EXHIBITION CELEBRATES THE ART OF AUDIO DESCRIPTION- ART NEVER SEEN

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.

Windows 8 will be more accessible to those with disabilities

By Lance Whitney from CNET

The new OS will see some improvements in its accessibility features, making it easier for people who are visually impaired or face other disabilities.

Microsoft is enhancing some of the accessibility features in Windows 8 to make the new OS easier for people with disabilities.

Certain "assistive technologies" have long been a part of Windows. The built-in Narrator can read text aloud to people who are blind. The Magnifier can zoom in to display content for people who have trouble seeing. Speech recognition allows people who are unable to type to navigate via voice.

Read complete article HERE.

$1 million MLB grant to benefit visually impaired students in Arizona

The state's 2,000 students with visual impairments will get a big boost in their education this year because of a $1 million grant from Major League Baseball to the Foundation for Blind Children in Phoenix.

The grant, awarded when the All-Star Game was in Phoenix last month, will pay for new technology that will help blind students keep up with their peers and become more independent.

"It's been a huge year, not only with the donations, which had been way down because of the economy, but also with our three initiatives," said Marc Ashton, the foundation's CEO. "We'll be leading the nation in how we teach blind children."

The three initiatives are:

- A remote-instruction program that will use laptop cameras to link students in the classroom to teachers. The Arizona Diamondbacks donated $100,000 to fund a pilot for 10 students this fall.



Read more of Mary Beth Faller's The Arizona Republic article HERE.

UN peace messenger Stevie Wonder calls for copyright steps for the blind

From the UN News Centre:

20 September 2010 – The soul music star and United Nations Messenger for Peace Stevie Wonder today urged the international community to facilitate access to copyright material to people with visual disabilities, saying such a move would help them acquire more learning tools and enable them to live independent lives.

Mr. Wonder launched his “Declaration of freedom for people with disabilities” at the start of the annual meeting of Member States of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

He said the declaration was “a call to action, a plan to empower the independence of people with disabilities by providing them with the tools to learn and grow.”

“Through your legislative efforts, incentives can be created to advance the blind and visually disabled towards the promise of a better life,” Mr. Wonder told the ministers and policy-makers from WIPO’s 184 Member States. He challenged delegates in the 10-day event to strike an agreement on improved access to copyright protected works by visually impaired persons (VIPs) within a year.

“We must declare a state of emergency, and end the information deprivation that continues to keep the visually impaired in the dark. We must spread the word that the untapped genius of the 300 plus million who have a visual disability are in need of our love and action; today, not tomorrow, but today,” the award-winning United States singer and songwriter said.

“While I know that it is critical not to act to the detriment of the authors who labour to create the great works that enlighten and nourish our minds, hearts and souls, we must develop a protocol that allows the easy import and export of copyright materials so that people with print disabilities can join the mainstream of the literate world,” he said.

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