March 17, 2011
1. Fiorito: Ontario about to cut services for deaf-blind
The Star
March 16, 2011
2. Blindness no obstacle to those with sharp ears
NPR
March 13, 2011
3. Blind speaker brings emotion to Pruis Hall
The Ball State Daily News
March 15, 2011
4. Visually impaired participate as navigators in a Delhi car
Rally
Sify News
March 13, 2011
5. Visually impaired man training for 100-mile Ultra
Competitor network
March 14, 2011
6. Blind group asks U.S to check Google use at colleges
The Associated Press
March 16, 2011
1. Fiorito: Ontario about to cut services for deaf-blind
Cyril Cassell had errands to take care of; he needed a haircut, and a bag of groceries. That sounds simple enough: hop on the bus, jump in the barber’s chair, and grab a piece of salmon on the way home.
Not so fast.
Cyril is deaf-blind. He lives at the Rotary Cheshire Home, near Finch and Yonge. He could, I suppose, arrange to have things done for him, and to him; after all, grocers deliver, and the trades make house calls.
But we are social creatures. We do not fully exist unless we are in the company of others, and there is no one of us who ought to spend his days locked in a dark and soundless closet. Cyril therefore booked Thomas Gaffney, an intervenor.
Thomas Gaffney’s job is to help the deaf-blind navigate the city; he would, on a recent evening, be Cyril’s eyes, his ears, his voice. I tagged along; the reason is simple enough, and something you should know:
The deaf-blind are provided with the services of intervenors like Thomas, thanks to the provincial government. But Ontario is about to cut that service dramatically. Cyril gets 24 and a half hours a week now; he fears he could be cut to eight.
Fooey.
In the old days, the deaf-blind used three fingers, indicating the letter “M”, over which they juxtaposed the symbol for scissors, when they referred to the premier, Mike Harris. You remember him.
Mike, who cut.
These days, the deaf-blind use sign language to indicate that the initials of the Ministry of Community and Social Services — MCSS — really ought to stand for “Ministry Cuts with Sharp Scissors.”
Eight hours; isn’t that enough? Let me answer the question with a question: When was the last time you were stuck in a hospital waiting room?
Cyril is 72 years old. He has needed an intervenor for the past seven years. He uses his hours for medical appointments, and for all those things big and small — the gym, shopping, bingo — that you and I do without a second thought.
The men met in the lobby of the Cheshire Home, and walked to the bus stop — a stop, by the way, on a route the mayor recently wanted cut; you can see why the deaf-blind are jumpy these days.
They rode the bus, holding hands all the way — that’s how they talk to each other — then they boarded the subway south, heading to the barbershop.
Cyril, with the help of Thomas, asked for a buzz cut; it looks good on him, and is easy to maintain. The barber was careful, thoughtful, tender.
Afterwards, Cyril and Thomas went for a bite to eat in a falafel joint. How did Cyril know what to order? Thomas translated the menu, item by item; call it finger food. Cyril had the kofte platter.
It is hard to eat and sign at the same time but, between bites, Cyril said that he began to lose his vision when he was a young man. His condition is genetic. He moved to Toronto because of his blindness when he was 38 years old.
As a young man, he worked as a bouncer in a pool hall in Smiths Falls; here, in Toronto, he has at times worked for the CNIB.
After the kofte, the two men went north again on public transit. At the supermarket, Cyril needed cucumbers, grape tomatoes, flax bread, eggs, cereal and salmon. Thomas chose for him, and also persuaded him that strawberries were a good buy. Cyril cannot read the specials by himself. The trip took four hours.
To cut this time is to cut his life.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/954327--fiorito-ontario-about-to-cut-services-for-deaf-blind
2. Blindness no obstacle for those with sharp ears
Meet Daniel Kish. He's a man of many talents. He likes to hike, make music and write. He enjoys children and loves nature. He's an avid biker.
He's also completely blind.
How can Kish bike if he can't see? The method is called echolocation — Kish calls it "flash sonar." As he speeds along on his bike, he makes clicking sounds. As the clicks bounce back to him, he creates a mental image of the space around him. He's kind of like a human bat.
"It is literally a process of seeing with sound," he says.
