.

Large numbers of people with disabilities are not receiving the essential services they require because of cost, lack of availability and inaccessible environments. Entry to some supports are still tied to receipt of income benefits, most notably social assistance, which adds a barrier to gaining access to needed services.

As I point out in my recent book Absent Citizens: Disability Politics and Policy in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2009), individuals and their families bear a disproportionate share of the costs, work and responsibilities associated with addressing the everyday needs of living with disabilities. As a consequence, they experience undue hardship and are restricted from full and active participation in economic, educational and social life.

Due to inadequate supports, attitudinal barriers, and insufficient employment opportunities, plus provincial government efforts at moving "able bodied" people off welfare, people with disabilities now represent between 40 to 70 percent of those on income assistance, the so-called "social safety net." This program of last resort has become the program of first resort for thousands of people with disabilities across the country--a program distinguished for minimal rights, complex rules, and the sting of stigma.

Most social policies in Canada still regard disability as specific impairments, diseases and disorders; programs are categorical rather than a continuum of services, with sharp distinctions and abrupt changes when a person experiences a life transition. Living with a disability in Canada remains a strong predictor of welfare dependence and poverty for individuals, families, and many of the agencies struggling to assist them. A critical need therefore exists for enhanced income security, personal supports and public services.

For younger Canadians who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted, a key social policy goal must be accessible school-based supports, and school-to-work transitions to employment preparation and placements.

For the current generation of older Canadians who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted, important social policy issues concern ensuring more adequate and dignified provision of financial support at the federal and provincial levels of government as well as encouraging social participation and inclusion through such local and municipal activities as adult education, community services, recreation and peer support.

For all Canadians, the necessity exists to raise awareness on an ongoing basis about the fact that people who are blind, deaf-blind and partially sighted are still among the most vulnerable citizens in our society.

Photo: Michael J. Prince

COMPETING MODELS OF DISABILITY MUST CONTINUE TO EVOLVE

By: John Rae

Editor's Note: John Rae is AEBC’s 1st Vice President. This article is based on his presentation "From Invisibility to Rights Holders: Competing Paradigms of Disability," at Ryerson University, October 2009.

In his 1990 article, "The Individual and Social Models of Disability," Mike Oliver, an academic in the Disability Studies field, observes: "There is a danger that in discussing issues related to disability, we will end up with more models than Lucy Clayton [a modelling agency]. This is dangerous in that if we are not careful, we will spend all of our time considering what we mean by the medical model or the social model, or perhaps the psychological or, more recently, the administrative or charity models of disability. These semantic discussions will obscure the real issues in disability, which are about oppression, discrimination, inequality and poverty."

It is my view, however, that many of these paradigms themselves are a significant source of the current discrimination, marginalization and oppression that is still the life experience of far too many persons with disabilities (PWDs). Today, the primary debate in the field of disability revolves around the fundamental differences between the medical and social models of disability--between viewing the disability as the primary cause of our problems, and seeing policies, attitudes and barriers in the built environment as the real impediments to our full participation and equality. However, these are only two of many ways in which disability has been described over the centuries. As new paradigms emerge, they vie for predominance and sometimes supplant previous paradigms, but the old ways of describing disability continue to compete for the attention of the public and of PWDs ourselves.

Persons with disabilities have been present from time in memorial. In ancient times, they were often ostracized from their communities and left to fend for themselves in the wilds. In medieval and renaissance periods, they were often ridiculed, as the Catholic Church interpreted them as rejects, works of the devil, and punishments for parental mistakes. This led to being excluded from society.

Remember the story in the Gospel of John, Chapter 9, about the man born blind? As the disciples walked along with Jesus, they passed by a blind man (begging, of course) and asked, "Who has sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" In some cultures, PWDs are still seen as punishment for past sins.

Following Canada’s Confederation in 1867, the first residential schools for the blind were established in Nova Scotia and Ontario. While education for blind students was undoubtedly forward thinking at that time, these schools were established under the provinces’ respective Penitentiaries and Asylums Acts. In the early 1900s, the "hide us away syndrome" became even more prevalent, with the creation of various large institutions, usually in small towns, where many PWDs were housed, “out of sight and out of mind" from the rest of society.

In 1918, the CNIB was established, and later other charitable organizations were founded, to form the rehabilitation industry that is too often imbued with a philosophy based on the Charity Ethic. Training of medical professionals, furthermore, focuses on curing or fixing the sick, though most of us are no more ill than our non-disabled counterparts, and those of us with a permanent disability will never be "cured" or "fixed." Both the charity and medical ethics have some similarities to the Professional Ethic, where decisions about "what's best" for us are controlled by others, with or without our input.

In the 1970s, persons with disabilities, seeing the successes of the Civil Rights and Women's movements, began to establish our own organizations. The Consumer Movement, or the Disability Rights Movement, started partly as a reaction against the charity industry and partly to provide a vehicle for self-organization and self-expression, both fundamental rights in any democracy. This process gave us as citizens the opportunity to begin forging our own destiny. For many of us, the Disability Rights Movement was a source of empowerment, giving us our first chance to participate directly in developing policies and strategies that affect our daily lives. One of the lasting benefits of our Movement is the opportunity it has given many of us to develop skills that are so useful throughout our lives.

The Disability Rights Movement invested a great deal of time and effort to secure coverage under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and under federal, provincial and territorial Human Rights Codes. We succeeded in gaining an equitable legal framework, but even today we are far closer to achieving the Charter's guarantee of being "equal before and under the law" than to enjoying the anticipated measure of substantive equality of the "equal benefit of the law," which we are still far away from attaining.

Today, various paradigms continue to compete for prominence. Robin East, AEBC's President, has recently developed the newest way of approaching disability--the Rights Holder approach. Based on the idea of "nothing about us without us," this paradigm posits that we who have disabilities must no longer be lumped with all other so-called stakeholders, but must be given a pre-eminent role in determining the policies and legislation that affect our lives. Currently, we as Rights Holders are forced to fight hard to maintain the fundamental idea that our concerns should be viewed as issues of rights and not charity, issues that belong in the news and not the Life section of our newspapers.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a new and important international instrument recognizing the appropriateness of the social model of disability. Now, it is up to all of us to learn what the first human rights Convention of the 21st century means, and to learn how to use it, and other Conventions, to advance our equality, both domestically and internationally.

HUMAN RIGHTS COVERAGE: THE UNREALIZED PROMISE

By: John Rae, Robin East and Donna Jodhan

Editor's Note: John Rae, Robin East and Donna Jodhan are AEBC National Board members, and are experienced litigants in the human rights process.

In the 1970s and early 80s, the Disability Rights Movement in Canada invested a lot of time and energy to obtain human rights protection for persons with disabilities (PWDs) at all levels. We were seeking the establishment of an equitable legal framework, and in many jurisdictions governments were not willing to provide us with our rights. In many instances, we had to fight very hard, but in the end we succeeded, and today PWDs are covered by all human rights statutes across the country, though numerous differences exist from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

John Rae had the great honour of participating in some of this tough work, and he remains convinced that this time and energy was well invested. However, we have not achieved as much progress as our movement had expected. We may have achieved an equitable legal framework, but we are still far away from achieving a similar level of substantive equality. Far too many PWDs continue to live on the sidelines in this affluent country.

An individual who feels discriminated against must first determine the correct body to which to complain. For example, when Air Canada introduced its inaccessible flat-screen entertainment system, should John Rae and Marcia Yale, former AEBC National Secretary, have complained to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), citing an "undue obstacle to travel," as CTA’s criteria requires, or was this a case of discrimination covered by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC)? Since they travelled on these and other airlines, it seemed like a clear case of discrimination. They filed with the CHRC, which took their complaint.

The Court Challenges Program (CCP), which once provided financial assistance for initiating challenges under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, was invaluable in giving all equality-seeking groups, including the disabled community, the opportunity to test some federal government actions, and to try to extend the impact of the law. The cancellation of the Equality portion of the CCP by the Harper government has greatly weakened our community's ability to test federal government actions. If we want to launch new Charter challenges, we must now seek the support of a legal clinic, like ARCH Disability Law Centre, or find lawyers who are willing to work with us on a pro bono basis.

We had hopes and expectations that Human Rights Commissions would make a profound difference in our daily lives, by helping to level the playing field between citizens and large organizations, but resource inequalities continue to plague the human rights process. In addition, their emphasis on complicated judicial-like procedures, individual complaints, and our misperceptions of how Commissions really operate, can get in the way of making maximum use of what they can offer.

A complainant must first succeed in filling out the forms and figure out how to get their complaint taken. Today, it often seems as if Commissions are making the process needlessly complicated as a way of discouraging new complainants from even filing. Many potential complainants, furthermore, believe that the Commission provides a lawyer to "represent" them, but this is not the case. Even when a Commission lawyer does get involved, this is only after the process is well underway.

When a Commission lawyer is involved, he is there to "represent the public interest." In cases where the complainant is seeking a systemic or public-interest remedy, you may be able to work closely with the lawyer, who may be extremely supportive in developing and presenting the systemic side of your case; however, he is not there to represent you as the complainant. You are basically on your own.

After filing a complaint, you will likely be asked to participate in a mediation meeting, to which you may bring a friend, advocate or lawyer at your own expense. During mediation, the Commission may subtly, or not so subtly, encourage (or even pressure) you to settle.

Sometimes, there are good reasons to agree to a settlement. The facts in your case may not be as clear cut as you might like, for example, Or settling will be quicker and will alleviate the pressure cooker of going through a Tribunal, a quasi judicial hearing, where you may win or you may lose altogether. Settling, furthermore, will likely gain you something, such as systemic changes and/or a monetary amount in your favour. Sometimes, you may even be able to reach a substantial settlement, as John Rae and Marcia Yale did on March 12, which they hope will bring about an accessible onboard entertainment system on Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz flights.

For persons with disabilities who may be unemployed or live in chronic poverty, dangling even a partial victory in the form of a small monetary award may prove to be a carrot that is too attractive not to accept. Settling writes no law, however. Whenever a complaint is settled, it goes unreported and is of no help to others who have also been discriminated against. Thus, there is no indication as to which organizations are habitual respondents, information that would be useful in planning community actions.

In recent years, some settlements have not included the strict "cloak" clause, whereby the settlement is written in such a way to educate respondents and complainants. In such cases, neither the complainant nor the respondent is named. An example is a settlement on alternate formats that came out of the Canada Revenue Agency. This type of settlement can be useful but, again, most settlements remain entirely cloaked, in order to protect the respondent.

In the disabled community, the difficult task of filing complaints rests on the shoulders of too few individuals. It is easy for a Commission to say, "Oh no, here comes Robin or Donna or John again.” What should we be seeking from what often can seem like a David versus Goliath scenario? The process needs to be streamlined to prevent a well-resourced respondent from dragging out the proceedings because they can afford to do so. Before the human rights process in Ontario was overhauled, its Commission instituted a "fast-track" system that saw cases moving at a much faster pace, but this system was not in place long enough for us to know if it would succeed in the longer term.

Commissions need to devote more resources to cases that can bring about systemic remedies. While enabling an individual to seek personal redress in instances of discrimination will always be important, individual remedies do not help others confronted by a similar problem. Commissions also need to make greater use of the power that many possess to initiate complaints of discrimination that are in the public interest, and to try to extend the impact of important decisions that contain systemic remedies. Since David Lepofsky, a blind lawyer, won two cases against the Toronto Transit Commission concerning the calling out of subway and bus stops, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has used that decision to pressure most other Ontario transit providers to take similar action, thereby alleviating the need for additional community members to file separate complaints against their own transit providers.

We ourselves need to develop a group of individuals across Canada who are prepared to file complaints, as there may come a time when we will want to file a similar case in several provinces or territories simultaneously. And when we file, do we ever think of also alleging harassment, along with discrimination? When filing, if there are ever doubts on what grounds to cite, or what remedies to request, all ideas could be included at the time of filing.

Canada's Disability Rights Movement has fought hard to achieve human rights coverage, and disability, particularly in the area of employment, has consistently remained the number one category of discrimination complaints across the country. We must continue to support each other in taking cases to Human Rights Commissions, especially through the Tribunal process, where law gets written. After all, there was no point in securing this legal protection if we don’t use it.

Photo: Robin East, AEBC President

Photo: John Rae, AEBC, 1st Vice President

Photo: Donna Jodhan, AEBC, 2nd Vice President

MARJORIE FULTON: LIFELONG ADVOCATE

By: Sara Bennett, CBM Associate Editor

Editor's Note: Marjorie Fulton, who passed away on November 15, 2009, was an advocate on accessibility issues for people with disabilities, including sitting on AEBC's Copyright Subcommittee. Below is an outline of Ms. Fulton's advocacy journey, based on some of Marjorie's own writings.

Marjorie Fulton was born on her family's farm in Manitoba in 1931. At age ten, she lost her sight from progressive myopia and enrolled in the School for the Blind in Brantford, Ontario. A bright student, she left the school after grade 12 at the age of 16, and in 1952 earned a Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Manitoba. She was assisted by volunteer readers, as this was before the advent of tape recorders, and by friends who acted as sighted guides, as orientation and mobility training had not been available at the school for the blind at the time of her attendance. It was when she was a Social Work student, in fact, that Marjorie learned how to use a white cane. She would acquire her first guide dog in 1988.

After graduating from university, Marjorie worked at the Winnipeg YWCA for nine years, where she lobbied for increased minimum wages for sewing factory workers and for a change in policy to allow pregnant women to stay in the residence. When she moved to Family Services of Winnipeg, she contributed to the improvement of Manitoba's family laws. But it really wasn't until the 1970s that she began advocating on disability issues, like being part of a group that persuaded the Winnipeg public library, as well as the provincial public library system, to develop and provide through interlibrary loan a collection of audio materials, including both talking books for the blind and commercially available audio tapes.

