Ten Specific Problems with the U.N Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

By Michael Farris

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 13, 2006, and entered into force on May 3, 2008, after it received its 20th ratification. The Optional Protocol to the Convention went into force on the same day after it received its 10th ratification. The CRPD was signed by President Obama on July 30, 2009. Since it has been sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification by President Obama, the U.S. Senate could vote to ratify this treaty at any time.

CRPD calls for numerous protections for people with disabilities. Many of these protections are included in U.S. law as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, CRPD also includes numerous provisions drafted by the United Nations which would concern many U.S. citizens. Like the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), if ratified, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would become the supreme law of the land under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause in Article VI, would trump state laws, and would be used as binding precedent by state and federal judges. Since it is a treaty, the U.S. Constitution requires that it must be ratified by two-thirds of the U.S. senators present at the time of the vote, or 67 senators if all 100 U.S. senators were present.

Here are 10 specific problems I see with the CRPD as written.

1. Any remaining state sovereignty on the issue of disability law will be entirely eliminated by the ratification of this treaty. The rule of international law is that the nation-state that ratifies the treaty has the obligation to ensure compliance. This gives Congress total authority to legislate on all matters regarding disability law—a power that is substantially limited today. Article 4(5) makes this explicit.

2. Article 4(1)(a) demands that all American law on this subject be conformed to the standards of the UN.

3. Article 4(1)(e) remands that “every person, organization, or private enterprise” must eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability. On its face, this means that every home owner would have to make their own home fully accessible to those with disabilities. If the UN wants to make exceptions, perhaps they could. But, on its face this is the meaning of the treaty.

4. Article 4(1)(e) also means that the legal standard for the number of handicapped spaces required for parking at your church will be established by the UN—not your local government or your church.

5. Article 4(2) requires the United States to use its maximum resources for compliance with these standards. The UN has interpreted similar provisions in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to criticize nations who spend too much on military issues and not enough on social programs. There is every reason to believe that the UN would interpret these provisions in a similar fashion. The UN believes that it has the power to determine the legitimacy and lawfulness of the budget of the United States to assess compliance with such treaties.

6. Article 6(2) is a backdoor method of requiring the United States to comply with the general provisions of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This treaty enshrines abortion rights, homosexual rights, and demands the complete disarmament of all people.

7. Article 7(2) advances the identical standard for the control of children with disabilities as is contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This means that the government—acting under UN directives—gets to determine for all children with disabilities what the government thinks is best.

Additionally, under current American law, federal law requires public schools to offer special assistance to children with disabilities. However, no parent is required to accept such assistance. Under this section the government—and not the parent—would have the ultimate authority to determine if a child with special needs will be homeschooled, attend a private school, or be required to accept the program offered by the public school.

8. The United States, as a wealthy nation, would be obligated to fund disability programs in nations that could not afford their own programs under the dictates of Article 4(2). This is what “the framework of international cooperation” means.

9. Article 15’s call for a ban on “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” is the exact same language used in the UN CRC which has been authoritatively interpreted to ban any spanking by parents. It should be noted that Article 15 is not limited to persons with disabilities. It says “no one shall be subjected to … inhuman or degrading treatment.” This means that spanking will be banned entirely in the United States.

10. Article 25 on Education does not repeat the parental rights rules of earlier human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. This is an important omission. Coupling this omission with the direct declaration of “the best interest of the child” standard in Article 7(2), this convention is nothing less than the complete eradication of parental rights for the education of children with disabilities.

Michael Farris is the Founder and Chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association

Editor’s Note – The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is scheduled to hold a hearing on the CRPD on July 12, 2012.

Caffeinated Thoughts

Online library opened to address shortage of Braille books

On the occasion of Louie Braille’s 203rd birthday, also known as World Braille Day, a special function was organised by the National Institute of the Visually Handicapped (NIVH) and Xavier’s Research Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) at the Ali Yaver Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped in Bandra Reclamation.

A major initiative designed to boost the education of the visually challenged, in the form of the Online Braille Library was launched. Union minister for social justice and empowerment, Mukul Wasnik was the chief guest.

K Ramkrishna, general secretary of the National Association for the Blind, said, “There are 2,82,800 visually challenged people seeking education in the country. Out of that, only about 29,000 get a regular supply of Braille books,” he said. He added that even though India has a Braille printing capacity of 13 crore pages annually, only about 2 crore Braille pages get printed every year.

The reason for this disparity, said Ramkrishna, was the extra cost of printing in Braille. “Because of the extra pages, special paper and cost of editing a page in Braille is six and a half times more expensive to print than a normal page.”

After this sobering perspective, the website was formally launched. Dipendra Manocha, director of the NGO Sakham, spent some time going through the various features of the website which would alleviate some of the problems outlined by Ramkrishna. The website would grow to have 12,000 books in 13 different languages.

Wasnik said that his own ministry had made its website accessible to the visually challenged and that the finance ministry had followed suit. “I’ve asked all other ministries to do the same, but it will take some time,” he said.

