Equal Entry

「しょうがいしゃ」の3つの表記方法。どれ使えばいい？？

2000-01-01T04:00:35Z

「しょうがいしゃ」という言葉を文字にするとき、昨今では主に三つの書き方がみられます。「障害者」が一般的でしたが、近年では「障碍者」や「障がい者」を好む人も多いようです。なぜ人によって異なる表記を好むのか、表記を変えることにどういった意味があるのか、という事についてみていきたいと思います。どうやら、障がいには「医療モデル」と「社会モデル」と呼ばれるものがあるらしく、その考え方を巡って様々な議論があるようです

「しょうがいしゃ」を表す3つの表記

まずはそれぞれの漢字の意味を再確認しましょう。

「障」

間に立ちふさがってじゃまになる、じゃまをする。ふさぐ。へだてる。さまたげをする。
「障壁・障碍(しょうがい)(しょうげ)・障害・罪障・五障・故障・万障」
防ぎ、また隔てにするもの。つつみ・あぜ・とりで・ついたて等。　「堡障(ほうしょう)・辺障・障子」

「害」

《名・造》傷つける。そこなう。悪い状態にする。
「害がある」
わざわい。（その）人に直接の原因が無い不幸な事件。「凶害・災害・惨害・冷害・干害・風水害」

「碍」

　邪魔をする。妨げる。

「障碍・無碍(むげ)・妨碍・碍子」

Googleでそれぞれの言葉を検索すると、「障害」は4.35億件、「障碍」は1.95億件、「障がい」は8400万件でした。Google trendによると、「障がい」が一番増えてきており、「障碍」の増加率は2番目、「障害」は横ばいでした。

どの言葉が適切なのか、に関して人々の意見が割れているようです。2010年の内閣府のレポート『「障害」の表記に関する検討結果について』でわかったことを要約してお伝えしたいと思います。どの言葉が「社会モデル」に感じられるか、どの言葉が「医学モデル」の印象を避けられるのか、についてそれぞれの意見が分かれているようです。

「社会モデル」と「医学モデル」って何？

・社会モデル

個人が社会で不利益を被る原因は、社会の障壁が原因だと考えます。従って、社会のバリアを取り払うことで、人々が豊かに生きられることを目指します。

・医学モデル

個人が社会で不利益を被る原因は、個人の身体の不具合が原因であると考えます。従って、体の不具合を治療して改善することで、人々が豊かに生きられることを目指します。

「障害」の語源

「障害」という言葉は江戸時代末期から使われるようになりました。元々は「障碍(しょうげ)」という仏教語で、「物事の発生、持続を妨げること」という意味でした。平安時代末期から「悪魔が邪魔すること、障害」の意味になり、明治時代から障碍を「しょうげ」と「しょうがい」の二つの読み方が生まれ、それらを区別するために「しょうげ」を「障碍」とし、「しょうがい」を「障害」と表記するようになりました。戦後に、政府が「障害」を採用したため、「障碍」は使われなくなりました。ただし、戦前は「障害者」や「障碍者」よりも、差別的な言葉を使用する事が一般的でした。

内閣府はこの言葉の表記方法に関して意見を集めるために、企業、マスメディア、NPO、地方自治体などから広く議論に招いた様です。

1.「障害」

[肯定的意見]

(Japan National Assembly of Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI-Japan) )

『障害者の社会参加の制限や制約の原因が、個人の属性としての「Impairment」にあるのではなく、「Impairment」と社会との相互作用によって生じるものである。

したがって、障害者自身は、「差し障り」や「害悪」をもたらす存在ではなく、社会にある多くの障害物や障壁こそが「障害者」をつくりだしてきた。このように社会に存在する障害物や障壁を改善又は解消することが必要である。』

[否定的意見]

（障害者団体：東京青い芝の会）

『「害」は「公害」、「害悪」、「害虫」、「殺害」の「害」であり、当事者の存在を害

であるとする社会の価値観を助長してきた。』

言葉に対する人々の考え方がが変わるべきであり、言葉自体を変更するべきではないという考えと、言葉自体が人々の障がいに対する悪いイメージに貢献しているという考えが対立しています。

2.「障碍」

[肯定的意見]

（障害者団体：東京青い芝の会）

『「碍」は電流を遮断する「碍子」などで用いられているように、「カベ」を意味する言葉である。社会が「カベ」を形成していること、当事者自らの中にも「カベ」に立ち向かうべき意識改革の課題があるとの観点を踏まえ、「碍」の字を使うよう提唱してきた。中国、韓国、台湾など漢字圏において、「しょうがい」は「障碍」又は「障礙」と表記されている。

「障害」の表記は「医学モデル」であるのに対し、「障碍」の表記は「社会モデル」そのものではないか。』

[否定的意見]

（DPI-Japan）

『人に対して「害」を使うべきでは無いと言うが、「障碍」の表記は、仏教語に由来する「障碍（しょうげ）」の語源に関する問題もあるため、「害」の字を使う場合と同様又はそれ以上の問題の指摘を受ける可能性がある。』

（マスメディア：朝日新聞）

『「碍」は、使用頻度が低く、国民に馴染みがない。国民が十分「碍」の字義を理解したうえで使用するなら問題はないと考えるが、「障害」を「障碍」と表記しても根本的な解決にはならない。漢字の字義に即した議論だけでなく、それとは別の、感覚的・感情的なものも含めた上での考慮もしなければならない。』

「碍」の字義こそ「社会モデル」だという考え方もありますが、障碍にも悪い語源はあるし、そもそも一般国民にとってあまり意味が伝わらないという問題もある様です。

3.「障がい」

[肯定的意見]

（地方公共団体：岩手県）

『県としては、「害」の負のイメージにより、不快感を覚える者がいるのであれば、改められる部分から改めるべきと考え、平成 20 年 4 月から行政文書等における「障害」の表記を「障がい」に変更することとした。』

（企業：ソニー株式会社）

『「害」の字が、他人に害を与えるなど負のイメージがあった。地方公共団体や民間企業の取組、各種団体の意見等を参考にして表記を「障がい」に変更した。ただし、今後、適切な表現が現れれば適宜変更を行う。』

[否定的意見]

（障害者団体：東京青い芝の会）

『表意文字である漢字を、ひらがなに置き換えてしまうと、「社会がカベを作っている」、「カベに立ち向かう」という意味合いが出ない。』

（障害者団体：特定非営利活動法人ＤＰＩ日本会議）

『人に対して「害」の字を使用することは不適切であるとして、「障害」の表記を「障がい」に変更する考え方は、障害者の社会参加の制限や制約の原因が、個人の属性としての機能障害にあるとする個人モデル（医学モデル）に基づく。』

結論

内閣府による調査でいろいろなことがわかりました。

誰もがハッピーになる結論は見つからないようですね。しかし、障がいには「医学モデル」と「社会モデル」が存在し、「社会モデル」に適する単語を探している、という点に関しては皆さん共通する様です。

確かに、今でも「医学モデル」を通して障がいを理解している人は多いかもしれません。「社会モデル」での理解が広まれば、社会にあるバリアを取り払い、実際の行動に移す人が増えるかもしれません。もし、この表記に関する議論が実際の社会のあり方にも影響するのであれば、この議論に価値があると思います。たかが言葉、されど言葉。

政府がどんな言葉を選んだとしても、新しい言葉が生まれたとしても、社会がもっと「社会モデル」を受け入れる様になり、バリアを壊さなければならないと感じる人が増えれば良いなと思っています。

筆者である私自身は、この言葉に関する調査を通して、言葉に関する知識が増えるとともに、あらゆる人々の障がいに対する考えや主張を知ることで新たな視座を得ることができ、とても勉強になりました。どの言葉を推す人の意見・気持ちも分かるような気がします。言葉の使い方についてみんなが考え、議論し、お互いの考えを知る、というだけでも最初の一歩としてとても意味があるのではないでしょうか。

