PLEASE DISTRIBUTE
<http://ada.osu.edu/>
In The Autumn 2009 Issue
* Deadline Nears for Multiple Perspectives Conference Papers
* Stipends and Scholarships Available for STEM Students with
Disabilities
* Equal Opportunity Employment Commission Releases ADA Rule
Changes
* Interpreter Services Available, But Please Cancel in Time!
* Accessibility Tip: Make That Meeting Work for Everyone
* Technology Corner: Software Updates of Interest to the Campus
Community
* A Bit of History: Disability and the "Beautiful People"
* Course Highlight: Service Learning in The Law of Disability
Discrimination
OSU Students Visiting Stonehenge during a summer
Literature Program in Greenwich.
Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion & Disability - April 27th &
28th
November 7 is the deadline for those interested in presenting at the
2010 conference.
Continuing a decade of community exploration of disability as an
individual experience and social reality that cuts across the dimensions
of education & employment; scholarship & service; business & government;
race, gender & ethnicity Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion &
Disability is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Such milestones are an
opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and reflect on our goals of
social justice, diversity and excellence.
This year's theme is Future History, encourages proposals that build on
the themes of past conferences:
2001, The Next 10 Years;
2002, Disability in Context;
2003, Access by Design;
2004, Education, citizenship, Disability;
2005, reflecting on Sameness Difference;
2006, Personal Perspectives and Social Impact: the Stories We Tell;
2007, Rights, Responsibilities, and Social Change;
2008, Looking Back, Thinking Ahead; and
2009, Change, Challenge, Collaboration.
For the Call for Presentations and additional information
http://ada.osu.edu/conferences.htm
Stipends and Scholarships Available for STEM Students with Disabilities
Ohio's STEM Ability Alliance (OSAA) is recruiting students with
disabilities who are majoring in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) degrees to participate in student learning
communities, mentoring, ability advising programs and internship
opportunities. Students who are enrolled in OSAA programs are also
eligible to apply and compete for Choose Ohio First Scholarships,
available Winter Quarter, 2010. Apply now by completing an application
at our website: http://nisonger.osu.edu/osaa/
ADA EEOC Rule Changes
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released proposed
regulations altering the definition of disability based on the ADA
Amendments Act.
Read about the changes at:
* The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
<http://eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_adaaa_nprm.html>
* The Job Accommodation Network
<http://www.jan.wvu.edu/bulletins/adaaa1.htm>
* The Association on Higher Education And Disability
<http://ahead.org/resources/prev-initiatives>
Attend a Workshop:
On October 20th, 2009 2-3:30 P.M an audio conference featuring Sharon
Rennert
Senior Attorney Advisor, Americans with Disabilities Act Division, U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will review the proposed
regulations for the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. The session is free and
hosted by Integrated Disability Services and the Office of the ADA
Coordinator.
Supervisors and Human Resource Professionals are encouraged to attend
professional development workshops offered by HR Consulting Services and
the Office of the ADA Coordinator. The first worship "The ADA as
Amended: What Does It Mean to You?" will be presented by L. Scott
Lissner, University ADA Coordinator on December 2, 2009, 12 noon to 1:00
pm and repeated on December 3, 2009, 12 noon to 1:00 pm. The workshop
will summarize the proposed regulatory changes and review the
University's revised policies and practices. Register here:
http://hr.osu.edu/ohrc/ld_customizedtraining.aspx
Interpreter Services Available, But Please Cancel in time
If you are a member of the campus community who requires American Sign
Language interpreter services, please rest assured that we are eager to
help. We would ask, however, that you do everything in your power to
notify us as soon as possible should you need to cancel an interpreter.
While we recognize that life can be more than a little frenetic and
cancellations can't always be done days in advance, we would point out
that cancellations in which we have only a moment's notice can be
problematic, since we are contractually obligated to pay the
interpreters if they aren't given sufficient time for cancellation. We
appreciate your willingness to let us know as far in advance as you can
of any cancellations or appointment changes that require a change in
interpreter services.
