UPDATE: FeedFliks: A New Way To Search for Netflix Instant Watch Movies with Captions

I wrote yesterday about FeedFliks, a search engine that, among other things, enables you to search for captioned InstantWatch movies on Netflix -- a great benefit for deaf Netflix users who would like to watch instantly streamed movies in captions, but have limited options for searching and viewing them. Since then, Mike Chapman, the creator and editor of the "ncmacasl" InstantWatch captioned database which I also cited yesterday, sent a tweet in response, saying that FeedFliks is not the only automated search engine with the capability of searching for captioned InstantWatch movies. He pointed me to InstantWatcher.com, which apparently does the same job as FeedFliks in searching for captioned instant-streaming movies.  Chapman further said that his own website, at 580+ movies and counting, is still the largest database of captioned InstantWatch movies. An admirable feat, when you consider that he has to manually search for these movies himself (now with some help from the web community).Thanks, Mike Chapman, for sharing.

FeedFliks: A New Way To Search for Netflix Instant Watch Movies with Captions

Netflix's "Instant Watch" online movie streaming feature has become a sore topic for deaf movie enthusiasts, because it provides limited captioning options in comparison to the much more extensive DVD library, and -- even where captioning is available in the "Watch Instantly" library -- this feature is not searchable. This has prompted a deaf movie enthusiast to manually build a library of captioned movies he could locate himself, and, as a public service, list these movies on his own website. It is now a popular site for deaf Netflix customers.I just learned today about a much more efficient way to search for captioned instant-watch movies. FeedFliks -- available for free at its own website, and through the Netflix App Gallery -- is a robust search engine for Netflix movies, with the ability to search for movies by specific characteristics, including whether it is subtitled or closed captioned. These results can be filtered by DVD or Instant Watch, giving deaf viewers the ability to identify Instant Watch movies they could watch in captions.

Making Travel Websites Accessible For Blind Travelers

Before the late 1990s, air travel was often booked through airlines and travel agents, either in person or over the phone. After the Internet was widely adopted in the mid-1990s, online travel booking websites like Expedia and Orbitz took on the lion's share of the work done by travel agents, leveling the playing field for deaf and hard-of-hearing travelers who otherwise needed help booking over the phone, or drove to the nearest travel agent office to make their arrangements. Yet, what has been an immeasurable benefit for deaf travelers has come at the expense of blind travelers, who find these online travel websites difficult to access, and continue to arrange their itineraries by phone or in person, or rely on sighted people to make the online arrangements for them.The explosion of online travel booking websites has made it significantly easier for most travelers to make their own travel arrangements -- it takes just a few minutes to purchase airfare and book a hotel, compared to the one hour it usually takes over the phone (mostly waiting time). Yet, in today's transformed travel landscape, where travel agents have less clout, and mom-and-pop travel agencies are closing up shop, it is increasingly more difficult for blind travelers to navigate the travel booking business. Which is unfortunate because the best airline deals are usually found online.This may be about to change. On Monday, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) announced an agreement with Travelocity, one of the leading online travel agencies, to make Travelocity's web site more accessible to people with blindness. As part of the agreement, by July 2011, Travelocity will make its home page and search pages accessible, and its entire web site will be fully accessible to the blind by the end of March 2012.With this announcement, Travelocity becomes the first major online travel agency to commit to ensuring its website is accessible to travelers with blindness. Other major online travel websites such as Expedia and Orbitz still contain significant accessibility barriers for travelers. And in today's Web 2.0 environment, when travelers increasingly go to meta-search engines like Kayak and Hipmunk to find the best travel deals, these meta-search engines are not easily accessible for the blind, either.As more business-to-consumer and business-to-business transactions are increasingly being conducted online on both desktop and mobile devices, web accessibility for people with disabilities has become mission-critical. It is not simply enough to be able to buy books and kitchen gadgets on Amazon.com, or to bid for antiques on eBay. Starbucks recently announced that its Starbucks Card mobile app now enables you to pay for your coffee with your smartphone. In an increasingly cashless economy, blind consumers should not only be able to book their airline tickets on the Web, but also carry out transactions on other Websites and mobile devices. Travelocity's announcement only scratches the surface of what is possible, not only for blind travelers, but for all consumers with disabilities.

