Accessibility – Designing for blind people: 31 guidelines

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Stephen Pate

Ed: we are re-printing the preface to this article. To see the original illustrations, we recommend linking to the source.

From: A Notebook on Interaction Design

Originally published on redish.net

Why Accessibility?

Why should you design Web sites that are both technically accessible and also usable for people with disabilities? Here are six compelling reasons:

1. Disabilities affect many more people than you may think. Worldwide, 750 million people have a disability and three out of every 10 families are touched by a disability [10]. In the United States, one in five people have some kind of disability and one in 10 has a severe disability. That’s approximately 54 million Americans [8]. In 2001, 180 million people worldwide were blind or visually impaired, including 7.7 million people in the United States. This is a substantial consumer segment that should not be ignored.

2. It’s good business. According to the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities [6], the discretionary income of people with disabilities is $175 billion!

3. The number of people with disabilities – and income to spend – is likely to increase. The likelihood of having a disability increases with age, and the overall population is aging.

4. The Web plays an important role and has significant benefits for people with disabilities. Of the 54 million Americans with a disability, 4 in 10 are online [2]. These users spend more time logged on and surfing the Internet than nondisabled users. On average, they spend 20 hours per week online. In addition, they report more positive feelings about their interactions. Our participants told us over and over how the Internet has opened up a whole new world for them and has given them a sense of independence and freedom. For example, P7 is able to read the newspaper herself for the first time. P5, who was unemployed at the time, spends more than 12 hours a day online, listening to the radio, “reading” Web sites, and chatting. According to the Harris Poll, 48 percent of respondents with disabilities reported that the quality of their lives had been significantly improved by the Internet compared to 27 percent of respondents without a disability [2].

5. Improving accessibility improves usability for all users. As you’ll see in the findings and guidelines in this paper, making Web sites work for people who use screen readers takes little extra effort while bringing great benefits for everyone.

6. It’s morally the right thing to do.

The Project
Between November 2002 and February 2003, we observed and listened to 16 blind users as they worked with Web sites using assistive devices that read the screen to them (screen readers). Participants used the screen reader that they work with regularly: 13 used JAWS [3] and three used Window-Eyes [9]. 3

A spokesperson for the U.S. National Federation of the Blind estimates that, in the United States overall, JAWS commands 65 percent of the market in screen readers; Window-Eyes has 35 percent of the market. The 80 percent proportion of JAWS users in our sample reflects the situation in the Washington, D.C., area where JAWS is the software most commonly used by U.S. federal workers.

For the balance of the article, see Accessibility – Designing for blind people: 31 guidelines

Province not helping by cutting cash

Posted on April 26, 2008 by Stephen Pate

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editor:

Why has the Liberal government reduced spending on the Disability Support Program and Islanders with disabilities by $35,000 in this budget?

After cutbacks the year before, last spring the previous Conservative government increased spending estimates for Islanders with disabilities by $941,000.

Since then, Statistics Canada reported that there are 3,000 more Islanders living with disabilities. Today, 21,000 Islanders have disabilities but no government help.

The government told Islanders with disabilities it would change the program for the better. The Disability Services Review Committee, set up by Minister Currie, received comments and suggestions from more than 70 organizations and individuals.

Suggestions have included coverage for seniors, adding drug care for persons with disabilities, employment equity and more affordable and accessible housing.

How does the government intend on meeting those needs with $35,000 less in the budget? Islanders with disabilities would like to know.

Stephen Pate, P.E.I. Disability Alert

If Best Wishes Were Fishes

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Stephen Pate

by Stephen Pate

If best wishes were fishes
Then who’d do the dishes
Or who’d be ambitious
To cook meals delicious
I’m somewhat suspicious
T’would not be propitious
Then let’s dismissus
And live by our wishes
To savour frittatas, gnishes
And other succulent dishes

Disability Alert claims support funding cut

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Stephen Pate

The Guardian
Thursday, April 24, 2008

The PEI government has cut spending for the Disability Support Program or DSP, claims Stephen Pate of PEI Disability Alert.

