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Accessible News #19 — Spring 2004
Should you be using these old newsletters, please bear in mind that the web addresses were correct when the newsletter was created but that they may not be accurate now. We do not plan to change the back issues of the newsletters.
Contents:
- Visit us at CSUN
- The CFI Provides Major Boost for
Research in Canada
- CRTC Licence Renewals and
Accessibility
- Real-Time Captioning Lets Late-Deafened
People Participate in Meetings
- ATutor: Accessible Online
Learning
- News Bits
- Our Web Site
- Communications From
ADIO
- Where To Find Us
Visit us at CSUN
Once again, ADIO will have a booth at the annual Technology & Disability Conference, which is presented by California State University, Northridge (CSUN) in Los Angeles. If you are attending CSUN, drop by and say hello. You'll find us in Booth Number 336 in the Marriott Hotel's main exhibit hall. Just look for the booth with the big Canadian flag.
This year, our booth will feature AT-Links, the Accessible Procurement Toolkit and Web-4-All. We will also have product literature on display from various Canadian AT companies and organizations.
The CFI Provides Major Boost for Research in Canada
Canada's research community will receive a major boost thanks to a $585.9 million investment from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI: www.innovation.ca). This investment will help support cutting-edge research infrastructure in areas of strategic importance to Canada such as health, the environment, nanotechnology, sustainable communities, and the new knowledge economy. The "Intelligent Design for Adaptation, Participation and Technology (IDAPT): Innovative Rehabilitation for People in Challenging Environments" project, managed by Dr. Geoff Fernie at the University of Toronto's Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, will receive $7,258,556 in CFI funding.
Prime Minister Paul Martin, joined by the Honourable Lucienne Robillard, Minister of Industry and the CFI's President and CEO, Dr. David Strangway, today announced infrastructure support for 126 projects at 57 Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and other non-profit research institutions. They were joined for this announcement by the Honourable Joe Fontana, Parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister with emphasis on Science and Small Business.
"Individual ingenuity and creativity are key drivers of our economy. This means an education system second to none and a commitment to the pursuit of excellence and innovation," said Prime Minister Martin. "With today's announcement, the CFI has taken the country's research capacity to the next level and further encouraged innovation, research and development in Canada."
"Our support of cutting-edge research infrastructure is transforming Canada's research landscape and increasing our international competitiveness," said Dr. Strangway. "The CFI is empowering its institutions to develop partnerships with their province, their municipal governments, the private sector, and the volunteer sector which in turn will secure Canada's position as a global leader in innovation."
"This CFI investment will help our research institutions capitalize on excellent research opportunities that draw on the local, national and international intellectual capital", said Minister Robillard. "These infrastructures will create opportunities, fuel the development of industrial clusters and lead to the commercialization of our research to benefit all Canadians."
The $585.9 million investment has been awarded through two funds: $450.7 million under the Innovation Fund enabling institutions to strengthen their research infrastructure in all areas of research, including the social sciences and humanities; and $135.2 million under the Infrastructure Operating Fund which assists universities with the incremental operating and maintenance costs associated with new infrastructure projects. Of the 126 Innovation Fund projects announced on March 8, nine projects are national and many are regional and multi-institutional.
In addition, following the review of project outlines, the Board is inviting hospitals to submit complete applications for 19 projects under the CFI's Research Hospital Fund (RHF) by May 31, 2004. These projects will be associated to successful projects under the Innovation Fund that will enhance hospital, regional and national capacity for internationally competitive health research. Indeed, the RHF is designed to support large scale infrastructure projects that will support research that can be translated into improved health for Canadians and more effective health services and products.
The CFI's investments of over $2.5 billion in research infrastructure over the past seven years are having a significant impact on research in this country by: helping to foster a climate for knowledge transfer activities, enhancing our research productivity, helping to attract and retain excellent researchers, and training highly qualified people. The research enabled by this infrastructure is also generating benefits for Canada and improving our quality of life.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created in 1997 by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure. The CFI's mandate is to strengthen the ability of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and other non-profit institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that will benefit Canadians.
CRTC Licence Renewals and Accessibility
On January 21, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a number of licence renewals that will provide Canadians with sensory disabilities more accessible television programming.
The broadcast licence for VoicePrint Canada was renewed for the period from March 1 to August 31, 2010. VoicePrint is the English-language audio programming service that provides national and local news articles, features and audio theatre to print-disabled Canadians. The service reaches more than 8 million homes and listeners can access VoicePrint via satellite, cable and direct-to-home services. Many users access VoicePrint on the secondary audio programming (SAP) channel on CBC's Newsworld channel.
In addition to renewing the licence, the CRTC also gave VoicePrint permission to increase its maximum wholesale rate by three cents per subscriber per month to a new rate of four cents per subscriber per month. The National Broadcast Reading Service (NBRS), which is the not-for-profit charity that was set up to administer VoicePrint in 1989, stated in its submission that the increase in the wholesale rate would provide more predictable and reliable funding for VoicePrint and enable it to eliminate its reliance on grants, donations and the benefits offered by broadcasters as part of ownership transactions.
NBRS made commitments to the CRTC to expand the amount of local programming available on the system through such initiatives as the establishment of centres in 100 communities across Canada using a web-based computer program to produce local programming in a cost-effective manner, the increase of regional programming from 30 minutes to 60 minutes a day and the establishment of a regional centre in Halifax to provide programming reflecting Atlantic Canada. NBRS also undertook to decrease reliance on volunteers by hiring paid staff on a part-time basis in 50 of the proposed local program centres. These paid staff would organize local volunteers and be responsible for outreach at the local level and liaison with local broadcast distributors such as cable and satellite service providers. Paid staff will also make house calls in the community to help users access the SAP channel.