By the late '70s, the Independent Living Movement, which sought to replace the medical model of disability with a social model, had reached Manitoba. The province's disabled citizens, through their involvement with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, were instrumental in triggering the Special Parliamentary Committee on the Handicapped during the International Year of Disabled Persons, 1981. At the time, Marjorie was arranging for the preparation and distribution of audio and braille copies of conference documents, but when the Parliamentary Committee's report "Obstacles" resulted in an amendment to the Human Rights Act--adding disability as prohibited grounds for discrimination--and the position of policy analyst opened up, Marjorie got the job. She moved to Ottawa in 1982 to begin working for the Canadian Human Rights Commission. According to Marjorie, perhaps a quarter of the complaints filed under the act were based on disability and this proportion did not lessen over the years.

In 1989, Marjorie began working at Human Resources Development Canada in the Employment Equity Program. This legislation required federally regulated businesses--banks, airlines, broadcasters etc.--federal contractors and the federal government itself to recruit and retain women, visible minorities, Aboriginal people and persons with disabilities in proportion to their representation in the workforce. Its best results, according to Marjorie, was its application to contractors doing business with the Canadian government.

After her "retirement", and in response to suggestions from some blind Ottawa residents, Marjorie put together a brief on the need for accessible pedestrian signals, which eventually succeeded in getting the city to adopt a comprehensive policy. Also, as a member of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities' (CCD) Access to Information Committee, she helped to develop a Canadian standard for accessible banking machines, which eventually resulted in some banks installing such machines. Similarly, she got involved in proceedings related to the revision of the Canadian Copyright Act. As it was necessary to secure permission from the copyright holder to produce material in accessible formats, a process that often resulted in delays in getting such things as textbooks, Marjorie and others sought a requirement that publishers provide accessible alternatives for comparable charges on request. Instead, an exemption now means that it is no longer an infringement of copyright to make an accessible version. Through CCD, Marjorie also lobbied the publishers' associations to begin depositing their own electronic files with a central repository, from which alternative versions could be produced as needed. This is still taking shape.

"The world has treated me very generously," Marjorie wrote in an item about her advocacy work. "I had a loving family and supportive friends. I was also fortunate in timing, starting college just when farm income enabled my father to fund my post-secondary education, training for social work just when jobs were multiplying, and being a known activist when disability rights employment opened up." But perhaps final credit for Marjorie's advocacy efforts should go to what she learned both personally and as a social worker: "What stayed with me was that, in maturing, you stop waiting for Santa Claus, and instead become Santa Claus, taking action to address your own needs."

IN MEMORIAM: DAVID LECLAIR

By: Penny Leclair

Editor’s Note: As a member of AEBC's Ottawa-Gatineau Chapter, Ms. Leclair is a member of the Barr Haven Lions Club, United Way Speaker's Bureau, CNIB National Programs and Service Committee and the Ottawa Accessibility Advisory Committee.

On January 31, 2009, David Leclair passed away in Ottawa, Ontario, at the age of 58. He was a loyal husband, father, friend and colleague. He was first and foremost my best friend, and we were married for almost 40 years. It is an honour for me to write about his life.

Born with partial vision in High Prairie, Alberta, David attended local Catholic schools until grade five, when he entered Jericho Hill School for the Blind in Vancouver, British Columbia. David and I met when he was 13, and he decided I was the only one he would marry, something he accomplished six years later. We have one son, Mike, of whom he was very proud.

David was successful in his career. After selling stereos and then working for a film-processing plant, he went back to school and achieved a National Diploma in Computer Science & Business Systems from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). His work in computer technology began in 1986 with Agriculture Canada, and continued into self-employment. In 1997, we moved to Ottawa so that he could pursue his career. He worked for OC Transpo as a director and then with JDS Uniphase Canadian Division as Director of Information Technology, Technical Services. David's last job was with Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), as its Information Technology Director. He epitomized the principles of professionalism, dedication and respect, and CCC recognized and honoured him by establishing the "Annual David Leclair Award for Outstanding Corporate Achievement."

David was always researching new ways technology was being used, whether in his hobbies of photography, electronics and computer games, or in ways to assist me in maintaining some hearing. With David's support and initial prompting, in fact, I found my way into the world of cochlear implant users. He was so enthusiastic about how technology would continue to improve life for everyone. He was involved in the life of all his family and friends, genuinely interested in their affairs. He found more ways to give to others than most people I know. David’s presence will always be missed by those who knew him well. It's a good thing memories live on to remind us of the people and qualities we hold so dear.

Photo: From left to right: David, Penny, Penny’s guide dog, Kilo, and son Mike

THEN AND NOW--IS ANYONE LISTENING?

By: Chris Stark

Editor's Note: Chris Stark is an AEBC member in Ontario and has received several AEBC advocacy awards.

One evening in 1990, my wife and I received a call from Irene Lambert, a founder of AEBC's Montréal Chapter. She said her phone company was going to charge for directory assistance but not give her a phone book she could read, and she asked if anything could be done. This request started a fifteen year struggle with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which culminated in the 2008 hearing and report on accessible phone and television services. While this particular need was solved and free directory assistance for persons who are blind was ordered early on, that was only the tip of the iceberg regarding inaccessibility. Since then, numerous telephone, cell phone and broadcasting complaints have been filed.

According to the CRTC, Canadian carriers must provide, upon request, billing statements and inserts in braille, large print or on computer diskette. The Commission further found that a carrier may also provide billing information in any other alternative format(s) agreed upon between the carrier and its customer. In addition, customers must be advised of the availability of new services. In Order 96-1191, the Commission ordered Bell to send an insert in braille to its blind subscribers, and to report on other steps taken to advise them of the availability of billing information in alternative formats.

Canadian carriers providing public pay phones are required to install sets that include, at a minimum, certain functionalities, when they replace or upgrade their existing sets or when they install pay telephones in new locations. These include: larger buttons spread further apart on the keypad; bright, contrasting-colour coin and/or card mechanisms; a feature enabling the user to start the call over if an error is made; a screen displaying context-sensitive dialling instructions in a larger size than possible with printed instruction cards; a card-reader for a variety of telephone cards; and voice prompts for placing calls or using features. The CRTC observed that same functionality would help with cell phone and terminals sold to the public. However, most of these mandated services, particularly notice of service change and enhancements, are not regularly provided today.

With regard to TV, the CRTC's Report on Interactive Television Services states, in 6.6 Accessibility (for persons with Disabilities):

"Two parties, the Starks and the (AEBC) raised concerns about the accessibility of new technologies, equipment and services for people who are blind or partially sighted. They pointed out that digital set top boxes now provide detailed information in a print format that is unusable to people who are blind or partially sighted.

"They stated that digital terminals should be able to provide on-screen information in an accessible format, both in large print and synthetic speech. It recommended that if such technologies do not already exist, the introduction of interactive digital services should be stopped so that the industry can ensure that the equipment used to provide such services is accessible.

"The Starks called upon the Commission to take a more proactive stance when it comes to addressing accessibility issues. They were critical of the Commission for not addressing the need for access in its public notices and proceedings.

"The Starks recommended that no digital service should be licensed or renewed, and no set-top box should be allowed to be attached to the broadcasting system until the ability of the company and the technology to serve people who are blind has been put in the equipment."

Nearly a year after this CRTC report was released, little improvement has been seen. The CRTC must bear most of the responsibility and accountability for the shocking lack of access for people who are blind and partially sighted. The Commission could have, and should have, made accessibility a condition of its decisions to forbear regulating telephone terminals, cell phones, and TV set-top boxes. Furthermore, when we go to the Commission for help, our experience is that it fosters an adjudicative confrontational environment, where citizens are pitted against gaggles of company lawyers, service provider associations, and those types of profiteers. The CRTC has treated filed complaints as nuisances, even though it knows blind people pay more for services, or go without them altogether, because of inaccessible features. Canadians who are blind and partially sighted still face the technological barriers of Canada's telephone and broadcasting services as informationally disadvantaged citizens.

ADVOCATES FOR THE BLIND TAKE AIM AT TOUCH-SCREEN TERMINALS

People Without Vision Have No Way to Use New Generation of Machines

By: Jay MacDonald

Have you seen those Visa commercials where everything in the store suddenly stops because some poor soul tries to pay old-school with a check? That's what it's like every time a blind person approaches a touch-screen terminal.

They have no trouble pulling out their debit or credit card, of course. But how can a sightless person conduct a private and secure transaction with a touch-screen ATM (automatic teller machine) or point-of-sale (POS) terminal that has no tactile keyboard, or failing that, an audio jack?

Jonathan Simeone, a blind lawyer who specializes in disability law, had just such a screeeeeech! moment at a grocery store recently. "I couldn't do debit because I wouldn't give them my PIN (personal identification number), so I had to switch from debit to credit. Since they had already rung me up, the cashier had to find a manager who knew how to print out a paper credit card receipt and I had to sign that. Because I couldn't do those things, it held up the line for a minute."

Blind People Often Prefer Plastic: Don't misunderstand: The nation's 3.3 million blind people are big on credit cards. In fact, many prefer them to cash. Why? Because the United States stands alone among 180 currency-issuing jurisdictions as the only country that prints its bills the same size and colour in all denominations, thereby rendering them inaccessible to the blind.

The blind overcome their payment challenges in clever ways: They organize or fold their bills differently to distinguish between denominations of cash, and apply braille stickers or use other tactile methods to identify their credit cards. But there's no easy workaround for a touch-screen interface; without a tactile keyboard or audio, the whole screen becomes one big stop button for the blind.

"We are not generally happy about the proliferation of touch-screen technology because it's not a technology we can use," says Chris Danielsen, a blind spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). "At the very least, blind people need tactile buttons, where we know there's a raised dot on the 5 of a telephone keypad or bumps on the F and J of a computer keypad. If it's just a touch screen, we can't do anything with that type of technology unless it includes some other interface that allows the blind person to use it."

Entering PINs a Problem: Danielsen says debit transactions are particularly vexing because they typically require a PIN. "If the machine doesn't have a tactile keypad, then you can't enter your PIN and your only option is to recite your PIN to the salesperson, which is obviously not a good idea," he says.

But even credit card purchases carry additional risk for the blind.

Touch Screens Pose New Difficulties for the Blind: The problem: New payment technologies, such as touch-screen interfaces in stores, are often built without tactile cues that allow the blind to use them.

Who's affected: The 3.3 million blind people in the United States.

What's next: Advocates for the blind are seeking voluntary, and where necessary, legally mandated changes so that such technologies have alternative access for the blind.

"You have no way of knowing, when you sign the receipt, what they have charged on your credit card," says Melanie Brunson, executive director of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), who has been blind since birth. She found out the hard way: Her credit card information was once stolen, she suspects, by a sales clerk, leaving her with a half-dozen purchases to challenge.

Cut Off by the Cutting Edge: Blind advocates point out that public accommodations brought about under the landmark Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 have frequently benefited non-disabled Americans as well. For example, curb cuts make pedestrian travel easier for everyone. And you don't have to be deaf to enjoy closed captioning at health clubs and sports bars.

The ACB recently won a seven-year battle with the Treasury Department that is expected to finally make U.S. currency accessible in the coming years. Danielsen predicts that such a redesign will prove a particular boon to aging baby boomers.

"The baby boom generation is about to hit retirement and a lot of seniors lose vision," he says. "Diabetes is the No. 1 cause of blindness and that is commonly understood to be an epidemic in this country, so more and more people are experiencing this."

Thanks to technology, the blind can surf the internet with the aid of screen-reading programs. Unfortunately, another technological marvel, the touch screen, has left the vision-impaired cut off by the cutting edge.

"I don't understand how touch screens make it easier for a sighted person," says Simeone. "I can't think of a practical advantage to why sighted people need to have touch screens. We have buttons on our telephones, we have buttons on our computer keyboards. I mean, what's the big deal?"

The big deal, of course, lies deep in the American appetite for wonderment and a consumer products industry that thrives on innovation, often for its own sake. For the sightless, the substitution of touch screens for tactile dials on everything from stoves and voting machines to elevators and iPhones seems like a giant step backward in functionality.

"Now that you have things going to touch screen, it's very hard for a blind person to set the temperature setting on an oven or what have you," says Danielsen. "The solution to that is to have tactile buttons and uniform settings, for example, so that you know that an oven always starts at 200 degrees, for example, and every time you touch the UP arrow, it's going to advance by 25 degrees."

Ending Design Dissonance: The NFB has a robust initiative surrounding "universal design" that encourages--or, if necessary, seeks to force--industries, including the makers of ATMs and POS terminals, to design products everyone can use. It recently convinced ATM manufacturing giant Diebold to voluntarily make its cash machines accessible with audio prompts. In a similar agreement, Cardtronics Inc., the nation's largest non-bank owner of ATMs, agreed to install audio jacks in some 29,000 ATMs nationwide.

Danielsen says significant progress has been made with bank-owned ATMs, most of which now offer a tactile keypad option or audio jack to complement at least some, if not all, of their touch-screen interfaces. But the sledding has been much slower with POS and non-bank ATM manufacturers.

"People wrongly assume the ADA solved all of this. It did not; it made clear what the legal requirements were. Unfortunately, the ADA isn't self-executing; the Justice Department is supposed to enforce it, but they have to receive complaints. And that doesn't happen automatically. We have a handful of agreements in which merchants have said they simply won't buy machines that aren't accessible, but those are few and far between."

Merchants, after all, are disinclined to pressure their equipment suppliers to make design changes for which they may ultimately pick up the tab.