To demonstrate, Kish clicks and "hears" a building to his right. "When I walk into a new area, the first thing I do is I take stock of the most prominent features," he says. "So in this particular area, the three most prominent features would be that building, the umbrella in the middle of this table, and the tree behind me."
Noting the differences in the aural reflections from the buildings around him, Kish can tell what angles they're standing at and even a few features, like balconies or columns.
"Those are the kinds of patterns that catch my attention," he says. "Those are the kinds of patterns of reflections that give richness to the images that are possible from sonar."
Kish has been clicking to find his way around as far back as he can remember. Through his nonprofit foundation, World Access For the Blind, he helps blind children to explore their world through echolocation.
"It's the overall process of being willing to reach out into the environment and discover what is around them," he says. He encourages parents to get out of the way — their natural instinct might be to protect their child from harm — even if it means they might get hurt.
"When a sighted child gets hurt we consider it to be unfortunate," Kish says. "When a blind child gets hurt, we consider it to be tragic." It's a double standard that disadvantages a blind child, he says.
But ultimately, Kish's work isn't just about teaching echolocation or learning spatial awareness. It's about a philosophy, he says — a "no-limits philosophy, which challenges us to challenge what we think we know," he says.
"To challenge every boundary, every box, every limitation that we've either put up ourselves or allow ourselves to be conditioned to accept."
3. Blind speaker brings emotion to Pruis Hall
Author and professional speaker Marcus Engel used comedy and heartbreaking stories Monday night to highlight a unique characteristic: his blindness.
After being broadsided by a drunk driver in St. Louis, Engel said every bone in his skull was crushed.
"My parents had to go home and get my senior picture, so the plastic surgeons would have a model for my face," Engel said.
He went through more than 300 hours of surgery to reconstruct his face, but his sight is one thing he could not get back.
Engel credits one conversation with his high school principal for getting him through the most difficult times.
"In high school, my principal said, ‘Change the things you can, and don't worry about the rest,'" Engel said.
Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" also played a large part in his recovery.
"I heard that second line, ‘Negativity don't pull you through' and I knew I could change one thing: my attitude," Engel said.
Courtney Jarrett, associate director of Disabled Student Development, said this was her favorite part of the speech.
"In any sort of thing that gets you down, if you just listen to your favorite song or try to think of something positive, it can turn things around," Jarrett said.
Jarrett brought Engel to campus, but sponsorship funds also came from other organizations.
"We were able to bring Marcus here tonight because of sponsorships from Disabled Students in Action, Disabled Student Development and Freshman Connections," Jarrett said in her introduction of Engel.
Student Ryne Robinson, who also has a visual impairment, said he thought it could be very helpful to those who do not know about blindness.
"It more could help other people about blindness, let them know it's nothing to be afraid of," Robinson said.
http://www.bsudailynews.com/news/blind-speaker-brings-emotion-to-pruis-hall-1.2513560
4. Visually impaired participate as navigators in a Delhi car Rally
Facing the odd challenges in their lives, the visually impaired persons turned up as navigators in a car rally organized here on Sunday.
These visually impaired persons took part under the banner of Saksham Disability, a voluntary forum in the Delhi Dash 2011 organized by Cougair in which 40 cars took part.
The rally was more of a treasure hunt, as the visually impaired participants were given clues written in Braille.
After deciphering the clues, the participants had to reach a particular spot, called a checkpoint that carried scores. The team with highest score was declared as the winner.
Ashish Gupta, one of the organisers of the Delhi Dash 2011, said everyone is a motor enthusiast and the idea of including visually impaired was to give them an experience of thrill and also to give them a platform to interact with the mainstream society.
"Well, first of all the whole concept, you know these guys are all visually-impaired and they are going to be navigating. So, it is very different from a regular motoring event and secondly, the big challenge is to integrate them into main society," said Gupta.
"So, that's the biggest sort of outcome of this, one blind person, one able driver, that's the main theme," he added.
On their part, the visually impaired participants said it was an exciting experience for them.
"Got to know that, we will get to enjoy and will also get to discover the unknown roots of Delhi," said Meera, a visually impaired participant.
Another participant Aanchal termed the event as noble and said it was special to have such specially abled by their side.
