STC AccessAbility SIG
A Blog About Accessibility

29 January 2008 International Organization for Standardization press release

A new ISO standard for spinal disc implants will help reduce suffering of back pain patients. The new standard will help ensure that spinal disc prostheses meet requirements for wear resistance, particularly important as once implanted these will need to absorb the impact from the body’s daily activities for years to come.

Medical surgeryISO 18192-1:2008, Implants for surgery - wear of total intervertebral spinal disc prostheses, Part 1:
Loading and displacement parameters for wear testing and corresponding environmental conditions for test provides requirements for comparing the wear performance of different spinal disc prostheses.

The primary users of this ISO standard will be medical device manufacturers and laboratories in public and private sectors, providing biomechanical testing services for medical devices. The estimated worldwide market size for artificial disc prostheses will exceed USD 1 billion by the year 2010.

Read more at http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1109

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2008-02-12

Equipping pedestrian street crossings with acoustic and tactile signals to help disabled persons was a step forward. The problem is that they vary from one country to another. Now, a new ISO standard provides the basis for harmonizing such signals on a worldwide basis.

The aim of ISO 23600:2007, Assistive products for persons with vision impairments and persons with vision and hearing impairments - Acoustic and tactile signals for pedestrian traffic lights is to ensure equivalent information worldwide at intersections equipped with pedestrian crossing signals.

Read more at http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1112

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By DAVID S. JOACHIM
Published: December 6, 2006; The New York Times

As both the price and size of computer chips shrink, manufacturers are enhancing the abilities of things like phones, navigation systems and even home appliances. These so-called accessibility technologies are not only for those with disabilities. For people with chronic ailments, these products are also a way to prolong independence.

Read the full article…

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The following is from Whitney Quesenbery
www.usabilityprofessionals.org

I’ve started seeing unintended (editorial) humor about accessibility. Here’s a few…anyone have any more?

From Usability News
“…access for people with visibility problems”
(Yes, people with disabilities often do have problems making themselves “visible”)

From any hotel
“…handicapped room…”
(Mine had a broken phone, so it really was “handicapped”)

From a standard (now fixed)
“…able to use products with color vision deficits.”
(Hmm. Didn’t know products had vision, let alone color vision)

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By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
Published: October 30, 2007; The New York Times

ALTHOUGH 50 million people in the United States have some form of physical or mental disability, they spend money just as easily as others. But there are few efficient ways for advertisers to reach them, and that’s what a new Web site, Disaboom.com, hopes to change.

Disaboom is the brainchild of J. Glen House, who graduated from medical school after becoming a quadriplegic as a result of a skiing accident at 20. The site combines the social-networking features of Web sites like Facebook with information of interest to its constituency: medical news, career advice, dating resources and travel tips.

Read the full article…

Disaboom.com, a new Web site for the 50 million Americans who have a disability, combines social-networking with medical news, career advice, dating resources and travel tips.

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• DAISY Consortium The DAISY Consortium was founded in 1996 and consists of organizations around the world who are committed to developing the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY). DAISY is a digital standard for producing accessible and navigable multimedia documents. These documents are Digital Talking Books, digital text books, or a combination of synchronised audio and text books that permit everyone, but especially people who are blind, visually impaired, or have another print disability, to experience a better way to read.
• ReadThisToMe.org allows blind and low-vision people (clients) to have printed or handwritten documents read to them over the phone. The service is available throughout the U.S. and Canada. A ReadThisToMe volunteer receives a fax of a document, calls the client back, and reads the document over the phone.
• Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) "Helping you live with sight loss" [United Kingdom]
• "See It Right Pack" provided by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). The See it Right pack is a series of 12 booklets giving comprehensive practical advice on designing, producing, and planning for accessible information. [United Kingdom]
• Unabridged Narrated Digital Audio Books for the Blind

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The Blind Eye is a hybrid audio game, like The Curb Game and Terraformers at http://www.audiogames.net/db.php?action=view&id=theblindeye. The game was the result of The Blind Eye Research Project, developed in Denmark in 2000, where the participant has the opportunity to experience the virtual world in a manner similar to being visually blind. Conceptually, The Blind Eye examines the idea of seeing in relation to the world.

Abandoned But Still Available

The game is now abandoned by the project and not available for download through the original Web site (which also has disappeared). A backup copy of the game is available through a download link, however. All rights remain with the original developer.

More Audio Games for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Search for many other active, experimental, and abandoned audio games at http://www.audiogames.net/listgames.php

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• A Universal Computer Braille Code For Literary And Scientific Texts by Durre, Karl P.; Tuttle, Dean W. and Durre, Ingeborg.
• About Braille by Liz Gray, Braille Transcriber, Certified by the Library of Congress in Literary Braille.
• The Braille Bug The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) created the Braille Bug web site to teach sighted children about braille, and to encourage literacy among all children.
• Braille Displays:
  • Braille Displays for Windows
  • Refreshable Braille Display
• Duxbury Systems make the Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) and MegaDots. DBT supports grade 1 and grade 2 translation in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Malaysian, Swedish, and other languages.
• Enabling Technologies sells the Romeo and Juliet braille printers among other items.
• Pulse Data International makers of the BrailleNote and BrailleNote PK among other items.
• Sighted Electronics, Inc. —Braille displays, printers, and software
• U.S. National Library Service (NLS) Factsheets: Web-Braille

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• How Does a Screen Reader Work?
• New Vision Technology: news about technology improvements to improve your vision such as mobile phones, screen readers, software for programmers, and more
• Screen Access For All (SAFA), Screen reader in Indian languages

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• The AFB Evaluates Cell Phones. The American Federation for the Blind (AFB) evaluated 11 of the top cell phones on the market to determine the accessibility of today’s cell phones for people who are blind or visually impaired.
• Owasys 22C allows you to make and receive telephone calls using an easily understood speaking interface. They omitted the screen because a blind user doesn’t need one. It has widely spaced buttons that are easily found and operated.
• Stay in Touch A guide to telephones and services for older and disabled people. [United Kingdom]

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