
July-August 1996
 
OPEN LINE

The Technology Policy Newsletter of the World Institute on
Disability

Open Line, the newsletter of the World Institute on Disability's
Technology Policy Division, is published six times a year to inform
recipients of significant developments regarding accessibility for
disabled people to telecommunications and information technologies. 
Information, comments and suggestions from the readership are most
welcome.   
                                                    
World Institute on Disability
510 16th Street, Suite 100
Oakland, CA 94612

Betsy Bayha, Editor
Phone (510) 763-4100    
Fax (510) 763-4109     
TTY (510) 208-9496


::San Francisco's New Main Library, "a Wonderment to Discover"::

photo,by Rosylyn Banish, of new SF main library 

"Here, in the great atrium, the order of the building reveals
itself.  As the visitor moves up through it, in and out of the
light but always in relation to the space, the whole plan and its
philosophical underpinnings are disclosed."  -- Architect Cathy
Simon

"It should be a delight to visit the library -- a wonderment to
discover; a celebration of life and thought: of welcome and of
help."
-- Architect James Ingo Freed

Architects sometimes are overly poetic about their structures, but
the principal architects for San Francisco's New Main Library,
Cathy Simon and James Ingo Freed, could go on at great lyrical
length about this building and never be accused of exaggeration.

Built around a four-story glass atrium, the New Main feels like a
cathedral of books constructed in homage to the gods of art,
literature and ideas.  It is not only a "wonderment" of
architecture but of universal design.  Access features have been
designed and built in at every opportunity, creating a smooth,
seamlessly accessible structure.   

The New Main is the first building in San Francisco's civic center
with graceful entrance ramps and tactile directiote omtonsevi ookstd ahrdi
ala a te end of April for a National Summit on Disability
Policy hosted by the National Council on Disability (NCD).  Their
purpose was to develop a broad agenda on critical policy issues to
carry forward into the 21st Century.

The report issued from the Summit will articulate goals for
improving all aspects of life for people with disabilities.  The
meeting is a follow-up to the NCD report, "Toward Independence,"
issued ten years ago, which identified the need for broad civil
rights legislation for people with disabilities and launched the
effort for the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Technology was one of 12 critical policy areas covered at this
year's Summit -- a recognition that over the past decade the
information revolution, as well as advances in other technological
arenas, has played a growing role in fostering independence for
people with disabilities.  The potential of innovative computer and
communications technologies such as e-mail, fax machines, voice
input and output, multimedia and the "information superhighway"
were identified as important bridges to improved educational and
employment opportunities for people with disabilities across the
age spectrum.

The participation of two younger people in the technology session
helped bring life to that message.  Vanessa Couveau, a junior high
school student with cerebral palsy that affects her ability to
speak, presented her opinions
to the discussion through the use of an augmentative communications
device that translated her typed messages into speech.  Couveau,
having become proficient with e-mail technology, has started an
online discussion group for young people with disabilities.

Mason Barney, a college student in multimedia studies, has used a
variety of information technologies to cope with his learning
disabilities.  In high school, Barney, who has difficulty with the
written word, was able to use multimedia technology, instead of
writing papers, to develop sophisticated class presentations
employing graphics, auditory information, and historic film
footage.  He said technology played a critical role in ensuring his
graduation from high school and in his successful academic
participation in college.

Drawing on these examples and more, the technology sub-group
articulated broad policy goals promoting universal design of
technology, calling for stronger enforcement of existing
legislation such as Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act with
amendments, developing a national competition to recognize
excellence in universal design and even the possibility of a
"Universal Design Act."

Recommendations from the NCD Summit are being written up in a
report that will be presented to Congress and to President Clinton
on July 26, to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the ADA. 
Considering that NCD's last report had such far-reaching impact,
hopes are high that this report, likewise, will find a responsive
audience among legislators and policy makers.    


::A Message from the Director::

Every time I log onto the World Wide Web, I'm confronted with the
question, "What's Cool?"  I'm sure you've all seen it, too.  What
home page doesn't have a little box beckoning to whisk you away to
some nifty nook on the Web that promises to amaze with something
you've never seen, heard, or even thought about before?  The quest
for "cool" drives cyberspace.  It taps into our seemingly endless
desire to discover the next new thing, the glitzy "killer app."  It
drives up the temperature on "what's hot."