 DNA Published Date:  Jan 05, 2012

Post Script:

The link for Online Braille Library National Institute for the Visually Handicapped  (Under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India is http://www.oblindia.org/en/login

ATM devised for sightless customers

Bella Jaisinghani TNN

Mumbai: A group of organizations working to make the city disabled-friendly would have made Louis Braille proud on his birth anniversary Wednesday. Having devised a range of software programmes and gadgets that could be used by visually handicapped people, they unveiled the collection at a special function in Bandra, held to mark his birthday. Among them was an automatic teller machine (ATM) that blind people can use to withdraw money.

“We inaugurated an online Braille library that allows students to download files and print them to read. There is a full display of access technology like low-vision aids and teaching aids,” said Sam Taraporevala, head of sociology at the Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC). The institute partnered the National Association of Visually Handicapped (NIVH), Dehradun, in this exhibition.

NCR Corporation, which manufactures ATMs, demonstrated a machine that can be used by sightless customers. “It is a regular ATM fitted with auto-guidance software,” said Nagesh Nayak, professional services practice manager of NCR. “One can use a regular headphone and plug it into the jack to receive instructions and operate the numeric keypad on the machine.” Operative buttons like ‘Enter’ and ‘Cancel’ are embossed and codified.

It would help to have Braille stickers affixed to the numeric keypad, though Nayak says that just about 10% sightless people read the script. “The raised dot on the number 5, which is a feature of most keypads, comes in handy to detect the rest of the numbers. People who go blind later in life are scarcely familiar with Braille, it is mostly the young who read it,” he said. As for security, should a sighted person catch a glimpse of the screen while a visually-challeged person is operating the machine, all he would see is a blank screen.

Unfortunately, banks have been slow to take to this technology primarily for the initial investment it would entail. “However, the Reserve Bank of India has issued guidelines to say that one-third of all the new ATMs must be accessible to the blind,” says Taraporevala.

Times Of India

Indian websites a closed window

Mahima Sikand | TNN

Mumbai: The internet has been perceived as a levelling field of sorts, but for millions of Indians with visual and hearing disabilities, it is just another level of discrimination.

When it comes to being disabled-friendly, Indian websites are one of the worst in the world—more than 99% of them do not adhere to guidelines outlined by the World Wide Web Consortium in 1999. Known as the W3C access guidelines (W3CAG), these list out the criteria to make websites accessible to all users. Prominent among them is the need to provide “text equivalents”—text, the guideline says, can be output to speech synthesizers and Braille displays. Only one government website, of the ministry of social justice and welfare, can be accessed by a visually handicapped person. More than 5,000 other government portals and thousands of other private websites don’t measure up. In 2009, the government had assured activists that it would revamp 50 websites within months to conform to the W3C access guidelines.

Two years later, the promise remains unfulfilled, even as new websites are being created every day. Javed Abidi, director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), is furious over the government’s inaction but blames private players equally. “The web remains a very unfair platform for its exclusionary approach. Our software designers sitting in Hyderabad and Bangalore design foreign websites that are in keeping with the accessibility guidelines. But when these same people make websites for India, they fail to incorporate adequate design changes. This is just because no one in India cares,” he says.

Ramneek Keshwani is a first generation entrepreneur from Pune who lost his eyesight in an accident when he was 12. “I have never been able to benefit from the internet revolution because I cannot access any of these websites. I am still dependent on someone else to do my work. Isn’t my requirement actually greater than any able-bodied person,” asks Keshwani.

Times of India

Centre Invites Proposals from States for Giving Central Assistance to the tune of Rs. 100 Crore to Provide Barrier free Environment in Govt Buildings and to Make Government Websites Accessible to Persons With Disabilities

The Centre has invited proposals from States to give central assistance to provide barrier free environment in important State Government buildings in the State Secretariat, Collectorates, Main Hospitals, Universities and other important Government offices to ensure that these are accessible to the Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).  Central assistance will also be given to make Government Websites at the State and District levels accessible to PwDs as per guidelines for Indian Government Websites issued by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances.Proposals from States have been invited by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under the “Scheme for Implementation of PwD Act, 1995 (SIPDA)” after effecting a major increase in the annual allocation under this Scheme from Rs. 15-20 crore in the past to Rs. 100 crore this year.

The Ministry has made a notional allocation to the States based upon their population of PwDs as per Census, 2001 and has requested them to sent proposals on that basis. For example, a notional allocation of Rs. 16.50 crore has been made for Uttar Pradesh, 8.90 crore for West Bengal, 7.90 crore for Tamil Nadu, 7.60 crore for Maharashtra, 6.70 crore for Madhya Pradesh and 6.60 crore for Andhra Pradesh. Similar notional allocations have also been communicated to other States based on their population of PwDs.

It may be recalled that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 2008, to which India is a signatory, calls for making buildings, work places, facilities including information, communication and other services etc accessible to PwDs on an equal basis. The Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri Mukul Wasnik, had written to the Chief Ministers of all States earlier this year urging them to make the important buildings and websites of the State Government accessible to People with disabilities in a time bound manner.

Central assistance on significant scale is provided to states under “Scheme for Implementation of PwD Act, 1995 (SIPDA) to encourage them to move in that direction.

VBA

World Wide Web Consortium for all

Mumbai: Mobility can also mean being able to seamlessly steer through and negotiate one’s way in a jungle of online information to get work done. Any good website should enable that.Yet, not many Indian ones do. At least not for those who can’t see or hear or operate the mouse with ease.

For them, e-mobility or e-access remains as ignored an aspect as mobility in the physical space.

And to think that all it takes to fix this is to conform to the accessibility standards laid down by the World Wide Web  Consortium (W3C) at minimal extra cost. Any good web designer should follow that. And any good government must put a policy in place to ensure that it happens, especially when it is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, which warrants such action.

Intent, however, isn’t the problem. But limited awareness about how information and services can be best delivered to persons with disabilities is. And for a country with close to 70 million people with disabilities, awareness can mean the difference between booking an e-ticket and buying one from the railways counter, between living independently and relying on others for things they can easily do for themselves.

Addressing this is the recently launched 125-article-rich wiki, being executed by the Centre of Internet and Society (CIS) Bangalore and funded by the National Internet Exchange of India, New Delhi. The wiki intends to be a  comprehensive resource for users, caretakers, web developers, NGOs, teachers, and members of legal communities for
information on what technology — hardware and software — and related legislations offer persons with disabilities.

Web standards prescribe that a description of a graphic or a visual be added for the benefit of visually impaired persons so that any screen-reader can read it. For someone with hearing disability, sound alerts should be accompanied by visual cues, and audios tagged. For those who cannot operate the mouse and hence rely on desk keyboards or
onscreen keyboards, developers should incorporate built-in shortcut keys for efficient access.

“But the W3C standards are not binding; it is something countries adopt. In India, these guidelines have been made advisory for Government websites, not mandatory,” says Nirmita Narasimhan, programme manager, CIS, who is also working on drafting the accessibility policy for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Mumbai-based disability activist Nilesh Singit, who has been working on access audits, accessibility and inclusive design, training and research for the past 12 years, says that the standards are simple enough to be used by anyone with basic grasp of HTML. “But some specialised website designers charge high amounts to make websites disabled-friendly. Yes, there are issues of extensive testing of websites to adhere to the standards required. However, there is no relation between the cost and the end product. More awareness needs to be created to break the myth that accessible websites are expensive,” he says.

The Government of India has made accessibility of its websites advisory. But as Nilesh Singit says, if they’re anything like the current railways website — which does little for persons with disability — then it remains to be seen how effective the implementation will be.

Furthermore, the government does not proactively share information with outsiders. “How is one to approach the government unless one knows about the incentives on procurement of assistive technologies, training and awareness camps and educational awareness. Unless this research is made available, you don’t have the base to build on,” says a researcher from the field.

Malvika Tegta / DNA
Saturday, May 15, 2010 1:00 IST

Manmohan promises disabled-friendly laws

FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS: Physically challenged persons, under the banner of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled and led by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, march on Parliament Street in New Delhi on Tuesday to press their demands. Photo: V. Sudhersan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government was in favour of amending the laws, if need be, to make them more disabled-friendly. He gave this assurance to a delegation of the differently-abled persons who met him in Parliament. The delegation was led by CPI (M) MP Brinda Karat.  “The Prime Minister was extremely sympathetic towards the demands of the disabled persons and said their demands were genuine,” Ms. Karat said. Dr. Singh assured the delegation of changing the laws to make them disabled-friendly, if necessary. The Prime Minister interacted with the members of the delegations and enquired about their problems. Talking to The Hindu, Ms. Karat said this was the first time that a delegation of differently-abled persons had visited Parliament House. “It was pointed out to the Parliament staff that there was only one gate (Gate no 9) in Parliament House for the physically disabled people and this was far away from the main entrance,” Ms. Karat said. The delegation also met the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik who told them that the government was finalising a new law for the disabled that would replace the existing law.

Earlier, a large number of people with different forms of disabilities marched to Parliament House to demand a better deal. Marching under the banner, ‘National Platform for the Rights of Disabled Persons,’ the people highlighted the plight of the economically and socially disadvantaged among the disabled, the poor, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. “The basic issue is that of the approach of the government and we must request you to consider our demands not as an act of charity but as fulfilment of entitlements and rights as equal citizens of India. India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the persons with Disabilities which enjoins the government to ensure minimum rights and livelihood to disabled citizens,” the marchers said in a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister. The demands include a comprehensive social security system for all persons with disabilities and their families including the Antyodaya cards, free health care for disabled persons, amendments to the Right to Education Act to make provision for disabled teachers and professional and identification of jobs for the disabled immediately with annual special recruitment drives each year.

Besides setting up a separate Ministry for disability affairs, the memorandum also sought issuance of a universally valid identity card and replacing the current Persons with Disabilities Act (1995) in consonance with the provisions of the U.N. Convention and harmonising other laws, the disabled persons also wanted proper enumeration of the persons with disabilities. The organisations that participated in the march included the Paschimbanga Rajya Pratibandhi Samaiilani, the Differently Abled Persons Welfare Federation of Thiruvananthapuram, the Karnataka Rajya Angavikalara Mattu Palakara Okkota, the Jharkhand Vikalanga Morcha, the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of all types of Disabled and Caregivers and the Vibhinna Prathiba Vanthula Jakkula Vedika of Andhra Pradesh.

The Hindu

UK Campaigns for More Accessible Elections!

Written by Katrina Ward

19 March 2010

There are campaigns in the United Kingdom to make elections more accessible for people with disabilities. One problem is that information about politics is too difficult to understand.  The campaigns  want to convince politicians and authorities to make elections easier. People with disabilities should have the same right to vote as any other citizen, however, many people with disabilities are not given the opportunity to use their vote and to take part equally in the democratic life of their country. In the last few years, the UK has been campaigning hard to make elections more accessible for people with disabilities. Three major campaigns have recently been launched to push for more accessible elections for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. Research by United Response, an organisation which supports people with learning disabilities, mental health needs or physical disabilities to live in the community in the UK, has shown that while 80% of people with disabilities are registered to vote, only 16% of them voted in the last UK General election and 20% in their last local elections. The research highlighted a number of barriers to accessibility, including a lack of easy to understand information about political parties and policies. In light of this, United Response launched the ‘Every Vote Counts’ campaign in 2007. This three-year project, funded by the Electoral Commission, aimed to raise awareness and promote the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in campaigns and in every aspect of the democratic process. Meanwhile, in 2009, Mencap, Inclusion Europe’s UK member organisation, launched the campaign ‘Get My Vote’, which aims to ensure that more people with intellectual disabilities participate in the next general election. This campaign pushes for more accessible information about the voting and from political parties. They have produced an easy-to-read guide on how to vote for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK, which you can find here: http://www.mencap.org.uk/document.asp?id=12634 In addition to this, Scope, a UK organisation for disabled people, also launched its ‘Polls Apart’ campaign. In the last general election, Scope surveyed over 2000 polling stations and found that 68% were inaccessible for people with disabilities. On the basis of this research, Scope raised awareness at government and local level about the importance of making their polling stations accessible. On the Polls Apart website, people can find out how accessible their local polling station is in the UK. These campaigns are very promising for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK. At European level, Inclusion Europe recently started a project which aims to improve the accessibility of elections for people with intellectual disabilities across Europe. For the project, Inclusion Europe, together with its project partners Nous Aussi (France), Enable (Scotland) and Inclusion Czech Republic, are working together to analyse the current accessibility of elections in all countries of the European Union, whilst collecting best practices and lobbying for more accessible elections both at national and European level. For more information, please visit the website at: www.voting-for-all.eu If you know about any best practices in your own country which you would like to share, please contact the project coordinator, Katrina Ward at: k.ward(at)inclusion-europe.org (please replace (at) with @. For more information about the ‘Every Vote Counts’ campaign, go to: www.everyvotecounts.org.uk For more information about the ‘Polls Apart’ campaign, go to: www.pollsapart.org.uk

M.S.J.E. considering a new law over amendments, Wasnik tells D.R.G.

p>D.N.I.S. News Network, India: In what can be termed as a big step forward for the Indian disability sector, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (M.S.J.E.) is finally considering the option of going in for a brand new law based on U.N.C.R.P.D. as opposed to their earlier stand on going in for amendments to the archaic Disability Act of 1995. This was disclosed by Minister M.S.J.E., Mukul Wasnik in a meeting with a delegation of Disabled Rights Group (D.R.G.) led by Convenor Javed Abidi on February 9.  Although it was clear that Wasnik was still mulling the option, he said that he was “open to the idea” of going in for a new law. He had maintained a similar position in August when the D.R.G. delegation met him. However, this is the first time Wasnik has publicly spoken about a new law. He also talked about the possibility of going in for a new law in a meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice on February 8.

Wasnik refuted the rumour that M.S.J.E. is going to place the Amendments Bill in the coming Budget Session. He hinted that the Ministry may consider going in for more consultations on the issue of a new law.  Abidi once again reiterated the unanimous demand of the disability sector for a new law that was observed in the National Consultation held by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (N.C.P.E.D.P.) and the North Zone Consultation thereafter.  The D.R.G. delegation consisted of Arun Rao, Executive Director, The Deaf Way Foundation; A. S. Narayanan, Secretary, N.A.D.; Dr. Achal Bhagat, Director, Sarthak; G. Syamala, Executive Director, A.A.D.I.; J. P. Gadkari, President, Parivaar; Radhika Alkazi, Managing Trustee, A.A.S.T.H.A.; Dr. Shanti Auluck, Director, Muskaan; and Vandana Bedi, Consultant, Disability and Development.

It may be mentioned that N.C.P.E.D.P. and D.R.G. are going ahead with their Zonal Consultations, as well as the drafting of the new law by the D.R.G. Core Group as planned.

DNIS, 15th Feb 2010

Nasscom to start job portal for aspirants with disabilities

Deepa Kurup

It will issue advisories on working towards accessibility

BANGALORE: Soon, the IT sector’s commitment to inclusiveness towards the disability sector will be etched in cyberspace. Industry trade body Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) will launch a dedicated portal that will facilitate recruitment for persons with disability by creating a repository of applicants, available skill-sets and potential recruiters.  This was one of the key agendas at the first-ever meeting of the newly constituted Nasscom disability advisory group. Disability rights activists, who celebrated the creation of this 12-member group last week, are now ecstatic to see that the group — comprising Nasscom, industry members and civil society groups — means business.

Info kits

Speaking to The Hindu, the group’s chairperson Pradeep Gupta said that the measures would work towards increasing employability for persons with disabilities. Further, the group decided that informative kits, prepared by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), would be circulated among Nasscom members to create awareness on existing initiatives. “ICT firms have their heart in the right place. Now, we will work towards getting the brain part right. There is no lack of will, but issues like accessibility (technical and physical) may not have been thought about. Our aim will be to build that awareness,” Mr. Gupta said. The group, with a tenure of two years, decided that Nasscom would issue advisories to its member companies. These advisories would be on physical accessibility (in accordance with guidelines submitted by NCPEDP on facilities such as ramps or lifts) and software or technical accessibility.  It would focus on compliance of websites and electronic products with international standards.  Javed Abidi, director of NCPEDP, believes that the creation of an industry forum can make an impact. Internationally, it is mandated that websites be WCAG. 2.0 Compliant (an international standard that ensures websites are disabled-friendly) and electronic goods are disability-friendly. “What has held us behind?” he asked.

Double standards

Today, a year after the Union Government issued guidelines that all websites be disabled-friendly, only one of the 5,000 sites has complied, he said. “Even private Indian firms that ensure disability-friendliness while creating or servicing goods for the international market have for long practised double standards when it comes to domestic products such as mobile phones, microwaves or even ATMs. If this group can achieve that transition it will be worthwhile.” While this is not a diktat to companies, it will at least create awareness and sensitivity in the private sector. Nasscom president Som Mittal said that the group would work towards leveraging technologies to skill people who are differently-abled, so they could find jobs and employability in various sectors. “Accessibility can be built into the design. But the real challenge will be to work towards building technology that can facilitate better access and inclusivity. Also, several companies already have inclusive programmes, for employment and training, and we hope other companies will benefit from their learning through this forum,” Mr. Mittal said.

The Hindu

Student Forum Reclaims Radical Disability Studies

By Miriam Berger, Assistant Features Editor

At a University where classes such as “Gender in a Transnational Perspective” and “Ethnographic Approaches to Queer Studies” have moved towards the mainstream, Allegra Stout ’12 nevertheless felt that something was missing.  “I’ve been interested in disability studies for a long time,” Stout said. “A lot of classes have disability as a side note, but I wanted a more focused way to look at it.”  Disability studies—an inter-disciplinary field that approaches disability as a key aspect of human experience and identity with important political, social and economic implications—will now be redeemed from its sidebar status in a new student forum led by Stout, as well as Ariel Schwartz ’12, and Meredith Holmes ’10, that meets Thursdays from 1:10 p.m. to 4 p.m.  “We are going to look at disabilities the way that everyone looks at race and gender,” Stout said. “The forum will study people with disabilities as a marginalized oppressed group and seek to create social theories about that experience.”  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 defines a disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.”  Under the ADA, Americans with disabilities are afforded similar protections against discrimination as the Civil Rights Acts of 1964.  According to Schwartz, disability studies have developed over the last few decades as a more theoretical approach to embodiment and the experience of having a disability.  “When you volunteer for the special Olympics, it’s not the same as looking at the issue from a social science, oppression based way,” Schwartz said.

The discussion-based forum, which requires about sixty to eighty pages of reading a week, is intentionally flexible to accommodate different learning styles and creative pursuits. Each of the eight participants is required to lead one class, submit several papers, and complete a final project.  One component of the discipline is the social model theory of disability.  “The idea is that instead of the traditional medical view of disability in which there is something internally wrong with a person, the social model locates a person in the interaction between him or herself and a society that isn’t set up for them,” Schwartz said. “It’s not that your leg is broken, but that society is disabling you.”  “Crip theory,” another element of disability studies, was developed in connection with queer theory and addresses the oppressive normalizing forces of society that shape the experience of disabled embodiment.  According to Sheila Mullens, Visiting Instructor in American Sign Language, this forum is part of a wider academic movement.  “There is such a need in advocacy, law, and education for an approach like this,” said Mullens, who incorporates lessons on deaf issues into her second year sign language course. “I think that this is a wonderful beginning. It is an important part of the community.”  Across the country, institutions such as Teachers College of Columbia University, University of California at Berkeley, and Temple University, have all instituted disabilities studies programs on both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Schwartz urged Wesleyan to consider taking a similar path.  “There are a lot of classes that deal with disabilities tangentially,” Schwartz said, noting in particular American Sign Language, Psychotherapy Pathology, Ethics of Embodiment, and the Psychology of Gender. “I easily counted 10 classes that could fit under a disability class course structure.”  Stout has a similar aspiration.  “In the same way that a few decades ago women studies and female, gender, and sexuality studies (FGSS) didn’t exist, disability studies are a new, rapidly growing discipline.” Stout said. “I hope that this student forum will lead to interest in more professors and classes specializing in this field.”  Such was the case for Emily Wenzel ’10, who had no prior exposure to these theories before hearing from Holmes about the forum.  “I think that it’s interesting to look at, or attempt to look at, these experiences through someone else’s perceptive who deals with these considerations everyday,” Wenzel said.  Wenzel, whose brother was disabled in an accident, found the open environment of the forum ideal for discussing topics, such as the appropriate terms to use for identification, often hesitantly approached in other courses. For Crystal Abbott ’10 this forum provided the opportunity to build upon previous activism.

