Landmark Treaty For The Visually Impaired

Today we mark another important achievement for equal rights, this time for over a million Americans — and over 340 million people worldwide — who are blind, visually impaired, or with other print disabilities.

In April, 2012, President Obama expressed the United States’ commitment to a treaty that “ensures that copyright is not a barrier to equal access to information, culture, and education for visually impaired persons and persons with print disabilities.” This week in Morocco, we made good on that commitment, joining with over 150 states in approving a landmark treaty that holds the potential to open up a world of knowledge to a population that is too often shut off from it.

According to the World Blind Union, of the million or so books published in the world each year, less than 5 percent are made available in formats accessible to the visually-impaired. We call this “book famine.” No one has said it better than Stevie Wonder, the world-famous singer-songwriter and prominent advocate for the treaty: we must “end the information deprivation that continues to keep the visually impaired in the dark” — and today, we are proud to mark a major achievement in that effort.

Read more of the White House Blog article HERE.

Study: People Who Are Blind Can Learn to Process Visual Input

People who are blind can learn to process visual input through sound—even after a lifetime of blindness, a new study published this month in the journal Neuron finds.

In their studies, researchers at the Hebrew University Medical School in Israel taught congenitally blind adults to use sensory substitution devices—non-invasive sensory aids that provide visual information—through the senses they do have. For example, using a visual-to-auditory sensory aid, images from a video camera are converted into "soundscapes" representing the images. These allowed users to listen to and then interpret the visual information coming from the camera or see the sounds.

"The adult brain is more flexible that we thought," said senior author of the study Amir Amedi of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada at the Hebrew University.

After being taught how to use the devices, blind people could use them to learn to read, with sounds representing visual images of letters, the researchers found, using a region of the brain called the visual word form area. In those who are sighted, this region is activated by seeing and reading letters.

Read more of Nirvi Shah's On Special Education article HERE.

Presidential Proclamation -- Blind Americans Equality Day, 2012

See the White House press release HERE.

Disability rights attorney Richard Bernstein sues NYC after being injured by bicyclist

NEW YORK — Richard Bernstein, a disability rights attorney, Thursday filed suit in U.S. District Court in Detroit from his hospital bed against New York City.

The blind Birmingham resident has made a name fighting for the rights of the disabled for more than a decade since he graduated in 1999 from Northwestern University.

Bernstein was seriously injured Aug. 13 when he was struck from behind while walking in Central Park by a bicyclist going over the speed limited at an estimated 35 miles per hour.

The 38-year-old attorney was struck in the “middle of my back,” he said.

Read more of Jerry Wolffe's The Oakland Press article HERE.

Goodwill Takes Heat For Paying Those With Disabilities Less

A national disability advocacy group is urging a boycott of Goodwill arguing that the collector of unwanted clothes and furniture should not be paying workers with disabilities less than minimum wage.

The National Federation of the Blind is coming out against Goodwill after obtaining documents showing that the venerable nonprofit known for reselling household goods pays some workers with disabilities as little as $1.44 per hour.

“We are calling upon all Americans to refuse to do business with Goodwill Industries, to refuse to make donations to the subminimum wage exploiter and to refuse to shop in its retail stores until it exercises true leadership and sound moral judgment by fairly compensating its workers with disabilities,” said Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind.

Goodwill’s compensation practices are legal. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers have been able to obtain special permission from the U.S. Department of Labor since the 1930s to pay those with disabilities less than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

However, the National Federation of the Blind says the allowance is based on an outdated view of the ability of individuals with disabilities to work and they say that Goodwill should do better.

“That Goodwill Industries exploits many of its workers in this way is ironic, because its president and chief executive officer is blind. Goodwill cannot credibly argue that workers with disabilities are incapable of doing productive work while paying its blind CEO over half-a-million dollars a year,” Maurer said.

Read more of Michelle Diament's Disability Scoop article HERE.

EXHIBITION CELEBRATES THE ART OF AUDIO DESCRIPTION- ART NEVER SEEN

Blind-trust cabs - Audio foils taxi theives

Stealing from the blind is about to get a whole lot harder — for cabbies.

Taxis will soon be equipped with new technology that will help blind riders check the meter for overcharges and avoid credit-card fraud.

A computerized voice will announce the fare throughout the trip, alerting the blind and visually impaired upon each click of the taxi’s meter.

The riders will then follow step-by-step spoken instructions for paying by credit card by using the taxi’s touch screen.

Previously, blind passengers would have to turn over their credit card and entrust the driver to charge them the correct fare and tip — a leap of faith that many blind passengers, including former Gov. David Paterson, refused to make.