Readability for Your Browser

The Yahoo! Accessibility Lab brought to my attention a very helpful add-on for the browser: the Readability app developed by Arc90, available here as a Firefox-add on, or directly from the Readability page for all browsers.  I had become acquainted with the Readability concept last month when I downloaded the Reeder RSS application for my Mac and iPhone, and immediately saw its potential value for people with vision, cognitive, and/or mobility issues.I am a hard-core RSS user, as I like to read through many different articles posted on various news and business sites and blogs on the Internet, and appreciate the efficiency of the RSS readers in pushing through the articles I need to keep up to date on a daily basis -- in other words, my personal daily newspaper.  One of my favorite RSS readers is Reeder (available for the Mac and iPhone), which has a Readability feature that enables me to read only the article content without the fonts, styles, and backgrounds associated with the website where the article natively resides -- saving me the work of jumping to a separate browser to read the article.Apparently, the other useful benefit of Readability is that it enables those with vision, cognitive, or mobility issues to control how the content of individual articles is presented. With the separate Firefox add-on from Arc90 (no RSS reader necessary), you can control the font size, the appearance of the page, and choose whether to present links in-line or as separate footnotes. You can also set Readability to auto-scroll at different speeds.Readability can also be set up by dragging the Readability bookmarklet from this site to the browser's toolbar, regardless of browser.  It is not clear, however, if auto-scroll can be controlled via this bookmarklet.This application works best on webpages for individual articles, which is what Readability is intended for.  It will not work correctly for home pages where there are many different links to individual articles, such as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal home page.I tested Readability on my own blog, and it worked very well.  A smartly thought-out concept.

Do We Have Enough Data on People with Disabilities?

Yesterday, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the United States celebrated the pioneering achievements of a great 20th-century civil rights leader.  Although Martin Luther King, Jr.'s agenda, when he was alive, was equality, justice and freedom for all African-Americans, the U.S. civil rights laws he helped enact in the 1960s had reverberations far beyond the community he fought for.  For people with disabilities, the results of King's civil rights efforts helped give voice to a broad-based disability movement that started in the 1980's by campaigning against lack of adequate services for people with disabilities, culminating with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.  Thanks to the efforts of disability leaders across the United States and around the world, people with disabilities enjoy a quality of life that surpasses that of their peers of earlier times.Yet, there is still much to be done.  Last week, according to Disability Scoop, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that it "[wasn't] able to obtain a complete picture of the health experiences of people with disabilities as compared to others simply because too little information exists." In its report, titled "CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report -- United States, 2011," the CDC looked at income, race and gender and how they help predict whether a person is likely to be healthy or not healthy.  Yet, compared to these factors, for which enough data was available for every one of the 22 topics it explored, the CDC could draw on data for people with disabilities for just eight of these topics.In other words, we as a country do not know enough about what Americans with disabilities experience with respect to their health.  I am not an expert on health insurance, but it would not be surprising if medical insurers have a less complete picture of the health situations of people with disabilities compared to those by race or income, leading them to deny coverage for some people with disabilities where they most need it, or to set premiums that are out of alignment with what the data should show.  For example, cochlear implants are mostly covered, but (cheaper) hearing aids are not covered for the most part.  How much of that decision not to cover hearing aids is based on incomplete data?  Hard to say, but it sounds plausible if there is unreliable data to guide actuarial decisions.Health care is a very sensitive political issue for this generation, and as an impartial writer, I do not choose to tread in the political debates on this issue.  Yet, on the topic of coverage for people with disabilities -- many of whom are increasingly baby boomers who are approaching retirement age -- it is essential that there be complete and accurate data on their health experiences, so that insurers, legislators and citizens are better-informed on what actions to take with regard to insurance for them.That there is little data on the health experiences of people with disabilities, compared to other groups, is unfortunate.  While more people with disabilities are living healthier lives thanks to better assistive devices and better services, there is still much to do to ensure they are treated on the same level as those without disabilities on every aspect of their lives -- including health insurance.  Greater efforts to procure more complete data on people with disabilities would be a good start.