日本初の重度障害を抱えた参議院議員にインタビュー

2000-01-12T06:56:34Z

木村英子氏は初めての障害を持った日本の参議院議員です。日本の国会に馴染みがない方の為に少し背景をご紹介したいと思います。日本の国会は二院制です。下院は衆議院で、上院は参議院です。

木村議員は、生後8カ月の時、歩行器ごと自宅玄関に転げ落ち、頸椎（けいつい）を損傷しました。その後、脳性麻痺と診断され、移動手段の電動車椅子を操作する右手以外、体はほとんど動きません。

長年にわたり、障がい者運動に携わり、2019年にれいわ新撰組から参議院議員選挙に立候補し、当選しました。2020年には党の副代表に就任しています。

Q.木村議員が立法議員としてどの様なことに取り組まれているかお教えいただけますか？

国会では、国土交通委員会に所属し、重度しょうがい当事者の立場から質疑を行い、建物や交通機関のバリアフリーを推進しています。

例えば、新幹線の車椅子スペースに関して、私の体験談も含めて、撮影した車内の写真を見せながら国土交通大臣に説明をすることで、新幹線の車いすスペースが２席から６席に増えるなどの成果がありました。

障がい者が家や施設を出て自立生活をする上で、移動の自由が確保されることは非常に重要だと考えています。当事者のために活動するとともに、しょうがいしゃが生きられる社会は、誰にとっても生きやすい社会であると信じ、日々それを実現するために闘っています。

Q.重度障がい者が議員になることで、国会に変化はありましたか？

スロープやエレベーター、車いす用トイレが設置されるなどの合理的な配慮がなされました。

Q.普段、書類を書いたり情報を取り入れたりするにはどんな方法を使っていますか？

アシスタント（パーソナルアシスタント）に口で伝えてパソコンに打ち込んだり、紙に書いてもらいます。でも、書いてもらう内容をゆっくり考えているとアシスタント（パーソナルアシスタント）を待たせることになるので、どうしても気を遣ってしまいます。

また、スマホの音声認識を使ったり、ニュースを読み上げさせることもありますが、夜中など周りが静かな時には使いづらいです。声を出しても周りに聞こえることなく、音声入力ができる技術があったらいいなと思います。

Q. 木村議員が他の議員やスタッフと仕事をしてきた感想はどうですか？

健常者と障がい者は分けられた環境で育っているので、障がい者と触れ合った経験が殆ど無い国会議員が多いです。フランクなコミュニケーションが取れず、お互い構えてしまいます。相手もどうして良いかわからず、私ではなく秘書や介護者（パーソナルアシスタンス）に対して話してしまう様なこともあります。

健常者と障がい者がお互いのことをもっと知るべきだと思っています。しかし、障がい当事者が社会に出られるような環境・制度が整っていないのが現状です。私の使っている重度訪問介護制度は、就労就学、余暇活動などには使えません。主に家の中でのお風呂やトイレにしか認められておらず、労働をするなと言われているようなものです。それを変えない限りは、障がい者が社会参加したり、自立した生活をできるようにはなりません。私はこの制度を是非変えたいと思っています。

Q. なぜそのような制度になっているのですか？

そもそも障がい者が社会の一員として価値を認められておらず、社会に負担をかける存在としてしか見られていない事が一因として挙げられると思います。なので、就労することは想定されていません。まだまだ障がい者の人権が保証されていないのが現実です。障がい者も社会に貢献したいと思っているのに環境が整っておらず、就労の機会が奪われています。

また、介護を家族だけに負わせ、社会の課題としてとらえず、障害者を受け入れる社会構造にはなっていないため、社会に出ていくことができず、障がい者と健常者がお互いを知る機会がとても少なく、共に生きていける環境ではありません。

社会の中で障害者と健常者が分けられ、障害者の問題が隠されていることで、法律や制度も中々変わらないという悪循環が起きています。

障害者が健常者と同じように社会参加して、社会の一員として行政で法律や制度作りに携わることができれば、共に生きていける社会に近づけると思います。そのためにも、あらゆる場面で利用できる介護制度の実現は、私が議員として一番成し遂げたいことです。

Q. 政府や地方自治体から発信される情報を、さまざまな障がいを持った方々はどのように受け取っているのでしょうか？

各省庁から出される情報については、障害者に対して情報を発信するという発想が最近になって意識されるようになった段階で、まだまだ十分に情報のアクセシビリティが進んでいないのが現状です。最近になって、情報保障として、国会のインターネット中継に手話通訳がついたり、テレビでも字幕を表示できたり、そういう合理的配慮が少しずつ増えてはきました。

しかし、個人としてほしい情報をウェブ上でスムーズに取り入れるには、様々な障害に合わせたより多くのIT機器やアプリの開発が必要になってくると思います。さらに、情報アクセスに必要な配慮も障害の程度によって違います。例えば、軽度の障害者であれば、手が使えてパソコンを操作したりでき、比較的情報を得やすいです。

重度で手も動かなかったり、言語障害がある場合、情報を得るために、他者の手を借りなければならないので、より優れたシステムが必要だと思います。究極は頭で考えたことがそのまま文字化されたり、考えただけで情報をスムーズに取り入れられたりといった感じです。こうした技術開発には、障害当事者が直接関わって、障害者と健常者の両方の視点を組み合わせて開発していく必要があると思います。

国として情報のアクセシビリティを進めていくには、政府が積極的に様々な障害者に対して情報を発信していこうという姿勢を示していくことが最も必要です。そこに近づけていくためにも、差別解消や障害者の人権に対する政策を国に働きかけていくことが重要だと考えています。そのうえで、それぞれの障がいに応じたわかりやすい情報の発信方法を模索していく必要があると思います。

Q. 現状では、政府が発信するものに関しても、アクセシビリティを確保しなければならないという義務がないということですか？

障害者差別解消法では、情報アクセシビリティの向上が基本方針に挙げられているものの、国でも民間でも努力義務にとどまっています。ですから、政府が発信する情報も、漢字にルビをふる程度です。

ウェブサイトでも、書類でも、昔から障がい者には読めない・わからないものが多く、改善を訴えてきていますが、昔からあまり変わっていません。そもそも障害者の人権に対する考え方がアメリカよりは遅れていると思います。国は国民にとって必要な情報を発信する義務がありますが、その中に障害者が入っていないように私は思います。障害者の人権が保障されることが国の発展にとって必要な課題であるということを国が認識することが大事です。そうでないと、すべての面、そして情報のアクセシビリティについても政策が進まないと思います。

まずは国でも民間でも、情報のアクセシビリティが義務化されるような法整備が必要です。それには、この課題に限りませんが、障害当事者の議員がもっと増えなければいけないと思います。また、もっと障害者に合わせたわかりやすい情報発信の方法を提案できる専門家がいればいいのに、と思います。

Q. 木村議員は障がい者の自立に向けた活動は他に何かされていますか？

施設や親元ではなく、地域で自立生活を送りたいという希望を持つ障害者のサポートをするために、1994年に東京の多摩市で自立ステーションつばさを立ち上げました。これまでに１５名の障害者がつばさから地域へ巣立っていき、自分の住みたい街で、自分らしく自立生活を送っています。

現在は私の次の世代にバトンを渡し、自立を目指す若者たちへのサポートを続けており、これからも障害者が健常者と同じように地域で生きていける社会を目指して活動していきたいと思っています。また、障がい者が家や施設から地域に出ていく自立の過程を描いた演劇の脚本を書いたこともあります。それを演じるために日本全国を回ったりしていました。

