Hello Darrow, I agree with you 250%! I live in a small town in North Florida where accessibility is an on going battle for me and other blind people that live here. Take the simple act of crossing the street for an example. A blind person can't cross the streets without fearing for his or her life. Sure we have the walk buttons that turns on a red light, but how are we to know that it's on? There is no audible signal given to us blind people. I and a few others, are fighting to change that. This is what must be done about this AOL on line radio thing. If we just set by and do nothing, then the sighted people will yank our lives away from us. This is why we blind people need to stand up for our rights. This is why I agree with you 250%. I will send emails to these people and tell them how I feel. The rest of you on this list, need to do the same. If they don't listen to us, then a law soot is required to bring fourth a change in our favor. My best regards. John. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darrell Shandrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Wlodkowski, Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 8:20 PM Subject: Accessibility Evangelism and Unfortunate News From America Online(AOL) Radio
> Hello Everyone, > > As an accessibility evangelist, of course, I disagree with any and all > those > who frequently make statements emphasizing our "smallness" and > insignificance in the world at large as a means to justify doing little or > nothing about accessibility challenges. Yes. We are very tiny in number > in > comparison with the rest of the population who is not blind, but that > really > has nothing to do with how well we can make our voices heard in order to > achieve positive changes for the better. One possible metaphore might be > to > compare us with those who profess their faith in the Jewish religion here > in > the United States, which is an incredibly small minority in number as > compared with catholics and evangelical Christians. Despite their small > numbers, the Jewish seem to experience little or no difficulty making > their > needs known and they tend to enjoy great success and wealth in all walks > of > life. > > I'd like to see something similar happen for those of us who are blind. > We > can't look to others to make this happen, but only to ourselves. It must > start with us! We must decide that we are valuable human beings deserving > of our human rights, of the accessibility and equal treatment with our > sighted peers we must enjoy in order to be able to fully participate in > society on a par with the sighted. Though it starts with us, a > technological world dictates that we have equal access to information in > the > information and knowledge age. Accessibility must ultimately be available > if we are to actively and productively participate in such critical areas > of > life as education, employment and leisure. > > We must achieve equality of opportunity through making our own > accessibility > solutions where practical and advocating for reasonable accomodations when > accessibility is required in order for us to participate. The issues boil > down to one of these two needs in all cases. There is no third option of > taking the path of least resistance; not if we want to count ourselves as > fully living and breathing human beings and citizens, possessing the same > inalienable rights and responsibilities already enjoyed by the sighted. > > One excellent example of a project where we are making our own > accessibility > is Benetech's Bookshare project available at http://www.bookshare.org. > Blind people and others with print reading disabilities subscribe to a web > based service where they may download and read from a selection of tens of > thousands of books available in an accessible, electronic format for use > on > their computers and portable assistive technology. This is all made > possible by a team of blind and sighted volunteers who scan books into > electronic format and validators who correct scanning errors and reformat > the books for final entry into the collection. > > Another example of making our own accessibility is the existence of the > blindness access technology industry. We spend tens of thousands of > dollars > on screen readers, Braille displays, scanners with optical character > recognition software, specialized personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a > myriad of other high and low technology items on which we have grown to > depend in order to adapt ourselves to the world. In many cases, > government > agencies purchase some or all of this technology under specific > circumstances, but this is, by no means, guaranteed. > > Despite our own efforts, there often remains a wide gap between that which > we are able to make accessible on our own and that technology which we > must > use in the classroom, on the job, etc. When we are not able to close > these > gaps through our own efforts and assistive technology, reasonable > accomodations on the part of the developer of that technology are required > if we are to be permitted full and equal participation. Failures to > reasonably accomodate our needs often result in the curtailment of > educational opportunities and even the needless loss of jobs! > > As a blind community, we can take actions such as the following to improve > our accessibility to the world of technology around us: > * Understand that we need equal accessibility in order to participate in > society on a par with our sighted peers. > * Believe and live the concept that accessibility through reasonable > accomodations is a human right and the right thing to do in all cases. > * Check with other individuals and organizations in the blind community to > see if the technology has already been made accessible. > * Write letters to technology developers asking that they reasonably > accomodate our need for accessibility. > * When available, provide suggestions and technical consulting necessary > to > improve accessibility. > * Work to have existing legislation covering accessibility enforced more > consistently and frequently. > * Encourage the passage of new legislation to clarify our needs and > mandate > increased accessibility in areas not already covered. > > Achieving equal participation in the knowledge age is currently a hard > fought struggle, where we often seem to take a step forward followed by > one > or two steps backward. The latest case with AOL Radio represents a good > example. While imperfect, blind people relying on screen readers have > enjoyed access to the company's many radio offerings. We are talking > about > listening to the radio, which should most certainly represent an activity > that ought to be inherently accessible to the blind. > > We have now learned that, as of Monday, June 9, 2008, AOL and CBS are > going > to take away from the blind the ability to listen to their Internet radio > streams through the implementation of a player that is known to be > inaccessible to screen reading software. Many blind people have been > enjoying this content for several years. Simply yanking it out of our > hands > is a thoughtless act at best. The director of AOL's accessibility team > has > informed us that the inaccessibility of the new player results from > technology used by CBS and tells us that solutions are being investigated > for implementation sometime in the undetermined future. We believe this > answer is not quite sufficient and that temporary alternative listening > options should be made available to the blind until such time as the > accessibility problems with the embedded web based player have been > solved. > If you agree that AOL Radio should continue to allow blind and visually > impaired people to listen to their Internet radio channels, we urge all of > you, including those sighted people who care about what happens to us, to > send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] asking that they continue working > to > restore accessibility to the AOL Radio player and, in the meantime, make > direct links available to the blind for listening on other devices and > media > player software. We also ask you to visit CBS at > http://www.cbsradio.com/contact/streaming.html, select your radio station > of > interest and request the implementation of a more accessible player to > accomodate the accessibility needs of blind and visually impaired > listeners. > > As a community, it is both our collective and individual responsibilities > to > evangelize accessibility. Simply leaving the work to others is not going > to > be effective, especially given our small numbers. This AOL Radio issue is > just one small one among many much more significant challenges. All the > same, let us all take this moment to remind ourselves that we can and must > make a difference! Now, everyone, let's all go forth and make our voices > heard often and loudly! > > > > Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