Read more of Jennifer Fermino's New York Post article HERE.

College Hoops Star Puts Sister With Disabilities First

One of the most closely watched players during March Madness this year almost gave up basketball entirely to be near her sister with severe disabilities.

Elena Delle Donne was the top women’s basketball recruit in the country when she decided to play for the University of Connecticut in 2008. But just two days into her tenure at the highly-ranked program, Delle Donne abruptly left.

She returned home to Delaware and wouldn’t play basketball again for a year. Delle Donne was, however, able to be with her older sister Lizzie who is blind, deaf and has cerebral palsy.

“She knows me by my smell and my feel, so, physically, physical contact is the only thing she knows,” Delle Donne told ABC News. “So when I did leave, I lost Lizzie basically. Well, she lost me and I wasn’t OK with that when I left.”

As a junior this season at the University of Delaware, Delle Donne averaged 27.5 points — more than any other player in the country — and helped her team win an NCAA tournament game for the first time ever. They lost Tuesday night in the second round to the University of Kansas, but the young star says she’s not looking back.

Read more of Shaun Healey's Disability Scoop article HERE.

ATMs Fall Short on Disability Rule

By Robin Sidel from The Wall Street Journal

A trip to the automated teller machine won't get any easier next week for millions of vision-impaired Americans who were supposed to get relief from the banks and other companies that operate them.

ATM operators have until March 15 to make the devices accessible to customers who are blind or visually impaired. But banks and analysts say many of the country's cash machines are unlikely to be ready in time.

Read more HERE.

Braille Under Siege As Blind Turn To Smartphones

By Megan Verlee from NPR

Like a lot of smartphone users, Rolando Terrazas, 19, uses his iPhone for email, text messages and finding a decent coffee shop. But Terrazas' phone also sometimes serves as his eyes: When he waves a bill under its camera, for instance, the phone tells him how much it's worth.

Terrazas is blind, and having an app to tell bills apart can be a big help. For one thing, it means he doesn't have to trust clerks to give him correct change. Terrazas' daily life is full of useful technology like this, but it also has a downside: The more he uses technology, the less he uses Braille, the alphabet of raised dots that the blind read with their fingers.

Read complete article HERE.

Braille comes unbound from the book: how technology can stop a literary crisis

By Saabira Chaudhuri from The Guardian

Apple is at the vanguard of a push behind technology that's helping old-fashioned Braille replace text-to-speech audio for the blind – and it couldn't have come at a more critical time

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, Chancey Fleet reads the menu of Bombay Garden to four friends gathered at the back of the Chelsea-based Indian restaurant in New York City.

Although she is reading aloud, there are no menus on the table. They aren't necessary, because Fleet is blind.

Read complete article HERE.

American Council of the Blind Survey on Computer Usage Patterns

See survey HERE.

The blind rock climber who sees with his tongue

By Michael Mosley from BBC - NEWS Health

Erik Weihenmayer went blind when he was 13 years old, but new technology enables him to see with his tongue.

The BrainPort device gives him a sense of space and, together with a friend nearby, helps him scale Utah's formidable Castleton Rock.

Article and video HERE.

National Federation of the Blind Digital Technology and Accessibility in Schools Questionnaire

The NFB is seeking information about accessibility barriers in the digital technology used by all students, teachers, and administrators in K-12 schools, universities, and colleges in the United States.


More information HERE.

Caroline Casey - Looking Past Limits

Blind runner achieving dreams thanks to southern Utah friends

ST. GEORGE -- At the starting line of the St. George Half Marathon, it's difficult to notice anything special about Adrian Broca. He stands amid hundreds of runners, anxiously awaiting the countdown.

To read more click here

NHTSA Already Working to Fulfill New Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act

On Tuesday, President Obama signed the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010. In this law Congress requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to ensure that electric and hybrid car manufacturers add noises that alert the blind and other pedestrians. Read more HERE.

Court OKs Blind Student's Software For Bar Exam

A blind Bay Area law graduate was entitled to use computer-assisted reading devices that gave her the best chance of passing the California bar exam, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a broad interpretation of disability laws.

See Bob Egelko's SF Chronicle Chronicle article HERE.

Blind Man's Guide Dog Causing Row At Bloomingdale, IL Condo Building

When Iggie, a black Labrador, moved into Tim Spencer's Bloomingdale condo, it seemed a tough time was about to get better. Spencer has retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the retina that took his left eye when he was a toddler; he lost his vision completely two years ago.
Read more of the Daily Herald article HERE.

New Rules to Make Technology More Accessible for Blind, Deaf

Read Jennifer Valentino-DeVries' Wall Street Journal article HERE.