ここ20年ほどは障がいが悪化し、そのグループには所属していませんが、今でもたまに出演しています。その演劇は以下を含むいろんな方の体験談を劇にしました。

自殺未遂をして障がいになった方
海で遊んでいる時に脊椎損傷になった方
生まれつき施設に入れられて虐待をうけた方
生理の始末が大変だから子宮を摘出された方

私は体調不良で行けませんでしたが、20年以上前にNYCの障がい者施設で上演されました。その施設には20年ぶりに外部の人に出会ったという人がいたらしく、非常に辛い気持ちになりました。重度障がい者が地域に出ていけないという問題はアメリカにもあるのだと感じました。

Q. 木村議員は何かオンライン上で出来ることのアイデアがあったりしますか？

「街中のいろんなお店を回って、どんなバリアがあるかをまとめて発信する」なんて企画をやってみたいですね。ネット上のグルメサイトには、料理の味や店内の雰囲気などさまざまな情報が載っていますが、段差の有無などのバリアフリーの情報はほとんど載っていません。たとえば、障がい者用トイレや点字メニュー、障害者に合わせた食器などの自助具が備わっているかなどの情報がわかるウェブサイトやアプリがあるといいですね。

健常者でも歳をとれば視力や体力が落ち、車椅子が必要になったり、点字ブロックなどのバリアフリーが必要になるわけで、多様な障害に合わせてアクセシビリティを向上させることで、誰もが情報を得やすい環境を作れると思います。

Q. 木村議員の活動や、日本における障がい者コミュニティに対して、外国人の立場から何かできることはありますか？

いろんな人々とお話をして、お友達になりたいです。人種や障がいを問わず、いろんな人々に出会えるコミュニティが欲しいですね。積極的に障がい者を知ろうとする人がどんどん増えて行って欲しいと思っています。そういった架け橋を作るプラットフォームがあれば嬉しいです。

実は、10年くらい前にMixiを通じてボランティアを募集したけど全然集まらなかったんです。外国の人々にもヒットしなかった。障がい者、と言うと重たいイメージがあるのですが、障がい者と友達になろうというもっと気軽な感覚で接してもらえる様な、何か情報発信ができればと思いますね。

Tiny Fonts Don’t Rock the Vote

2012-09-19T19:04:14Z

The New York Times reports that a recent local election frustrated many citizens by printing information on the ballot in a nearly illegible 7pt font. There is no New York state law that governs the proper sizing of text used on ballots, but now people are asking whether there should be. The polling locations do provide magnification and screen reading capabilities, but only upon request.

Who would you like to vote for today?

James Murphy
John Smith
Jane Doe

The default experience for text in a voting system should be at least 12pt, in a legible font. The American Printing House for the Blind publishes a nice set of guidelines for the various considerations a designer should make. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 provides detailed information on setting the proper contrast for text and ensuring that text can be properly resized.

With text that is viewed through a web browser, this issue can be worked around by allowing different sizes to be specified for the font, based on CSS styles. One technology we use all the time on the web to ease the reading experience is Readability. This technology works by replacing the fonts and colors of the original designer with a format optimized for the reader. Here is an example of what this page looks like when put through Readability:

How to DJ Using Only Your Eyes

2013-01-17T14:46:34Z

Music allows people around the world to creatively express their thoughts and feelings. For people who share this passion, losing the ability to make music would be a depressing and scary proposition. David Anderson is one of these people. He has a neurological disorder (ALS) that weakens the body’s muscles progressively over time. ALS typically does not affect cognitive abilities, even though many people with ALS will eventually lose all ability to control voluntary movement. David Anderson’s ALS is at the stage where he is only able to physically control the movement of his eyes. With a group of friends, the 1 Blink Equals Yes project was launched on Kickstarter to source funding for creating a software solution that would allow David to perform a DJ set on New Years Eve of 2012. The design challenge was to determine how to enable a person who only has control of his eye movements to be able to successfully DJ.

Eye tracking technology exists to enable people that cannot utilize traditional input methods like the mouse and keyboard to control software. The most common design pattern for eye tracking technology is to have the mouse cursor follow where the user is gazing on the screen. Eye tracking technologies use image processing techniques on data from a connected video camera to assess where the user is directing his or her attention. The software can simulate a mouse click when it identifies that the user has focused his or her attention on a particular location on the screen. The following video demonstrates a user typing messages and controlling the UI using an assistive technology called the Eyegaze Edge.

Ableton Live is a software tool favored by many of the world’s top DJs. Ableton’s user interface is a great example of device independence: as it was created to work with whatever type of device users have when they access it. Many musicians do not want to be limited to using only the mouse or keyboard. Ableton Live produced an API that allows various hardware and software manufacturers to write custom interfaces to control the underlying functionality of the software. Ableton is a perfect fit for an accessibility project that will need to imagine new interfaces optimized for eye tracking control.

Ableton’s interface comprises launchable clips contained within a grid, as well as rotary dials and sliders to control minimum and maximum values of various parameters. These parameters can be modified directly using a mouse or keyboard inside the Ableton user interface.

These parameters can also be accessed through using a hardware controller such as the APC40. With this type of interface, the user does not need to use a mouse or a keyboard and can instead work directly on the piece of hardware with physical buttons, dials, and sliders. Many users appreciate having a more tactile interaction with the music they create.

Ableton Live can also be accessed through touch tablet interfaces. TouchOsc is an example of software that can be used to build different visual layouts. Most UI layouts developed for a touch interface reduce the number of controls on the screen and make them larger so they are easier to physically control. Additionally touch control of Ableton means the user does not have to be seated in front of a mouse and keyboard to create music.

The 1 Blink Equals Yes project is a success: KARE11 has the video from New Years Eve 2012 with David Anderson dj’ing using only his eyes. He has decided that he will not let his physical condition stop his ability to communicate with the world through music. We are excited to see how this technology evolves over time and to learn more about the technical implementation. The Tobii Rex is one example of a new hardware device being manufactured to enable gaze interaction to be more seamlessly built into software. We look forward to seeing how we all will benefit from research and innovation in this area.

Making a Colorful Video Game Work for Color Blind Gamers

2013-06-01T04:44:22Z

Zuma, a tile-matching puzzle video game created by PopCap Games, continues to be one of the most popular free games on the internet. During play, colored balls roll around the screen on a set path, and players attempt to eliminate these balls by firing like-colored balls at them from a stone frog’s mouth, in an attempt to prevent the balls from falling into a hole.

Image courtesy of PopCap Games, Inc.

Unfortunately, the need to differentiate between ball colors makes Zuma very difficult for color blind players. In the paid version of the sequel game, Zuma’s Revenge!, players have a “Color Blind Assist” option. When this option is selected, the balls that are normally colored green become gray.

Image courtesy of sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net.

Many websites take the same approach as the original Zuma game, and use colors to signify categories of information. This is unwise, because 1 in 12 men and 1 in 250 women experience some form of color blindness, and are thus unable to distinguish one category of information from another.

If you want your web content to be fully accessible to color blind visitors, here are a few recommendations:

Make sure that the colors you use do not convey important information.
Exaggerate the difference between foreground and background colors.
Don’t use colors with a similar lightness, no matter how much they differ in saturation.
Lighten the lighter colors and darken the darker ones.

Following these recommendations will make your web content accessible to a much larger number of visitors. For more information, please visit the following pages on the Web Accessibility Initiative home page:

Contrast (Minimum)
Contrast (Enhanced)

Q&A with Thad Johnston: Making a Physical Board Game Accessible for Blind and Low Vision Players

2014-02-07T09:39:19Z

Let’s start from the beginning. How did you come up with the idea of making a board game be accessible?