The cutback, he added, is despite promises during the 2007 election that the Liberals would increase spending for the Island’s 22,000 persons living with disabilities.

“Without budget allocation, any changes suggested by the disability services review committee will be put on the government’s back-burner,” said Pate.

The 2009 budget estimate is $9.56 million, $35,000 less than the 2008 forecast,

“Today was the day for Premier Ghiz to keep his promise and it did not happen. He clearly broke his promise to some of P.E.I.’s least advantaged citizens.”

PEI Legislative Committee recommends Disability Secretariat and adoption of Services Review

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Stephen Pate

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
Hansard, Published by Order of the Legislature

Thursday, 17 April 2008

Ms. Sherry: Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member from Montague-Kilmuir that the report of the Committee be adopted.

From the onset of your committee’s recent activities, members collectively detailed a work plan that would encompass several pressing issues members unilaterally agreed should be examined.

From an initial set lists of priorities the scope of your committee’s work quickly evolved to entail a broader number of concerns as we had the opportunity to hear from 16 groups and organizations on a wide variety of social issues. Despite the varying mandates of the groups, your committee remarked that all presenters were allied in their pursuit of enriching the lives of all Islanders, in particular the more vulnerable members of society.
Continue reading →

Where’s the help for those over 65?

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Stephen Pate

Editor:

After reading Mr. Pate’s letter (‘Hopefully the budget will provide relief’, The Guardian, April 18, 2008) and
his letters in the past, I have to agree with him.

After reading the highlights of the throne speech, not once did it use the word ‘seniors’. It gives me the impression that ‘senior’ is a dirty word. Nothing is done for the Islanders who are over 65 with disabilities.

Before the election, each candidate said they would give strips to the diabetics. Have they? No. It wasn’t in the budget last year. There is no way the senior can get any help, but if you are under 65 you can get most anything.

My husband is blind and now he is deaf. Can we get help for either disability? No.

Guess I have said enough, even though I have a lot more to say.

To Stephen Pate, keep up your work for the disabled. It might work sometime.

Betty Jarvis, Souris

Playing out their lives : People First Theatre Troupe dramatizes the stories of persons with intellectual disabilities

Posted on April 18, 2008 by Stephen Pate

SALLY COLE The Guardian

As his wheelchair is pushed through the doors of the nursing home, Michael (Gordie Arsenault) wipes a tear from his eye.

The actor is portraying a man with an intellectual disability who has had an accident.

Michael has fallen off a stepladder and broken his leg.

But that’s not what hurts him the most. Michael has a broken heart. Ever since the accident happened, his sister has wanted him out of her home. She is going to have a baby and can’t take care of him anymore.

The Guardian photo

That is why he is moving into a long-term care facility.

And he’s not happy about it.

“Bingo and no beer, boy this place is going to be hard on the head. The only thing left is solitaire,” says Michael as he listens to the orderly, Ralph (Norman Pickering), listing off house rules.

It’s a scene from a new play by Vian Emery. From Pillar to Post will be performed by the People First Theatre Troupe at The Guild in Charlottetown on April 24. Continue reading →

Hopefully the budget will provide relief

Posted on April 18, 2008 by Stephen Pate

STEPHEN PATE
P.E.I. Disability Alert

Editor:

The throne speech means 2008 will be a bleak year for Islanders living with disabilities or below the poverty line. The government failed to make any material social policy announcements that would help those with disabilities and the poor. We can only hope that the coming budget will add measures to look after those who need help the most.

Before the 2007 election the Liberals promised to return the $1 million removed from the Disability Support Program. They also promised to add coverage for P.E.I.’s 9,000 seniors in the Disability Support Program. Neither item was mentioned in the throne speech.

