All About Access

On May 1, Congress’s Subcommittee On Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing on the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. This bill is currently in discussion draft form and is being sponsored by Representative Ed Markey (D. MA) who chairs the Subcommittee. The hearing consisted of powerful testimony from blind and deaf advocates. Of particular note was some very moving testimony from Jesse Acosta, a Sergeant Major who was recently wounded in Iraq. His wounds resulted in blindness and brain injuries. He made note of things that he used to be able to do easily that are now very difficult due to inaccessibility of cell phones and video equipment. The hearing demonstrated that Markey will do all that he can to see that current and emerging technologies will be required to be made accessible to persons with disabilities. To listen to the hearing, go to hearing on twenty-first century telecommunications and video accessibility act and click on the “connect to hearing” link. (Note that there is a period of silence before you hear Mr. Markey Gavel the beginning of the hearing. He states right up front that he believes this is one of the most important hearings to take place in this Congressional session.)

If passed, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video

Accessibility Act would:

1. Require Voice Over Internet Protocol telephones to be accessible to persons with sensory disabilities;


2. Require a minimum level of video description as proscribed in Federal Communications commission regulations that were struck down in a 2002 court decision;


3. Require both captions and descriptions for internet videos and;


4. Require that all video devices including DVD players, cable boxes, digital video recorders and satellite receivers be accessible for persons with sensory disabilities.

A relatively new disability coalition has been working closely with Markey and industry representatives in order to foster greater communication among the various factions while improving accessibility to these technologies. IT is called the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, (COAT.) COAT is made up of various organizations promoting accessibility for persons who are deaf and blind. Blindness organizations that are members of COAT include the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Council of the blind. To learn more about the bill, go to afb blog on telecommunications bill, or www.coataccess.org.

Let’s take a quick look at why this bill is of utmost importance. Firstly, there’s the coming obsolescence of VHS videotapes and its impact on the availability of movies with video description. Since the early 1990’s WGBH of Boston has promoted and sold VHS tapes of audio described movies. The catalog of over 300 available titles ranged from newer comedies and dramas to classics from back in the 1940’s. On May 12, WGBH ended sales of VHS titles. Hollywood studios are no-longer manufacturing VHS tapes for sale or rental. The VHS tape is going the way of the vinyl record to be replaced by DVDs. While there is no doubt that the DVD is vastly superior to the VHS tape, there are not many DVDs with description. This is ironic given the proliferation of first-run movies playing in theaters equipped with infrared sound systems and headsets for the blind along with rear window captioning for the deaf. It is truly unfortunate that these description tracks rarely find their way onto the DVD versions of these movies. WGBH is fighting an uphill battle to get the motion picture industry to include the DVD tracks. The motion picture industry claims that there is not enough memory on the DVD discs to add description tracks. If that is the case, I see no reason why movies cannot be produced using two discs—one for the movie with description and another for all the bonus material.

To learn more about efforts to increase the amount of video description, try the following links:

• DVS on television


• DVS in movie theaters


• DVS on DVD

To contact movie studios to advocate for more description, try Hollywood studios

Secondly, newer home entertainment technology has gotten much harder for people who are blind or visually impaired to use independently. Twenty or thirty years ago, you could bring home that new TV or VCR, have someone read you the basics from the users guide and begin enjoying your new purchase. Operation of these units was relatively straightforward with knobs that clicked when you changed the channel. Even the first TVs with remote controls were relatively easy to learn to use. Today’s televisions and DVD players all have onscreen menus that you must use to set up and operate them. Naturally, these menus are not accessible. Similarly, digital recorders and onscreen TV guides offered by cable companies are equally inaccessible.

Finally there’s the conversion from analog to digital television. Beginning on February 17, 2009, all broadcasts will be digital. This means that if you have an older analog television with no cable you will get nothing but white noise. You will need a digital TV, a digital cable or satellite receiver or an analog to digital converter box. What will this all mean for reception of video description? Given the track record of the broadcast industry, which fought regulations requiring video description, I wouldn’t expect to receive video descriptions after the conversion is complete unless this bill or something similar becomes law. For a detailed analysis of how conversion to digital television will impact the availability of video description, go to Audio Description International.

Let us all work together to pass the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video

Accessibility Act, which would bring us one step closer to my dream of universal design. For more on my dream, go to carroll center blog on AT&T and universal design

Information for this blog was taken from the coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, WGBH, Audio Description International and the Boston Globe. To read the Globe article, go to globe article on telecommunications bill

How many of you are familiar with electronic talking games such as “Bop It”, “Torque” and “Tiger talking Tennis”?

The Radica Corporation has recently come up with a new game of this type called “Say What”.

Say What is a tabletop game with five balls situated around a half-circular unit. The controls and speaker are located on the front of the unit. The object of the game is to arrange famous phrases into their proper order. The phrases are divided into five portions and are read out of order. The player rearranges the five balls to obtain the correct order.

The game has 300 phrases that may be divided into a variety of configurations. Sometimes one ball is equivalent to one word in the phrase. Otherwise, each ball may contain more than one word. The famous phrases are taken from a variety of sources including literature, movies, music and television commercials. For example, let’s take an old TV commercial. “Maxwell House: good to the last drop. The game might present this phrase in the following mixed up order. “Good to the drop last Maxwell House”.

