CTIA to Start Disabled Accessibility Website, but More to be Done
CTIA will start a new collaborative website for the disabled, an industry official said. The National Federation for the Blind is looking for more. NFB asked the Justice Department to force universities to halt further adoption of Google Apps and other barriers to handicapped accessibility, it said in a complaint filed last week. The new website will be helpful, but the Google Apps and e-mail program disability access issues show a need for developers, institutions and companies to understand accessibility for all is a requirement, disability association leaders said.
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The CTIA website will launch at the association’s conference this week and “will be a clearing house for the disabled,” an industry official said. The website will be “something that can be used as a guide to services offered” to better Internet and wireless accessibility, the person said. The website has a tool on it that will allow disabled consumers to find a specific cellphone with features that will work with the user’s specific functional limitations, said Jenifer Simpson, senior director for the American Association of People with Disabilities. She said the website is a “big step forward in helping consumers.” CTIA declined comment.
The NFB complaint shows the need to prevent “technological discrimination,” in accordance with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Simpson said. Google didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department said only that it’s reviewing the complaint.
The complaint said there are “significant accessibility barriers” in each application of the Google Apps for Education suite. It said the blind would have trouble seeing the apps, and none of them is set up to work properly with assistive technology. “Therefore, blind Northwestern students and faculty are denied the benefits of the technology that Northwestern adopted,” it said in the one of three letters which addresses Northwestern University. The other letters are similar but for other universities and school districts.
For example, Blackboard v 9.1 is “nearly fully accessible to blind students,” but any Google applications reached through Blackboard will not be, the letter said. “The important strides in ensuring Blackboard’s accessibility are rendered irrelevant when blind students cannot reach the content because it is in Google Apps format.” That Google Apps are free encourages schools to adopt them, the letter said.
When universities like New York University and Northwestern adopt the Google programs, they create “numerous barriers” for their disabled students, Simpson said. Although it’s too soon to say what action the Justice Department will take, NFB Counsel Dan Goldstein said he thinks that by picking “just a few” of the places where Google apps have been adopted as school policy, “we'll accomplish more.” Because “one doesn’t want to overwhelm the department all at once,” the NFB chose the two universities and four Oregon school districts, as a starting point, he said: “The department will follow the procedure” but the action taken should “guide the rest of the educational community."
A joint letter to college and university presidents June 29 from the Justice Department and the Education Department, regarding the adoption of e-readers at the institutions, said blind or low-vision students can’t access the technology, and that is discrimination. The university presidents have been “specifically warned” against the adoption of the inaccessible technology and can’t “claim ignorance of their legal obligations,” NFB President Marc Maurer said last week.
As the Justice Department is considering regulations to expanding the ADA to the Internet, NFB spokesman Chris Danielsen said the organization is still pushing for the Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind. It was proposed in the last Congress, but not adopted, and would require consumer electronics, software, home appliances, and kiosks used in an employment setting to have blind access technology.