Simeone says that unlike the one-on-one battle for accessible currency that pitted ACB against the Treasury, bringing the POS and ATM industry to adopt universal design might require numerous lawsuits and years of legal arm wrestling. "This may be more appropriate for a legislative solution, where point-of-sale devices would have to be covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act," he says.

If there's a positive note for the blind in this design dissonance, it's that they are finally being recognized as a consumer force worth accommodating--and courting.

"Thirty, 40 years ago, there weren't as many disabled people out and about doing stuff," says Danielsen. "We're not terribly far removed from the time when most disabled people didn't work and stayed in their home or some institution. It's our function at the NFB to say, 'Hey, we are out here. We would love to do business with you. We would love to spend our money. We just need some accommodation in order to be able to do that.'"

(C) 2010 , all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission, October 8, 2008. Original URL:

Photo: Touch Screen Terminal

GOVERNMENT OF CANADA DISABILITY INITIATIVES

- For information on Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) disability initiatives, please visit hrsdc.gc.ca/disability.

- Information on the Government of Canada past budget initiatives, please visit the Department of Finance's Web site: .

- The Government of Canada online source for information and tools on post-secondary education is CanLearn.ca.

Additional detail can be found on AEBC's website at .

TECHNOLOGY AND INDEPENDENCE?

By: Mitch Pomerantz, President, American Council of the Blind

Recently, I was thinking about all of the tasks I perform as ACB president and how many of those tasks are done via computer and email. The catalyst for such thoughts was the failure of the primary ACB server and the resulting crash of our website. I then began musing over how ACB presidents prior to Paul Edwards handled their duties, particularly those which could be considered time-sensitive in nature: reviewing contracts, approving press releases, commenting quickly on governmental policy documents, to mention only three. Of course, we've conducted business on the telephone for as long as ACB has existed, but where printed material is involved, the phone is not a great option.

Next came the discussion on both Leadership and ACB-L of the announcement of the iBill, the low-cost electronic currency identifier. Would such a device help make blind and visually impaired people more independent? Does it further increase our dependence on technology? And would introduction of this device jeopardize ACB's efforts to get the Department of the Treasury to implement a non-technological solution to inaccessible currency? As a result, I've been engaging in an internal debate over whether the proliferation of such devices promotes or inhibits our independence.

Before going further, let me offer my disclaimer. Yes, I use a computer, but by no means do I consider myself a techie. Those who know me at all call me a dinosaur, a moniker which I grudgingly accept. My perspective is that I want the computer (or whatever the technology being utilized) to work when needed; I could care less how it functions. I don't want to be like those early operators of automobiles who not only had to know how to drive their horseless carriage, but also how to repair it when it broke down, something which occurred frequently. I neither have the time nor the inclination for that.

Having provided the foregoing as background, I'd like to explore whether the growing use of technology by blind and visually impaired people enhances our independence, or whether we are substituting one form of dependence for another. Clearly, widespread use of access technology has lessened--but certainly not totally eliminated--our need for sighted assistance to accomplish some tasks. Devices such as talking calculators, global positioning systems (GPS's) and microwaves allow us to do many more everyday tasks with minimal or no help from family members, friends, co-workers or strangers.

In the late 1970s, my employer purchased one of TSI's Speech-Plus talking calculators, which I used regularly to do the budget work that was a part of my job at the time. That device made it possible for me to perform what was an "essential function" of the job. Incidentally, several of my co-workers liked to borrow that calculator to do their own work as it meant they didn't need to keep glancing from the screen to the paper upon which they were writing. They simply listened and jotted figures.

Over the intervening decades, I've used a VersaBraille to draft reports and maintain records, and the omnipresent computer for reviewing and editing the work of my staff and communicating with employees in other departments. I am absolutely certain that I wouldn't have had the nearly 34-year career I recently concluded without access technology.

My reservations concerning our increasing dependence upon technology don't relate only to blind and visually impaired people, but to society as a whole. I can recall a number of occasions during the past several years at my former office when the city server went down and all our computers with it. What did I and my co-workers do during those two or three hours of non-connectivity? Absolutely nothing! We've all heard someone almost panic when discovering that their cell phone or PDA (personal digital assistant) wasn't with them. These days everyone must be connected at all times!

For blind and visually impaired people, more and more of us are going into serious debt in order to buy the latest and greatest access gadget. We feel compelled to keep up with the proverbial Joneses--in this instance, our friends who are snapping up accessible iPods, talking GPS units and cell phones that allow us to listen to music and browse the web, exactly like our sighted peers.

I question whether this rush to own ever-cooler technology is helping to make us truly independent. Can we do simple math without a calculator or spell a word correctly without spell-check? Can we get from point A to point B without relying upon something telling us where we are every block? Must we carry yet one more electronic gadget to identify our money? Have we traded one form of dependence for another? Personally, I believe that's just what we've done. And by the way, my misgivings apply to the broader society, not only to our relatively small community.

What I'm advocating here is that no matter how many talking devices we choose to buy, we must maintain those skills which technology is making easier for us to perform. Keep up your braille, O&M, math and spelling and old-fashioned daily living skills. Don't become too dependent on technology; after all, power fails, batteries die, and devices stop working. Remain or become as self-reliant as possible. Let's distinguish between necessity and convenience.

Reprinted from the Braille Forum, Volume XLVIII, No. 6, December 2009.

BLIND STILL RELY ON BRAILLE

High-tech advances can't entirely replace system

By: Ray Weiss

Daytona Beach, Florida--Two students sat across from a teacher in a darkened room. Their fingertips rolled confidently across the bumpy text of the books during the one-hour lesson. “I love languages, so this is my opportunity to learn another,” said Berline Mercy, who lost her eyesight after surgery to remove a brain tumour last year. “It's the language of braille.”

Mercy, a 30-year-old registered nurse, started learning how to read again last November at the Division of Blind Services on Dunn Avenue. Even with major technological advancements, braille remains the foundation of communication for the blind, although some studies indicate the use of the traditional reading system is on the wane.

Amy Williams, a blind braille instructor at the Daytona Beach facility, said computers, voice activation and large print can make life easier, but it will not replace the dotted code invented by Louis Braille almost 200 years ago. “What happens when the computer dies for people who can see? You go back to pencil and paper,” she said. “When the computer goes out for us, it's braille.”

Williams lost her eyesight 30 years ago and remains a “visual learner”--someone who finds it much easier to retain information by reading it on paper rather than hearing it on an audio disk or tape. “If you were a reader, your medium is braille,” she said. “And with high-tech you can't read things like labels on cans of food to determine whether it's (a) can of soup or peas.” Without braille, a home-cooked dinner often could turn into a “mystery meal.”

But the National Federation of the Blind recently reported that only 10 percent of sightless people today read braille, compared with about half in the 1950s. That doesn't bode well for employment. The organization reported that 80 percent of blind workers with good jobs are proficient in braille.

Reasons attributed to the decline include advanced text-to-speech technology, less emphasis on teaching braille to blind school children, and the expense of producing braille books. The American Printing House for the Blind in 2007 also reported that less than 10 percent of the nation's 58,000 sightless youngsters use braille as their primary method to read, compared to half in the 1960s.

“People talk about braille dying and that it's outdated,” said Ike Presley, national project manager for the American Foundation (for) the Blind, after a recent training session he held in Daytona Beach Shores. “It's not going to be outdated until print is outdated.”

For the sighted world, Presley rhetorically asks: “Would you be willing only to hear things?” He said day-to-day living for a blind person still requires braille. Just reading a business card, or checking a phone number or unusually spelled name, would otherwise be impossible out in public.

“Braille allows a person to have a reading and writing medium for both information access and for personal use,” he said. “Technology is not replacing braille. It increases the availability (of) braille, making it easier to produce and less expensive.”

Presley, who has lived with low vision his 56 years, said that in many places there's not enough classroom time dedicated to braille, with children receiving training once or twice a week. He said the parents of sighted children would be outraged if their youngsters received such minimal time learning to read and write.

He said the numbers regarding the use of braille are deceiving, since more babies are surviving difficult deliveries because of medical advancements. Sometimes these children are blind, but many also (have) other physical or cognitive impairments that leave them incapable of learning braille. “Twenty years ago, they might not have lived,” he said. “So the numbers are skewed because many people who are blind cannot actually learn braille.”

Edward Hudson, 55, the centre director at (the) Daytona Beach facility, gradually went blind as a child and didn't learn braille until sixth grade. “If you have a child with a vision (limitation), the earlier they start learning braille the better,” he said. “The repetition and practice to learn the shapes and forms, the tactile feel, is important. It's a matter of literacy.”

Hudson said a strong advocacy movement exists among educators and professionals in the field to keep braille a fundamental part of teaching for the blind. “Everything else is built upon it,” he said, adding that math is next to impossible to do without braille.

Kay Ratzlaff is on the front lines of education, as the coordinator of resources for the Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Impaired. She said braille remains the foundation for learning. “Just listening is not the same,” she said. “You've got to have the foundation. It's like saying other (sighted) kids don't need print. Braille is the same thing as print for our kids. They can't do without it. Listening is so passive.”

Donna Ross teaches a braille course to future teachers at Florida State University. She said the state requires braille to be taught in public schools, “unless you can prove something else is better” for a student. “We want our teachers to know it and teach it,” Ross said. “It's not going anywhere. There's always going to be a need for braille.”

Reprinted with permission from the Daytona Beach News-Journal, January 27, 2010.

Photo: Braille Slate & Stylus With Paper

Employment and Technology

Increasing Opportunities, or Merely Reshaping the Landscape?

By: Anthony Tibbs

Editor’s Note: Anthony Tibbs is AEBC’s National Treasurer and President of its Montreal, Quebec, Chapter.

For people who are blind and partially sighted, employment prospects can, at times, be very few and far between. Indeed, a 2004 study of approximately 350 Canadians with vision impairments found that only 19% of those aged 21 to 64 (of working age) were employed, and about 32% were “unemployed”--without work but actively looking for a job [1]. It’s likely, however, that many more are also unemployed but not looking for work, largely because they expect it to be futile. Considering Canada's unemployment rate, as a whole, is only around 7%, these numbers are, and should be, shocking. What’s more, the employment figures haven't changed much in the past 30 years, despite a general sense that improvements in computer technology ought to have made this possible. After all, we now have advanced scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert printed material into electronic text, and screen-reading and magnification technology to provide access to various applications and websites. The "digital age" and the increasing use of electronic information storage and retrieval systems have greatly increased employment opportunities for the blind. Or has it?

People with disabilities, including those who are blind, can and do benefit from assistive technologies that enable access to previously inaccessible information. Even though they do not always provide blind users with a level of access equal to that of their sighted peers, such as in the case of inaccessible websites or proprietary software, these technologies, and the necessary mastery of them, is reported to "open doors to high-tech career fields that were once unavailable to people with disabilities" [2]. This is probably true, but is unhelpful for the majority of people who are blind for three reasons.

First, not everyone is a "techie," with the time and experience necessary to develop a mastery of their access technology to the point where they could script and program enhancements to "make it work" in situations where, out of the box, it otherwise would not. For those who have an aptitude for technical endeavours, such mastery may well help to pave the way to a "high-tech" career, but it is hardly going to help in other fields.

Second, research has shown that educational attainment has an even more significant correlation to employment prospects for people with disabilities than for the non-disabled. What, then, do we make of the fact that only 40% of the 815,000 or so Canadians who have a "seeing limitation" have completed any education beyond high school [3], as compared with more than 50% for the population at large [4]? The "high-tech" careers that technology has enabled generally require a minimum of a bachelor's degree, after all. In fact, in the United States at least, "the employment rate for [people with disabilities] who complete high school is 30.2%; ... and for those with four years of college it is 50.3%" [5], suggesting that even a 10% difference could be very significant to employment rates.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, we must consider the net effect of technology on the employability of the blind. In many respects, we may be more employable in certain industries now, thanks to the advances in computer technology. But at the same time, we also become less necessary or employable in other industries that have traditionally been seen, rightly or wrongly, as “more accessible” to the blind (e.g. transcription, social work, piano tuning, piece work, etc.). As such, technology may have merely shifted the available jobs from lower-paying (but ubiquitous) fields to higher-paying (but highly specialized) ones.

University graduates who are blind may have an easier time now securing employment in highly information-based industries than they could in the past, but not everyone is destined to be a lawyer, manager or computer programmer. For real progress to be made on the employment front, opportunities must be created in the middle ground of these extremes. Technology is an enabler, but to the extent that attitudinal barriers continue to exist and new, unconquered technological inventions are created, access technology should not be assumed to be a primary enabler of employment for the blind and partially sighted.

References

[1] Gold, D. & H. Simson. (2005, Sep.). "Identifying the needs of people in Canada who are blind and visually impaired: Preliminary results of a nation-wide study." Vision 2005 - Proceedings of the International Congress held between 4 and 7 April 2005 in London, UK. International Congress Series, 1282, pp. 139-142.

[2] Burgstahler, S. (n.d.) The role of technology in preparing youth with disabilities for postsecondary education and employment. Bermidji State University, p. 1.

[3] Statistics Canada. (2009). Adult 15 years and older, with a seeing limitation, by highest education level, Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2006. Special tabulation, based on Participation Activity and Limitations Survey (PALS) 2006, Statistics Canada.

[4] Statistics Canada. (2006). Population 15 years and over by highest degree, certificate or diploma (1986 to 2006 Census). Census of Population (2006), Statistics Canada.

[5] Burgstahler, supra note 2 at p. 3.

Photo: Anthony Tibbs, AEBC Treasurer

A wheelchair doesn't make an employee perfect

By: Helen Henderson

“I just told off a man in a wheelchair and it felt so good."