Googling "Gone with the Wind"

The New York Times reported yesterday that YouTube, a Google subsidiary, is in negotiations to purchase Next New Networks, the leading provider of original video programming for the Internet. While it is too early to comment because it is not a done deal, this has some interesting implications for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Even if this deal falls through, it would not be surprising if there are future efforts to acquire companies that independently produce original video content for the Web.As a video site best known for hosting mom-and-pop video content, YouTube's possible acquisition of Next New Networks would effectively bring YouTube into more direct competition with commercial video content distributors like Hulu and Netflix. In the accessibility space, what separates YouTube from Netflix is its pioneering automatic transcription technology, which automatically captions any spoken dialogue on its videos without any human intervention. Does it mean that automatic transcription will extend to content that is typically the domain of Hulu and Blip.tv? As it stands today, independent web providers have not responded well to requests to caption their content.While automatic transcription is not a sure thing today -- its accuracy is far below acceptable access standards for closed-captioning, and it may take years for the accuracy to approach that of an average-quality human captioner -- there is the possibility that deaf and hard-of-hearing people could start to enjoy so-called Webisodes on a par with their hearing peers, with little or no cost to the Webisode providers.In the last ten years, the deaf and hard-of-hearing community has found itself increasingly shut out of most video content on the Internet. Prior to the advent of the Internet as a mass medium in the mid-1990's, all commercial video content not shown at movie theaters was shown on only one other medium -- the television set. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990, and a comprehensive closed captioning infrastructure made it possible for the deaf and hard-of-hearing to enjoy closed captioned video content on almost the same terms as their hearing peers. There was no other major video distribution medium besides the television and the silver screen, so the existing captioning infrastructure was adequate to address all available video content then as required by law.While the pre-broadband Internet had some negative impact on video accessibility for the deaf, the arrival of YouTube and the wide adoption of broadband Internet resulted in an explosion of video content which is not closed captioned, and far outnumbers traditional TV and movie content. While most online video content is non-commercial (i.e., uploaded by individuals like you and me) and thus out of the realm of commercial captioning agencies, there are hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of hours of commercially produced online video content that is not required to be captioned under existing pre-2010 laws. The recently signed Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, the first major law ever to mandate captioning for Internet-broadcast videos, only covers online content originally broadcast on television. However, even if all online video content is required to be captioned, the current infrastructure cannot support captioning of all video content. The lack of a digital/online video broadcasting format standard and the sheer amount of online commercial video content are major roadblocks.From a business standpoint, it makes practical sense that YouTube would consider this acquisition. It is the Wild West in the online video programming arena -- network-supported Web channels are battling with scores of independent web networks that have sprung up in the past several years. Yet, in any industry that sees too many companies pursuing the same set of consumers, it is inevitable that at some point there will be fewer existing web networks, as many of them will either die out, or be acquired by larger companies including traditional cable and broadcast networks, and major video content distributors such as Google.The coming industry consolidation may make it easier for the remaining companies to support captioning standards for their video content. Whether it is automatic transcription, or other pieces of technology that can address the issue of captioning millions of hours of online video content, it is highly likely that something will be done to effectively address online video accessibility for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. There is a strong business case for this: transcribing all video content will make the video content searchable. As the world's leading search engine, Google -- the parent of YouTube -- already recognizes the value of entering the video programming arena.

