Facebook, Microsoft, and Dropbox team up to make tech more accessible to people with disabilities

http://goo.gl/uU9KMP

Facebook, Microsoft, Dropbox, and several other tech notables are coming together to make technology more accessible to people with disabilities.

Together these companies and educational partners like Stanford and Carnegie Mellon University, have designed a working group called Teaching Accessibility. The mandate is to develop guides for building technology that everyone can use. The group will examine human-computer interaction, engineering education, and design concepts that better cater to diverse populations.

They’ve timed the announcement of the new alliance to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which then-President George H.W. Bush signed into law on July 26, 1990.

The tech world’s lack of consideration for people with disabilities has been making headlines lately. Earlier this year, Uber faced lawsuits for not complying with the American with Disabilities Act. Since then it’s launched a pilot thatservices drivers with hearing limitations and passengers with physical disabilities. Despite these small efforts, Massachusetts attorney general haslaunched an investigation into how on-demand car services are providing for riders with disabilities in Massachusetts, which means other states could follow.


12th Annual Disability Pride Parade Held Downtown

Some familiar faces in the video...

http://goo.gl/R3V3c1

He says we’ve come a long way in the last quarter century to make those with disabilities feel equal, but more work needs to be done.

“Attitude…seeing a person and not a disability,” he said. “I think we as people. As Americans have an inherent bias that if you are less like me, then I can find fault.”

Labiak is in a wheelchair himself, falling victim to polio when he was a child. He says he doesn’t let it stop him.

He likens the bias against disabilities to race or gender discrimination. Does he think it will end someday?

High Top Table Trend: How restaurants and bars exclude post ADA

http://goo.gl/B1MSuK

Well, here is the newest “problem” we are encountering in our quest to have a full and socially inclusive lifestyle…. High top tables! I truly hate this trend….and I wish the ADA or other local laws would address this issue.

No matter where we go today, the high top table trend is finding it’s way into restaurants, bars, even outdoor festivals and concerts. Apparently, people like to sit up high and there is no thought or consideration for those who the ADA was meant to include in public accommodations.


The Beauty of the Americans with Disabilities Act

http://goo.gl/eBwmnh

As we drove into the Civic Center, we noticed a protest – not a rare occurrence in the Bay Area, but this protest was unique because the people protesting were people with disabilities. I admit that as an abled-bodied teenager, I didn’t have a clue what the protest was about, but learned from the local news that protestors were demanding that the Carter Administration issue regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It made perfect sense and it opened my eyes to disability discrimination.

Fast forward 38 years to 2015 and we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the glorious result of the disability community’s historic campaign to expand the protections of Section 504. In those intervening years, I acquired a disability and had the incredible fortune to go to work at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), first as its administrative director and now as the executive director.


Disability rights advocates are having a busy week opposing legalization of assisted suicide

http://goo.gl/fWDS0K

Not Dead Yet leaders as well as advocates from several national and local disability rights groups are having a busy week opposing assisted suicide laws being considered by legislatures in California and the District of Columbia as well as a Tennessee court this week.

The California Assembly Health Committee was scheduled to hear testimony on that state’s assisted suicide bill, the End of Life Options Act (SB 128), until proponents of the law withdrew it from a scheduled hearing earlier this week.

In a statement issued by the coalition Californians Against Assisted Suicide, Marilyn Golden of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund was quoted stating, “Those of us advocating on behalf of disability rights organizations understand that choice is a myth in the context of our health care reality. End-of-life treatment options are already limited for millions of people—constrained by poverty, disability discrimination, and other obstacles. Adding this so-called ‘choice’ into our dysfunctional healthcare system will push people into cheaper lethal options. There is no assurance everyone will be able to choose treatment over suicide; no material assistance for families of limited means who are struggling to care for loved ones; no meaningful protection from abusive family members or caregivers.”


Take Action! Oppose H.R. 5 & Support Scott Substitute

Large weakening of special education law.....

http://goo.gl/xSXuof

If passed, H.R. 5 would devastate our nation’s commitment to the education of our children, by diverting funds for low-income school districts to wealthier ones. Additionally, this bill will:

  • Freeze funding at FY 2015 levels for six years, which represents $800 million in cuts to these programs compared to pre-sequester funding;
  • Block grants a large number of vital programs, with no accountability for how well those funds are spent;
  • Allow Title I “portability” which would allow states to redirect funds away from high concentrations of poverty and siphon monies to low-poverty schools.
Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) has offered an alternative to H.R. 5. The Scott Substitute Amendment includes the following key provisions that are necessary for education equity among students with disabilities:

25 days of videos about the ADA: ADA25: #1 of 25 -- The NAD and the ADA

One video each day...

https://goo.gl/Acx5GY

NAD CEO Howard A. Rosenblum introduces the #ADA25 Video Series in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). You can view the entire #ADA25 series at www.nad.org/ADA25.

Video begins with an off white vintage background. Three black and white photos appear. First photo shows a group of people marching, one holds a NAD poster. Second photo shows another group of people marching, one holds a poster "We Shall Overcome." Third photo shows President Bush signing the Americans with Disabilities Act. Text appears "ADA25 -- Americans with Disabilities Act". Video flashes to white then to Howard A. Rosenblum inside NAD Headquarters. On bottom left corner, "#ADA25" appears as a light watermark. On bottom right corner, the NAD logo appears, also as a light watermark. 

Becoming Real In 24 Days

http://goo.gl/rOrM0e

Becoming Real in 24 Days - One Participant's Story of the 1977 504 Demonstrations is about the takeover of the fourth floor of the San Francisco Federal building in 1977 by disabled protestors demanding that the newly inaugurated President James Carter implement Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. It's also about a turning point for the participants, including the author, in how they viewed themselves in the world.

With some 200 photographs, this memoir takes you inside a major event in the disability civil rights movement — the successful fight for the fair implementation of the first Federal civil rights law for people with disabilities. This is the story of how it was done, who had the courage to do it and how it shaped the Americans with Disabilities Act.

PRICE: $38 but for now: SPECIAL PRICE TO CELEBRATE ADA25 - $28

ISBN: 978-0-9961153

244 total pages, size: 9 x 12

Includes historic documents and photographs, suitable for research on civil rights history

This book is formatted for persons with low vision.