It started early last year, in March, when I started working with a student at Colorado State University named Adam, who is blind. I was supposed to work with him to help him in one of his classes. While working with him I became interested in accessibility, a very broad and relatively untouched subject. There are a lot of areas that we could go deeper with in accessibility, so one of the things I did while working with him was talk about board games. I am a pretty avid board game player and I play a lot with my brother. In October, I decided that I wanted to make one of the games I enjoy accessible, so that he could play it. It was more of a curiosity thing to see if I could make it work. I looked through my stack of games, and the one that stood out to me was a game called Shadows Over Camelot. I believed that I could make this game accessible for him, and also his girlfriend who is visually impaired. Shadows of Camelot is a cooperative game where each person takes a knight at the round table, and they each have their own special abilities. Through cooperation, players work to complete quests and have the forces of good beat the forces of evil.
One of the reasons I really wanted to work on board games is that making board games accessible is way easier and less time consuming than video games. One thing I like about board games is that everyone is present and can participate socially. You could play multiplayer videogames, but they are still isolated events that you are playing in your own little world.

What were the accessible modifications to the game?

To enable all players to read the characters sheets that define each knight, I put transparent tape through a Braille typewriter and affixed it to the character sheet. The description of each knight’s specific powers could now be accessed through sight and touch.

There are two decks of cards: a black deck and a white deck. I created short braille labels for each of the cards so that they were easily identifiable. I typed up a longer description of what each of the cards does, and then sent it as a text file to Adam. On Adam’s computer, he can associate the braille labels with the longer descriptions of the different cards in a text file, and with his headphones, he can hear an assistive technology read the text as synthesized speech. These text files can be used to check the meaning of each card from the abbreviation in the text file.

The Shadows Over Camelot game board is dense with information. It has a pretty in-depth map, and multiple game boards go along with it. I cut out wire and taped it to where the characters go for each part of the board.

Shadows Over Camelot

What parts of the game were already accessible?

The game has many individual pieces that are positioned on the board. Fortunately, each of the game pieces has distinct physical features that enable its identification by touch.

For example, there are white and black swords that are used to track progress on quests in the game. When you complete a quest you get a certain number of white swords, and when you fail a quest,you get a certain number of black swords. I didn’t need to modify the swords in any way to be accessible, because the white sword is rounded and the black sword is a little sharper. This is a great example of not using solely color to differentiate items. Because there was a tangible difference between the swords, their meaning could be identified through multiple senses.

Also, each knight used in the game has its own unique features. It\’s amazing that with touch, each knight can be distinguished even though the pieces are fairly small.

What were some observations from playing the modified game with people who are visually impaired?

Adam, Cala, and I started playing the game together very soon after the accessible modifications were made. It worked, they caught on really fast, and now the three of us enjoy playing together.

During gameplay, Adam and Cala could feel their cards and determine which quests would be most appropriate to go on. The game has many different statuses that get conveyed visually on the board. Adam was very good at maintaining the status of the board in his memory and reciting the current state. If there was a question about a particular area of the board, then I could answer or validate his question. Also, Adam and Cala could independently physically explore the board through following the wires affixed to the game surface.

Each player liked to sit in the same position on the board to orient himself or herself on the board. The player can physically explore the board to draw a card for a new turn. Also, through touch, the player could position cards in slots on the board by feeling, from the left to the right, where the first empty space was. The player can then play the appropriate good or bad card on the board with an understanding of the sequence of cards that came before.

The traitor component of the game was also interesting in this new setup. I honestly think taking vision out of the equation adds another layer, and here is why: When someone is a traitor, many people have certain tells. You don’t give the same tells to people who are blind that you give to sighted people. The way that people are perceived through their voice and tone adds a different layer. Adam could tell I was the traitor through changes he heard in my voice. It challenges the dynamics of the game and makes the experience more enjoyable.

Any closing thoughts?

Gaming is such a part of what I love. One of the reasons I am excited about living in Indianapolis is that an annual gaming convention happens here. Gen Con is in August, and I am hoping to set up a booth for accessible games. One of my goals is to reach out to the local school for the blind to explore other ideas for accessible board games.

When all was said and done, it only took five hours total to make the game accessible. Nothing I did was complicated, and it was not a hard problem. It only took a good idea, and following through with it. Working with accessibility often takes a little creativity to solve a problem. You have to have the belief that people who are blind can play these games as your starting point.

Playing board games together can be unifying and enjoyable for everyone involved.

To Contact Thad Johnston with additional questions and comments, you can reach him at thaddeusmjohnston@gmail.com.

An Interview with Alexander Shutov, Creator of Dark Reader Plugin

2015-01-25T12:42:14Z

This installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Alexander Shutov, creator of Dark Reader, a Chrome plugin that adjusts the color contrast in your browser to make it more readable.

When did you begin work on Dark Reader?

Working as a software engineer, I was staring at a screen all day long and my eyes got tired. So, in July 2014, I created a simple extension that could invert the colors of web pages as soon as you clicked an icon in the top-right corner. I released Dark Reader 2 in December 2014, with a settings page allowing users to adjust brightness, contrast, sepia, and other filters.

Were you aware of the accessibility implications of Dark Reader during development?

At first, I was developing the extension based on my own experience. Soon, I started receiving reports about some wrongly inverted websites, and performance problems. All that feedback was addressed in version 3, released in June 2015. Since that time, users have been able to manage their ignore list, select font, and invert PDFs. Users familiar with web technologies and accessibility started contributing to the list of dark sites and wrongly inverted parts.

What is the best feedback you have received?

There has been a lot of thankful feedback, which has motivated me to not stop the work. The most touching one came from a retired US soldier with vision problems. Many users have noticed that Dark Reader helps them when they’re struggling with migraines.

What accessibility barrier would you like to see solved?

Inverting web content is not enough for eye-safe web browsing. Google Chrome can have problems (such as white flashes) when opening a new tab or navigating a website. Unfortunately, the browser developers don’t solve these problems for years, so I even had to write to Sergey Brin, but it seems as if he hasn’t payed attention to it. Today, more and more professional software provides dark themes, so I hope in 2017 we will have more dark-themed websites. At the same time, Dark Reader 4 is under construction, and its new inversion engine will be more intellectual and comfortable for eyes.

Download Dark Reader from the Chrome Web Store.

Q&A with John Kirkwood, Entrepreneur

2015-03-06T21:52:55Z

This installment of our Accessibility Activists is an interview with John Kirkwood from CityMouse, one of New York’s first independent Internet media agencies.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

Well, accessibility has always been a part of our government standards and guidelines I wrote since I built the first official website for the City of New York in 1996. We always ensured we made best efforts to meet all current W3C standards & practices as they evolved (as a past member). However, it was since I became disabled myself in 2007, I became aware of the increasing accessibility gap in online services.

I subsequently certified my web development company company as one of the nations first USBLN® Certified Disabled Owned Business Enterprise DOBE® in 2010. This is the time when web accessibility became our focus.

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

Generally I think it would be the accessibility of government services to millions of people through the City Of New York’s official website. The development of accessible information for the entire City of New York and its public services received global acclaim, and at the time it won Best of the Web. It demanded inter-agency training of personnel to put information on the Internet in accordance with developing standards for equal access. I am proud so say it was one of the most accessed, universal, effective, and accessible government websites online. This experience and its fundamental principals are what continue to drive us today.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

Our focus in the accessibility field is making information accessible to all people including people with cognitive and neurological disabilities. We have found this can globalize in interesting ways, and make information more accessible for a distracted user or a mobile user while incorporating the latest W3C WCAG 2.0 guidelines. This focus demands deep knowledge of design principals based on current knowledge of technical web standards. This can globalize to making information more accessible for a distracted user or a mobile user for a safe, satisfying, and productive user experience.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

In particular, barriers for people with cognitive and neurological disabilities.
Barriers due to ineffective content presentation focus or guided user interaction should be addressed. This would be achieved through a combination of technology, accessibility consulting, and enhanced CMS navigation templates, accompanied by experienced design services. It would also involve integrating cognitively accessible navigation templates with a floating accessible navigator ‘FAN’ into client content management systems. Quality would be assured through user testing to ensure the interface will accommodate the cognitively disabled user.

Watch John Kirkwood’s recent presentation at NYU’s Ability Lab.

