Inclusive Technologies

The FCC released its National Broadband Plan (PDF), and accessibility advocates should be congratulating themselves on all the accessibility recommendations in it.  It includes almost all of the provisions found in the COAT bill, and adds a few more: a high-level Broadband Accessibility Working Group, exhortations to fully implement Section 508, exploration of network-based accessibility services like NPII, and enough other technological and policy initiatives to keep us experts all employed forever offer an almost utopian vision of a fully accessible ICT universe.

The FCC has announced that Karen Peltz Strauss will become the Commission’s new Deputy Bureau Chief of the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau.  Karen is a long-time expert and advocate on access, having worked with Gallaudet University, the Telecommunications Access RERC, and COAT.  She has been involved in every aspect of accessibility legislation and regulation for more than 30 years, including authoring key sections of the ADA and the Telecom Act.  Karen was the first head of the FCC’s Disability Rights Office.  She authored A New Civil Right, a comprehensive history of telecommunications accessibility.  Her appointment is a signal from the Obama administration and FCC Chairman Genachowski that accessibility will not be shunted aside, but will be built into the fabric of US technology policy as it seeks to expand access to broadband to all citizens.

There’s a new Swedish site that has collected hundreds of simple, mostly low-tech tips for independent living, arranged by category and degree of disability.  Go visit and suggest your own!

Spinalstips - Tips och ideas for people with spinal cord injuries (SCI)

SubPLY promises to caption your YouTube videos for free.  Leaving aside the sustainability of that business model, their willingness to step into this void is much appreciated.  FCC regulations require captioning for broadcast video, but leave Internet video alone (for now).  This has created a growing gap as online video becomes more ubiquitous, useful and unique.

Although some regulation of online distribution will probably arrive sometime, it’ll probably only cover large-market, for-profit content that’s similar to what’s broadcast now.  It’s unlikely that you’ll ever be forced to caption the funny things your kids say at family reunions.

Jared’s Global Microbrand » Blog Archive » SubPLY offering free captioning of YouTube video clips

A new password security utility hides what the user enters with an on-screen keyboard that redraws itself too frequently for “keylogging” programs to grab.  But there are 2 problems: the on-screen keyboard flashes in a way that might cause seizures, and there seems to be no keyboard alternative, excluding most blind and some dexterity impaired users.  Both of these features would currently fail Section 508, the regulations for federal ICT procurement.

As with biometrics, security and accessibility collide here.

Keyloggers beaten by new crypto utility | InfoWorld | News | 2008-09-15 | By John E. Dunn, Techworld

AOL’s AIM is one of the most popular text messaging media.  Its latest version, 6.8, offers a new feature.  Instead of typing an entire message and hitting “Enter” to send it, every character you type is sent immediately.  This makes AIM look like a TTY: more interactive, and better support for emergencies.  Real-time text is a long-standing request from the deaf community; seeing a mainstream company respond this way is a great step forward that should soon be implemented on other platforms, including mobile messaging.
AOL — Real-time text