STC AccessAbility SIG
A Blog About Accessibility

We are proud to announce that several of the SIG members have been honored for their work in technical communication.
STC Associate Fellows
Two more members of the AccessAbility SIG can now call themselves STC Associate Fellows.
These talented individuals are Gloria Reece and Chauncey Wilson.
The stc.org site says
To be considered for election as an Associate Fellow, [...]

Read: Honors bestowed on SIG members »

Referendum Approves New Bylaws for STC
The STC 2007 Bylaws Referendum ended at noon EST on November 1, 2007. In total 802 votes were cast. For 775 votes (96.63%); Against 27 votes (3.37%).
The approved Bylaws were amended in March 2008. The March 2008 version of the Bylaws is now available: STC Bylaws, amended March 2008.
The need [...]

Read: STC Bylaws Approved »

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 [...]

Read: New ISO standard for spinal disc implants »

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 [...]

Read: New ISO standard will make crossing the street safer for disabled persons »

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 [...]

Read: Trimming the List of Things People Can’t Do »

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 [...]

Read: Accessibility editorial bloopers »

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, [...]

Read: Web Marketing to a Segment Too Big to Be a Niche »

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 [...]

Read: Reading for the Blind »

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 [...]

Read: Audio Game: Blind in a Virtual World »

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 [...]

Read: Braille Resources »