Q&A with Mirabai Knight, Realtime Captioner

2015-07-01T19:46:54Z

This installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Mirabai Knight, a realtime captioner. Knight is also a contributor to the StenoSpeak for Android project.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

You could argue that my first entry into accessibility was in third grade when we were given the assignment to invent something and then draw up a mock patent for it, and I rigged up an old wooden pipe holder, a disc-shaped drill bit case, and a few other odds and ends into what I called the “Quadriplegic Pill Dispenser” (more accurately, a pill dispenser for quadriplegic people), which could be loaded up with a week’s worth of pills by an aid and then operated independently by a quadriplegic patient, who could use their nose to dispense a day’s worth of pills at a time.

My mom is a nurse, and she had introduced me to a paraplegic patient who had become a friend of hers, which I guess put the idea into my head of inventing a device for people with quadriplegia.

Fast forward a bit to my first job out of college, working the night shift at a group home for adults with developmental and physical disabilities in Missoula, Montana. I got hands-on experience with a lot of accessibility devices there, though most of them were non-electronic.

That job turned into a job as an overnight care attendant for a lawyer with ALS when I moved to New York City. She only had the use of her eyes at that point, so when she got an eye-gaze computer that allowed her to write emails and communicate with people using synthesized speech, it was a big step up from the transparent alphabet board and guesswork that we’d used for communication up to that point.

That summer I started steno school (after reading the “stenography” article on Wikipedia and realizing that getting paid to caption college classes for deaf and hard of hearing students was a much better idea, financially and otherwise, than going to graduate school myself), and shortly afterward I got a job at an offline television closed captioning company.

When I graduated from steno school two years later, I interned with a CART captioner, then struck off on my own, and I’ve been doing it ever since. It’s the best job I could ever imagine.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

I primarily caption college classes for deaf and hard of hearing students, specializing in medical and graduate-level work, but I also do a fair amount of conference captioning.

What accessibility barriers exist within your specific field?

There are far too few captioners to meet the need! One in seven people (over 35 million people in the US) have some form of hearing loss, and there are fewer than 500 certified realtime captioners in the entire country!

Lack of consistent funding for captioning is also a barrier, though scarcity of captioners is a much more severe one. That’s why I started The Open Steno Project, to get more people into steno so that we can greatly improve the pool of captioners working in the field.

What is one new technology that you are excited about for accessibility?

Cloth-embedded circuits, and wearable computing in general! I want a pair of steno pants!

Q&A with Jonathan Avila, Chief Accessibility Officer

2015-09-09T12:39:18Z

This installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Jonathan Avila, Chief Accessibility Officer for SSB Bart Group. Avila is also a participant in the WCAG Working Group, and the mobile accessibility task force at the WAI.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

I worked at a summer family vacation retreat/camp for adults who were blind/visually impaired in New York. I started teaching campers Windows 95, MS Office, and the Internet with JAWS 3.2. Back then you had to reformat the page into one column before reading each page with JAWS. There was no virtual/browser cursor yet. Most blind people I worked with hadn’t really had a chance to use the Internet or even explore Windows, and they were just amazed to find out what was possible at that time. Seeing the benefits that assistive technology could bring was amazing.

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

I had many projects and I can’t limit it to one. The most important include but are not limited to:

Creating JAWS scripts for many customers – most of whom worked at call centers. I created JAWS scripts that allowed people to be efficient and often out-perform their sighted peers by creating shortcuts and streamlining the process of taking calls. Many of my scripts ran for years and across multiple versions of systems and JAWS without breaking. I came from a programming background, and thus when I joined this field, I wanted to programmatically solve these issues in a robust way that relied on using MSAA, the document object model, or COM rather than what my predecessors had done, which was to write macros based on screen coordinates, specific colors, or other techniques that were fragile. I felt like myself and others like Doug Lee helped to transform the scripting industry with modern programming practices. Our predecessors were well intentioned people, most of whom came from a rehab background, but who were not programmers.
Codifying the knowledge I had learned into best practices in SSB Bart Group\’s AMP (Accessibility Management Platform). When SSB and BART Group combined in 2005, I was given the chance to take the knowledge in my head related to accessibility of software and web, and to put it into writing which is now the AMP best practice library. Other people did and have contributed significant material – but much of the content was written based on what I had learned from working since the late 1990s. The AMP best practice library pre-dated much of WCAG notes and techniques that we now have, so it was a great resource when few other resources were available. It remains a great resource and the library goes beyond web content that is addressed by WCAG notes.
Implementing accessibility into frameworks. I was involved in writing accessibility implementations for frameworks such as Adobe’s Flex framework. Whenever we have the chance to write accessibility into a framework, the impact is so much more significant for accessibility support because the support is there automatically in standard controls without requiring developers to consider adding it in.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

I’m actually involved in many areas. For example, I’m actively involved in the WCAG WG and the mobile accessibility task force at the WAI. I’ve been involved in the creation of mobile standards and guidelines for accessibility within several organizations. I actively commented on the Section 508 refresh and have been planning updates in AMP for the refreshed standards. At the same time I have been refining our automated tests for web content and working on automatic test criteria for native mobile content.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

There are many barriers that technology can assist to dissolve. I could name many things like social interaction, gaming, way finding, employment, education, and transportation. One large challenge is that technology and frameworks are created with accessibility as an afterthought. I’d like to see technology, frameworks, and pattern libraries that are designed with accessibility in mind from the beginning. If this were the case, technology could readily be the solution to other barriers as soon as it’s available.

Using Cortana and Speech Recognition Together on Windows 10

2015-10-01T19:33:02Z

One of the holy grails of computing is to one day be able to have machines perform perfect speech recognition. The ability to control computers with speech benefits everyone, but can be specifically powerful for people with disabilities. Many people are unable to use a mouse or keyboard due to physical constraints. Additionally, people may experience pain when trying to use a mouse or keyboard. These users will benefit from being able to always use their voice to control the computer.

Windows Cortana

Cortana is a new personal assistant feature added to Windows 10 that allows you to control your computer with your voice. One limitation of Cortana is that it has a very specific set of functionality that can be performed using voice input. This limitation is shared with other digital assistant’s such as Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Now. It is exciting to note that on Windows 10, Cortana can be combined with Windows Speech Recognition to enable many more scenarios to be completed hands-free. Note that Windows Speech Recognition is only available for the following languages: English, French, German, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish.

Customization Recommendations

In this section we are providing a set of recommendations for how to configure your PC to have the most success when using it hands-free.

For best results we recommend that you:

Select and configure your microphone
Train your computer to recognize your speech
Configure Windows Speech Recognition to start when you log in
Configure Internet Explorer to be the default web browser

Select and configure microphone

A headset microphone will generally give the best results because the microphone is closer to your mouth, and therefore it has a better ability to block out additional background sound in the environment where you are using your computer. If you do not own a microphone headset, you can typically use the microphone built into your computer.

Train your computer to recognize your speech

The computer will ask you to read a short excerpt of text to learn how you pronounce different words. By taking the time to let the computer know how you speak, you will get better results.

Open Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Speech Recognition.
Click “Train your computer to better understand you.”
Follow the instructions on the screen.

Configure Windows Speech Recognition to start when you log in

If you want to use speech recognition at all times, you can set it up to automatically start when you turn on your computer.

Search for “Speech Recognition” in the Start menu
Underneath the “Settings” header, select “Speech Recognition.”
Activate “Advanced Speech Options”
In the “User Settings” section, ensure that “Run Speech Recognition at startup” is checked
Activate the “Apply” button

Configure Internet Explorer to be the default web browser

Based on our usage experiments, Internet Explorer provided the best results for controlling the computer with voice.

Search for “Default Programs” in the Start menu
Activate the “Select your default programs” item
From the “Programs” list, select “Internet Explorer”
Activate the “Set this program as default button”
Activate the “OK” button to close the dialog

Common Cortana Commands

Here are a few commands you can use with Cortana.