The speaker is Dr. Naomi Bennett, director of Pacific Wellcare, one of the fictional medical clinics depicted on the ABC television series Private Practice. The man in the wheelchair is Dr. Gabriel Fife, a "brilliant but arrogant" new colleague with whom she disagrees.

Bennett, it transpires, is uncomfortable being her usually assertive self with someone who is disabled. Like most able-bodied people, she suddenly feels trapped by the spectre of political correctness--until the man in the wheelchair goes too far and she erupts.

This particular hour of television contained many serious issues about society's attitude toward people with disabilities. But Bennett's obvious discomfort in speaking her mind happened to coincide with the release of a survey that shows many Ontario bosses feel exactly the same way she does. Which is one of the things that make it even tougher for qualified, competent disabled people to find jobs.

The survey, conducted by Compas Inc. for JOIN, the Job Opportunity Information Network, found one of the major reasons human resources executives say they are reluctant to hire is because "it's harder to dismiss an underperforming person with a disability than one without a disability."

Some day soon we have to get over this stereotype kid-glove approach, just one more way of sidelining people who are in fact likely to make very good employees.

That's part of the purpose of JOIN, a network of community agencies helping people with disabilities to find jobs and employers to recruit qualified disabled workers. Among other things, JOIN believes people with disabilities have the same right as anyone else to be hired and dismissed, if necessary.

The survey was funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services as part of the Ontario Disability Support Program. Compas interviewed 110 human resources executives from public, private, not-for-profit and for-profit companies. The results "help us address concerns and educate" potential employers, says JOIN Toronto's vice-chair, Jenna Erickson.

In addition to the 36 percent of executives who said they felt uncomfortable reprimanding someone with a disability, 24 percent said they worried about higher absentee rates, 21 percent were concerned about expenses related to modifying the workplace and 16 percent believed it would take more effort to train new recruits and they might not perform as well.

On the plus side, 53 percent believed employees with a disability "try harder" and bring "fresh perspectives" to the job, while 46 percent said they are "much more loyal" and "more reliable."

"People living with a disability represent the largest, untapped human resources pool in Canada," Susan Howatt, chair of JOIN Toronto, told a one-day conference on the subject earlier this month. "Outdated stigmas are still the No. 1 barrier to jobs."

Indeed, statistics show employees with disabilities are high performers, says Erickson. "They are good at their jobs and they show loyalty. There's a low turnover rate; they stick with you."

The key is to "demystify the myths and build a culture of inclusion," says Cory Garlough, vice-president of global employment strategies at Scotiabank, one of JOIN's supporters.

His bank practises what it preaches by offering managers guides on how to make the workplace inclusive. "We make it part of management training," Garlough says. "We emphasize that it's about being authentic while respecting each other. And it's okay to ask questions."

Not only okay, but imperative to be able to speak your mind about legitimate concerns. Which brings us back to the fictional Dr. Bennett and Private Practice's good hiring practices. Michael Patrick Thornton, the actor who plays the man in the wheelchair, is himself in a wheelchair.

For more information on JOIN, go to joininfo.ca.

helenhenderson @ sympatico.ca

Reprinted from the Toronto Star, November 14, 2009, courtesy of Torstar Syndication Services.

Photo: Michael Patrick Thornton plays Dr. Gabriel Fife in TV show Private Practice

About AEBC:

The AEBC will soon revamp and bring the

website up to date. The goal is to make the

website more informative for AEBC members

as well as the general public, more

interactive and easier to maintain. The

upgrade will also allow the AEBC to begin

using powerful social networking tools.

Anyone interested in joining the committee

responsible for steering this initiative, please

contact info@blindcanadians.ca

Do human resources grads need more on disabilities?

Do tough times trump diversity?

By: Helen Henderson

How do people with disabilities fit into corporate culture?

Businesses that pay attention to equity and diversity, building teams that reflect the rich multi-faceted nature of the global village we inhabit, operate from positions of strength.

How do you tap into that talent and how do you keep it?

All those questions eventually land on the shoulders of the men and women who study human resources. Diversity is an important part of human resources courses at universities and community colleges, but it is usually questions of ethnicity and culture that predominate. When it comes to disability, how much exposure to the issues do students really get? Enough for them to feel comfortable when they're faced with wheelchairs or hearing aids or white canes in the hiring process?

Kim Wrigley-Archer found herself asking all those questions. A graduate of Ryerson University's School of Disability Studies, Wrigley-Archer also has spent many years in the workforce. Although she has low vision and is hard of hearing, she says her employers focused on her abilities, making her own workplace experience generally positive. But she knows that's not always the case.

People with disabilities are far less likely to be employed than their able-bodied counterparts, no matter that they have the talents and the credentials. A report card on inclusion released this month by the Canadian Association for Community Living (cacl.ca) shows only 25 percent of working-age adults who have an intellectual disability are employed.

"We know that it's possible for people to live well," says Keith Powell, executive director of Community Living Ontario. "But in order to belong and contribute, people require support, healthy relationships, employment and other opportunities, as well as accepting and inclusive attitudes by others."

Wrigley-Archer cites numerous studies revealing disturbing facts on disability and unemployment. Among them, Canadian Abilities Foundation research shows people with disabilities fare poorly in the workforce even at times when employers say they have trouble finding trained workers to fill vacant positions.

And a study by the CNIB (formerly Canadian National Institute for the Blind) found that negative attitudes toward prospective employees with disabilities may be kept under wraps, but are still very much a factor in the outcome of the game on an uneven playing field.

All this suggests that more attention needs to be paid to education about disability issues, particularly for Human (Resources), Wrigley-Archer says. To that end, she's looking at how human resources graduates feel about what they were taught about disability issues. Do they think their training prepared them for responding appropriately to situations involving people with disabilities? How did that training influence their views on disabilities? What information about disabilities do they think should be included in education programs?

The study is funded by the Canadian Centre on Disability Studies and is also supported by Citizens With Disabilities-Ontario (CWDO). The aim is to explore strategies and develop innovative approaches to the issue.

If you graduated from college or university in the past 10 years and have been working in human resources in the Greater Toronto Area for at least three years, Wrigley-Archer would like to know what you think. Participants will remain anonymous. All identifying information (including personal and company names) will be removed from any reports and kept strictly confidential.

For more information, email kim.disabilityresearch@.

Reprinted from the Toronto Star, December 12, 2009, courtesy of Torstar Syndication Services.

A THEATRE EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER

Accessibility Play for the Blind and Low-Vision

By: Antoinette Mercurio

Everyone should be able to enjoy the theatre. But for those who are low-vision or blind, going to the theatre isn't always as entertaining as it should be.

That's why researchers from Ryerson's Centre for Learning Technologies (CLT) in the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management and students from the Theatre School partnered with Clay & Paper Theatre to present Between Sea & Sky, a play that is accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. The partnership grew out of Creating Liberal and Integrated Media Experiences (CLIME), a research project led by CLT Director Dr. Deborah Fels and her team of associates. CLIME aims to advance the media industry by developing media technologies that better accommodate the needs of specific populations.

For five performances, Clay & Paper Theatre included a touch tour and integrated descriptive dialogue to make the play accessible. CLT acted as facilitators for the production, guiding the creative directors to include descriptive language in their dialogue, so that the blind or those with low vision would have a better idea of what to imagine on stage. The touch tour was multi-sensory. Actors talked to participants, introduced their characters and described what their characters look and sound like. Participants were also able to touch the props.

"There's no time during the play to give detailed descriptions of the scenes or characters, so touch tours are a great way for audience members to get a leg up on the production," said JP Udo, Research and Development, CLT and CLIME project manager. "The point of theatre is to be entertained, and you want to give people the whole picture so they can fully enjoy it."

Between Sea & Sky is a comedy with sombre elements about a journey on the high seas. The cast included three Ryerson Theatre School students, and previous performances also used American Sign Language. Assistant artistic director at Clay & Paper Theatre Krista Dalby co-wrote the play with its founder and director David Anderson. Dalby said performing in a park helps plant that seed in people's minds about accessibility.

"That's the really interesting thing about working in public spaces like Dufferin Grove Park, you are able to raise awareness with the public of what's possible, as well as trying to set some sort of example for other theatre companies," she said. "I didn't really know about audio description prior to meeting JP, so it was like a whole new world of possibilities opened up as a theatre producer and how we can make things more accessible to the community, especially those with disabilities."

John Rae, vice-president, Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, attended one of the show's performances. As a blind audience member, he found the touch tour the highlight of the production. "Theatre-goers rarely get exposed to props," he said. "I'm big about tactile access. You can describe things, you can read about them, but there is no substitute to tactile access whether in an art gallery, museum or theatre."

Reprinted from Ryerson University’s website, ryerson.ca, August 26, 2009.



Photo: Clay & Paper Theatre founder and director David Anderson, left, lets a tour participant get a feel for the tuba. Ryerson’s Centre for Learning Technologies worked with the theatre group to make their play accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. Photo courtesy of Mike Pouris.

MOVIE SERIES SHATTERS IMAGE OF THE DISABLED

disThis!

By: Howard Swains

Walking, wheeling, limping, a variously abled audience enters the darkened screening room on Lafayette Street each month to see a movie with a difference.

Featuring a blind ballet dancer or disabled stripper one night, a gay comedian on crutches or disabled CIA agent the next, the films always portray characters with disabilities, but never the sentimentalized types moviegoers are used to seeing. And not the kind that infuriate film-lovers with disabilities.

“We don’t do heroic cripples. We don’t do pathetic cripples. This is disability without the diagnosis. No heroism necessary, no handkerchiefs required,” said Lawrence Carter-Long, curator of the series disThis!, and director of advocacy for the Disabilities Network of New York City.

Now in its second year, disThis! screenings take place once a month at Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) at Lafayette and White Streets. The films, mostly foreign, have included the Belgian comedy “Aaltra”, a kind of road movie in wheelchairs; the British documentary “The Crippendales” about, yes, a troupe of disabled strippers; and a 30-minute show of pranks and sketches titled “I’m Spazticus!” The latter film features scenes such as an amputee running along a beach screaming “Shark! Shark!” and a mock music video by a rap group called Def Row, “rapped”” entirely in sign-language. Subtitles are provided for the hard of signing. The recent screening of a Japanese movie, “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” portrays love (and sex) between an able-bodied man and a woman who could not walk. Its ending decidedly unromantic.

“These movies get people with disabilities thinking about who they are and their place in the world,” said Alejandra Ospira, 26, who is wheelchair-bound with cerebral palsy. “And you get people who don’t have experience with disability to realize that we can make and be in controversial, edgy, kickass kinds of films.”

“The Real Helen Keller,” for example, attracted an audience of more than 70. A heated post-screening discussion continued where the provocative documentary left off, supplanting the popular, mythologized Keller figure with a whiskey-drinking socialist of unexpected sexual tastes.

Robert Pearson, 34, a special education teacher with mild cerebral palsy, said disabilities aside, the series has broadened his appreciation of independent cinema. “These are just great films,” he said.

But for a person with a disability, he added, they bring an added dimension. “I have a natural curiosity to see how different people manage,” he said. “I’m watching to see how does this person make their situation work.”

It is also gratifying, audience members said, to see disabled actors in leading roles. “You see that people with disabilities can act just as well as people without disabilities, and they can actually be in character,” said Raphael Rivas, who is visually impaired.

Though not every movie is well received (last month’s action flick was roundly panned by the audience), Carter-Long, who has cerebral palsy, says he tries to select inventive pieces that are remarkable for more than their inclusion of disabled characters. “There’s a hunger for quality work like this,” he said. “There’s an interest in hearing stories we haven’t heard told, seeing characters we haven’t seen, done in an authentic way. We try to give them that.”

At last month’s screening, Carter-Long teased the audience with a preview of the September coming attraction: “Dance to My Song,” a love triangle between a man, a severely disabled woman, and her care attendant. “I’m not going to tell you who wins,” he said.

disThis! screenings are on the first Wednesday of the month at DCTV, 87 Lafayette St. $5 suggested contribution. For more information, go to .

The Tribeca Trib

401 Broadway, 5th Floor

New York, NY

10013

212.219.9709

Reprinted courtesy of the Tribeca Trib, September 1, 2007:

Photo: Lawrence Carter-Long, aided by a signer, introduces a film at a recent disThis! screening. Photo courtesy of Carl Glassman/The Tribeca Trib

HELEN KELLER: WHAT SHE REALLY TAUGHT US ABOUT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

By: Kim E. Nielsen

When Helen Keller turned 17, she optimistically wrote that "the future looks bright and full of promise, and I shall carry with me through all my life the memory of a happy childhood." Indeed, her future was bright and full of promise. Even today, 125 years after her June 27th birth, and nearly 40 years after her 1968 death, she remains one of the world's most famous women. The young child who became deaf and blind at the age of 19 months went on to attend Boston's Perkins School for the Blind and graduate cum laude from Radcliffe College. She also performed in vaudeville and on the national lecture circuit, excelled as a lobbyist and fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind, travelled widely internationally, formed fast friendships, and believed strongly that all--including herself--had responsibility as citizens to battle against injustice and social inequalities.

Americans and others across the globe continue to be fascinated by the famous deaf-blind woman who died in 1968 at the age of 88. Yet it is hard to imagine her as anything but the innocent, inspirational seven-year-old taught by Anne Sullivan to fingerspell "water" at the famous Tuscumbia, Alabama water pump. During Keller's lifetime, as she unsuccessfully tried to make a living by writing, she grew frustrated that editors and the reading public wanted only to read of her disability (and primarily of her experience as a child with a disability). She painfully realized that much of her reading public could only behold her with pity and wonder.

