UN-remarkable!
As we write this, the United Nations is celebrating ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which promotes all kinds of things dear to our hearts, including the need to “Work on and encourage new technologies in all aspects of life that are useful for people with disabilities, especially those that are low cost” and “Provide information about all types of assistance, including technologies, and other forms of assistance, in a way that can be understood by people with disabilities.” Ratification came pretty quickly; we’ll send good vibes that first efforts towards implementation do as well.
Legal Web tangles
Think it’s OK to have an inaccessible website because none of your countrymen have complained about it? Think again. A blind British woman is suing the American company that forbade her from using her screen reader to access an employment exam, and has already been awarded about $6,000 just for “injury to [her] feelings.” One lawyer points out this implication: “A blind person in the UK could argue a right to sue a US company in a UK court for discrimination if the US company has a website that is not accessible to him and he can show that that US company has taken orders from other UK consumers.”
FCC rulings could affect mainstream accessibility
Right now, technology consumers are essential captives of their cable TV and wireless phone service providers: you can only use the settop boxes provided by your cable company, and the wireless handsets supported by your wireless phone company. But the FCC may be moving in a direction that will change all that, opening up competition in hardware and software.
Remember what the FCC did to open up wireline phone competition, and how new products and services exploded onto the market? Because of that 1968 “Carterphone decision”, we now have a wide range of accessible options. (Of course, it could be argued that having such a profusion of products means that consumers must chase after information about accessibility features. The market giveth, and the market giveth too damn much.)
We may be on the brink of a similar profusion explosion in the TV and wireless phone worlds. Imagine settop boxes with built-in screen readers, and cell phones that integrate with relay services. Tomorrow’s assistive technology products could look like today’s mainstream products, and vice versa.
FCC ruling changed phone industry in 1968; it could happen again today - USATODAY.com
LG’s Prada phone “boasts” touchscreen interface
Just great. Apple releases its touchscreen-only phone and starts a fashion orgy of inaccessibility. Ever try using a touchscreen interface in the dark? Is that where they keep the designers? If there are no keys, there’s nothing to feel for, be you blind or just blind drunk. Definitely not compliant with accessibility regs. Doesn’t anyone want to sell to the federal government?
New York City’s 911 will receive video
Deaf citizens have been asking for text and video access to E911 for years. Slowly, painfully, community 911 call centers have added support for TTYs. Now New York, New York — the town so hard of hearing you have to say its name twice — appears on the brink of being able to receive live video images from wireless devices. We’d feel better if we thought that someone somewhere had given any thought to integrating deaf and hard of hearing citizens.
Silent Secretaries of State
A new website, created by all the US secretaries of state, is supposed to be a step-by-step guide to voting. I guess they mean that “step-by-step” part literally; absolutely no mention of accessibility.
Verizon out of the phone business?
In a zen-of-business move, Verizon is considering selling its wireline telephone business so it can focus on broadband and wireless. So what would happen to all the accessibility-savvy folks? Can we have them federalized, like the Arkansas National Guard? Seriously, Verizon has one of the best collection of internal accessibility champions of any company anywhere.
We dread hearing James Earl Jones for WalMarTel….