1 Students from the ASL program
signing the national anthem
Accessibility Tip: Make That Meeting Work for Everyone
Quick! Name the three components that are necessary for people with
disabilities to fully participate in any meeting: According to the U.S.
Department of Justice, the three most important components for creating
a successful meeting are Where the meeting is held, how the meeting room
furniture is arranged, and how the meeting information is communicated.
Department of Justice staffers have put together an excellent web page
that includes easy-to-understand but in-depth tips on meeting
accessibility. Those tips include such things as:
* Easy access to entrances from parking areas and/or drop-off
points
* Aisles that are at least 36 inches wide and have a 60-inch
diameter circle at key locations for easy navigation by those who use
wheelchairs, scooters, etc.
* Rooms set up such that those who must speechread can easily
see the presenter, and those who must rely on assistive listening
devices, interpreters or real-time captioning can have those available
* Making printed information available in alternative formats
such as large print or Braille
You can read more by visiting: www.ada.gov/business/accessiblemtg.htm
Technology Corner: Software Updates of Interest to the Campus Community
Just as car devotees look forward to that specific time of year when new
models would be rolled out at the dealerships, so those who use screen
readers have come to think of fall as the time for updates to those
packages. This year is no exception.
System Access Gets New Voice
Serotek, the developers of System Access and system Access to Go,
screen readers that enjoy wide campus use, have added a new software
synthesizer to the list of currently supported synthesizers. ETI
Eloquence is easily the most recognizable of the software synthesizers
used by several screen readers, and now it's available to System Access
users as well. This particular voice brings a snappy performance and a
vocal clarity to System Access that it hasn't heretofore enjoyed to
quite the same degree. If you've heard the voices used by JAWS, another
extremely popular screen reader in use on campus, then you've heard the
new voices used by System Access. Please note that the company is
charging $25 to existing users to purchase the Eloquence voice.
Serotek continues to update System Access such that it now works well
with the latest versions of iTunes from Apple. That's significant
because those who must use screen reader technology on Apple's iPhone
often require the iTunes software program on a PC or Macintosh to
initially configure the iPhone's screen reader for optimum use.
Freedom Scientific Set to Release JAWS 11
Sometime later this fall, Freedom Scientific will release the latest
incarnation of JAWS, the most widely used screen reader on campus. When
JAWS 11 debuts probably sometime in November, it will include a feature
that may prove valuable to OSU faculty, staff, and students. The new
Research It feature allows the user to instantly look up something
without leaving his primary task. For example, if you're writing a
paper in which you need to see weather data for a specific location, you
can execute two or three keystrokes, get the data you need immediately,
then return to your primary task without opening additional programs or
web browsers. According to the Freedom Scientific web site, "There are
multiple ways to launch and use Research It. By default, Wiktionary is
the primary look up source. This means that while the cursor is on a
word in a document or Web page, you can press the default keystroke,
INSERT+WINDOWS Key+R, to quickly lookup the Wiktionary description for
that word. You can always change the primary lookup source at any time
using the JAWS Configuration Manager, which lets you select which lookup
source to use as the JAWS default or as the default for individual
applications. As you become more familiar with Research It, and as more
lookup modules are created and made available to you, you will want to
change the default look up source used by JAWS, or just use a different
look up source on the fly."
Additionally, FSReader, a software once sold by Freedom Scientific
separately whose purpose it is to read DAISY books, is now bundled at no
extra cost as part of JAWS 11. This could prove particularly useful to
OSU students who use JAWS, since the university can provide DAISY
textbooks to students.
An additional study aid that will be part of JAWS 11 is a feature called
Word Index. According to the web site, "Word Index (INSERT+CTRL+W) is
the ideal tool for those who do a lot of reading for study and research
purposes. Word Index generates a list of words that appear in a document
or on a Web page. The words are sorted and appear in the list based on
the number of occurrences with the highest number coming first and then
alphabetized. You can scan the list for a specific word or concept, and
then press enter to jump to that occurrence of the word and use the
Navigational Quick Key W to move between occurrences of the word you
selected. You may also choose to create a summary of all the sentences
in your document containing the word and review these sentences in the
Virtual Viewer. They will appear as links that take you back to that
location in your document. This is a useful timesaver since you can get
a feel for the context of the word, and then move to the appropriate
section of the document and continue reading." The feature works with
documents specific to Microsoft Word, WordPad, Notepad, Microsoft
Outlook/Outlook Express, and Adobe PDF files.