Hindered by attitudes about disability that mired her in childhood regardless of her age, she struggled throughout her lifetime against the perception that her disability rendered her incapable of forming her own political opinions and of participating in public life. In one moment of frustration during 1913, the famous deaf-blind honours graduate of Radcliffe College, the scholar fluent in French, German, Greek and Latin, responded, "I have the advantage of a mind trained to think, and that is the difference between myself and most people, not my blindness and their sight." To those who pitied her, she responded to their hostile good intentions by saying, "I do not want their pity; I would not change places with one of them. I know what I am talking about."

Despite our continued fascination with Helen Keller, we still tend to behold her only with pity and wonder. By doing so, we do harm to her and other people with disabilities. She was a complex, sometimes contradictory, always intelligent woman who read widely in politics and fiction, treasured her dear friends and her dogs, thrived on international travel, embraced the sensual, and loved the sophisticated as well as hotdogs and scotch. She always struggled with her simultaneous disgust at the economic inequalities of capitalism and her dependence on the wealthy for economic support. Moving beyond pity and wonder to remember her in her full humanity is not throwing dirt at a historical saint; instead, it is an act of honour that she fought for during her own lifetime.

Whether and how we memorialize Keller matters a great deal--to her memory, but perhaps more importantly, to the lives of Americans with disabilities today. Her humanity did not begin at the pump in a symbolic baptism that enabled her to conquer her disability. She was not a superhero who accomplished everything through only a cheerful attitude. By continuing to remember her in these ways, we have created a culture in which pity and wonder are our primary responses to people with disabilities. Remembering her in these ways allows us to ignore the attitudes, social structures, and outright discrimination that frustrated her. Remembering her and other people with disabilities in these ways excuses us from facing contemporary employment discrimination against people with disabilities, social welfare policies that demand dependency and nursing homes rather than facilitate independent living, and the present judicial and legislative erosion of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Only by moving away from pity and wonder and towards full acceptance can our nation focus on the real issues of physical access, jobs, attitudes, and support for independent living. Only once we move beyond stereotypes can we realize the important and varied contributions disabled people make to our vibrant society. Recognizing Keller as the complex, intelligent and caring adult she was would truly be an appropriate memorial to her on her 125th birthday.

Ms. Nielsen is associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Her books include The Radical Lives of Helen Keller and Helen Keller: Selected Writings.

Reprinted from History News Network, October 17, 2005:

Photo: Helen Keller 1880 - 1968

EVOLVING DISABILITY DISCOURSE: IS IT MAKING A DIFFERENCE?

By: Danielle Laplante

Editor’s Note: Danielle Laplante is a member of AEBC’s Montreal, Quebec, Chapter.

When I went out recently in my neighbourhood to take a short walk with my guide dog, a lady approached me and said, "You are the person I must absolutely speak with today." She then proceeded to tell me about her best friend, who had called her in tears, because he had received a medical diagnosis that he was going blind. Having no history of blindness in either of their families, she did not know what to tell her friend to reassure him. She said that she and her friend could only imagine a future full of suffering, due to negative stereotypes about blindness and the fact that they had little knowledge of this social group, which had been historically isolated from mainstream society. After hearing about her fears, I quickly reassured her that people who are blind and partially sighted are just like everyone else. To stay socially integrated, however, her friend would have to advocate for his individual and diverse needs, in order to assume his rightful place in society.

With the transformation of social policies in Canada, governments at the federal and provincial levels are pushing for full integration of people with disabilities. We are also progressively hearing more discussion about equal and equitable rights, and that Canadians with disabilities need to be able to assume their citizen rights and responsibilities. But even though legislation seeks to render various environments more inclusive, we still must consider that historically there has been a lack of social awareness in Canada about the reality of vision loss and the functional needs of people who are blind and partially sighted. Therefore, it may be difficult to push for full inclusion without first dealing as a society with the negatives stereotypes traditionally associated with blindness.

We still need to ask ourselves if Canada has really evolved overtime as a society. Even though the political discourse on disability has changed in accordance with new governmental directions, and we now speak of disabled people’s rights, there is still little awareness in today’s society about the daily life experiences of those with vision impairments. This lack of social consciousness means each of us has to advocate, on a more regular basis than the non-disabled, for our right to function “differently” in mainstream society. Perhaps, instead of asking if Canada has really evolved, the question should be, “Why do we still have to advocate at all?” Is this continuous need to assert our rights fair? Is it equal? Is it equitable? Why do people who are blind and partially sighted still have to do all the adapting? Is society itself ever going to change? Has the evolution of disability discourse in Canada really changed anything over the years? Based on my conversation with the lady, one has to wonder.

HAVE CHANGES IN LANGUAGE CHANGED ATTITUDES?

By: John Rae

Editor’s Note: John Rae is AEBC's 1st Vice President. He writes and speaks extensively on a variety of disability issues.

 

Over the past two decades, we have seen many changes in the words and labels used to describe and portray persons with various disabilities. Though we have all heard the old saying, "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me," words can and do hurt and offend, and are often used as tools of oppression. Changes have come about in an effort to find new ways of describing disability, which is too often perceived as being tragic and negative.

 

What so many non-disabled individuals fail to realize is that many people with disabilities feel that their lives have been enriched by their experience. They may dislike the poverty, exclusion and hassle, but recognize that disability is an inevitable aspect of being human and growing older. Carrying on one's life as a person with a disability is not being "courageous" or "brave," but it does require one to be an ingenious problem solver, and that trait should make more of us valuable assets to companies wishing to be successful, and to society as a whole.

 

In the case of Canadians who are blind, we have moved from the label "the blind" to "blind persons," and more recently to "persons who are blind." But have these changes in language helped to create corresponding improvements in public attitudes, opportunities, and in the ways in which Canadians who are blind are perceived by our fellow citizens? Only somewhat! This is partly due to the fact that within the general population, these more politically correct terms are largely unknown. And while many Canadians prefer the more person-centred approach, others believe that a term like "the blind" is more likely to foster badly needed group solidarity.

 

The language we use does say a lot about how we view a particular group in our society. In an effort to develop more positive ways of depicting persons who are blind, euphemisms like “visually limited”, “sightless”, “unseeing”, and the grammatically incorrect “visually impaired” have emerged. Laudable though these efforts may be, too frequently the negative attitudes that were attached to the old phrases quickly transfer to these new terms, with only minimal attitudinal change taking place.

 

Today, many outmoded and stereotyped words and phrases are still commonly used. Some of the most egregious are “blind drunk”, “blind rage”, “blind as a bat”, “putting blind faith in leaders”, “made a blind stab at answering the question”, “flying blind through the fog”, “blind to a lover's faults”, “rob someone blind”, “prejudice that blinded them to the merits of the proposal”, “a blind item in a military budget”, “blind leading the blind”, and “seeing is believing”.

 

Blindness is only one of many characteristics that help to define us. We are students, workers, travellers, members of community committees, etc. But too often our blindness is all the sighted public sees. We need far more than just changes in terminology; we need strong and effective programs that will help to combat Ableism, which can be briefly described as the belief that it is far better not to have a disability than to have one, and that it is better to do things in the way that non-disabled people do them.

 

We need to begin educating the public at an early age. While schools often advocate multiculturalism and acceptance of differences, Ableism, which is similar to other types of discrimination, is often unrecognized as an important issue, or overlooked altogether. Programs that emphasize ability awareness, disability content in curriculum and school activities, and hiring teachers with disabilities to act as role models, will all help to break down outmoded attitudes and barriers that are the true dis-ablers in our society. They will also help to emphasize the true capabilities of persons who are blind, and what it is truly like to live one's life as a blind person. Then maybe the public will view us in a more realistic light and see us as persons first!

When the world speaks, U OF T listens

“Look at us, you are looking at yourself,” says teacher whose dismissal sparks quiet, but powerful, revolution

By: Helen Henderson

Rod Michalko wasn't looking to be a lightning rod. But when the sparks flew and the rallies started, when the web pages and the blogs and the petitions multiplied, when the outrage echoed around the planet, it was clear the award-winning professor had galvanized a community on the verge of greatness.

Disability pride will never again be underestimated in Canada. Hold that thought as we venture forth into a new decade.

Today, Michalko is helping to put together a task force examining how disability will be studied at University of Toronto. By extension he will reveal a culture whose days of marginalization will no longer be tolerated.

"Disability is a teacher," he says. "It is a school of different voices. People with disabilities wear mirrored shades. You look at us, you are looking at yourself."

Michalko's push onto the world stage started last fall when UofT served notice his teaching contract would not be renewed after July, 2010.

There were waiting lists to get into Michalko's classes. He had placed first in a group of more than 80 professors, winning a special merit award from the university for his work as part of its equity studies program. He also happens to be blind, which gives him a unique platform from which to approach his field of study.

"No one told me before that disability could be embraced as identity," says Eliza Chandler, a PhD student in disability studies at the university, and one of the organizers of the revolution that led to UofT extending Michalko's contract for another year.

Together with Anne McGuire, a teaching assistant who is also working on a PhD, and undergraduate Isabel Lay, who is chair of the university's Equity Studies Student Union, Chandler--who is studying how disability plays out in the culture of secondary schools--was part of the revolution that drew worldwide support for reinstating Michalko.

Having harnessed this outrage, they plan to keep shining the spotlight. "We don't want to lose the momentum," says McGuire.

Disability studies is a growing field, one that has students lining up at many universities. I know. I'm one of those in Ryerson's undergraduate program delving into a culture more than ready to come in from the cold. It is a culture that refuses to be categorized by doctors pinning negative medical labels on people who are different, a culture that looks at what society can and should be doing to create communities that are inclusive.

Meanwhile, Michalko is preparing for the task force, which will report on academic plans for disability studies. "'Task force' sounds so military," he says. "Perhaps we should call it a 'working group.'"

The group will be a joint effort between UofT's New College and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Among its members will be Michalko's partner, Tanya Titchkosky, who teaches disability studies at OISE.

"Tanya and I are going to be very assertive when it comes to the make-up of the task force," says Michalko. "It definitely should include the voices of students and people with disabilities."

Shahrzad Mojab, acting head of New College, says UofT "wants to develop disability studies as one of the main streams within equity studies." Exactly how that plan should evolve will be part of the recommendations of the task force, which should start work early in the New Year, she says.

Stay tuned.

For more information, see:



http: //group.php?gid=156148053601

http: //petition/savedsuoft/index.html

Reprinted from the Toronto Star, December 19, 2009, courtesy of Torstar Syndication Services.

Photo: Helen Henderson

“IT TAKES A VILLAGE”

By: Mary Randall

Editor’s Note: After attending kindergarten at her local school, Mary Randall was educated at the Ontario School for the Blind in Brantford, Ontario. Today, she is a retired teacher of the blind and deaf-blind, whose 30-year career included working in both residential and community settings.

The most important aspects of education for any child, blind or sighted, are related to self-actualization--discovering skills and talents, and then developing independent expression of them. If you look at educational curricula, such underlying skills as conceptual/perceptual development, body awareness/movement through space, self-care and social development must be learned before children are taught academic subjects. In the 1950s, when I was a child, parents of blind children were flying by the seat of their pants, doing their best with the information they could get from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Most tried to teach their preschoolers the regular milestones of walking, talking, dressing, eating etc. In the process, most blind children learned a little body awareness, O&M (orientation and mobility) and language. Many, however, did not, and needed extra help in the early years at school. Things have not changed much in the 2000s, with early intervention for blind and low-vision preschoolers still not being universal.

Those of us who attended a residential school for the blind had an enriched academic program throughout our educational careers. Although we lacked social and emotional support, as well as life-skills development, in our early years, rudimentary O&M and life skills were being developed by high school. I have since advised many parents of blind children being educated in their home communities that if they don’t reinforce these types of skills by providing daily opportunities to practice them, their benefits will be negligible.

My time at the Ontario School for the Blind was punctuated with community outings and artistic achievements, including music, drama and other arts. Public schools offer some of these enrichment experiences, but Blind students are often overlooked for such things as leading roles. However, if specialist teachers, along with O&M and rehabilitation instructors, are creative, blind kids will get these opportunities. Parents who have the time and resources to take their children to museums, parks and libraries, furthermore, understand the importance of a broad and exciting learning experience. Community facilities such as swimming pools and recreational programs like skating and gymnastics are sometimes welcoming, but lack expertise. Ontario Blind Sports and other organizations like it could be of great assistance to cities and private service providers. Physical development and movement are essential for all learning.

The primary advantage of a residential program is that child-development experts, as well as those skilled in arts/cultural and high-tech education, are readily available on a regular basis to deliver an integrated and enriched program for blind students, but children educated in their home communities can also benefit from equally rich inclusive programming. The important element common to both is communication and cooperation between parents and educators. They, and others, help to develop and teach children, enabling them to succeed in our evolving world. It’s said, “It takes a village to raise a child.” It was as true in the 1950s as it is in 2010: Our programs are only as effective as the people who implement them.

GETTING THERE--PAST AND PRESENT

By: Valentina Gal

 

Editor's Note: Valentina Gal is Secretary of AEBC's Toronto Chapter. She spends her time doing consulting work, looking for employment, writing a novel and attending continuing education courses at Ryerson University.

 

As a blind child, I realized very quickly that, if I wanted independence, I'd have to LEARN to get around. My friends and siblings took me from point A to point B. When I travelled to school, my brother would put me onto a bus and the driver would hand me over to a taxi driver who would drop me off at school. I was not expected to be responsible for the transportation part of my life; most blind people weren't. I still remember the shock in my mother's voice when I came home to Hamilton, unannounced, from my school in Brantford all by myself. Since then, my travels have taken me from the grid patterned streets of central Hamilton and the crescent streets of its suburbs to road trips with a sighted husband, to airplanes which took me to a number of different cities, and finally to the dreaded Toronto subway, which I now couldn't live without. Each style of "getting there" has its own challenges, as well as good points, and while there are some changes, the blind and partially sighted face pretty much the same difficulties they always have.