Abledbody Publishes White Paper on Video Accessibility for The Disabled

Today, Suzanne Robitaille and I have released a white paper which takes a look at the current state of video accessibility in the context of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which was signed into law this past October by President Obama. It assesses the scope of the new law and its limitations, and what needs to be done in the future to make the rest of the online video programming landscape accessible to people with disabilities.The white paper can be accessed here, or click on the image on the left.Suzanne will speak this afternoon at a public hearing in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Department of Justice. The public hearing will cover possible revisions to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations, including Web accessibility, movie captioning and video description -- the same topics covered by our white paper.Click here for the press release.

Designing A Potato Peeler For Everyone

I love cooking, so every holiday season my thoughts turn to Williams-Sonoma or Sur La Table.  Shopping is one of my least favorite activities, but when I pass by one of these stores, I have an irresistible urge to go inside and seek the latest kitchen gadget. Some of my favorite gadgets come from OXO, a company that develops inexpensive, beautifully designed yet utilitarian products such as the Good Grips line of kitchen utensils.I like them because they are easy to use, comfortable on my hands, and possess a clean and simple design. It was not until years later that I learned OXO is a dedicated advocate of what is termed "universal design,"or the design of a product used by, and accessible to, everyone. So that potato peeler I was using apparently is easy to hold because it has a fat, non-slip grip handle. Good for people with arthritis (which I don't have -- yet). And that salad spinner can be used with just one hand, without holding the bowl. Nice.Products manufactured specifically for people with disabilities, like wheelchairs, eye-tracking devices, and hearing aids, are examples of "accessible design" -- in other words, they carry no tangible benefits for people who do not have disabilities. On the other hand, universal design, or UD, products are designed for everyone including people with disabilities. These UD products are not specifically restricted to gadgets in the kitchen -- they include anything that is used by anyone, even building design. In fact, one of the most concrete examples of UD in action are long-running efforts to incorporate this philosophy into the construction and retrofitting of buildings. Rem Koolhaas' Maison à Bordeaux is an excellent example of UD: this house in France was designed for a man who was paralyzed after an automobile accident.That I did not realize my favorite kitchen gadgets were modeled on the principles of universal design is the whole point of this philosophy. UD products are meant to be accessible, unobtrusive, and used by everyone without even realizing that it is meant to provide access. North Carolina State University, a pioneer in UD, provides an excellent summary of UD guidelines here.One of the benefits of universal design is its potential to reduce the costs needed to retrofit and restructure buildings and services to accommodate people with disabilities, by incorporating accessibility features into the main design. Examples include trench drains in curbless showers and stepless entrances in multifamily housing complexes.Another essential benefit of universal design, according to proponents, is to minimize the "separate but equal" stigma associated with accessibility features that, upon first look, appear to be specifically for people with disabilities. A wheelchair ramp that runs around the side of a building, with a guardrail that separates rather than incorporates, is one example of an access feature that is obtrusive and cannot be easily used by everyone. If the ramp can be meshed into the staircase, or inclines easily into the front entrance of a building in such a way that it can be used by everyone, then it is part of the aesthetics of the building, part of the main design, and is thus inclusive to everyone.Keep in mind that universal design is a philosophy. In practice, it is almost impossible for a product or building modeled on UD principles to be used by everyone regardless of capability. However, for the universal design concept to succeed, it should be used easily and comfortably by as many people as possible, whether young or old, with or without disabilities.From a business standpoint, universal design is a powerful way to maximize sales, by developing products and services that do not exclude any segment of the market based on age or ability.  This speaks to the long-term success of OXO, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year -- a testament to its ability to leverage universal design as an effective core competency, with products that delight its customers regardless of age or ability, and keep them coming back for more.In an aging world, led by baby boomers in developed economies, demand for disability-specific solutions has increased and will continue to do so.  This demand is further fueled by the phenomenon of a growing population of people born with disabilities who are living independently, thanks to technology and an increasingly powerful disability movement.  There is a place for accessible design that is geared toward the specific demands of people with disabilities.  Yet, as more people with disabilities share living and working spaces with people without disabilities, both groups would like to easily, comfortably and happily use the same products and services without the need for expensive duplication.  Properly implemented, universal design can reduce these resource and cost inefficiencies -- a win-win situation for both businesses and customers.Disclosure:  I do not own any shares in OXO's parent company, Helen of Troy Ltd., or have a business interest in OXO.

