"New world report shows more than 1 billion people with disabilities face substantial barriers in their daily lives
Governments should step up efforts to enable access to mainstream services and to invest in specialized programmes to unlock the vast potential of people with disabilities
News release
9 June 2011 | New York - WHO and the World Bank today revealed new global estimates that more than one billion people experience some form of disability. They urged governments to step up efforts to enable access to mainstream services and to invest in specialized programmes to unlock the vast potential of people with disabilities.
World report on disability provides global estimates
The first-ever World report on disability provides the first global estimates of persons with disabilities in 40 years and an overview of the status of disability in the world. New research shows that almost one-fifth of the estimated global total of persons living with disabilities, or between 110-190 million, encounter significant difficulties. The report stresses that few countries have adequate mechanisms in place to respond to the needs of people with disabilities. Barriers include stigma and discrimination, lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services; and inaccessible transport, buildings and information and communication technologies. As a result, people with disabilities experience poorer health, lower educational achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities.
"Disability is part of the human condition," says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. "Almost every one of us will be permanently or temporarily disabled at some point in life. We must do more to break the barriers which segregate people with disabilities, in many cases forcing them to the margins of society.""
"In the summer of 2010, Peter Mosinskis from CSU Channel Islands assembled a team of approximately fifteen volunteers from seven different CSU campuses and one from the UC system to evaluate the accessibility of Google Apps. The team also recruited student volunteers and screen reader users to assist with the testing. Automated, manual, and screen reader testing began the first week of January 2011 and was completed February 4th.
The report has been completed and posted here for your review. The CSU Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI) Staff, ATI Leadership Council, and Google have reviewed the Google Apps Accessibility Evaluation report.
We discovered a number of accessibility issues during our testing. These issues are outlined in the report as well as "workarounds" that can be used to improve the user experience for persons with disabilities. When campuses choose to use Google Apps, they are required to provide an equally effective service for people with disabilities and it is critical for campuses to ensure that the "workarounds" meet the educational needs of the student and/or faculty. The March 15, 2011 USA TODAY online news article "Complaint: Google programs hard for blind students" illustrates possible legal problems that may result from adopting the Google Apps for Education suite.
Questions or Comments about this report may be directed to CSU ATI Staff"
Table of Contents
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ATI Google Apps Accessibility Evaluation
Section 1. Executive Summary
Section 2. About the Project
Section 3. Findings
Section 4. Workarounds, Accommodations and Best Practices
Summary and Conclusions
Authors Note
Appendices A - E
"(...)
May 20, 2010
Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253
(...)
Progress made, but rural communities across the nation continue to lack access to broadband
More than 100 million Americans do not subscribe to broadband
(...) approximately 26 million Americans, mostly in rural communities located in every region of the country, are denied access to the jobs and economic opportunity made possible by broadband.
While the infrastructure of high-speed Internet is unavailable to those Americans, the FCC report also finds that approximately one-third of Americans do not subscribe to broadband, even when it's available. This suggests that barriers to adoption such as cost, low digital literacy, and concerns about privacy remain too high. The Report also notes limited broadband capacity for schools and libraries as a further indicator that broadband is not being reasonably and timely deployed and is not available to all Americans.(...) "
"June 23, 2011, 6:20 pm
By Jie Jenny Zou
California State University's Accessible Technology Initiative suggests in a report released this week that universities limit their campuswide use of Google's free Web services based on what it calls a variety of inaccessibility issues for the blind and those with other disabilities.
The report, "ATI Google Apps Accessibility Evaluation," looked at the accessibility of Google Apps for Education, a free software suite available to colleges and elementary and secondary schools. Hundreds of colleges have adopted Google Apps as their official campus e-mail and communication service for students."