“I’ve been involved in the autistic community for some time,” said Abbott, who is autistic. “Disability activism is something that I intend to be involved with all of my life. I see this forum as a resource for me to get a deeper academic knowledge about disability activism and history.”  Stout originally presented the idea for the forum during a meeting of Wesleyan Students for Disabilities Rights, a group that she founded last fall as a freshman. Stout, Schwartz, and Holmes all attributed their interest in this field to personal influences, such as the experience of a family member with a disability or positive volunteer encounters.  Stout, however, stressed that disability studies is not an all-encompassing term.  “Disability studies does not include everything that deals with disabilities,” Stout said. “It is opposed to some approaches to disabilities, such as organizations, medical practices, and charities that evoke pity.”  She echoed Schwartz’s sentiments that volunteering should not merely be about the volunteer helping the person with disabilities, but rather should accentuate the strengths of both parties in order for each individual to gain from the perspective of the other.

While the forum’s facilitators lauded the University’s attempts to increase the accessibility of campus, such as the recent wheel chair ramp installed at 200 Church, they noted that a wider campus awareness of these issues is still needed.  “Accessibility isn’t just about ramps,” Schwartz said. “It’s about lighting, about the way people teach, and a million other everyday things.”

Wesleyan Students for Disability Rights meets on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. in Usdan 114. Students can contact Allegra Stout (astout@wesleyan.edu) for more information on the forum or about the group’s campus work.

Nasscom’s disabled-friendly initiative gets ecstatic welcome

Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI:

Earlier this week, through the contemporary media for newsbreaks, @javed_abidi tweeted about the constitution of Nasscom’s disability advisory group (DAG). Mr. Abidi, a vociferous campaigner for the rights of the disabled in the country, could scarcely contain his excitement. “It is phenomenal,” he said later, over telephone. “In fact, I think the word should be ‘historic’. We have been lobbying with the Nasscom for more than one-and-a-half years now. It is good to see they have finally understood the issue of disability and its connect with IT.” The disability sector is ecstatic with the DAG finally put in place. It is headed by Pradeep Gupta of Cyber Media, who has been sensitive to the requirements of the disabled. Ten members from the disability and IT sectors and a couple of representatives from the Nasscom Foundation, including Som Mittal, are part of the DAG. They are scheduled to meet on Monday. In using technology, there are a number of issues disabled users face which others cannot even perceive. Text size, contrast and audio-video formats, and assistive devices are considerations. “The group’s agenda is to focus on accessibility, employability and assistive technologies,” said Nasscom Foundation CEO Rufina Fernandes. The aim is also to leverage the members’ strengths to translate policy into tangible action. “We already have members who, as part of the industry, have been at the forefront of disabled-friendly initiatives,” Ms. Fernandes said. Besides more access, both to websites and technology, the broader goals of advocacy and imparting skills that facilitate employability will be pursued.

Easy Websites

Web Content Access Guidelines (WCAG) were evolved to make the worldwide web more accessible to all. Working on the principle, as Tim Berners-Lee, Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and inventor of the WWW, put it: “The power of the web is in its universality. Access by every one regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” The WCAG drew up the initial guidelines for site developers and web designers that would take care of the needs of older users and people with disability. The guidelines focus on aspects that will make websites easy for all, not merely special groups, to access. WCAG 1.0 claims that following the guidelines “will also make Web content more available to all users, whatever user agent they use [e.g., desktop browser, voice browser, mobile phone and automobile-based personal computer] or constraints they may be operating under [noisy surroundings, under or over-illuminated rooms, in a hands-free environment]. Following these guidelines will also help people find information on the Web more quickly.” In December 2008, W3C announced a new set of standards, WCAG 2.0. It is more broadly applicable to different technologies and has clearer criteria, and tools available to tell if your design fits the mould. Apart from increasing the font size, providing higher contrasts and incorporating text into voice components on any site, there is the need to develop hardware (such as special keyboards) and software with local customisation to benefit a large number of disabled users and facilitate their employability.