Disability and poverty go hand in hand for many Islanders. After the worst winter in recent history with the highest heating costs, does the government have any plans to alleviate the burden of disability and poverty?

The question for many Islanders with disabilities and others living in poverty used to be to ‘eat or heat’. Rising fuel costs have put filling the oil tank out of the question for many. This year the government solution was soup-kitchen style charity at the Salvation Army.

With no announced social program to bring Islanders closer to the low income cutoff, does this mean next year those living in poverty will line up at St. Vincent de Paul? The situation for many has gone from unbearable to a crisis. Does the government expect people in wheelchairs to go to the woods and bring home a cord or two?

Islanders with disabilities and those living in poverty need meaningful programs. Many of them lead lives of desperation and misery.

There are hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for department reorganizations and risky business ventures. Yet they are not willing to bring social programs in line with the needs of Islanders.

Let’s hope the budget announces meaningful relief

April 17th is Equality Day

Posted on April 18, 2008 by Stephen Pate

From the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund:

Equality Day marks the coming into force of the equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on April 17, 1985. The Charter was signed by Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on April 17, 1982. However, section 15 was not implemented for another three years, to allow federal, provincial, and territorial governments to analyze all their laws and amend them as necessary.

Section 15 states:

Equality Rights

15.(1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

(2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantage individuals or groups including those that are disadvantage because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

Women from across Canada had gathered at the Women and the Constitution conference on February 14, 1981 to lobby for the inclusion of these provisions.

An additional clause included in the Constitution was developed at the women’s conference: an overriding principle for implementation of the decisions flowing from any constitutional legal activity. Section 28 states:

28.Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.

Section 15 and Section 28 are included in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which forms part of the Canadian Constitution. They are there because of the activism of Canadian women.

These provisions have been used by the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) to carry cases to the Supreme Court of Canada to establish legal precedents benefiting women throughout Canadian society.

Why are the disabled represented by able people?

Posted on April 17, 2008 by Stephen Pate

By Stephen Pate

Why are people with disabilities represented by able people? Women don’t have men leading their groups.

Today I had lunch at the LEAF PEI meeting. I was the only male in the group.

LEAF, Women’s Legal Action and Education Fund, is a national organization that works toward ensuring the law guarantees equality for women in Canada.

While women have taken control of their agenda, those living with disabilities are still under the control of non-disabled people at the organizational and government level.

The problems of women are quite similar to those living with disabilities under the Charter. Only long hard fought legal and political action will improve the lot of either group in society.

Women have made advancements over the two decades since the Charter was adopted. For those living with disabilities the gains have been slower.

For example, the Province announced in the Throne Speech they would work towards gender equality in the Provincial civil service. The Province did not announce any new programs to ensure employment equity for persons living with disabilities. Therefore, while it may hire more women and appoint them to higher positions, the Province continues to lag behind in the employment and advancement of persons with disabilities.

The Federal civil service has a rich body of laws, regulations and policies to ensure both gender and disability equity. 8% of the Federal civil servants on PEI are persons with disabilities.

On another issue, women are generally in control of the organizations that represent them to government. We could not even imagine a male acting for the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Anyone making that suggestion would get run out of town on a rail.

By way of comparison, the Province formed an eleven person panel to review services for the disabled and only one person has a disability. That person was unable to make the meetings and no one questioned why.

I was a consultant to the Committee and my presence drove them to distraction until they forced my resignation. The basic truth was they didn’t want to hear how people with disabilities felt. Period.

Most of the disability non-government agencies on PEI are led by able people, not people with disabilities.

We are patronizingly told that we can’t represent our self which is the same as saying women can’t represent themselves.

No wonder our progress is slow. We don’t control the agenda. The agenda is controlled by able people who are the oppressors.

In the multi-billion dollar disability business of suppliers and professionals, the disabled are the grist for the mill. We are the “product” or the “clients” who ensure every one else lives high off the hog while our real needs are ignored.