 

I'll never forget how excited I was when, after two mobility lessons from the CNIB rehabilitation teacher, I sported my first white cane and stumbled up the steps of the city bus. I could still see a little and, though I liked the newly found independence, I hated the white cane. It took ten years of inner struggle and getting hit by a bus for me to come to terms with the cane's enormous importance. During those ten years, the educators of the blind changed too. They discovered that giving blind children white canes at an early age and teaching them how to use these tools properly improved blind people's mobility and confidence at a much greater level than the previous practice of waiting till a person was in his late teens. Also, in the eighties, Mohawk College began training mobility instructors of the blind so they were easier to come by. Personal mobility is the most important aspect of being able to negotiate any mode of transportation. It is imperative for blind people to understand how the cane gives them information about where they are and what's around them. The same can be said for those who choose to travel with a guide dog. We haven't yet fully seen how far people with GPS (Global Positioning System) devices will go on their own. The confidence that personal mobility offers is the platform on which GOOD transportation coping skills ARE BUILT.

 

While bus entrances were lowered and street crossing signals were installed, along with elevators for the disabled, the public attitude also changed. The two-for-one fares that were won by our veteran predecessors, as charitable ways of helping the blind, were challenged. Today, only those who need personal attendance in-flight may have the two-for-one ticket on an airplane. Their guide dogs, however, have to be accommodated. On the other hand, bus and train fares have stayed the same. The front seats of busses that were voluntarily given to us as a kindness became a matter of policies that promoted our rights. Sensitivity training is a part of bus and taxi driver training--whether it is always followed is another matter. Preboarding the disabled is a standard practice, unless you get stuck in a backlog and have to fight your way through. Society moved from a charitable attitude of "looking after the blind" to one that treats them more equally.

 

Are we better off now than we were then? It depends on the day. When I sit on the subway in Toronto, or on a bus in Hamilton or London, and hear the stops called out, I'm grateful to David Lepofsky--a blind lawyer in Toronto who advocated for audible announcements on public transit--for his court battles. I learn where all of the streets are and know where I am. Certainly, I appreciate the notion of free public transit for the blind. For the seventy percent or so of us who aren't working, this privilege is the lifeline to an active lifestyle. However, when someone ignores me when I'm lost and only want to get home, I'm as frustrated as I always have been. In a small town or suburb where there is limited or no bus or train service, I'm as dependent as I ever was.

 

So what's my point? Transportation issues for the blind and partially sighted are very complex and have as many solutions as the number of disabled people who want to get around. As we move forward in this new decade, we need to tread carefully as we advocate so that we don't lose some of the basic things we take for granted, whether they come from a charitable source or not.

Photo: Valentina Gal

PEDESTRIAN SIGNALS ARE NEEDED 24/7

By: Marcia Cummings

My name is Marcia Cummings and I lived, until May 5, 2009, in the city of Toronto, Ontario. I travelled throughout Toronto using a white cane as my mobility aid, as I am totally blind. I made use of the many accessible pedestrian signal-equipped intersections in Toronto, the majority of which were configured to operate in tandem with their visual counterparts. As a result, they were always active, giving anyone crossing a safe experience at any time of day or night, without any need for personal intervention.

When I moved to Huntsville with my fiancé, Michael Yale, I discovered there were only two intersections equipped with accessible pedestrian signals—at Main Street and Brunel Road, and at Main Street and Centre Street. The first thing I noticed about these signals was that they were not always active; they had to be activated by someone finding the pole, which emitted a beep, and then pushing and holding a button.

There was no information to this effect on the pole that I could find, and it was only through word-of-mouth that I learned how to achieve equal safety when crossing these intersections. As a cane traveller, having to activate the signals puts me at a disadvantage, as it takes me off-course from the street corner.

However, the fact that these signals will not activate at all after 11 p.m. is of even more concern to me. I was nearly hit on Saturday evening, Aug. 8, when I crossed Main at Centre after an evening at the Algonquin Theatre. There was no way for me to know the status of the light, and therefore I was not expecting the car travelling along Main Street when I was just over halfway across. Luckily, I was able to get out of the way. I actually believe it was before 11 p.m. when I made the crossing.

I have been told that the reason for this lack of service 24/7 was due to a Huntsville noise bylaw. I have read said bylaw, and would like to point out that the noise bylaw does not allow safety to be compromised.

Since Huntsville's bylaws already grant exemptions for religious, traditional and festive activities, requesting an exemption for the accessible pedestrian signals, which promote and ensure public safety, should not be seen as unreasonable.

Time restrictions placed on the signals' operation, as they currently stand, contravene basic human rights of freedom of activity and safety of travel. Everyone has the right to travel safely at whatever hour of the day suits him/her, and that hour should not be restricted by unsafe legislation.

If the red and green lights ceased to function at 11 p.m. (or earlier), no one would allow this situation to continue--they would not be able to travel safely and would demand the lights be active 24 hours a day. If all town ramps were rolled up at 11 p.m. (or earlier), people in wheelchairs or those using walkers, would no longer be able to travel safely, and again, they would demand the ramps be available 24 hours a day. The red and green traffic lights and all ramps are available 24 hours a day. I am demanding, therefore, that my safety, and that of everyone who uses the accessible pedestrian signals, be likewise unrestricted by time of day, so that we can also travel safely whenever we choose.

I have been told several times that the current operation scheme was approved by the "user group" a few years ago. However, I have learned through discussions that many members of the "user group" felt as if they had little or no choice if they wanted accessible pedestrian signals. After several years under the present system, many others now favour extending the service to 24/7.

Reprinted from the Huntsville Forester, Ontario, August 19, 2009.

“GREEN” CARS CALLED THREAT TO BLIND PEDESTRIANS

Hybrid Vehicles Are Too Quiet, Says City Man

By: Vincent Ball

Setting out from their Buchanan Crescent townhouse for a morning jaunt, Bob Brown and his guide dog, Boone, set a good pace. It's more like a power walk than a stroll and they work as a team, moving easily around their neighbourhood.

"Brantford's pretty good, pretty accessible," the 33-year-old visually impaired man said. "We can get up to Williams for coffee if we want, and I can go up to the (Lynden Park) Mall for groceries and back no problem.

"Sometimes I use public transit or the heel-toe express. It depends on the weather."

He enjoys his independence and mobility. But he worries they will be threatened by the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles, which run on gasoline and a rechargeable battery. In battery mode, they are quiet.

Hybrids may be good for the environment, but they are not so good for the blind and visually impaired, said Brown. "When I'm walking on a sidewalk, I depend on my guide dog and my ability to hear traffic," he said. "If I can't hear a car coming, if it's backing out of a driveway, I won't hear it until it's too late.

"I already know what it's like to get hit by a car, and I don't want to ever have that feeling again."

He can't go into details about his accident, which happened almost two years ago. But the experience of being hurt and losing his guide dog is enough to compel him to sound the alarm over hybrid vehicles. He wants the automakers to come up with a way of making the vehicles loud enough so they can be heard by all pedestrians. And if the car companies won't do it voluntarily, Brown said he thinks the government should force this issue through legislation.

"There is some work going on in the United States on this, and I think a couple of states are in the process of trying to come up with some regulations, some standards.

"I don't know if there is much happening here in Canada. I think they're taking a kind of a wait-and-see approach."

Brown has been visually impaired since he was about seven. His impairment was caused by retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disorder of the retina that, over time, causes severe vision loss.

Brown isn't the only one raising concerns about hybrid vehicles. John Rae, the first vice-president of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, called hybrid vehicles a “major” safety concern for all pedestrians, not just blind and visually impaired people. Joggers and walkers wearing headphones are all vulnerable because of the quietness of hybrid vehicles. "We recognize the importance of saving the environment," Rae said. "But we don't see this as an either-or issue.

"We think vehicles can be good for the environment, as well as safe."

He's calling on the various levels of government to force the auto industry to come up with a way of making the vehicles safe enough for pedestrians. Now, with the auto industry looking for taxpayer bailouts to keep it afloat, is the perfect time for the government to get car makers to address the issue. "We'd like them (the automakers) to do it voluntarily, but if they don't, we think the government should step in and force them," Rae said. "So far, we haven't received much of a response from the auto industry."

Toyota is one of the industry leaders in developing hybrid vehicles and is the manufacturer of the Toyota Prius, one of the most popular and recognizable of hybrid vehicles. Rae thinks Toyota is a company that could set the standard for other companies to follow.

Nicole Grant, of Toyota Canada's public relations office, said Toyota is always looking for ways to improve public safety, as well as improvements to sustainable mobility. Toyota seeks to maintain a balance between those concerns, as well as other societal issues, such as noise pollution and environmental concerns. "We're always working towards that balance, and public safety is at the top of our list of concerns," she said.

Reprinted from the Brantford Expositor, November 26, 2008.

RIGHT TO USE SERVICE DOGS OFTEN VIOLATED

By: Helen Henderson

Who kept the dogs out? Taxis. Government offices. Restaurants. A lot of people who should know better.

By law, service dogs trained to help people with disabilities are allowed into public places from which pets are banned. Too often, however, people who use these four-legged helpers find themselves at risk because their dogs are shut out. If Toronto really wants to call itself a world-class city, that has to change.

Kaye Leslie, Scotiabank's manager of workplace diversity, says she and her dog Kirk, a graduate of the Seeing Eye organization, have been left in cold, dark locations by cab drivers who drove away or refused to stop when they saw Kirk. One time, Leslie says, she was actually getting into a cab when it took off, leaving "the door swinging against us."

Leslie is among many who have long complained to cab companies and other businesses that deny working dogs entrance. They've done their best to raise awareness and increase understanding. But despite disability rights being part of standard training for a cab licence, she says the problem not only persists, it seems to be getting worse.

When high school student Caroline Cook went to renew her passport so she could train with Ontario's kayak racing team in Florida, she was stopped short.

At 16, Cook is already a world contender in kayak sprints and dragon boat races. The fact that she is hard of hearing and uses a service dog to alert her to sounds never put a dint in her stroke--until she approached Toronto's Victoria St. passport office last month with her dog, Swiss, and her mother, Kathy.

The security guard told them only those who are blind are entitled to bring in service dogs. Didn't matter that Swiss was wearing the Dog Guides of Canada jacket or that Caroline offered official ID. The two of them were forced to wait outside while Kathy stood in line.

That afternoon, Ontario Human Rights Code in hand, Caroline's father Rob complained to the office manager. The Cooks got a formal letter of apology. But "that doesn't change what happened," says Caroline, who has also been turned away from restaurants that "seemed to be just totally ignorant."

She encourages others who use service dogs to fight for their rights.

"Swiss has made a huge difference in my life," she says. "Most of all, she makes me feel safer at night...because I can't hear the smoke alarm with my hearing aids out."

It's time to get tough with those who refuse to acknowledge the crucial role service dogs play.

What can be done?

When it comes to cabs, many companies point out that drivers who are Muslim do not want contact with dogs because Islamic tradition sees them as unclean. But critics argue that carrying dogs comes with the job description for taxi drivers.

Jim Kutsch, president of the Seeing Eye organization, advises everyone who phones for a cab to ask the dispatcher for the driver's number so it can be reported with any complaint.

He also urges the public to help identify cabs that refuse to carry service dogs.

"Many cases never get anywhere because, of course, someone who is blind cannot see a licence plate," he says.

Those who think this issue is going nowhere would do well to heed how the Metropolitan Airport Commission of Minneapolis deals with drivers who refuse dogs.

"The first time it happens, their licence is suspended for three months," says a spokesperson. "The second time, they lose their licence altogether.

"This has always been the case for service dogs; last year, we extended it to all dogs."

Reprinted from the Toronto Star, February 9, 2008, courtesy of Torstar Syndication Services.

GPS DEVICE A “SIXTH SENSE” FOR THE IMPAIRED

By: Matt Walcoff

Make a left at the apple, right at the hammer, straight past the bird, right at the hat and left at the tree. Got it? If you're like most volunteers at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, no, you don't get it. With those kinds of verbal instructions, most people make wrong turns somewhere in the hospital. But when they wear a high-tech belt invented at the University of Waterloo, volunteers in a study of the technology always make it through the maze without a problem.

The Tactile Sight belt contains a GPS [global positioning system] receiver and four motors: one in front, one in back and one at each side. If the destination is to the left, the left buzzer vibrates. If it's 45 degrees to the right, the front and right buzzers vibrate. "This is almost like a sixth sense," says the belt's creator, systems design engineering Prof. John Zelek. "It's another way of tapping into the primitive brain."

The belt is designed for blind people and Alzheimer's patients. Toronto Rehab plans to test it on seniors with dementia this summer. If it works, the belt could greatly improve life for people with memory problems, says Lawrence Grierson, the post-doctoral researcher conducting the trials. "It would extend the length of time that people could live independently and in the community, which has an effect on decreasing the load of memory clinics and assisted-living care centres," he says.

The belt is the result of several years of research, some of it seemingly unrelated. Before he got involved in haptics, or the sense of touch, Zelek researched computer optics. When he was at the University of Guelph in the early 2000s, he was working on improving robots' ability to recognize objects they saw. It was innovative technology, but only the Pentagon could afford it. "A lot of the technology I was developing, most of the applications were for the military," Zelek says. "I found that not motivating."

Instead of helping robots to see, Zelek decided he would help people to do the same. He and his students created a device for the blind that sensed when the user was nearing a wall or object and communicated that to the user via a vibrating glove. The invention drew rave reviews, and Zelek hasn't given up on it. But it suffered from the same problem as the robotics technology--the components make it too expensive.