Travelers With Disabilities Flying the Not-So-Friendly Skies

This holiday season, many people will travel by air to spend time with family, hit the ski slopes, or relax on a tropical beach. As they too often expect, traveling on commercial airplanes is not always the most pleasant experience. Cramped legroom, baggage fees, subpar food, long check-in lines, even sitting next to someone with a cold -- they are aggravating and uncomfortable. For travelers with disabilities, it is a unique challenge because of the logistics involved in traveling efficiently through the air in very tight quarters. As they should, air carriers are obligated -- and in the United States required by law -- to accommodate travelers with disabilities.However, as a recent spate of incidents showed, there continues to be a lack of awareness among some airlines about the capabilities of travelers with disabilities when "flying the friendly skies." In these cases, travelers with disabilities were not accommodated for reasons of airline safety -- a claim that indicates ignorance of a disabled traveler's capabilities which have little to do with safety.In the United Kingdom, British carrier EasyJet informed Craig Murray, a teenager with muscular dystrophy, that his wheelchair was too heavy to be stowed aboard one of its airplanes, and told him to break it apart so it could go under the per-passenger weight limit for safety reasons. Craig's wheelchair was not designed to be taken apart, and he had already flown with this wheelchair on two other airlines in the past without incident. He and his family wanted to book with EasyJet for their Cyprus vacation because the tickets were cheaper than on other airlines. Without tickets from EasyJet, Craig's father said, "I don't think we will be able to afford to go [to Cyprus] now."In September, Johnnie Tuitel boarded a US Airways flight from Florida to Kansas City when, as he sat down in his seat, he was told by an airline manager that he was "too disabled to fly without someone else with him" and he was escorted off the plane. Tuitel, who has cerebral palsy, travels for work -- he is a motivational speaker -- and already flew 500,000 miles over the years without incident. He ended up boarding a Delta flight but missed his speaking engagement in Kansas City.Sometimes it is as simple as looking over the person and determining he or she can't fly. Zuhair Mahmoud, a blind man from Arlington, Virginia, was checking in at the Dubai airport for a FlyDubai flight to Amman, Jordan. At the check-in counter, he was told, "Well, we can't take you. You're traveling alone." FlyDubai's policy, apparently, was not to allow a blind traveler to fly without a companion.In this day and age when more people with disabilities are living independently, more travelers -- whether disabled or non-disabled -- are traveling by air and presenting air carriers with logistical challenges. In the United States, the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provide solid and enforceable guidelines to ensure the travel experience for a person with a disability is functionally equivalent to that of a non-disabled traveler. An essential clause of the ACAA states that "no air carrier may discriminate against any otherwise qualified individual with a disability." The ACAA covers all U.S.-registered air carriers and all carriers traveling to and from the United States. Code share partners also fall under the ACAA's jurisdiction. Outside the United States, member airlines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) observe codes of practice which are very similar to the laws enforced within the U.S. Yet among some airlines -- even larger and well-established airlines like US Airways -- there can be a lack of awareness of the minimum standards required to accommodate travelers with disabilities. These airlines often fall back on safety claims that have little to do with disability, particularly when these travelers have already demonstrated they can travel independently and safely. EasyJet, known among European travelers for its low fares within Europe, was insistent on enforcing weight limits on stowable baggage for safety reasons -- perhaps to avoid lawsuits or fines. By not making an exception for a single person with a disability who wanted to save money on his Cyprus vacation, the airline demonstrated a lack of business foresight in following IATA protocols, especially when other airlines were able to accommodate him. As a result, EasyJet received publicity it did not want, and it ruined a family's plans for some fun in the sun in Cyprus.By the same token, US Airways and FlyDubai used their own interpretation of safety protocols to explain their denials of service to Johnnie Tuitel and Zuhair Mahmoud, who are themselves frequent and independent fliers. This also resulted in negative publicity, as news of their treatment hit media wires around the world.Safety is paramount when flying on airplanes. Travelers with disabilities, on the other hand, have often traveled on airplanes on their own with little or no impact on safety. So, when an airline makes a determination that it cannot accommodate a traveler with a disability, it must have a very good reason for doing so on the basis of safety, or risk negative word-of-mouth, or worse yet, an unflattering story in the media.Most importantly, when airlines can move mountains to make travel as hassle-free as possible for these travelers, they often get paid back in the form of gratitude, loyalty, or better yet, repeat business from both disabled and non-disabled customers.  That is indeed flying the friendly skies.