© Copyright 2000 – 2009 The Hindu

Locals pitch in to help develop Web site for the disabled

By Tish Butts

Published:Saturday, January 16, 2010 2:13 AM CST

An informational database is being developed to aid thousands of Mississippians living with disabilities in finding programs that accommodate their needs.  The site is expected to start up in the spring.  The River 5 team of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps worked with O’Keefe Educational Media of Gulfport to build Disability Connection, a database of almost 2,000 resources that offers services for daily living, health care, recreation, travel, support and mental wellness — as well as a social networking component for people with disabilities, AmeriCorps Community Relations Specialist Erika Roberts said.  The team worked with the directors of OEM to add contact information for other nonprofit organizations that will be made available.  Team member Jacob Dvorak, 21, of Florida, who recently found out that Attention Deficit Disorder is a disability, said he was able to contribute tools to help those who suffer from ADD.

Another team member, Summer Hasan, 20, of Texas, said people with disabilities often don’t know about programs or their availability from one county to the next. The idea is to connect them “with things they need,” she said.  The Internet resource center is designed to accommodate anyone with disabilities and allow for the addition of resources, Roberts said.  Janie O’Keefe, who founded the nonprofit organization with her husband, James O’Keefe, in 2002, set out to build the database after meeting a 35-year-old man in a wheelchair who had been homebound for 14 years.  “Many Americans are faced with disability issues within their families, friends and community,” she said.” In 2007, in Mississippi alone, an estimated 548,000 people age 5 and older were recorded as having a disability. That was 20.7 percent of the population.”  O’Keefe began her journey in 2003 by contacting the Harrison County Development Commission, Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau and Biloxi City Hall, but found that a list of activities for people with disabilities was not available. Efforts of OEM met setbacks in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina destroyed work on an educational film project, Roberts said. The O’Keefes then turned to the Internet to reach a larger audience.  While working with the team at the NCCC Southern Region Campus on Confederate Avenue in Vicksburg from Nov. 29 through mid-December, O’Keefe welcomed donations from Walmart and Ameristar Casino to help make the project possible.  Bess Averett, public relations manager for Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg, said the Washington Street business donates either service or funding to several large projects each year where they can “do the most good.”  “It’s always nice to be a part of a bigger project,” she said.

She said providing O’Keefe with lodging and meals for about 18 nights was an easy “yes” for the company founded by Craig Hart Neilsen, who was paralyzed in a car wreck in 1984 while driving from Nevada to Idaho.  He established The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation in 2003 to support research in finding a cure for spinal cord injuries and disease, as well as funding rehabilitation programs for those afflicted. Neilsen died in 2006.  O’Keefe said she has been considering working with another NCCC team in March to complete the project.  NCCC inducted 160 members ages 18-24 in September to serve 11 Southern states — West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida and Mississippi.  In mid-December, the teams finished their second round of projects. They serve in recovery, disaster preparation, public safety, response, environmental conservation and education.  Other regional campuses are in Denver, Colo.; Sacramento, Calif.; Perry Point, Md.; and Vinton, Iowa.

Contact Tish Butts at tbutts@vicksburgpost.com

Suits over Web sites get mixed results

Posted: Monday, January 11, 2010 11:00 pm

Last year, the nonprofit law center Disability Rights Advocates settled a suit over access against Hotels.com and Expedia.com.  In the settlement, the online travel companies agreed to start providing information about hotels’ accessibility features, such as Braille signage and the width of doorways, on their Web sites.  In 2008, the group also successfully settled a lawsuit accusing Target of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act because its online store could not be navigated with a screen reader.

According to Karla Gilbride, fellowship attorney with the center, courts across the country have interpreted how the Americans With Disabilities Act should apply to the Internet differently.  She said some courts have ruled that the law guarantees access to all Web sites, while others have decided it should only apply to Web sites that are associated with a physical space, such as a store or bank.

Billings Gazzette

Big East Is a Big Loser in Web Accessibility for Disabled People, Study Says

By Marc Parry

Denver – Big East colleges may shine on the basketball court, but they’re getting stuffed by the competition when it comes to the Web-accessibility battle.  The Big East posted the most consistent problems in a new survey of how good a job universities are doing in making their Web sites accessible to people with disabilities. The survey of 80 universities, presented at the Educause conference here this week, pitted five athletics conferences against one another in an attempt to draw attention to the issue.   The worst of the worst are Villanova University, Baylor University, and Providence College, says the study by Jon Gunderson, coordinator of assistive communication and information technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The study skewered those institutions and 13 others on a list called “Schools Who Need New Coaches.”

The universities doing the best job of making their sites accessible are Illinois, Virginia Tech, and Michigan State, says the study, which crowned them as frontrunners in the “Sweet 16.” The Pac-10 posted the best performance over all.  Mr. Gunderson’s study, which is not available online, evaluated about 100 Web pages for each university using a free tool that assesses them based on categories like the use of headings, keyboard support, and layout issues. The bottom line for the worst-scoring colleges is that their disabled students will likely find themselves asking for help finding stuff on Web pages, whereas students at the high-scoring ones can probably find it on their own.

Very few colleges have administrators responsible for auditing and managing Web accessibility, says Mr. Gunderson. They have policies, he says, ”but there’s no follow up with responsibility or accountability.” He draws an analogy to the need to invest in security.  “Nobody wants to invest resources in security, but they have to insure privacy and integrity of data and applications,” he says. “The same is true for accessibility. Everybody wants it to happen, but without resources allocated to ensure accessibility, it won’t happen magically.”