But as diligent cybernauts go about their visionary business of
developing products today that we never thought we needed, only to
find tomorrow that we can't possibly live without them, "cool" can
become a double-edged sword for people with disabilities.  We know
that, more than the average customer, many of these new products
and services can be particularly liberating for us.  And yet, as
information services are relentlessly reinvented they often
sacrifice the straightforward, intuitive and, dare I even mention
the word, "standardized" features that many people with
disabilities have already spent a good deal of time learning how to
navigate.  Access is often unwittingly sacrificed to appease the
fickle demands of being "cool."

In recent years, some people with disabilities have put forth their
own vision of "cool," one that recognizes and embraces diversity as
a strength of our society.  In disability terms, "cool" does not
mean gratuitously changing a product or service just to roll out
something with a new bell or whistle.  Rather, disability "cool"
means pursuing the ideal merger between form and function to create
new products that are attractive and user-friendly.

When a product or service is designed carefully, so it can be used
easily and intuitively by all, when the access features are subtle
and well integrated into the final form, when universal design
principles are implemented to the fullest extent possible -- now
that's  cool!
Betsy Bayha
Acting Director,
Division of Technology Policy 


::WID Represents Consumer Interests on Telecom Access Advisory
Committee::

The disability access language of the Telecommunications Act of
1996 will be enacted according to guidelines developed by the
Telecommunications Access Advisory Committee.  The Committee is
comprised of some 30 representatives from industry, research
institutions and consumer groups, including the World Institute on
Disability.  They will be making recommendations to the
Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access
Board) regarding accessibility guidelines for telecommunications
equipment and customer premises equipment.

There will be time allotted for public comment at all meetings of
the TAAC.  That's a promise made at the Committee's first meeting,
held in June.

Notices of future meetings will be published in the Federal
Register.  Further information may be obtained from Dennis Cannon,
a friendly fellow in the Office of Technical and Information
Services, Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance
Board, 1331 F Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington, D.C. 20004-1111. 

Telephone numbers are:  (202) 272-5434 extension 35 (voice), and
(202) 272-5449 (TTY).


::Flash From the Future: Researchers Work on "Mind Over Cursor":: 

In recent years research scientists in Europe and the U.S. have
proven that a person can be trained to exert control over some
brain emissions.  

Now researchers at Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research
in Albany, NY, are conducting clinical trials in which human
subjects are trained to use their minds to control a cursor on a
computer screen.

One of the most dramatic potential benefits seen for development of
the mind-over-cursor technique would be for severely paralyzed
people -- for example, those who have experienced strokes or 
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).  

Research by Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarland at Wadsworth
Center indicates that people with a loss speech and motor control,
even movement of their eyes, might be trained to move a cursor with
their minds to communicate with the world.

They use electroencephalography, or EEG, the well known tool for
detecting brain disorders.

EEG electrodes are attached to the subject's scalp -- both right
and left hemispheres.  A cursor appears in the center of the screen
and a target appears elsewhere.  The subject tries to move the
cursor to the target by mind-power.  

EEG signals coming from the brain of the concentrating subject are
picked up and measured by the computer program, which interprets
the amplitudes (fluctuations) of the signals and moves the cursor 

In preliminary experiments, some subjects did better than others,
the best consistently scoring as many as 70 hits in100 tries.
Researchers calculate that pure chance would not account for more
than 25 percent success.

Subjects had some difficulty describing exactly how they moved the
cursor.  Some said they thought in terms of running, floating or
shooting baskets. 

"What appears to happen," says Dr. Wolpaw, "is, with practice, the
process becomes automatic so that they don't need imagery."  

The Wadsworth Center is an agency of the New York State Department
of Health.  The research is supported by the U.S. National
Institutes of Health.               

Illustrations:
A: Cursor appears in center of screen, target at top or bottom. B:
Subject "thinks" the cursor toward the target. C: A hit changes the
target to a checkerboard pattern. D: A brief pause and cursor
returns to center, new target appears in new location.  If cursor
reaches the screen's edge, an error is registered and cursor
returns to center. 


::Coming Soon -- a Blue Ribbon Report Card::

At this very moment, the World Institute on Disability's Blue
Ribbon Panel Project is putting together a "Report Card on
Telecommunications Accessibility."
   
Betsy Bayha, acting director of WID's Division of Technology
Policy, said the Report Card will assess progress made toward
universal design, evaluate responses from industry, and measure the
level of awareness of policy-making bodies.
  