Abledbody.com: Iceland's "Magga" Shines As First Deaf Parliament Member

During my visit to Iceland this summer, I met Sigurlín Margrét Sigurðardóttir, who was the first deaf person to serve in the Parliament of Iceland. She is a very fascinating individual.  I enjoyed listening to her stories about her time in Parliament, and her insights on the deaf and hard-of-hearing community in Iceland.  This had special resonance for me as a deaf person, because many years ago as a high school exchange student, I lived with a family in Iceland for an entire summer -- one of the most memorable experiences of my childhood.  I have written a profile of Sigurlín Margrét Sigurðardóttir at Abledbody.com -- click through to read the article.

Abledbody.com: A Steering Wheel With Ideas Of Its Own

In my latest article for Abledbody.com, I write about the potential of GPS devices for the deaf based on technology that provides tactile feedback, without the use of difficult-to-hear voice prompts common on current GPS devices.  To read the article, click here!

UPDATE: To Caption Or Not To Caption A Movie About Autism?

An update to this article I wrote yesterday: Gerardine Wurzburg, the director of "Wretches & Jabberers," a film about two autistic men traveling to three foreign countries, announced that its premiere at the Vermont International Film Festival on October 22nd "will be open captioned to insure full access to the film."  The two other showings of the movie at the film festival will continue to be open captioned as previously scheduled.

New Survey On Employment of Americans With Disabilities

Since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990, there has been substantial progress in efforts among people with disabilities (PwDs) to be functionally equal members of society here in the United States. However, on one important marker of PwD participation in the larger society -- jobs -- there appears to be little improvement in the employment statistics of PwDs. Earlier this week, the Kessler Foundation/National Organization on Disability released the 2010 Survey of Employment of Americans with Disabilities, which found that "little progress has been made in closing the employment gap between people with and without disabilities since the passage of the ADA into law."  Sue Robitaille explores this topic further on Abledbody.com.

To Caption Or Not To Caption A Movie About Autism?

  Historically, people with autism were usually excluded from society, and even today this is an unfortunate fact of life in different cultures around the world. "Wretches & Jabberers," a film by Gerardine Wurzburg about two autistic men traveling to different countries, challenges long-standing assumptions people harbor about autistic people in general. In this film, Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher, who are autistic, visit three countries with vastly different cultures -- Sri Lanka, Japan and Finland -- and fight prevailing attitudes in these countries about their own disability.Sounds like a fantastic movie and I plan to see it soon. Which is why the decision not to caption the movie's premiere at the Vermont International Film Festival in late October is very puzzling. I first heard about this movie from a deaf friend in Vermont who was excited to attend the premiere. However, when she inquired about captioning for this film, the associate producer of "Wretches and Jabberers," Dan Curl, replied to her:

"I apologize but the festival organizers would like the film to premiere in its original format as envisioned by the director. I have requested that the two additional screenings in the festival be open captioned: Oct. 24th at 1:15pm & Oct. 26th at 3:30pm . They are happy to oblige. I hope you can make it to one of these showings and enjoy the film. Thank you for your support!"