The Chronicle

From DNIS: M.S.J.E. continues to drag its feet on web access

News Network: More than half a year has passed by since the Ministry of Information Technology revised the web access guidelines mandating all websites in public domain to be W.C.A.G. 2.0 compliant. But Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (M.S.J.E.), the nodal ministry for disability and the national institutes and bodies under it are seemingly competing against each other to be the last to wake up to web accessibility!  D.N.I.S. has been following this story for months now. Despite, several letters and phone calls, only the National Trust and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had found it necessary to reply!  Dr. Vinod Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, M.S.J.E. told D.N.I.S. that the new, W.C.A.G. 2.0 compliant website of the Ministry is ready and would be unveiled anytime soon. According to sources, the last minute security tests are being conducted now. It was earlier scheduled to be launched in mid September. Poonam Natarajan, Chairperson, National Trust said that their W.C.A.G. 2.0 compliant website was to be released in mid September as well. However, when contacted a month later, National Trust said that they have been in touch with N.I.C. and hopefully the website would be fully accessible by October end.

The Rehabilitation Council of India, on the other hand, washed its hands off the issue by asking Media Lab Asia to respond to D.N.I.S. That was in the first week of September. A month and a half later, neither S.N. Goswami, Managing Director and CEO, Media Lab Asia nor Dr. J.P. Singh, Member Secretary, R.C.I. found the time to either come on the phone or reply to E-mails and letters.  But the winner obviously is the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped and a sure shot entry into Ripley’s Believe it or Not! The institute meant for people with visual impairment, who obviously will benefit the most from accessible websites, is not W.C.A.G. 2.0 compliant!

“We have been trying to get our website W.C.A.G. 2.0 compliant for the last 2 years now. But there are no experts on web accessibility in the country and that is why we have not been able to do so,” said Anuradha Mohit, Director, N.I.V.H. A statement that is extremely hard to believe! After all, a good number of government websites are on the verge of becoming W.C.A.G. 2.0 compliant. How come they did not have any difficulty in finding ‘experts’?  Dr. Arbind Prasad, Joint Secretary, M.S.J.E. had earlier directed all national institutes under M.S.J.E. to get their websites W.C.A.G. 2.0 compliant. According to sources, the Ministry is now tightening its reins. However, while most national institutes are scurrying to get their act together, N.I.V.H. apparently is the only one which has not responded. “We do not have to respond, we only have to act,” said Mohit when asked. “And we have been working on it for quite some time,” she added. And how many more months or perhaps years is it going to take to ‘act’? Well, your guess is as good as ours!

DNIS

Wipro to open development centre in Australia

BANGALORE – Global software major Wipro Ltd will boost its presence in Australia by opening a 150-seat software development centre at Melbourne this December, the IT bellwether said Wednesday.  Announcing the decision on the occasion of Victoria premier John Brumbys visit to the companys corporate headquarters in this tech hub, Wipro chairman Azim Premji said the Victorian operations would strengthen the companys Australia delivery capabilities and boost its presence in the country.  Victoria accounts for about 50 percent of our business in Australia, with some of our large clients based there. We have a close working relationship with the Victorian government, Premji told Brumby on the occasion.  Wipro has about 800 employees working for Australian clients. The IT giant recently launched the Australian scholarship programme, as part of the graduate recruitment programme in collaboration with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Foundation.

Victoria also offers many world-class universities and large numbers of highly skilled ICT graduates. Such a combination of support and talent is what we look for in a strategic business location, Premji noted.  Welcoming Wipro to his province, Brumby said the IT bellwether was in talks with some Victorian universities for internships, skill development and joint projects.  Wipros Melbourne operations will play an integral role in its expansion in Australia. The decision to base one of its centres in Melbourne is testament to our governments focus on innovation and the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, Brumby said.  The company plans to hire about 100 local engineers for the centre in the next 12 months to provide integrated business, technology and process solutions to clients there.  Victoria accounts for a third of Australias ICT enrolments to create skills required by global firms like Wipro, Brumby added.

With the second largest population (five million) in Australia, Victoria is one of the worlds greatest migration success stories. About 70 percent of Victorians live in the states capital Melbourne. The province contributes about 25 percent to the countrys economy.  Wipros leading rival Infosys Technologies Ltd also operates a subsidiary in Australia.  Earlier, interacting with members of the Association of Biotechnology-led Enterprise (ABLE) and the National Association of Software and Services Company (Nasscom) here, Brumby said his province was an attractive destination for trade and investment.   Indian firms should invest in Victoria taking advantage of innovation, biotechnology and ICT, the premier added.

Simple Thoughts
30th September 2009

Right to Read

NDTV Hindu was on top of every related development in Chennai and in our primetime show Night Vision.  The anchors Jennifer Arul and Saptarshi Bhattacharya also spoke to Nirmita Narsimhan, Programme Head, Right to Read, and Rahul Cherian, Copyrights Lawyer, on their campaign to amend Copyrights laws to make available reading material for the visually challenged.