To do this	Say this
Wake up Cortana	“Hey Cortana”
Change time information for event in calendar	“Change my 3 PM event to 4”
Search NBA basketball scores	“Show me the latest NBA scores”

Common Speech Recognition Commands

Here are a few commands you can use with Windows Speech Recognition.

To do this	Say this
Wake up speech recognition	“Start Listening”
Pause speech recognition from listening to your voice	“Stop Listening”
Scroll in one direction	“Scroll Up” “Scroll Down”
Add numbers to everything clickable on the screen	“Show Numbers”

Full List of Speech Recognition Commands

Yes, you should test to standards. Now what?

2015-10-08T19:38:38Z

Testing with VoiceOver on Mac

Testing software, hardware, or websites to accessibility standards can often be a classic “peeling back layers of an onion” problem. You know you need to make your offerings accessible, but which industry and government standards do you need to follow? You know which guidelines you will follow, but which test tools and best practices will you use? You have a test plan, and have done some of the testing, but which issues will you fix, and how? You’ve tested to standards, but are your offerings truly accessible?

Let’s take a moment to give you some starting points to answer these questions.

Which standards?

In general, for U.S. software and hardware, you can use the Section 508 regulations.
For offerings in the EU, EN 301 549 [pdf] is the emerging standard. It borrows from and builds on Section 508 and WCAG to consolidate guidance for software, hardware, and the web.
For websites, the international industry standard is WCAG 2.0.
Section 508 and other government regulations are in the process of refreshing, to sync to WCAG, and reflect advances in technology since Section 508 was first created at the turn of the century.

Which tools and best practices?

Get educated on the basics of accessibility testing and accessibility policy through online training. SSB BART Group, for example, offers such online courses (including several produced here at Equal Entry) via SSB University.
Apply accessibility principles around the structure of content, metadata for images, media, and documents, simple UI interfaces, color, and more at design time. As with any other testing, the earlier the issues are found, fixed, or prevented altogether, the easier it is to resolve issues quickly.
Automated testing can provide a first pass to find simple or obvious issues, general bug trends, and help you get familiar with accessibility standards too. One example for the web is the Accessibility Management Platform from SSB BART Group.
Debugging tools can help you with further automated testing, and with pinpointing issues page by page and element by element. One example for the web is aXe: the Accessibility Engine by Deque. Another for color contrast issues is Colour Contrast Analyser by Paciello group.

Which issues will you fix, and how?

Just as with tools and best practices, get educated on the basics of accessibility development and accessibility policy through online training. As previously stated, SSB Bart Group offers online courses via SSB University.
Enlist accessibility experts to assist with testing, triage, and remediation of your offerings’ accessibility issues. We at Equal Entry offer such services; contact us for more information.

Testing with JAWS on Windows

You’ve tested to standards, but is your product truly accessible?

Nope! Apologies for burying the lede, but testing to standards alone isn’t enough.

For one thing, the standards themselves might be forward-looking enough that the industry experience and best practices aren’t there yet. For example, let’s say you’re attempting to produce a test plan to assess compliance with aspects of EN 301 549.
- There are many clauses that are simply informative, e.g., (at the time of this writing) 11.2.2.7. The tester is met with “Clause 11.2.2.7 is informative only and contains no requirements requiring test.” Now the tester will need to do extra work to consider: How and when is this integrated into testing? What conversations need to happen with developers or designers?
- Or look up 9.2.1 – the testing guidance tells the tester to refer to WCAG Success Criterion 1.1.1 – thus sending them on a wild chase to try to consolidate their test plan.

For another thing, your offerings may be close to technically accessible according to automated testing… yet automated testing is not comprehensive. Automated tests won’t verify full keyboard access, or catch whether the reading order of major sections of a document is correctly read by assistive technology, for example.
Speaking of assistive technology: even adhering closely to technical standards doesn’t guarantee a good experience with assistive technology (AT).
- Browser / OS compatibility, compatibility issues with common AT settings and features, even fundamental usability issues like a feature with drag-drop operations that doesn’t have a keyboard equivalent… all these and more aren’t found without some expert manual testing. Be sure to leave time and budget to plan for manual testing, with common AT and browser/system/app settings, such as the testing services provided by Equal Entry.

Accessibility testing is as complex and varied as it is vital to ensure you’re making your offerings usable to all of your potential customers. But you don’t have to tackle it alone! Use the guidelines and resources mentioned here to get prepared, and to get help.

Chris Keroack is an accessibility consultant with Equal Entry.

Q&A with Beth Rosenberg, Founder of Tech Kids Unlimited

2015-12-16T19:34:46Z

This installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Beth Rosenberg, founder of Tech Kids Unlimited, an educational organization for kids ages 8 to 18 with special needs.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

As I have a child with a disability, I become active in the world of accessibility around 2008. I saw that there weren’t any technology educational learning programs for my kid and, as an educator this upset me since through him I saw how much he loved tech. In 2009, I organically put together the idea of teaching technology to kids who learn differently and Tech Kids Unlimited was born.

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

I am most proud of the not-for-profit organization Tech Kids Unlimited (TKU) which I founded with my son. At TKU, we work with students ages 7 to 19 who have a love of consuming technology and who now want to learn how to produce and make with technology. All of our programs are only for kids with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or a 504 and who need additional support in the classroom. At TKU for every 3 students there is one counselor and we also have a social worker in all of our programs.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

At Tech Kids Unlimited we are teaching kids with disabilities how to become the techies of tomorrow. These kids are so talented and creative and they CAN produce amazing videos, gifs, websites, 3d objects, animations, games and more! With so many students these days challenged by learning, emotional and neurological challenges, TKU exists to help these kids learn viable 21st century skills so they can get internships and hopefully, employment in the near future.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

TKU is working on an app and we were one of the 2015 AT&T Connectability Challenge Winners for www.LOLAapp.com which helps with daily living skills for youth on the spectrum and with other special needs. It has been proven that an important link in terms of getting employment is not only social skills but daily living skills—brushing your teeth, wearing deodorant, saying hi or please and thank you, etc. With this app, we hope that TKU can contribute to the conversation around how tech can help people with disabilities. Technology can level the playing field for individuals with disability — it’s now up to society to embrace neurodiversity.

Q&A with Bob Paradiso, Independent Rehab Engineer

2015-12-23T14:14:30Z

The newest installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Bob Paradiso, Independent Rehab Engineer. With a background in programming video games, Paradiso now modifies electronics and hardware to enable people to do more.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

Maybe it was when I first started playing around with hacking a power wheelchair to be driveable with my Android phone. After which I started to realize (and test out) that really you could use absolutely ‘any’ access method to drive a wheelchair, and very affordably (with varying degrees of safety depending on the environment).

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

Well, still related to the wheelchairs, I’m most proud of this one deluxe demo I setup in apartment. I had a power wheelchair that I rigged to be driveable with a cheap ($130) eye-gaze setup. Once I had that working I added more and more to the eye-gaze controlled menus such that in the end you could:

drive the power wheelchair around
turn simple appliances on and off around the apartment (lights, fan, etc.)
use IR learning and playback to control slightly more complicated things like set the station and volume on a radio or TV
control a robotic arm that I attached to the wheelchair so that you could pick up things and move them around

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

Alternative controls for various electronics and appliances in a person’s life, customized to be accessible for that particular user. I’ve found that with a little work, you can make almost anything switch enabled, voice activated, eye-gaze controllable, you name it. The trickiest part is when the control needs to be real-time, no lag or delays allowed. But with some creativity, there’s still a lot that can be done.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

Crossing a busy street. I’m sure there’s countless examples, but I pass by the corners of E 23rd and 3rd Ave, or E 23rd and 2nd Ave in Manhattan during my lunch breaks often. I’ve helped a lot of people cross those streets, and let me tell you, it’s not easy. Even if we keep moving steady without any stopping, we often don’t make it across before the light changes. I remember one time in particular we actually started ‘before’ we had the light since there was a break in traffic, and even with that head start, we were only just past half way when the light had changed again and now we were in the path of oncoming traffic. I’m not sure what the best answer is yet, every one I think of is far less than ideal. But if you have various mobility and/or vision impairments, crossing some streets in Manhattan is either not possible on your own, or dangerous in a very real way. I feel like it doesn’t have to be that way.