Check the scores in the next issue of Open Line.


::Special Library Services for Deaf, Blind at New Main Library: The
Deaf Services Center::

Since 1977 the Deaf Services Center has supported the SF Public
Library's mission "to provide free and equal access to information,
knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading" for all.

In New Main the center is located on the first floor, where staff
welcomes deaf or hearing-impaired patrons by providing "a starting
point" for their use of the entire library.  The center also
provides basic information about deafness, sign language and deaf
culture.

"When New Main was being planned," said Marty Goddard, director of
the Center, "deaf and hearing-impaired patrons said they hoped for
a place where it would be easy to communicate. So they now have a
spacious room with no outside windows that might cause glare. Our
tables are round so people can see each other to lip-read or to
sign.  And just today we got our CD Rom American Sign Language
dictionary. . . Hallelujah!  It's a really wonderful medium."
 
The center's collections include videos about all aspects of
deafness as well as literature and poetry.  Books by deaf authors
and stories featuring deaf characters are popular. Many
periodicals, newsletters, files of pamphlets and other materials
are available, plus staff is on hand to make referrals to other
departments of New Main.

There are four TVs with closed-caption decoders (there was only one
at the old library) and headphones are provided for viewing videos
in the center's collection.  Decoders may be borrowed for home use. 

"It's such a sign of respect, I think, that the Library actually
committed the resources to making a Deaf Services Center that is
spacious and bright, and it works," said Goddard.


::Special Services for Deaf, Blind at New Main Library: The Blind
Services Center::

Director Martin Magid likes to point out that this Center is a
Sub-Regional Branch of the National Library Service for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped, a division of the Library of Congress. 
It houses the Talking Books Program, circulating the most recent
three to four years of the collection recorded by NLS.  Older books
can be borrowed through inter-library loan.

The Center circulates recorded books on four-track audio cassettes
and on flexible disk phonograph records.  Audio cassette and disk
players are loaned at no charge.

Magid said expanded facilities in the new quarters include the
following accessible equipment:
     Personal computers with synthesized voice and large print
output.
     Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanners that read aloud
typewritten print (books, magazines, letters).
     Closed circuit TVs that enlarge text for low-vision users.
     Printers with enlarged type.
     Magnification equipment.
     Braille embossers (printers) and displays linked to online
Blind Services and general library catalogs.
  
"Additional accessible equipment and audio-visual equipment is
located throughout New Main," said Magid.  "And in the works is a
newspaper reading service for the blind, which the California State
Library is encouraging."  Magid said there were problems with
previous efforts, but "we hope to overcome those and come up with
a good news access service."
 

WID Blue Ribbon Panel Project:

Members:
Lars Augustsson, TeleNova, Stockholm, Sweden 
Frank Bowe, PhD, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Jackie Brand, Alliance for Technology Access, San Rafael, CA
Dale S. Brown, President's Committee on Employment of People with
Disabilities, Washington, DC
Judy Harkins, PhD, Gallaudet Research Institute, Gallaudet
University, Washington, DC
June Kailes, National Council on Independent Living, Playa del Rey,
CA
Oral Miller, American Council of the Blind, Washington, DC
Mike Morris, Executive Deputy Director, Community Services 
Division, United Cerebral Palsy Association, Washington, DC
Tom Shworles, Committee on Personal Computers and the  Handicapped,
Evanston, IL
Al Sonnenstrahl, Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc., Silver
Spring, MD
Max Starkloff, Paraquad, Inc., St. Louis, MO
Rocky Stone, Self-Help for Hard-of-Hearing People (now retired),
Bethesda, MD

Industry Supporters:
Ameritech
AT&T
Bell Atlantic
Bellcore
BellSouth
Electronic Industries Association
GTE
Interactive Services Association
MCI
Minitel U.S.A.
NYNEX
Pacific Telesis
Southwestern Bell
Sprint
U S West

WID
World Institute on Disability
Technology Policy Division                  
510  16th Street, Suite 100                                       
Oakland, CA 94612                                                 
                            

                                                                  
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Address Correction Requested


(510)763-4100
(510)763-4109 Fax
(510)208-9496 TTY
E-Mail: OpenLine@wid.org

  
Staff:

Betsy Bayha
Acting Director, 
Division of Technology Policy

Shelby Jones
Department Assistant

