Access Ready, Inc., an independent, non-profit, cross-disability advocacy organization promoting a policy of inclusion and accessibility across information and communication technology (ICT), announced today that it has retained two Washington, DC-area legal firms to further its public policy efforts. Access Ready seeks the establishment of Access Ready environments.
ACCESSIBILITY IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
A chemical burn accident left Margaret Comin blind at two-and-a-half years old. Her mother, a progressive thinker for the mid-20th century, sent her to public school rather than a school for the blind. Comin was one of two blind children at the Duval County schools in Florida. Her mother reasoned that her daughter would eventually have to live in the sighted world, so she may as well learn to adapt at a young age. In school, Comin was taught braille and typing. By the time she graduated from a private high school where she was the only blind student, Comin had learned how to be resourceful…
SHAPING ATTITUDES THROUGH THE LANGUAGE OF DISABILITY
Language preferences and connotations are constantly evolving—it can sometimes feel hard to keep up! In the spirit of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month (JDAIM), when Jewish organizations and communities are working to raise awareness and promote the meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities and their families, I encourage you to take some time to examine your own personal understandings of disability in order to work toward a more inclusive society. One way to do so is to spend some time thinking about language, and how that language shapes our attitudes…
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led a hearing on overcoming barriers to employment for workers with disabilities and building on recent progress, including the widespread use of inclusive practices to make work more accessible—like flexible schedules and remote options. The hearing marked the first hearing on disability employment since the Committee last discussed the topic in 2014—but many of the challenges workers with disabilities faced then still persist today…
WHY DON'T FEDS GET DISABILITY INSURANCE?
Did you ever wonder why you aren’t covered by short- or long-term disability insurance as a federal employee? After all, in 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 42% of private industry workers had access to short-term disability insurance plans and 34% to long-term plans. A quarter of state and local government workers had access to short-term coverage and 38% to long-term benefits. Even more surprising is that most companies pay the cost of this coverage for their employees. Private employers in 2018 paid the full cost for 85% of workers with short-term disability coverage and 94% of workers with long-term disability coverage…
ACCESS READY CHALLENGING THE STATE OF MARYLAND'S BOARD OF ELECTIONS
Access Ready has no confidence in the direction or choices being made by the Maryland State Board of Elections (SBE) where a new pollbook system is concerned. After a year of talking, we have found they have no real interest in accessibility. They say they do, but their actions indicate otherwise. Access Ready, and its community partners the IMAGE Center for People with Disabilities of Maryland, the National Association of the Deaf, and the National Federation of the Blind, seek to ensure that Marylanders with disabilities are able to exercise their right to vote with the same independence and privacy afforded to people without disabilities.
HOW 'BUILD BACK BETTER' SUPPORTS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
In October, the White House called President Joe Biden's proposed Build Back Better Act "the most transformative investment in access to home care in 40 years." If approved, Build Back Better would allocate $150 billion to home- and community-based services (HCBS), allowing people with disabilities to live independently and hold a job. It would also expand and increase pay for the direct-care workforce, a group under significant strain due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "In our view, Build Back Better as currently constructed has the potential to substantially improve the lives of people with disabilities," said Cyrus Huncharek…
SUPER BOWL LVI HALFTIME SHOW TO FEATURE ASL PERFORMERS FOR THE FIRST TIME
When the Super Bowl returns to Los Angeles next week after a 29-year absence, it will notch at least one historic first: ASL performers will be featured in the big game's halftime show for the first time ever. The Super Bowl LVI halftime show has already been majorly hyped, featuring a litany of legendary hip-hop artists such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar. But it's about to get even bigger and more groundbreaking, with the addition of famed deaf musicians Warren "Wawa" Snipe and Sean Forbes…
EEOC SUES PNEULINE SUPPLY FOR DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION AND RETALIATION
Colorado parts manufacturer Pneuline Supply, Inc., fired an employee who has a severe hearing impairment because of her disability and/or need for accommodation and in retaliation for requesting an accommodation and complaining about discrimination, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Pneuline Supply hired Lyubov Mezentseva in May 2017 as an assembler at its Greeley facility, knowing that she had a severe hearing impairment and was proficient in American Sign Language (ASL), but not English…
P&G WEBSITE NOT ACCESSIBLE TO BLIND INDIVIDUALS, CLASS ACTION CLAIMS
The Procter & Gamble Company’s website is not fully accessible to visually-impaired individuals, according to a class action lawsuit filed Feb. 2 in New York federal court. Plaintiff Robert Weekes is a legally-blind person who says he attempted to utilize P&G’s website www.sk-ii.com, which sells different skin care and facial treatment products. However, the P&G website’s screen reader allegedly fails to read the item description link and stops functioning abruptly in the middle of a sentence, according to the P&G class action lawsuit. As a result, Weekes says he was not able to utilize the website to purchase items…
4 TOP LEGAL ISSUES FACING GROCERS
Nobody likes to get sued. Nevertheless, grocers have faced a myriad of lawsuits across various parts of their business, from the flavoring in private label sparkling water to workers wanting to wear "Black Lives Matter '' face masks to screen reader compatibility with online features. To better understand the main legal threats grocers face, Grocery Dive talked with Stephanie Sheridan, head of Steptoe & Johnson LLP Retail & E-Commerce Practice Group and managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office. She specializes in defending grocers, food brands and other retailers in consumer class actions…
DIABETES KILLS MORE THAN 100,000 AMERICANS FOR SECOND YEAR IN A ROW, RAISING PUBLIC HEALTH ALARM
For the second straight year, more than 100,000 people have died of diabetes in the U.S., a new report has found. In both 2020 and 2021, the condition’s death toll surpassed the six-figure mark, a new analysis by Reuters has found. Moreover, the incidence is rising, Reuters noted, with diabetes-related deaths increasing by 17% in 2020 and 15% in 2021 over 2019's pre-pandemic levels. In addition, Reuters and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, the 2021 deaths are still being counted, so the total is not final…
THE 3 TYPES OF HEARING LOSS
Hearing loss is a condition where you can’t hear sound completely in either or both of your ears. Hearing loss is a progressive disorder, which means that it occurs gradually and spreads over time. About 25% of seniors between 65 to 74 years old experience hearing loss. However, hearing loss is not limited by the age of a person; a lot of things can lead to it. The three major types of hearing loss are conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, and mixed hearing loss. Read on to find out what causes each of these types, where they occur in the ear, and whether treatment is available…
EYE IMPLANT MAY RESTORE SOME VISION FOR PEOPLE WITH MACULAR DEGENERATION
Two years ago, the researchers showed that with a thin, pixelated chip and specially designed glasses, they could restore limited vision in the center of the visual field of patients suffering from macular degeneration. Now, in a follow-up study, they found that this prosthetic vision naturally integrated with the patients’ peripheral vision, which was unaffected by the disease. The patients could simultaneously identify the orientations of colored lines in the center and sides of their visual field. The results suggest that the treatment could be used to restore functional vision…
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE FROM AN ACCESSIBILITY POINT OF VIEW?
Dave Dame has Cerebral Palsy and heads up accessibility at Microsoft. He joins us to discuss his vision of an accessible future of working from home:
