JFActivist

Action Alert: Send Stories of Inaccessible Medical Services and Equipment

*** Take Action ***  Report Problems Accessing Medical Services or Equipment: inaccessible tables, inadequate lifting practices at medical clinics, etc.

to Jennifer Wolfsheimer at 202-370-3210 or jwolfsheimer@equalrightscenter.org

From The Equal Rights Center (12/8/09):

New Initiative Examines Accessibility of Health Care System

 

In response to complaints about inaccessible medical services and equipment, the Equal Rights Center (ERC) has launched a new initiative aimed at eliminating this form of discrimination.  The initiative began after three ERC members who use wheelchairs called the ERC to report denial of services, inaccessible tables, and inadequate lifting practices at medical clinics in Washington, D.C. 

 

“The inaccessibility of basic medical equipment, such as examination tables, seriously compromises the quality of care individuals with disabilities receive,” said ERC Executive Director, Don Kahl.  “Not providing equal preventative and urgent care services to a large segment of our population is not only illegal but also a disservice to our entire country.”  

 

These complaints are not the first encountered by the ERC in addressing accessibility barriers.  In 2005 the ERC advocated for accessible medical facilities and reached a settlement with Washington Hospital Center, which mandated that medical facilities, such as examination rooms, examination tables and other medical equipment be made accessible.  The settlement also addressed inadequacies in policies and procedures to ensure that patients with disabilities receive the assistance they need to eat, drink, and otherwise care for themselves.

 

“A health center should be a place of safe harbor for all individuals,” said Jennifer Wolfsheimer, the ERC’s Disability Rights Manager.  “Equal treatment at health centers not only improves the wellbeing of the individuals who visit, but also improves the lives of the entire community through a more healthy and active citizenry.”

 

In an effort to ensure people with disabilities do not encounter similar forms of discrimination, the ERC has began an initiative to educate people with disabilities about their rights and health care providers about their responsibilities and, when necessary, advocacy and enforcement directed at those who violate the laws protecting people with disabilities.

 

If you or anyone you know have encountered accessibility issues at a health facility or if you would like to get involved in this initiative please contact Jennifer Wolfsheimer at 202-370-3210 or jwolfsheimer@equalrightscenter.org

Burning Bright: Musicians with Disabilities Live the Dream with 'Flame'

From ABC (11/27/09):

Flame's Members Say Disabilities Won't Stop Band From Making Music
N.Y. Band Members Live With Blindness, Autism, Down Syndrome
By MARY PFLUM and SUZAN CLARKE

Many start-up bands dream of achieving worldwide fame one day.

That the band Flame achieved the dream is remarkable in and of itself. But the band is extraordinary in another respect: Each musician has a physical or mental disability.

Indeed, Flame is the only touring band in the world to be wholly composed of disabled members.

The upstate New York band's members live with conditions that include Down syndrome, cognitive delays, autism, cerebral palsy and blindness...

>>> For the Full Article

>>> To Check out Flame's Rockin' website

Comment Below: Has anyone seen this group perform? Would you be more likely to see or book a band of musicians with disabilities?  Seeing members of our community living out their dream always inspires me to chase my own.  What are your dreams and how can our community support you in reaching them?

Down Syndrome Births Rise Unexpectedly

From NPR (12/1/09):

Heidi Moore holds her son, Jacob, 8, at their home in Alpharetta, Georgia in 2008. Jacob has Down Syndrome but takes music therapy class, reads at an age-appropriate level and plays piano. (Jenni Girtman/AP)

Down Syndrome Births Rise Unexpectedly
By Joseph Shapiro

You might be surprised to learn there's been an increase in the number of children born with Down syndrome in recent years. The conventional wisdom holds that with more prenatal screening, the rate at which children would be born with Down syndrome would have fallen.

But as researchers write in the latest issue of the medical journal Pediatrics, there was an increase in Down syndrome births between 1979 and 2003. "It went up by 31 percent--from 9 per 10,000 births to 12 per 10,000 births," says Dr. Adolfo Correa, an epidemiologist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and co-author of the study...

>>> For the Whole Article

>>> For the Scientific Report published in Pediatrics

Comment Below: What is your reaction to this article?  After years of depressing statistics, is it a welcome ray of hope?  or is it too good to be true?  Do you think it reveals a shift in the mindset of American mothers or the triumph of our ever-improving medical care? How would you explain this new data? 

White House Seeks Input on Job Creation

From the White House (12.2.09):

On Thursday, President Obama is hosting a discussion at the White House to explore every possible avenue for job creation. Small business owners, CEOs, economists, financial experts, and nonprofit groups, as well as Americans who have felt the impact of this economic crisis firsthand, will be there to share ideas.

But you don't need to be here on Thursday to participate. You can join the discussion by organizing your own jobs forum with your family, friends, and co-workers -- because these conversations can take place in living rooms and conference tables, not just arenas and convention centers.

We're looking for community leaders like you from all across the country to host discussions from now until December 13th.  Your community jobs forum will be a source of insights and ideas that will inform the President's approach to job creation.

To get started, let us know you're interested, and we'll send you information that may help you organize a successful jobs forum in your
community:

>>>Get Started

In the coming days, we'll follow up with discussion questions and other materials to help make your event as productive as possible. We're not able to offer an events center where anyone can find events already happening, so if you haven't heard of one in your area, start your own and reach out to your network for participants.

After the event, we'll provide a simple online tool for you to submit job creation ideas and thoughts.  Back here at the White House, we'll compile your feedback and send it to the Oval Office for review.

With all of us working together, we'll get America working again. Get started organizing a jobs forum in your community today.

>>>For More

>>> To Register to Host a Forum

Look forward to hearing from you,

Valerie

Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement The White House

Remarks of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas E. Perez at His Installation Ceremony

From the Department of Justice:

Remarks of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas E. Perez at His Installation Ceremony
Friday, November 13, 2009 

I have to begin by thanking Attorney General Holder for the opportunity for this homecoming. It's an honor to have been appointed to lead the Civil Rights Division after having dedicated so many years to it. I also have to thank you for constantly reminding all of us that the Division is a priority for you and for the President.

(Thanks to other program participants) 

I was in a meeting recently with representatives from some civil rights organizations, and one of them relayed to me a story that struck a chord. They were talking to the editorial board of a prominent newspaper about the Administration's commitment to revitalizing the Civil Rights Division, and a member of the board posed a question: Why do we still need a Civil Rights Division? 

In 2009, nearly 50 years removed from the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964; nearly a century and a half removed from the emancipation proclamation; and a year after the American people unwaveringly sent an African American family to the White House -- why do we need a Civil Rights Division? 

It's an interesting and provocative question. 

We have undeniably come a long way. An entire generation has passed since our nation's leaders recognized the injustice of legal segregation. Women outnumber men in the workplace. We have an African American President, a Latina Supreme Court Justice and a female Speaker of the House. My parents probably couldn't have imagined any of it, but my children are growing up to know nothing else. 

There are some out there who think the task is complete, who would like to close the book and say we've fulfilled the promise of equal opportunity and justice for all. 

And my job security aside, I wish they were right. I wish that last year's historic election were the culmination rather than a checkpoint along the way. 

But, as the late Senator Ted Kennedy often reminded us, Civil Rights are truly the unfinished business of America. Perhaps as much as any time in the last half century, we still need a Civil Rights Division. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from a narrow cell in Birmingham City Jail, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." 

And when three men are driven from their burning home by a neighbor because of the language they speak and the color of their skin, as recently happened in case that came across my desk, that is certainly a case of injustice and it is certainly a threat to justice nationwide. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because, as President John F. Kennedy said as he introduced what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964, "...this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free." 

And when our LGBT brothers and sisters are not afforded the same protections under the law as the rest of us, they are not free, and therefore our nation is not entirely free. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because, as Hubert Humphrey said: "The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped." 

And in 2009, despite great gains, too many reside in the shadows. Too many people of color find themselves powerless in the face of discriminatory housing and lending. Too many individuals with disabilities still struggle to access the basic services the rest of us take for granted. Too many students still lack the quality education all children are guaranteed by law. Too many new Americans who came to this nation seeking the same freedom and opportunities that our parents, and our grandparents sought, find themselves the targets of bigotry and hate.
We need a Civil Rights Divisions to bring these people out of the shadows. We need a Civil Rights Division to back up our nation's promise of equal justice for all. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because on the night that Barack Obama was elected the nation's first African American president, four men on Staten Island set out to assault African Americans in retaliation. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because extremists still think it's their prerogative to murder a doctor because he provides a service with which they do not agree. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because while we all thought we had long ago left behind the ways of the Jim Crow south, we read just last month in the newspaper about a Justice of the Peace who took it upon himself to decide that blacks and whites should not marry. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because when the federal government comes into a community to right a wrong, our presence and our moral and legal authority make a huge difference and have a unique capacity to effect positive, lasting change. 

We need a Civil Rights Division because it is the moral compass of our nation. It backs up with actions the promises made on paper by our nation's civil rights laws. It serves as a guiding light as we navigate new paths on the road to equal justice. 

The question is not "Why do we need a Civil Rights Division?" 

Rather, the question we should ask ourselves is this: What does civil rights mean in the 21st Century? 

I've had quite a bit of time to ponder this question. 

Civil Rights in 2009 and beyond means continuing to combat the sort of blatant discrimination that persists, but also tackling the more subtle, and equally dangerous, discrimination that festers in so many of our institutions. 

It means addressing the vast injustice done by the explosion in subprime lending and the subsequent foreclosure crisis, which, though it has touched every corner of our nation, has disproportionately impacted people of color and threatened the stability of their communities at far greater rates than their white counterparts. Unscrupulous lenders all too frequently have the corrosive power of fine print to trick hardworking people and tear apart communities. We have fair lending and fair housing laws on the books. We must enforce them fairly and aggressively and independently. 

Civil Rights in 2009 means working to create services, programs and public facilities that are accessible to individuals with disabilities, recognizing that they have a vast contribution to make to our society and our communities that can only be maximized if they have equal access. It means recognizing that segregating people with disabilities in institutions is every bit as bad and illegal as segregating children of color in inferior schools. 

It means understanding how the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks has subjected the Arab-American and Muslim-American communities to an unjustified backlash, and working to be sure we don't fall into the trap of believing that we either protect our national security and safe streets OR we protect civil rights. We can and must do both. 

Civil rights in 2009 means understanding that civil rights are human rights, and we are citizens of the world who must set the proper example for others. It means taking partnership to new and unprecedented levels - partnership with sister agencies, state and local governments, and, where appropriate, with private attorneys and non-profits, all the while remaining aware of the independence that we must maintain. 

It means recognizing where our laws fall short, and working to fill the gaps. In this nation today, hardworking LGBT individuals are not even protected by our nation's civil rights laws, and have no legal recourse against discrimination in the workplace. It is fundamentally unfair for my sister in law who is straight to enjoy protections against discrimination in the workplace, while my sister in law who is a lesbian has no protections. Civil Rights in 2009 means expanding the universe of individuals who are protected by the law. The recent enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Protection Act was a good start in that direction. 

Civil Rights in 2009 means restoring and transforming the Civil Rights Division - not in an effort to re-create the Civil Rights Division of an earlier era, but rather to prepare ourselves to tackle the challenges before us today, and to ensure we are nimble enough to address the challenges on the horizon. 

In short, the Civil Rights Division is open for business. Our job is to enforce the civil rights laws - all the laws. Civil Rights Enforcement is not like the buffet line at the cafeteria. You can't pick and choose which laws you like, and which ones you don't. We will enforce all the laws in fair, aggressive and independent fashion, and we will use all the tools available to us. 

I would like to close by noting that we are at a critical turning point. Just a year ago we all were basking in the glow of President Obama's election. To be sure, it was a spectacular achievement for a nation with such a long and complicated history of race relations. But as we look back over the history of the advancement of civil rights in our nation, each moment of great progress has been followed by periods of great challenge. 

Thomas Jefferson wrote of the great self-evident truth - that all men are created equal, but it would be nearly a century before slavery was abolished in the land of the free. 

Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and later spoke of a new birth of freedom at Gettysburg, but the great promise of those moments was followed by decades of legal segregation, discrimination and hate.
In 1963, Dr. King wrote "we have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights." He and his fellow "drum majors for justice" helped secure those rights with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act the following year. And yet, today, 45 years later, injustice persists. 

We have made great progress. But as we pass each benchmark, we must turn to face the new challenges ahead. 

I am excited about what lies ahead, and I appreciate the sacrifices that my wife and children make day in and day out to enable me to take on these responsibilities. I know success will not be easy, but it is a great privilege to have been given this opportunity to return to my roots at the Civil Rights Division and to help lead it into its latest chapter in this epic story.

Long Term Services and Supports in Health Reform: Safe for Now but the Debate Continues

From www.passtheclassact.org:

Dec 4, 2009 - Great News!  Early this afternoon, the Senate scheduled votes on two critical amendments to the Senate health care reform bill.  The first, introduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), was a “sense of the Congress” that the savings accrued from the CLASS Act should be used for the CLASS program.  The Whitehouse amendment passed by a resounding 98-0 vote shortly before 4:00 pm.

 

The second was introduced by Senator John Thune (R-SD) to strip the CLASS Act from the health care reform bill.  The Thune amendment needed 60 votes to pass.  When the vote reached 47-51 and it became clear that it would fail, the Thune amendment was withdrawn.

 

Despite these critical victories, the battle is far from over.  In fact, withdrawal of the Thune amendment may well mean that CLASS Act opponents in the Senate intend to reintroduce the amendment after getting a few more Senators in their camp.  Stay tuned……

From the Washington Post (12.5.09):

Senate pushes ahead on long-term care program
GOP fails in effort to cut key health-care reform funding sources
By Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray

...The Senate also voted to keep provisions to establish the Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act, or Class Act, despite concerns among centrist Democrats that the program would quickly run out of cash.

A majority of senators -- including 11 Democrats -- actually voted against Class Act, warning that congressional budget analysts say it would become a drain on the federal budget less than 20 years after enactment. But while the amendment, by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), garnered 51 votes, it fell short of the 60 needed for passage under an agreement between party leaders.

Class Act supporters hailed the decision, saying the program would offer a badly needed lifeline to seniors and disabled people trying to stay in their own homes. Workers would pay a premium in exchange for the promise of cash benefits of around $50 a day to be used for visiting nurses, medical equipment and home renovations, or to offset nursing home fees. A more expansive version of the program is included in the health-care bill approved last month by the House.

"The Class Act will offer hope to Americans with serious illnesses or injuries who can maintain their independence with the help of long-term care," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who ushered a version of the health package through the Senate health committee this summer in the absence of the committee's former chairman, Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Kennedy, who died of brain cancer, was a leading proponent of the Class Act...

>>> For the Full Article 

From the NY Times (12.2.09):

Room For Debate: Squeezing Money Out of Home Health Care
By THE EDITORS

Under the health care bills currently being debated in Congress, more than 30 million uninsured Americans would gain coverage. To help offset the costs, the Senate legislation would reduce Medicare spending on home health care services, which have grown in the push to keep Medicare patients out of hospitals and nursing homes.

Can home care agencies become more productive, as Congress assumes? Waste and fraud are a serious concern, but can these problems be effectively limited and does the current legislation address the challenges? [Click on the Names Below to Read their Perspectives]

• Stuart M. Butler, Heritage Foundation
• Donald H. Taylor, Jr., Duke University
• Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute
• Marilyn Moon, former Medicare public trustee
• David C. Grabowski, Harvard Medical School
• Harold Pollack, professor, University of Chicago

Stevie Wonder Becomes UN Messenger of Peace

From the UN Information Center (12/2/09):

Stevie Wonder Becomes a UN Messenger of Peace

By Mark Leon Goldberg

Singer/songwriter legend Stevie Wonder is joining the United Nations as one of its 10 Messengers of Peace to lend his talents to this work. It is the latest move in a long career of writing, producing and performing songs to highlight challenges many children and adults face - from disabilities, to HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, hunger, homelessness and domestic abuse.

"Our newest Messenger of Peace is someone who is admired by millions of people and has given back to millions of people," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said ahead of Mr. Wonder's official designation at a news conference on Thursday.

Without the broader participation of people with disabilities in development initiatives, prospects are dim for reaching the Millennium Development Goals. If they can overcome the challenges that keep disproportionate numbers of people with disabilities - and their families - in poverty, the odds improve significantly, UN officials say.

"Persons with disabilities encounter many disadvantages," Secretary-General Ban added in a statement marking International Day of Persons With Disabilities. "They are often among the poorest and most excluded members of society. Yet they routinely show tremendous resilience, and achieve great heights in all spheres of human endeavor.

"Experience shows that when persons with disabilities are empowered to participate and lead the process of development, the entire community opens up," Secretary-General Ban added. "Their involvement creates opportunities for everyone - with or without a disability."

An estimated 650 million people have disabilities, or 10 percent of the world's population. In developing countries, they number 20 percent of people living in poverty.

To help integrate people with disabilities into their communities - and particularly into international development work -143 UN Member States, including the United States, have signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities...

The Convention aims to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy human rights on an equal basis with others. It embraces the community-based rehabilitation approach now used in 90 countries to involve all people in development, equalize the opportunities available to people with disabilities, and address poverty at its roots. A UN Expert Group on Mainstreaming Disability issues offers more information about the "development for all" approach, and its importance to achieving the MDGs.
Among other UN initiatives:

• UN Enable, the main portal for information about issues that affect people with disabilities, offers one-stop information about all UN agencies' related work.

• A Special Rapporteur on Disability works to ensure the high-level focus that surrounded negotiations of the Convention, which culminated in May 2008, continues. Shuaib Chalklen, of South Africa, will work to advance the status of persons with disabilities and monitor the implementation of the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the General Assembly in 1993.

• The World Program of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by the General Assembly in 1982, emphasizes a human-rights approach and sets forth a global strategy to enhance disability prevention, rehabilitation and the equalization of opportunities to fully participate in social life and national development.

• The UN Voluntary Fund on Disability helps fund capacity-building initiatives for non-governmental organizations working to implement the Convention.

President Celebrates International Day of Persons with Disabilities

From the White House (12.3.09):

 

For Immediate Release

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

This year, in an effort to renew our global commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms for persons with disabilities, the United States became a proud signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This treaty represents a paradigm shift, urging equal protection and benefits for all citizens, and reaffirming the inherent dignity and independence of the 650 million people living with disabilities worldwide. Today, as we commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we celebrate the skills, achievements, and contributions of persons with disabilities in America and around the world. We recognize the progress we have made toward equality for all, and we rededicate ourselves to ensuring individuals with disabilities can reach their greatest potential.

Despite our increased efforts, persons with disabilities continue to face barriers to their full participation in society. In the United States, Americans with disabilities still experience discrimination in the workplace and in their communities. In developing nations, 90 percent of children with disabilities do not attend school, and women and girls with disabilities are all too often subjected to deep discrimination. If we are to move forward as a people, both at home and abroad, all individuals must be fully integrated into our human family.

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is a time to renew our commitment to the principles of empowerment, dignity, and equality. The United States has co-sponsored and joined consensus on the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee's resolution titled, "Realizing the Millennium Development Goals for Persons with Disabilities." We must continue to embrace diversity and reject discrimination in all its forms, and insist on equality of opportunity and accessibility for all. Let our efforts remind us that when we work together, we can build a world free of unnecessary barriers and include every member of our international community.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 3, 2009, as International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I call on all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

New Global Education Initiative Partners with World Cup 2010

From the Global Partnership for Disability and Development (12.3.09):

This International Day of Persons with Disabilities represents one of many efforts focused on the inclusion of all persons, including those with disabilities, to receive a quality education. Quality inclusive education is a human right, as proclaimed in Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and international cooperation is necessary to make this a reality.

A global campaign is now underway, coordinated by the Global Campaign for Education and backed by many within the disability movement, promoting a clear message: to provide education for the 75 million children out of school, as well as achieving the other EFA goals. With the partnership of FIFA, 1GOAL will use the platform of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa to promote mass public awareness and political will on EFA. 

To call attention to the need for MDG2 and the EFA goals to be inclusive, the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities, the Global Partnership for Disability and Development, Inclusion International, the International Disability and Development Consortium, and VSA arts have launched INITIATIVE24, a Global Campaign to Promote the Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Education for All. INITIATIVE24 has four elements: Networks, Legal Resource, Policy Engagement/Advocacy and Public Education and Awareness.

 

We invite you today to let your voice be heard and to join us by adding your signature through the 1Goal Campaign website and by working through 1GOAL to promote the call for inclusive education. Please go to www.join1goal.org to sign up now. 

 

By signing on the 1Goal Campaign, you will add your voice along with FIFA, its international football stars, the football world, and countless others – individuals and organizations, educators, political figures, celebrities, artists– who have already given their voices to this awareness campaign. 

 

More information about 1GOAL and Initiative 24 is available outside the conference room 4 or by contacting the partners at initiative24@vsarts.org. 

 

 

ON DECEMBER 3

 

THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

 

DO YOUR PART TO HELP CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES GO TO SCHOOL

 

 

 

1. Today, 75 million children around the world are denied access to school. One-third of these are children with disabilities. Unable to read or write, they face a lifetime of poverty.

 

2. Together, we can change this! Since 2000, with action and cooperation among governments, civil society, and donors, 40 million more children are now in school.

 

3. Education for All (EFA) will only happen if all children receive a quality education, including children with disabilities.

 

4. Delivering quality education needs more resources. Leaders of developing countries must spend 20% on education, abolish fees, provide professional teachers, and ensure children are in school, not at work. Leaders of developed countries must provide their fair share of funding, work together on a global response, invest in teachers, and include countries with the greatest need.

 

5. Respecting the United Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities means that investment in education must include children with disabilities and ensure that they receive the individualized support they need to fully participate.

 

6. The 2010 World Cup is a moment for us to shine – let’s leave a legacy of education. Global football stars, the football world, and its governing body, FIFA, are behind the 1GOAL campaign.

 

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

 

Join 1Goal at www.join1goal.org

 

Send us a message calling for the inclusion of people with disabilities in education using the arts (picture, video, drawing, writing, etc) at initiative24@vsarts.org. Your artwork will be exhibited on an online gallery and included in future awareness campaigns.

 

 

Together let’s make sure that all children, including the 25 million children with disabilities out-of school, receive a quality education by 2015.

Google Launches Automated YouTube Captioning; AAPD Applauds

     

Ken Harrenstein, a deaf engineer who helped develop the automatic captioning system, announces the launch (RPanoff)

AAPD Applauds Launch of Google YouTube Captioning System

On Thursday, November 19, AAPD Board Member Cheryl Sensenbrenner and staffers Jenifer Simpson, Unique Webster, Peter Viele and Rebecca Panoff attended the launch of Google's YouTube automated captioning system. This system uses some voice recognition technology, some automated time code programming code and other intelligent features that will allow YouTube video creators to include captions easily. While the technology inserts captions only in English-language speech, Google has added an automatic translation system for 51 languages. This will allow millions of YouTube videos to become available to people who do not speak English but could use the captioning technology to read subtitles in their native language. The captioning technology also allows search of the text, enabling research.

“This is a huge step forward for accessibility,” said Jenifer Simpson, “We applaud industry leadership such as this. We look to other companies to be as innovative in making their products and services accessible to people with disabilities.”

Moderated by Vint Cerf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf) -- often referred to as “the father of the Internet,“ -- who noted that "videos are a medium of political expression", members of Google's captioning accessibility team presented demonstrations of the system to an appreciative audience. Ken Harrenstein, a deaf engineer who helped develop the automatic captioning system, said the technology had never been applied on such a large scale.  “This is something that I have dreamt of for many years,” said Harrenstein, “To see it happen is amazing.”  Not yet available to everyone, Google plans to gradually expand the number of YouTube channels that work with the automatic captioning technology, starting with educational users such as Stanford, MIT, Yale, Duke, Columbia, PBS and National Geographic.

The event was attended by over a hundred people, including disability leaders from American Council of the Blind, National Association of the Deaf, Telecommunications for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing, Hearing Loss Association of America, Communication Services for the Deaf, National Captioning Institute, Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf & Hard of Hearing, and National Council on Independent Living, among others.

Google blog site about launch of the system at http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/11/automatic-captions-on-youtube.html  includes signed and captioned video.