To see photos of Paradiso’s work, visit http://bobparadiso.com/.

Q&A with Akash Khanolkar, Founder of CrowdViz

2016-01-13T17:16:19Z

This installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Akash Khanolkar, founder of CrowdViz, a company that connects people who are visually impaired with sighted assistants. Through a video connection, assistants can offer various types of sighted help.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

Learning about the field of accessibility was such a remarkable experience. I had no idea how many amazing products were out there that truly helped people with disabilities. I first started in accessibility in 2014, when I founded CrowdViz, an app that provides remote sighted assistance for visually impaired people through a live video connection. While working on the product for a few months and meeting interested people, I’ve learned that accessibility is a quickly growing area with a tremendous amount of potential.

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

Most definitely CrowdViz; at first, it really seemed like just a “wacky” idea. Connecting visually impaired people with sighted people through a video connection seemed interesting in theory but unusual in practice. Taking that theoretical idea and bringing it to the market was a huge moment for me and my team. We launched our iPhone app in September and the response received was incredible. When I hear our visually impaired customers talk about how our product has truly made an impact on their lives that in itself, brings about an incredible feeling for me.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

Currently, I am focusing on making CrowdViz the best product that it can be. I believe it has the potential to make a major impact on the field of accessibility. In today’s world of technology, many times we focus too much on automation and using different algorithms to convert what we see to what we hear. Though I agree this is a legitimate step towards the future of accessibility for visually impaired people, I think that this particular technology is a very long road ahead. We want to show the world that the field of accessibility should focus on building technologies that empower people to help other people.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

Our world is designed for people with five senses, which makes it difficult for innovators to take into consideration a world where there are exceptions. When building new innovative technologies, all people should be taken into consideration, including whether or not the person might be visually impaired, deaf, or mute. Building technology that can empower people with the choice to live independently, this would be a barrier I’d like to see solved.

To learn more about Khanolkar’s work, visit the CrowdViz website.

Q&A with Svetlana Kouznetsova, Founder of Audio Accessibility

2016-01-26T20:58:20Z

The latest installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Svetlana Kouznetsova, founder of Audio Accessibility, a consulting service that helps make audio, videos, and events accessible for deaf people. In addition to her work in accessibility, Kouznetsova also works in user experience and product management.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

I have been profoundly deaf in both ears since I was two years old after contracting meningitis. So I have first hand experience with communication and information access barriers. I am fortunate to have a supportive family and also to meet many other deaf and hard of hearing people as well as people with other disabilities, and to get involved with various organizations that advocate for accessibility. This helped me become more confident as a deaf person, learn to self-advocate, and educate more people about importance of accessibility as a working professional.

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

My book that I published last year. I kept saying in past that I would write a book one day and I finally started working on it a couple years ago. Being a native Russian speaker and dealing with so many communication access barriers to become a fluent English speaker, I find my book project one of my most important achievements that I would not have imagined back then when I was younger, let alone in a language other than my mother tongue. The book dispels myths about deafness, shares my personal experiences and case studies, and explains why captioning is universal access and benefits a wider audience. It can be checked out on audio-accessibility.com/book.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

I like many aspects of accessibility and educate businesses about the importance of making their products and services user-friendly and accessible from the start of any project, and not to use accessibility as a nice extra or an afterthought. My major focus is captioning and communication access because I know this subject best, being a deaf person and an experienced professional; using various technologies and communication options; and being involved with organizations related to deafness. Since deafness is an invisible disability and very stigmatized, many people with hearing loss would not ask for access. Therefore, it makes many people with normal hearing assume that only a small number of people need access without realizing that not all people are same in terms of hearing and communication abilities and preferences and that quality human-made captioning is universal access that benefits more people than just those with hearing difficulties. Many businesses also do not realize that people with disabilities make the largest minority — comprising a market size of China — and yet their needs are sadly the most misunderstood and ignored.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

There are already a lot of great technologies out there like hearing aids and cochlear implants, visual alerts (door or fire strobes, for example), vibrating alarm clocks, captioning tools, texting, video calls, and so on. It would be cool to see captioning running in air via hologram, for example! While technology would be useful, I feel that there’s a need for more empathy and awareness about deafness and disabilities in general in order to remove accessibility barriers. The issue is more with attitudinal than physical barriers. For example, a captioning tool may be useful for displaying aural information via text, but it is useless if auto captioning or speech recognition is enabled because they are not of acceptable quality and would not replace qualified human professionals. So I would like to see an increasing interest of people in becoming captioners, sign language interpreters, and cued speech transliterators – there’s a high demand for quality communication access providers.

Q&A with Tiffany Yu, Founder of Diversability

2016-02-10T21:23:27Z

This month’s installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Tiffany Yu, the Director of Business Development at REVOLT Media & TV. Yu is also the founder of Diversability, an award-winning social movement to rebrand disability. She graduated with honors from Georgetown University and currently lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter at @ImTiffanyYu.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

I have brachial plexus palsy (nerve damage) in my right arm as a result of a car accident in 1997. I spent much of my adolescence refusing to acknowledge that aspect of my identity, but I became an “accidental advocate” in the disability space in 2009. I was participating in a diversity training in college and we were asked to cut out slices of a pie based on our social identities and how important they were to us (i.e., gender, ethnicity, etc.). Disability made up almost half of my pie because it was something that I thought about every day. When I looked at my neighbor’s pie, being “able-bodied” was the thinnest slice of his pie. It made me realize that disability was missing from the conversation and I felt compelled to do something about it.

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

I created Diversability, a social movement that fosters community to rebrand disability. We connect, showcase, and empower people of all abilities doing amazing things. We want to get more people talking and thinking about disability as a core part of the diversity conversation.

I am most proud of the new friendships and partnerships that have formed out of people meeting through Diversability. I also love seeing people in the community feel empowered to start their own projects or try something new, like Jason leading Diversability’s efforts in Los Angeles even though we have never met in person before, to my own experiences going rock climbing for the first time in more than 18 years last month!

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

With Diversability, we are focused on uniting the disability community, engaging people without disabilities (or allies) in the conversation, and celebrating disability pride and empowerment. We provide a platform online and a physical space for people to bring their full authentic selves and belong. There is so much great work being done in the space to solve different aspects related to accessibility and we want to serve as a partner and way to help showcase those solutions and technology being built. We also want to foster an environment where people come together socially if not for any other reason than to hang out with some amazing people… because why not? 🙂

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

Would “all of the above” be an appropriate answer here? I’m really excited about the power of technology and human-centered design to contribute to the inclusion of people with disabilities in society. Technology and solutions should enhance access to opportunities for all, regardless of ability.

Watch Yu’s presentation on Diversability at the Talking Book Library in NYC:

Q&A with John Huth, Librarian for The Child’s Place in Brooklyn

2016-04-28T20:07:54Z

This month’s installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with John Huth, Young Adult Librarian for The Child’s Place in Brooklyn. He collaborates with partners, including schools and community-based organizations, to provide high quality information services to underserved young people, including those with disabilities.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

In 1998, I started working as a one-to-one paraprofessional for the New York City Department of Education. The student I worked with required accommodations which did not exist at the time. At this point I became actively interested in exploring creative solutions to accessibility issues.

What project are you most proud of?