A bit of History: Disability and the "Beautiful People"
Back when cigarette advertisements ruled the television airwaves, one of
the more popular ads targeted to female smokers reminded them that
"you've come a long way, baby, to get where you've got to today...".
Setting aside the truly awful grammar of the ad, the sentiment remains
valid for everyone. We have indeed come a long way, as the slogan has
it, on a variety of fronts. That's never so true as in the case of the
so-called Ugly laws, implemented by municipalities to force people with
disabilities to remain off the streets. The first of these laws was
passed in San Francisco in 1867, and the last one to be repealed was an
Omaha statute that was struck down in 1974 after a policeman in that
city used it to arrest a homeless man. Ironically enough, the Omaha
statute gained attention nearly a full year after passage of the
now-famous Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Beginning in the early1900's and lasting well into the 1970's it was
illegal for the "ugly"
<http://www.loyno.edu/presidentsoffice/lecture/kaveny.html> to be in
the public places of many American cities. Such ordinances as Chicago's
Municipal Code, sec. 36034, Omaha's Unsightly Beggar Ordinance and our
own town of Columbus' General Offense Code, sec. 2387.04 are good
examples of such codes. Punishment for being caught in public ranged
from incarceration to fines of up to $50. These laws justified
discrimination by criminalizing disability; driving home the message
that it is important to be "normal" - to be like the majority.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the ADA. Milestones provide an
opportunity to consider where we are, how we got here and where we are
going. I encourage you to use this anniversary year to step back
occasionally from the immediate demands of providing curb cuts,
designing accessible web pages and arranging accommodations for your
students or employees and remember how access, Inclusion and disability
fit in our goals of equity, diversity and excellence .
Read more on the subject in "The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public." by
Susan M. Schweik.
Here's an example of text from the Chicago ordinance: "No person who is
diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an
unsightly or disgusting object or improper person to be allowed in or on
the public ways or other public places in this city, or shall therein or
thereon expose himself to public view, under a penalty of not less than
one dollar nor more than fifty dollars for each offense."
The Columbus text reads: "General Offense Code 2287.04 (repealed in
1974)
"No person, being in any way diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed so
as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, shall expose himself to the
public view upon any street, sidewalk or in any park or other public
place for the purpose of soliciting alms or exciting sympathy, interest
or curiosity." This was in addition to a general ordinance that already
made begging illegal.
Service Learning & The Law of Disability Discrimination
Lead by Ruth Colker <http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/faculty/bios.php?ID=14> ,
University Distinguished Professor and the Heck Faust Chair in
Constitutional Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
this four credit course primarily covers the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA). Students learn about Title I (employment discrimination),
Title II (public entity discrimination) and Title III (public
accommodation discrimination) under the ADA. Brief attention will also
be given to constitutional issues, special education issues and housing
discrimination issues.
One day of week a two hour segment in which students will learn skills
related to conducting an accessibility audit and negotiation is team
taught by L. Scott Lissner the University.
In the Fall of 2009, the students will work with the judges and staff at
the Municipal Court to audit the court house and make recommendations on
how to improve accessibilities during their upcoming renovations.
# # #
L. Scott Lissner,
University ADA Coordinator
Associate, John Glenn School of Public Affairs
Lecturer, Knowlton School of Architecture, Moritz College of Law &
Disability Studies
Office Of The Provost, The Ohio State University
1849 Cannon Drive
Columbus, OH 43210-1266
(614) 292-6207(v); (614) 688-8605(tty)
(614) 688-3665(fax); Http://ada.osu.edu <http://ada.osu.edu/>
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