"We got our strategies, we keep them hidden and we will try to win," she said.
The Delhi Dash 2011 is an initiative of Cougar Motor sport. They have been organising rallies on different levels every year. (ANI)
5. Visually- impaired man training for 100-mile ultra
He faces unique challenges when battling the wind.
Wired.com is posting a guest blog by a blind runner named Simon Wheatcroft who is training for a 100-miler. In the second article in the series, Wheatcroft writes about the challenges blind runners face when battling the wind. For runners with good eyesight, strong winds pose challenges for completing long runs and speed work. However, for Wheatcroft, the wind provides yet another obstacle: a lack of audio feedback.
“Shortly after the two-mile mark of my usual route, I needed to cross a small road,” Wheatcroft writes. “I removed my headphones, but instead of the rolling noise of oncoming traffic, all I could hear was the blustering wind. I stood still for a while concentrating for road noise. After a short period, I heard nothing so decided to quickly dash across.”
Unfortunately, the wind only got worse and Wheatcroft was forced to abandon his run. He called his wife to come pick him up. Still, Wheatcroft remains upbeat about the lessons he learned running in the wind. “Experiencing this will allow me to adapt, and for future windy days I will utilize a small closed road,” he writes. “I just hope the wind dies down before this weekend’s 35-mile run. Even if doesn’t, I’ll be ready.”
http://running.competitor.com/2011/03/news/visually-impaired-man-training-for-100-mile-ultra_22937
6. Blind group asks U.S to check Google use at colleges
WASHINGTON — A complaint filed Tuesday with the federal government accuses New York University and Northwestern University of discriminating against blind students by adopting Google e-mail and other programs that aren't fully compatible with technology that translates written words into speech.
The National Federation of the Blind has requested a Justice Department investigation into the schools' use of Gmail and other Google programs, saying that requiring students to use them violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Baltimore-based group is also asking other colleges not to adopt the software until it's accessible to all students and faculty.
"Given the many accessible options available, there is no good reason that these universities should choose a suite of applications, including critical e-mail services, that is inaccessible to blind students," said Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind.
Google said in an e-mail that it had a productive discussion last week with Maurer about accessibility issues, but didn't offer further specifics.
"We left the meeting with a strong commitment to improving our products," said Alan Eustace, Google's senior vice president for engineering and research.
The federation said that some Google products are partially accessible to blind users, but are difficult to use without assistance from a person who can see the screen. With Gmail, for example, the process of creating an account is the biggest problem with other glitches in navigating while relying on screen readers, said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the blind federation.
In the Google Docs word processing and spreadsheet program, a lack of audible descriptions makes the tool bars invisible to blind users and text that a user types is not always audible with text-to-speech technology that draws cues from the screen.
The group said there are also problems with Google Calendar, Google Groups and other programs.
"A lot of times the problem is that yes, theoretically, if you fiddled around with something long enough you could make some of this stuff work — but the products really aren't designed to work with screen readers," Danielsen said. "It's an ease of use issue — and there's no reason for those barriers to exist."
Northwestern and NYU recently adopted the free suite of Google Apps for Education for campus e-mail and other classroom services used by students to collaborate on assignments. The blind federation said that a significant number of U.S. colleges are outsourcing their e-mail to Google. In such cases, Google often provides hosting services for campus e-mail.
A Northwestern spokeswoman said school officials were not aware of the complaint and would have no comment. Northwestern switched to Google Apps about a year ago.
John Beckman, a spokesman for NYU, said the school has not yet fully implemented Google's programs and would take the blind federation's complaint into account.
"The university has a strong commitment to its disabled students, so we will be reviewing the issues raised in the federation's letter," he said.
Schools are covered by the federal law protecting rights of the disabled, while Google may not have the same obligations with products it creates.
Last June, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education issued a letter to college presidents requiring schools that use Kindles and other e-book readers in the classroom to make sure the gadgets have accommodations for blind and vision-impaired students. The federal government examined the campus e-reader technology after a blind student sued Arizona State University over use of the Kindle and was joined by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind.
Amazon.com Inc. announced changes last year to the Kindle to make it more accessible for blind and vision-impaired users.