My last. Yesterday I lead students at Clara Barton High School in an activity where we used an opaque plastic screen, cut up scraps of paper and a lamp to create shadow art. This was a low tech on the fly activity. Yet every student was able to create in a way that was meaningful to them. Accessibility isn’t just about building a tool that solves problems although that is important. It’s also about making accessibility happen in the moment, as events unfold in real time. That is what I am most proud of.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

Video Gaming, specifically in the areas of interface (controller/system) and user experience. I run an accessible arcade at Brooklyn Public Library which affords me the opportunity to observe how students use accessible gaming technology. Everything I know, I learned from watching them.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

We have all the technology we need to afford people with disabilities equal access. A better question might be how do we eliminate financial barriers to accessible technology?

Watch Huth’s presentation for a11ynyc on accessible gaming for teens and young adults with disabilities:

An Interview with Sue Martin, Author of “In Dog We Trust”

2016-06-07T13:18:13Z

Sue Martin’s first book, Out of the Whirlpool, is a deeply honest and moving account of the rebuilding of her life after a suicide attempt in her youth ended in traumatic blindness. Since that day, she has greeted the world with her trademark determination and humor, accepting the challenges placed before her as she adjusted to being blind. In this interview with Thomas Logan, CEO of Equal Entry, Martin talks about her new book, In Dog We Trust.

Transcript

Thomas Logan: Hello, I’m Thomas Logan from Equal Entry, and I’m here today with author Sue Martin.

What caused you to write “In Dog We Trust”?

Sue Martin: My husband. He wanted me to write a book about my dogs.

Thomas Logan: How long had you been blind before you went to get a guide dog?

Sue Martin: About two and a half years. It took me about a year to trust my cane travel. At that point I think the Seeing Eye probably would have accepted me. But I put it off for another year and a half because I just felt that it was really important to have good solid cane skills that I had used over a long enough period of time that I wouldn’t freak out if I suddenly had to go back to the cane.

Thomas Logan: What did you think it was going to be like, having a guide dog?

Sue Martin: Well, it was it was kind of a an easy decision for me because I grew up with dogs and horses. I was around hunting dogs and I road dressage as a child. It was just a very natural fit for me. I almost knew what it was going to be like before I even walked in the door [laughs]. I mean in my dreams that’s what it was going to be like, and by golly it is [laughs].

Thomas Logan: Do you think other people have a different experience when they get a guide dog for the first time?

Sue Martin: It probably is [different for other people], because it’s unnatural to walk really fast if you can’t see where you’re going. I think a lot of times, especially [for] people who have a little bit of usable vision, it’s really hard for them to put that level of trust in an animal. Because, I mean, a well-trained dog handled the way we’re taught to handle our dogs… I fly. It takes a lot of trust you know, it really does!

Thomas Logan: How long before you had established trust with your dog?

Sue Martin: Not very long at all. I would say in training, with all four of them, now five of them. Seeing Eye provides absolutely wonderful instruction, and they provide the same instruction to every student. So we’re all taught similar ways to handle our dogs throughout the dog’s working life. But we are also human beings with our own instincts and sometimes we’re going to follow those instincts regardless of what the school said.

Sue Martin and her seeing-eye dog, Quan, stand before the Freedom Tower in Manhattan. (Photo Credit: Sue Martin)

Thomas Logan: You have a lot of great stories in your book. Could you share one with us?

Sue Martin: It’s the chapter when I bring my first dog Sadie home, and I’m describing arriving at the Birmingham airport. My instructor had told me to leave the plane with a flight attendant and just walk Sadie at heel. And this little imp that’s been riding around on my shoulder all my life speaks with a mocking tone and is sometimes a little sarcastic. And he said, “Oh, go ahead and work her, it’ll be so much more impressive.” And so I did, and it was perfectly fine.

I think I have been extremely lucky since becoming blind in a lot of ways. I had incredible teachers, I had a very supportive family and community. And then I met Jim [laughs]. Jim has always encouraged me. Jim taught me to ski during our internships and he’s always encouraged me to push the envelope and never be afraid to go for my dreams.

I mean Jim and I hiked together in the Appalachian mountains before I even had a dog. It was just a different kind of experience. Because with a dog, you’re working with another living being. You’re taking in the world around you. You know the forest, the smells, the sounds; you also have this living being taking responsibility for your safety, and so you have that sensory experience as well as all the rest of it.

Thomas Logan: Over the years of having your five dogs, was there ever a time you didn’t have a dog?

Sue Martin: I unexpectedly had to retire my first dog and I went without a dog for about two and a half months. And then when Kismet died I went back to the cane for a month.

Thomas Logan: What are some ways it affected you when you didn’t have a dog?

Sue Martin: Well, I didn’t especially slow down, and it was in the winter, and it was in Maine, and I can remember a car passing me on the wrong side. I thought I was on the left shoulder of the road and a car passed me on the left. [laughs] “Ooh, I think something is wrong with my orientation here.” I did kind of slow down after that happened [laughs]. Once a dog came into my life, I’d just as soon have a dog, thank you.

Thomas Logan: Ever have any problems with people who question your guide dog?

Sue Martin: When I go in a store, I just assume that I’m not going to have any problem. Actually, I was challenged in DC last week. I went down to a grocery store. When I walked in the door a man challenged me, and I said, “She’s a seeing eye dog.” And he challenged me again, and he was very angry, and the man who was helping me used the current correct term — which is service animal — and then the guy was okay. Who is going to challenge me now? I mean, a hundred and twelve pound girl with a seventy pound shepherd?

Thomas Logan: Could you talk about the path to independence at Seeing Eye?

Sue Martin: Sure, it’s really a cool concept. The path to independence was started in maybe 2011, and the school communicated to supporters that they had started this path and you can buy different sized bricks, and have them etched and engraved. So the first brick that I had put in said, “Thank you,” and listed all four of my dogs.

Then last spring after I completed my application to go back and retrain when Kismet retired. Right after I completed the application I bought another brick. And so Kismet’s brick says “Kismet: Beloved, impish, brilliant.” That’s just who Kismet was. She was so lovable and so goofy and yet such a fabulous worker. I mean, she combined those three characteristics like perfectly.

Kismet’s brick in the Path to Independence. (Photo Credit: Sue Martin)

Thomas Logan: So how do people get in touch with you?

Sue Martin: My email address is real easy, it’s Sue.Martin@windstream.net. Or you can go to either of my websites, outofthewhirlpool.com or suewmartin.com, and there are contact forms on both of those sites.

Q&A with Niclas Bergström, CEO of ReadSpeaker

2016-06-21T21:41:08Z

This installment of our Accessibility Activists column is an interview with Niclas Bergström, CEO of ReadSpeaker. ReadSpeaker converts text to speech on a variety of devices through a “Listen” button–try it on this article. Bergström comes from a sound and computer background, and has started and developed companies in this field for over 15 years. Follow ReadSpeaker on Twitter at @ReadSpeaker.

When did you first get started in accessibility?

In 1999, I started looking into the question of making textual content on the web more accessible for those who would rather listen to the text than read it themselves. A friend of mine had some accessibility issues and being in contact with him made me realize there was a significant need for these kinds of tools.

What project are you most proud of from your work in accessibility?

I would say that the ReadSpeaker web reading service is what I am most proud of. It was the first solution of its kind, we were really breaking new ground. And it has grown into a global success, with hundreds of millions activations per year. I get a lot of feedback that this is of great use and really helps the people that need it. That was my goal after all. And continues to be so.

What is your current area of focus in the accessibility field?

Our current area is to develop our text-to-speech engine so that it can be embedded and used in accessibility devices and third-party accessibility software such as screen readers. We’d like to widen our reach on where and how we address accessibility issues.

What accessibility barrier would you like technology to solve?

I think that most technologies already exist in some format or other to solve most accessibility barriers. The problem is that they are not used in the best way. In my opinion knowledge and adoption of already existing technologies are the biggest barrier. For example, more digital publications should be created in an accessible way and in an accessible format such as EPUB3 right from the very beginning.