I previewed the "Wretches & Jabberers" trailer -- which is captioned -- and it is not clear why the festival organizers would like the film to go without captions at its premiere. What is meant by "original format as envisioned by the director?" Do they not want deaf and hard-of-hearing people to attend the festival premiere of the movie? So much for the inclusion which the two autistic men in the film are fighting for.International film festivals, such as the one in Vermont, usually have foreign films in their native languages that come with English subtitles, so there should be no arbitrary decision on what specific screening times a film should be captioned. The premiere will be shown at 6:30 on a Friday evening, which is usually a social evening and the most convenient time to see a movie. The captioned versions will be shown during the day on Sunday and Tuesday, when some people have day jobs and other commitments.But even then, that is not the point. Elaine Morse, a deaf Vermont resident, said, "The organizers are essentially saying, yes, we will allow you to see the film with captions, but you have to go at another time. We don't want the captions during the premiere. In other words, we don't want people with disabilities attending our premiere."If the associate producer of a movie -- the same movie which challenges cultural beliefs that exclude a whole disability group -- listens to the wishes of organizers of a local festival and removes captions for its premiere, this defeats the purpose of the movie which is to educate the general public about the experiences of two men with a disability who were excluded from society for much of their early lives.After all, on the aforementioned trailer, there are open captions which are part of the film. On some scenes, the men use a communication device -- which spells words out on a screen -- to communicate. One of the men says, "People all want communication."People all want communication. The festival organizers want the film to premiere without captions. How is it considered "communication?"

Doctors With Disabilities

When we are in a hospital, we look to doctors to heal us, and nurses to keep us comfortable. Whatever condition we have that lands us in the hospital is always something that disables us, temporarily or permanently, and makes it challenging for us to live the life we take for granted. So, we trust and hope that the doctor, with all his/her training and knowledge, will diagnose what is troubling us, make us better, and send us on our way.What if you are scheduled for brain surgery next week, and the surgeon who is performing the operation has a hearing loss?What if you are lying on a bed in the ER, doubled over with pain in your abdomen, when the attending doctor comes over on her wheelchair and checks your vitals?Predictably, most patients will not care about the doctor's physical disability, as long as they know the doctor has substantial experience and achieved his deserved place in the operating room, ER, or hospital ward because of what he has done in the past.  Unfortunately , there are some hospitals that enforce policies which make it very challenging for doctors with disabilities to effectively carry out their work.A wonderful article in the most recent issue of New Mobility profiles some doctors with disabilities who succeed at what they do, and takes a look at a U.S. medical system that still presents too many barriers that keep capable doctors with physical disabilities out of medicine." Read on...

Abledbody.com: The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act

After passing in the Senate last week, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which will improve access to mobile content for the deaf and blind communities, will soon become law.This means deaf consumers can now watch closed-captioned shows and movies on the Web on their PC or mobile devices. Before, closed-captions were only available on TVs. Blind consumers will also benefit from limited hours of video-description services on the Web, and the law will require touch-screen smartphones that have Web features to be made accessible to them.To read the full article, click through to my original link on Abledbody.com.

Back from Hiatus

Some of you probably wondered where I have been since early July. This blog is still alive and well. It was on hiatus while I focused on other projects over the summer.I will be back soon with some new writeups.  Thank you for your patience.