So in 2006, Zelek went in a new direction. He stuck with the idea of communication through vibration, but replaced the vision equipment with global positioning system technology, which is getting cheaper all the time. With GPS, Zelek went from locating objects to helping people orient themselves in a global context. In 2006, Zelek and his team were able to create a clunky prototype using off-the-shelf parts.

Heather Carnahan, a former UW [University of Waterloo] kinesiology professor with links to Toronto Rehab, heard about the project and suggested to Zelek that Alzheimer's patients could also benefit from his work.

Two years ago, the U.S. [United States] Alzheimer's Association granted Zelek $156,000 for his research. With that funding and $40,000 from the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Zelek was able to hire a hardware designer and a fashion designer to create a final product. Zelek created Tactile Sight Inc. to commercialize the belt. Perry Roach, head of Guelph software company Netsweeper Inc., serves as Tactile Sight's chief executive officer in his spare time.

The brains of the device sit in a little plastic box kept in a pouch. It contains the GPS, microprocessor, altimeter, compass and accelerometer or gyroscope. One likely application of the belt involves using Bluetooth to talk to a smartphone running Google Maps. The belt would help people follow a route drawn up by the mapping software. Blind people could program the device themselves using adaptive technology that allows them to work with computers, Zelek said. An Alzheimer's patient would likely require a caretaker to enter instructions.

The belt would not replace a blind person's cane or guide dog. It would work in tandem with other assistance to help the visually impaired get through a city. Jim Sanders, former president of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, has tried out the belt and has high hopes for its success. "For those of us who are experienced white cane users, it is still stressful, particularly getting around on your own in unfamiliar territory.

"If we could have more information to tell us more about the environment that we're navigating, it's going to make it safer, easier and less stressful."

Because the GPS equipment can work indoors and pinpoint its location down to a half metre, the belt might also help people manoeuvre through a building. Zelek foresees the device helping Alzheimer's patients follow a daily schedule, pointing them from bedroom to washroom to kitchen. By the end of the year, Zelek hopes to have 10 to 20 blind people and Alzheimer's patients trying out his devices. Eventually, the belts might be sold for a few hundred dollars to end users, nursing homes and insurance companies that want to help policyholders avoid danger.

Emergency services might also be interested in the belt. Using a floor map of a burning building, a fire chief could program movement instructions into the device so firefighters would have one less thing to think about when they go inside a building to try to find someone or put out a blaze.

The combination of GPS and haptics could serve other markets as well. Deaf people, for example, can't hear a talking GPS device in the car, but they could feel a vibration in their seat.

At a conference in Switzerland, a couple of Israelis told Zelek their army would find his technology interesting. This time, though, Zelek isn't swearing off selling to the military. "If they want to buy a whole bunch of units, that would increase the volume, meaning we could decrease the price to the disabled population," he says.

Reprinted from the Waterloo Record, Ontario, March 21, 2009:

Photo: GPS Tactile Sight Belt

MAKING HOME IMPROVEMENTS COUNT

Six Steps to Safe and Easy Homes for Older People

By: Sue Cooper

In 2008, Thomas Pocklington Trust launched a groundbreaking publication called "Housing for People with Sight Loss--A Design Guide". It was the first guidance to use research among people with vision impairments to influence design and was aimed primarily at architects and designers. Now Pocklington, in conjunction with the Wilberforce Trust, has released "Housing for People with Sight Loss--A Practical Guide to Improving Existing Homes", which suggests ways to make homes safe and easy to live in-quickly, at low cost and without upheaval. The guide lists simple measures in a series of checklists, so that everyone involved in adaptations, refurbishments or basic maintenance of properties can note priorities and tick them off when they have been carried out. Underpinning the guide is research among people living with sight loss, as well as managers and support staff working in both general and specialist housing. Since most of the 13 million people in the United Kingdom who are aged over 60 will have some degree of sight loss, almost all housing schemes could benefit from making these changes.

1. Involve People. People know what needs to change in their homes but not how to change it. Their input is vital if they are to enjoy the home they live in. Their priorities may be different from those of housing, support and care staff, and taking them into account can avoid costly mistakes. The most important way to involve people is to demonstrate that their views are taken seriously and to provide clear information on what can be done, why, and what will happen. Each individual needs to have information provided in their preferred format--large print, electronic files, audio, DAISY or braille.

Support staff needs to help people think about their needs and express their views. To do this, they need to know: What is the impact of sight loss? How can homes be improved to deal with it? Where are there opportunities (such as maintenance or refurbishment plans) to make these improvements? How can they help people to consider the changes and make their views known?

Contractors also play a major role. Whether they are working in people's homes or in areas shared by many occupants, they need to understand the impact of sight loss and appreciate the importance of people's views, priorities and preferences about their homes.

2. Improve Lighting. Lighting can dramatically improve people's vision and should be adjustable, like with dimmer switches. "Task lighting" helps to focus on specific activities. Lighting inside cupboards and wardrobes makes finding things easier.

3. Colour and Contrast. Choose paint colours that reflect light. Use contrasting shades of colour to highlight the position of objects. Contrast colour strips used on the edges of doors, bins, appliances and stairs will show where these are and highlight potential hazards. Contrasting handles and knobs on doors and appliances, and on grab rails or equipment, make it easier to locate and use them.

4. Avoid Clutter. Plenty of space and logical layout for routes, furniture and equipment make it easier to move around. Accessible storage space is essential. Pathways should not be overhung by plants or trees or obstructed by garden furniture.

5. Avoid Glare. Use non-reflective materials, such as matt tiles and flooring, especially in bathrooms and kitchens. Use lampshades and vertical blinds to prevent glare from lights and windows.

6. Appliances. Controls should be clear and, where possible, tactile or audible. Put simple tactile stickers on equipment, from cookers to kettles.

Entrances, Halls and Stairways. Change door handles to a lever type with an inward curve at the end and in a colour that contrasts with the door. Fit a textured surface or coloured strip in the middle of stairs and steps. Fix a floor indicator at the top and bottom of stairs, and in shared accommodation outside lifts. This can be as simple as placing drawing pins to the wall to denote the floor number. Fix letter cages on the backs of front doors.

Kitchens, Utilities and Laundry Areas. People who like to cook may want better cooker controls; others may want better lighting in cupboards. Reduce the risk of bumping into cupboard doors by removing them to create open shelves or add a colour paint or tape strip to the leading edge. Install shaded lighting immediately above work areas.

Living and Dining Areas. Clear and logical layouts make movement safer and allow easy access to windows, switches and controls. Position furniture to make best use of light and space and to make easy routes in and through the area. Install vertical blinds. Keep windows clean and clear of obstructions.

Bedrooms. Ease of moving around is especially important and different uses of the room might require different lighting or furnishings. Position furniture to make best use of light and space to make getting in and out of bed easy, and provide clear routes in and through the room. Change lampshades, light fittings and bulbs to make the best use of light and reduce glare. Ensure that switches and electrical sockets are not obstructed by furniture or curtains.

Bathrooms. Fit a magnifying mirror, a toilet seat in a contrasting colour, and/or taps that are easy to use and are clearly marked for hot and cold.

"Housing for People with Sight Loss: A Practical Guide to Improving Existing Homes" is available from (research).

Adapted from NB, the Sight Loss and Eye Health Magazine, Issue 45, August 2009.

About AEBC:

An upcoming issue of the CBM will focus

on presenting success stories, aimed at

inspiring others and highlighting

accomplishments. Anyone interested in

contributing to this issue is invited to write

a one-page piece on any aspect of life you

consider a success of yours or a person

you know. Send stories to

bcooke@blindcanadians.ca.

THE NEW VISION OF ARTIFICIAL SIGHT TECHNOLOGY

Latest Aids are Easier to Wear, More Powerful

By: Grant Buckler

Millions of people in North America have vision (restrictions) glasses can't correct but that electronic devices might help. Vision aids that use electronics and software to enhance images have been cumbersome in the past, but they are getting easier to wear and more powerful.

An Ottawa start-up called eSight is one of the companies bringing computer-assisted vision technology to market. It hopes to complete a prototype this summer of a vision aid that looks like a pair of stylish sunglasses, with the addition of an electronic device that clips to your belt.

The glasses have a built-in miniature camera and image processing software running on the belt-mounted unit that will manipulate the camera's image in different ways to help people with various vision impairments see better. For instance, the software can enhance contrast, make the edges of objects more visible and even zoom in on a specific part of the field of vision. This helps patients with conditions like diabetic retinopathy that make vision blurry.

ESight expects a functional prototype of its vision aid to be ready this summer. (eSight) Ordinary optical lenses can enlarge an image and improve its contrast to a point, but that's the limit of the improvements they can offer, says the company's president, Rob Hilkes. With software, "we can quite dramatically play with brightness and contrast, so that the image that you see is quite different from what you would see with an optical lens," he says.

The eSight system can also perform special tricks aimed at solving other (sight limitations). For instance, advanced macular degeneration creates a blind spot right in the middle of the patient's field of vision. It's as if a cloud was hovering right in front of you, blocking your view of whatever you look at directly. People with this condition often learn to compensate by looking to one side of whatever they actually want to look at, so the object is outside the blind spot.

ESight is working on software--it won't be in this summer's prototype but should be in the final commercial product, Hilkes says--that maps the image captured by its camera to fit around the blind spot, so the words on a printed page would appear to curve around a central hole in the person's field of view.

Hilkes says eSight, which has backing from the government-run Ontario Centres of Excellence program, has already built a "proof of concept" of its vision aid. The bulky early version, built last year, "makes you look more like Darth Vader," he says, noting the prototype coming later this year will look more or less like regular sunglasses. The belt-mounted control box for the prototype will also be a bit bulkier than the final version, he says.

Hilkes says the company hopes to offer a "commercial prototype" in limited quantities by early next year and mass produce it by late 2010. Initially, he expects the cost to be in the $3,000 range.

He is also eyeing a large market of potential customers. Across North America, there are about 1,000 specialists working in around 500 clinics, whose primary practice is helping people with low vision, Hilkes says. "It's through those facilities that we believe the majority of our sales will occur," he says.

Most patients will have to pay for the devices themselves, though Hilkes is hopeful insurance plans and government programs may cover them in the future.

Other E-Vision Aids: Hilkes says the eSight unit is the first system of its kind--no existing device does quite the same things in as compact a package. One that comes close, though, is the SightMate from Vuzix Corp. in Rochester, N.Y., Vuzix' SightMate LV920 magnifies images up to 10 times. It also detects edges between objects and makes them clearer, it can freeze images, and its software can help compensate for colour blindness.

The current version of the SightMate, just introduced and available direct from the company at for $1,999 US, is a black visor that fits over the wearer's eyes, which has a camera in the middle. Gary Van Camp, vice-president of medical products for the company, says the next version will look more like designer sunglasses, with tiny cameras mounted in the frames at either side.

Vuzix also offers handheld add-ons for magnifying print, which can be used with the SightMate or an ordinary television set as the display.

“The number of people who could be helped by this is probably in the millions in North America alone.”--Dr. Rejean Munger, chief scientist for eSight

A veteran among head-mounted electronic magnifiers is the Jordy, from Enhanced Vision Inc. of Huntington Beach, Calif.

The Jordy can magnify objects up to 30 times, far more than is possible with a traditional magnifying glass, and provides a wider field of vision than any optical magnifier, says Michelle Williams, Enhanced Vision's director of sales and marketing. It can be strapped on the head or fitted into a desktop mount that increases the magnification and provides added light. But the head-mounted portion is noticeably bulkier than a pair of glasses, and it projects three or four centimetres out from the face.

Williams says the technology exists today to shrink the unit into something that looks like a pair of sunglasses, but the cost would be too high for most of the market. She predicts a glasses-like version within about five years. The current Jordy sells for $2,795 US.

Dr. Rejean Munger is chief scientist for eSight and a senior scientist at the University of Ottawa Eye Institute at the Ottawa Hospital. He says making electronic vision aids lighter and less obtrusive will mean more people will wear them and for longer periods.

"A lot of these people don't want to appear like they're wearing a space helmet when they're in public," he says, adding many find the bulkier units too heavy to wear for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time.

Devices like these can't help everyone with vision (restrictions), Dr. Munger warns--they will do nothing for people who are entirely blind, and those with limited vision shouldn't expect to start driving or playing soccer. But, he says, "The number of people who could be helped by this is probably in the millions in North America alone."

Reprinted from CBC News, August 13, 2009.

HOPE FOR FUTURE CANCER PATIENTS

By: Kathy Nessner

I was born in 1952 and was a healthy baby. When I was about six months old, however, my mother began to notice I was having difficulty focusing when looking at something, and before long that I could no longer see her when she stood in my bedroom doorway. Although our family physician in the small northern Ontario town where we lived did not think that anything was amiss, he eventually referred us to a specialist in Kirkland Lake, the city closest to our home. It was there that my mother learned I had bilateral retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer of the eyes that, if not treated, would be fatal. My parents had never heard of it before.

Retinoblastoma (RB) occurs in children from the time they are in the womb up to the age of five years, and accounts for about three percent of pediatric cancers in those under the age of 15. Approximately 60% of cases are unilateral (affecting one eye), with the remaining 40% being bilateral (affecting both eyes). While RB is curable if caught early, 87% of affected children worldwide die, mostly in developing countries. In developed countries, 97% of those who do live have moderate to severe vision impairment.