The game can be played in two modes with anywhere between one and five players. The first of the modes is time mode. In this variation, the player must get the phrase in the correct order within a specified time. The other variation is called guess mode where the player must solve the phrase in a set number of guesses.

The instructions recommend that players be eight years old and up. But with the difficulty level set to easy, I observed a seven-year-old child playing the game successfully. In easy difficulty, two of the balls are already in the correct position at the start of the game. If the player tries to remove one of the balls that are already in the correct position, the game emits an annoying error sound indicating that the ball should be replaced.

Say What can be purchased for around .00 from Amazon.com or from your favorite department or toy store. For an audio demonstration of Say What, go to http://www.blindcooltech.com and click on the Say What link. This game is fun to play alone and even more fun at a party.

This game is completely accessible for blind persons with one exception. The instructions are not scanner friendly and I couldn’t find instructions on the internet. But, for your convenience, I have written a detailed description of the controls and their functions. The game requires 4 AA batteries, not included.

With the unit in front of you, going from left to right:

1. The first small button (left most) is the “starting over” button. Hold down for at least .5 seconds at any point in the game and you will hear “starting over.


2. Moving to the right, find a slightly larger button. This is the mode/hint button. Before beginning a game, you can select one of four modes. Time mode, guess mode, Extreme time mode and extreme guess mode. If not pressed, this function defaults to time mode.
   
   
   
   1. IN time mode, you must get 5 phrases in the correct order in increasingly shorter periods of time.
      
   2. Similarly, in guess mode, you must get 5 phrases in an increasingly smaller number of guesses. There is no time pressure in guess mode.
      
   3. IN extreme time mode, you must complete 5 rounds and you only get 10 seconds for each.
      
   4. IN extreme guess mode, you have to get 5 phrases, and you only get one guess. During the game, the mode/hint button gives you a hint as to the origin of the phrase. . (IE, movies, television, music).
   
   


3. Moving to the right, find a slightly larger button, the “player/score” button. Before beginning a game, this button is used to choose the number of players,
   
   from 1 to 5. IF not pressed, this function defaults to 1 player. During a game, this button will give you your current score.
   
4. Directly above the player/score button, find a small skill level button. IF not pressed, skill level defaults to hard. In order to use this button, it must be preceded immediately by a press of the player button. The skill levels are easy, medium and hard. You can set different skill levels independently for each of the players. This is a good way to create a fair game between players of differing skill levels.
   
   
   
   1. Hard level means that all five balls are in the wrong position at the beginning of the game.
      
   2. Medium level. One of the balls is in the correct position. IF you pick up the correctly placed ball, you will hear a sort of banging sound. IF you hear
      
      this sound, quickly put that ball back as it is already in the correct position.
      
   3. Easy level. Two balls are in the correct position.
   
   


5. Moving to the right, find the start/solve button. This is the largest button on the unit. Press to start all games and when you think you have solved the puzzle.

Have you ever wonder how you might be able to get back in touch with long lost friends from high school and college? Would you like to be able to efficiently find out if some of your friends might like to join you for dinner or a night on the town? Would you like to be able to find people with the same interests as yours?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might like to check out social networking services. Social networking services are websites where you can do all this and more. I found a list of around 50 sites ranging from general to special interest topics. There are sites for students, ethnic groups, doctors, nature lovers and much more. To se this list and get started on your way to social networking go to social networking services list. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

These sites allow you to look for and add friends. When you sign on, you can search for people you know to see if they are already a member of the given site. You can also have the site search through your email address book and it will let you know which people from your address book are members. I didn’t try this option because I didn’t want to share my email password. When you find a friend who is a member, you can add that person to your friends list. The friend must give permission for this to happen. Assuming that your friends regularly update what they are doing at any given time, you can find out if your friends are doing all sorts of things like going out to dinner, going on vacation or maybe having a stressful day at work. Some of these sites will allow connectivity with mobile phones so that you can keep tabs on your friends on the go.

I signed up for membership on two general interest sites, facebook.com and twitter.com. Facebook is one of the most well known services. Shortly after completing my profile, I found a list of some of my classmates from high school. It will be interesting to reconnect after so many years.

These services can also help you with your career. You can let your friends know that you are looking for a new job or that you wish to change professions. You can also advertise that new business venture you just started.

Are social networking sites accessible? My limited experience with these sites suggest that there is a lot of work to be done. Both facebook and twitter require you to fill in letters and numbers from a CAPTCHA, which is a distorted image designed to make sure that the operator of the computer is human. These CAPTCHAs are inaccessible when using screen readers. Both facebook and twitter offer the option of audio CAPTCHA. These are distorted audio clips containing letters and numbers that must be filled in to past the test. I found them difficult to use. It took me an hour and a half to sign up for both facebook and twitter. Once signed in, twitter was easy to use. Facebook was more difficult with lots of graphics. Some sites do not even offer audio CAPTCHA. Finally, some sites present problems such as unlabeled graphics which limit the functionality of the site for those using screen readers. For more on accessibility of social networking sites, visit accessibility of social network services.

Social networking services offer a wonderful opportunity to get connected with friends and others sharing common interests. With improved accessibility, these sites could offer greater connectivity for disabled persons who are often isolated from the mainstream of society. Let us hope that accessibility of these sites will improve so that more persons with disabilities can take advantage of these opportunities.

For an interesting article on the history of social networking services, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking. To follow goings on at the Carroll Center for the Blind on twitter, visit http://twitter.com/carrollcenter.