Hotel des Invalides

During the first half of the 17th century, Europe was ravaged by the Thirty Years’ War, which pitted not only Protestants against Catholics, but also Bourbons against Habsburgs, and other religious and secular powers against one another. One of the major consequences of this war, which destroyed entire regions of present-day Germany and other parts of Europe, were the substantial injuries to tens of thousands of soldiers across several countries, including Spain, the German states, and France, often resulting in permanent and sometimes total disability for these soldiers.In Paris, disabled French veterans of the Thirty Years’ War did not receive substantial protection or benefits. Anecdotal reports had some disabled soldiers being mistreated on Paris’ Pont Neuf, sometimes getting caught up in street fights. After King Louis XIV took over complete control of the French monarchy in 1661, he attempted to give relief to these veterans by relocating them to monasteries for their protection.  Perhaps owing to the reduced role of religious powers and the increased power of the nation-states in the wake of the Thirty Years’ War, some disabled soldiers objected to the prospect of living in a monastic environment.Desiring the loyalty of his soldiers in advance of his plans for conquest, Louis XIV issued a royal edict in 1670 to provide aid and assistance to disabled French soldiers by establishing a major hospital in Paris for veterans with disabilities. He directed that “those who risked their lives and poured blood in defense of the monarchy… spend the rest of their days in tranquility.”Over the next couple of centuries, the Hôtel des Invalides -- the hospital established by Louis XIV -- housed thousands of disabled or elderly soldiers.  The hospital provided a template for other military hospitals that followed, the first being the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London (1682), and served as the precursor to today's military medical centers such as the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.Today, with more modern military hospitals in place, and a national welfare system that provides substantial benefits to French war veterans, the Hôtel des Invalides, officially known as Institut National des Invalides, no longer holds a central place in the treatment, recovery and convalescence of disabled French veterans. But it still plays a role as a retirement home and medical center for over a hundred French military veterans with disabilities who live on their pensions.In the shadow of the Eglise du Dôme which houses the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte, the hospital provides a historic environment for its veterans. After we saw Napoleon’s tomb and stepped out into the courtyard, we could see several pensioners in wheelchairs conversing with each other. It felt less like an outdoor hospital lawn, and more like the green courtyard of a typical Parisian apartment building on a nice summer day.  As Louis XIV would have put it, they spend "the rest of their days in tranquility."Author's Note:  The term "invalid" -- a word not generally accepted in North America to describe people in wheelchairs -- appears to be used in Europe to describe soldiers who received permanent disabilities as a result of injuries suffered in war.  As far as I know, aside from its historical connotations, this word is not in popular usage in Europe.

In The Company of Voltaire, Hugo and Dumas

Yesterday in Paris, my wife and I visited the Pantheon and, quite unexpectedly, came across the tomb of Louis Braille, the inventor of the eponymous system used by blind and visually impaired people to read and write.In the crypt of the Pantheon, carved into the wall beside each tomb is the name of the deceased person, and the years of his or her birth and death. Below Louis Braille’s name is, of course, his name engraved in Braille. And next to the crypt housing his tomb are a display of Braille’s achievements in both written English, Braille, and audiophone, and a bust of Braille’s head that people are allowed to touch.Not too many people are buried in the Pantheon – interment must be approved by the French Parliament through an act for “national heroes.” Voltaire and Rousseau are buried there, along with Jean-Paul Marat, Nicolas de Condorcet, Pierre and Marie Curie, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, and Victor Hugo. So for Louis Braille to be interred among these famous French figures is a major recognition of the work he did for himself and for others who are blind and visually impaired in France and around the world. (Although belatedly: he was interred in the Pantheon in 1952, on the 100th anniversary of his death.)With the exception of Voltaire and Rousseau, who have their own spaces and free-standing statues at the entrance to the crypt, every person interred there is given no extra mention besides the name engraved on the wall and on the tomb, and a brief biography mounted on a nearby poster. That in Braille’s case, extra room was made for an accessible display, a bust of Braille’s head, and an inscription in Braille below his engraved name is indeed a real benefit for visitors –- blind or not – who want to learn a little bit about Braille and his life.

PossAbilities Blog profiles my work

PossAbilities, a blog maintained by Susan Kleiman of Ross Daniel Adaptive Apparel, wrote about my work at this link.Ross Daniel Adaptive Apparel is a company that develops and markets apparel items for people with disabilities.  You can find out more about Ross Daniel at http://rdadaptiveapparel.com.