In the 1950s, when I was diagnosed with RB, there were very few treatment options. Radiation therapy was available in New York, but my mother was told that it created a great deal of facial scarring, and often didn’t work. The second option was radical surgery to the affected eyes, which could result in blindness. My ophthalmologist at Toronto’s Sick Children’s Hospital, where I was taken in the winter of 1955, felt my condition had progressed beyond the point where radiation would help, and so in order to save my life my mother signed a consent form to have both of my eyes removed and replaced with prosthetic ones. About two months before my third birthday, I entered the hospital with enough vision to remember seeing my mother standing just outside my room talking to a nurse. When I left the hospital, I saw nothing, and all I really remember is a feeling of extreme confusion at people being able to see me but I couldn’t see them.

But I adapted to my situation, and for the most part I had a happy childhood. I was a curious and adventurous child, and I taught myself to do just about everything my sighted friends did. I grew up, obtained a university degree, and after a few other jobs began working at Statistics Canada.

As far back as I can remember, I wanted to have children. For me, becoming a mother was more important than anything else at that time. When I learned at the age of 23 that the retinoblastoma that had caused my blindness was 50% hereditary, I was devastated. Between the ages of 23 and 30, I struggled with the numerous ethical issues this raised. Friends and family regularly voiced their opinions about people with hereditary conditions starting families, with one individual even saying that it would be “socially irresponsible” for me to have children. At the age of 30, however, I was married, and my husband and I decided to start a family.

Unlike my parents before me, and thanks to modern advances in genetic research and treatment options, my husband and I were able to inform ourselves about retinoblastoma before we had children. I contacted the National Cancer Institute of Canada during my first pregnancy and was provided with a great deal of literature on this particular form of pediatric eye cancer, as well as the name of a doctor at Sick Children’s Hospital who specialized in this condition. Under her guidance, every possible step was taken to ensure that, if the condition existed in any of our children, measures to arrest the progress of the disease would be taken as soon as possible.

We had two children--Philip in 1984 and Alena in 1987. Philip was monitored regularly from birth until he was two years old to make sure he was clear, and a later blood test showed that he does not carry the RB gene. Alena, however, was found to have two tiny tumours on one eye and three on the other when she was four months old. From then on, we travelled once a month from our home in Ottawa to Toronto, then every two months, every three months, etc. Lazar and cryo (freezing) therapies--treatments that were not available during the 1950s--were used to arrest the growth of the tumours. By the time Alena was two years old, the tumours had faded into scars that seemed to have had no effect on her vision. In April of 1990, Alena’s doctor said, “Yes, I would say this child is cured.” We then visited the hospital every year till she was 14 and every two years till she was 18. Since the scars have remained quiet and she has passed the age when any retinal tumours might occur, Alena can now make annual visits to a local retinoblastoma specialist.

Thanks to the great strides in cancer research, my daughter has full vision in both eyes and is a healthy young woman. We are fortunate in Canada to have access to world leaders in the diagnosis, treatment and genetic analysis of retinoblastoma. Consequently, the survival rate in Canada is now about 96%.

For further information, visit the Canadian Retinoblastoma Society’s website at or Retinoblastoma International at .

Adapted from the March 2007 edition of @StatCan, the newsletter of Statistics Canada.

Photo: Alena in her Christening gown being held by her mother Kathy Nessner.

Photo: Alena in her prom dress many years later

NETWORK BRINGS TOGETHER PARENTS WITH DISABILITIES

By: Helen Henderson

Your husband indulges your children because his parents didn't. When you object, they run to him. What do you do? Be strict and tell him too much indulgence could cause damage?

Find a balance? Kids understand things better when both parents speak the same language. Say: "Oh, yeah, I'm the nagging witch and he's Mr. Perfect?"

There's a lot more to parenting than physical caregiving. So why does society so often do a number on parents who move or communicate or process information differently from the mainstream?

The question of how to strike a balance between the nagging witch and Mr. Perfect was part of a little "icebreaker" pop psychology at a meeting of the Parenting with a Disability Network last week. Adapted from the parenting style section of , it drew some knowing smiles.

But other questions soon sprang to the fore: How do you talk to your child's teacher? How do you educate people, such as social workers or other professionals who cling to stereotypes and prejudice? How do you make sure the school makes parent involvement accessible and inclusive? How do you discuss disability with your children, help them develop the confidence to deal with questions about why their mother or father uses a wheelchair?

There's no question that society imposes a whole layer of extra issues for parents with a disability to cope with. Like any group perceived to be different, they know they learn most from each other. Which is what it's all about at the parenting network, coordinated by the Centre For Independent Living in Toronto (CILT).

There's the physical side of things: How do you find a good obstetrician, midwife, doula? Where can you get a side-opening crib or other infant-care equipment for parents who use wheelchairs?

What about CILT's nurturing assistance project, which offers parents physical help to nurse their children, cuddle them, change diapers, give baths--all that day-to-day stuff?

But by far the biggest barriers are attitudes. Horror stories abound of mothers having their children literally snatched from their breast by social service personnel who never take the trouble to learn about support systems. The fear of unwarranted intervention always lurks in the background.

"The system labels you incompetent from the start," says Ing Wong-Ward, mother of a thriving 18-month-old daughter.

The parenting network, funded by the United Way of Greater Toronto, links parents, prospective parents, and anyone who cares passionately about making sure mothers and fathers with disabilities are treated with the respect they deserve. It offers information, peer support and advice on a wide range of resources.

"There are no stupid questions," says coordinator Nancy Barry. And it's never too early to contact the group, she adds.

Email peers @ cilt.ca, phone 416-599-3555, ext. 227, TTY: 416-599-5077, or check cilt.ca.

Reprinted from the Toronto Star, September 26, 2009, courtesy of Torstar Syndication Services.

INTERNATIONAL CORNER

UK's First Educational e-Book Library Launched Online

The UK's (United Kingdom) first online library of educational textbooks in a range of digital formats accessible to visually impaired students has been launched. ”Books for All” is a joint project between The Seeing Ear (), a website which provides electronic books for visually disabled people, and the University of Edinburgh. It allows authorized and registered teachers and students with visual impairments to access an online catalogue of alternative format educational books for free.

Accessible books are uploaded to the database by teachers, and can then be freely downloaded by other schools or registered users in formats such as plain text, Word and PDF. Tony Dart, chief executive of The Seeing Ear, said the system should eliminate the problem of people across the UK having to convert the same book into a format accessible for visually impaired students many times. "If a book is a set text, it's very often converted locally, with varying degrees of quality. This way, we can have one person upload an e-book to make it available for everybody."

Dart said that if successful, the project would have a "vast and positive impact" on accessible e-learning. There are currently around 100 educational titles available through the service, and Dart says he hopes this number will increase as more schools join. Around 250 schools are already registered.

Future plans to improve the service include a collaborative editing system to correct any mistakes to uploaded texts, and an online converter to automatically switch between accessible formats as required.

Reprinted from E-Access Bulletin, ISSUE 120, December 2009, the free email newsletter on access technology by people with impaired vision: eab

Climate change and disability: a burning issue

By: Tom Shakespeare

Known for his work in the Disability Studies field, academic Dr. Tom Shakespeare is also interested in the environment. This month he has come across recently written papers on where the two areas collide. Scenes in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina.

I've just spent 30 minutes on the phone, arranging wheelchair assistance for one of my frequent visits to Geneva. This time it was more complicated, because I am travelling by train, and my meagre French was tested to the limit trying to book help on French and Swiss railways. But minimizing extra flights seems the least I can do to contribute to avoiding global warming. Amidst all the dire warnings, I had heard nothing so far about the impact of climate change on disabled people, until I read a recent essay by my friends Leslie Swartz and Kumanan Rasanathan. They argue that climate change is a health and disability issue. Given that global warming will disproportionately affect the world's poor, and that the world's poor are disproportionately likely to be disabled people, they conclude logically that our disabled brothers and sisters in the developing world will bear the brunt of the impact.

Following up their piece, I came across the Human Impact Report on "Climate Change--The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis", published by the Global Humanitarian Forum here in Geneva. It is as alarming as it is glossy, showing that while 235 million people are currently directly affected by climate change, this will rise to 660 million by 2030.

From the projections in the report, it seems that many factors will cause problems for disabled people in particular. For example, we can expect more heat waves. Increased heat contributes to worsening health, due to things like asthma and strokes. The 2003 heat wave in Europe killed 35,000 people in five countries, and it was older people and disabled people who were the worst affected. Higher temperatures also mean that diseases such as malaria will become more widespread. It is estimated that climate change related deaths will increase to 500,000 by 2030.

Drought and famine will have a big impact. Already, 1.3 billion people in the world suffer water scarcity. Global warming is projected to cause a 50% reduction in food yield by 2020. Already, drought reduced food yield in Uganda by 30% in some areas in 2008. Currently, 40% of child deaths in Uganda are caused by malnutrition, and 38% of children under 5 are stunted because of lack of food.

By contrast, in Indonesia too much rainfall also affects food yield: in some regions, 50% of children are stunted. It is well known that food shortages, and particularly lack of micronutrients, cause physical and mental impairments.

A third example is the increase in climate-related disasters, such as hurricanes and flooding. According to the insurer Munich Re, there has been a 40% increase in weather related disasters since 1980. There are currently 400 weather related disasters per year.

It is well known that disabled and older people are more vulnerable in emergencies. For example, 60% of the deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina were in people aged 65 or older. By 2030, 350 million people worldwide will be affected by natural disasters. More awareness is needed of the particular needs of disabled people in emergencies.

Finally, the problems of food and water scarcity, plus natural disasters, plus rise in sea level, will generate more displaced people. Already, there are 26 million climate- displaced people in the world, and each year, another 1m are displaced due to climate related disasters. These figures are projected to triple by 2030, with low-lying islands and countries like Bangladesh particularly vulnerable.

Migration is more complex for disabled people, who will face access and transport barriers, and are not likely to be a priority when it comes to resettlement.

To summarize, the message from these projections seems to be that because of global warming, more people might become disabled; more disabled people are likely to become sick or die; and that disabled people will be more affected by factors such as famine, weather disaster and consequent migration. The obvious conclusion is that climate change is a disability rights issue.

Faced by the reality documented in this and other global reports on global warming, my individual decisions to use the train rather than fly, or use my manual chair rather than the power chair, can only be trivial acts of conscience. But perhaps together, when the millions of disabled people in the world add their voices to the campaign for climate action, we can help make a difference.

Reprinted from BBC Ouch, October 23, 2009.

Photo: Tom Shakespeare, a Research Fellow at Newcastle University. His non-fiction books include Genetics Politics: from Eugenics to Genome and The Sexual Politics of Disability

NEW RESOURCES

Compiled by: John Rae, AEBC 1st Vice President

- A growing number of Canadians are realizing that success in combating poverty depends on action being rooted in a strong human rights framework. To watch a 9-minute video entitled The Story of Human Rights, go to:

- Critical Disability Discourse (CDD) is an online, bilingual, interdisciplinary journal that publishes articles focusing on disability experiences. Access the journal at:

- "The Consumer Vision" is a publication covering topics of interest to people with disabilities. To read past issues, visit . For information, contact Bob Branco at branco182@worldnet. or 508-994-4972.

- The American Foundation for the Blind is offering a reduced rate for its individual subscriptions to the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB). For $65 (U.S.) individual subscribers receive 12 print issues of the journal and online access to more than 10 years of content. A one-year online individual subscription costs $25 (non-U.S. subscribers will be charged an additional $36 for shipping&handling). Contact AFB Press at 800-232-3044, email afbpress@ or visit:

- ABISee offers the Eye-Pal SOLO, a self-contained device that instantly reads from newspapers, books, magazines etc. Simply place a document face up on the device, and it reads the printed material aloud. It can also output magnified text to a screen. Requires no computer skills or sighted assistance. Learn more at:

- HumanWare recently released its Orator software for BlackBerry Smartphones. This screen reader application enables blind users to access and operate BlackBerry Smartphones. For further information, visit:

- The Audio Dart Master is a fully speaking electronic dartboard featuring talking menus and game instructions, announcements of every hit, inside and outside indicators, large buttons and more. Dart games offered include various countdowns, high score, golf, baseball and cricket. Also available are a portable stand, roll-out carpet and tactile toe line. Visit or call (763) 383-0077.

- "Stitch by Stitch: Sewing with Low Vision" is a 185-page book providing detailed descriptions and large images of adaptive techniques and tools for such crafts as sewing, knitting and embroidery. Also included is a chapter on locating low vision aids. Available in large print only, for $25 (U.S.). Contact Horizons for the Blind at (815) 444-8800, or email: mail@horizons-

IN MAY 2011

THE ALLIANCE FOR EQUALITY OF BLIND CANADIANS

WILL HOLD ITS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

IN BRANTFORD, ONTARIO

In early 2011 check our website for more details



ANNOUNCING

THE PRIZE WINNERS FOR THE 2 DRAWS OF $100

IN THE CBM SURVEY & CONTEST

WINNERS: Monika Penner (Edmonton, Alberta)

& Laura Bulk (Saanichton, British Columbia)

The draws were made at the Annual General Meeting of AEBC

On May 23, 2010 at the Hotel Express, Montreal Quebec

Thank you to all who participated

About AEBC:

Memberships in AEBC can now be purchased and renewed online by using your PayPal account or credit card. To fill out the membership application and renew your AEBC membership, please visit



Some of the proud supporters of the Canadian Blind Monitor:

FRONTIER computing

KINDER MORGAN CANADA INC.

Spears

Sales & service LTD.

Synergy ENGINEERING LTD.

Sweetan – The Sunshine Company

Dr. Fouad Tayfour

Tony Roma’s

Tristar Collision

Twin Lakes Golf Coarse

Twin Willows Golf Club

Vancouver Animal Wellness Hospital

Vancouver Canadians Baseball

Victoria Central Lions Club

Western Institute for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing

Watkins Products

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