The same day that the CRTC granted VoicePrint's licence renewal, they also granted licence renewals for 21 specialty channels. Here are some of the highlights:
YTV will be required to caption not less than 60% of all programming aired during the broadcast day, beginning no later than September 1 2004 and increasing this to 90% of the programming it carries, beginning no later than September 1 2008. What is significant about this is that this captioning requirement includes programming aimed at pre-schoolers. In its previous licence, YTV had previously been exempt from having to caption broadcasts targeted to pre-schoolers. Preschool programming has now been included in the requirement in part to ensure that parents are able to access the programming their children watch. YTV is also expected to provide a minimum of two hours of described video programming per week, beginning September 1 2005 and increasing that to a minimum of three hours a week by 2008. In fulfilling this condition, a minimum of 50% or the required hours must be original to the service.
CHUM Limited's Star!-TV was one of several specialty services that asked for an exemption from the requirement to caption at least 90% of its programming aired during the broadcast day. The CRTC turned down this request, stating that offering closed captioning is part of the expense of holding a broadcast licence. This is the response that was consistently given to English-language specialty services that sought exemption from the 90% captioning requirement.
(It should be noted that in the past, a 100% captioned broadcast day had been a condition of licence for Canadian broadcasters with annual revenues over $10 Million, but the CRTC has come to recognize "that requiring 100% captioning at all times by condition of licence may not be reasonable. A 90% obligation provides some flexibility to cover unforeseen circumstances (such as late delivery of captions, technical malfunctions, or the lack of availability of captions for programs acquired outside North America), or programming where captioning may not be feasible, such as third-language programming.")
CHUM Limited's licence for Space: The Imagination Station was also renewed and as part of its licensing conditions, the station will be expected to provide a minimum of two hours of described video programming per week by September 1 2005 and increasing to a minimum of three hours a week by September 1 2008. In its licence application, CHUM actually pledged to exceed these minimum requirements for described video, stating that it would be able to broadcast three hours of described programming per week beginning this September and increasing it to four hours a week in September 2006.
Also expected to start providing at least two, increasing to three, hours of described programming per week over their respective licence terms are Prime TV, The Comedy Network and History Television. CTV Newsnet was informed that the CRTC expects the specialty channel to provide audio description wherever appropriate and to ensure that the audio description offered is of good quality. This comment was made in response to a number of complaints the Commission received from viewers regarding the quality of Newsnet's audio description.
A number of French-language specialty channels have also been given the go- ahead to continue broadcasting. Télétoon will be required to close caption 75% of all French-language programming no later than September 1 2004, 80% by September 2005, 85% by September 2007 and 90% by September 2008. (The Teletoon, the English-language sister channel to Télétoon, is required to caption 90% of its programming by September 1 2004.) Astral Broadcasting Group's Canale Vie will also be required to gradually increase the percentage of captioning of all its programming to at least 65% by September 2008. The Commission also told Astral that at the time of its next licence term, Canal Vie will be required to expand this percentage to 90% of its broadcast day. Last but not least, Groupe TVA inc.'s Le Canal Nouvelles will be required to close caption at least 80% of its programs in the first year of the new licence term, rising to 90% by September 2008.
Real-Time Captioning Lets Late-Deafened People Participate in Meetings
- by Leo Valdes, Vision Office Support Services Ltd.Unlike their sign-language trained colleagues, persons who lose their hearing later in life are not as prepared for face-to-face communication. This may be the case for many seniors in an ageing Canadian population, who have relied on technologies like e-mail and closed captioning to stay in touch.
Late in 2002, Disabled Persons International Canadian representative Steve Estey's hearing condition deteriorated so that he could no longer use his state-of-the-art hearing aid. Forced to communicate by instant messaging and text chat, Steve wondered how he would participate in upcoming United Nations meetings on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Early in 2003, Visual Voice Captions, a B.C. based communication facilitation company, was given the opportunity of providing Communication Access Realtime Translation ( CART ), also commonly referred to as realtime captioning, to Steve in a regional meeting of the Americas. CART uses realtime technology that translates shorthand — much like that provided in courtrooms - into English. This technology, which is currently used to close caption live broadcasts, allowed Steve to participate fully, and contribute in the landmark meeting.
Visual Voice Captions also provided CART services to the hard of hearing and late-deafened Non-Governmental Organization members as well as a panelist presenter at the second meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on a UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, held in New York last June 2003. Participants in workshops and meetings from Landmine Survivors Network, Disabled Peoples' International and Centre for International Rehabilitation also benefitted from CART provided by Visual Voice Captions.
Visual Voice Captions is pleased to team with Vision Office, another B.C.-based company, to provide streaming descriptive video, i.e., webcasting of video images alongside CART, for both the visual and hearing impaired. Webcasts can range from international human rights meetings to disability sporting events such as the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver 2010.
Further information and details on can be found at: (www.VisualVoiceCaptions.com) .
ATutor: Accessible Online Learning
- by Greg Gay, Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of TorontoThe University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre has developed a standards compliant, open source Web-based learning environment called ATutor. Designed with accessibility and adaptability in mind, administrators can install or update ATutor in minutes. Educators can quickly assemble, package, and redistribute Web-based instructional content, and conduct their courses online. Students learn in an adaptive, accessible learning environment.
After several years of teaching online, using a number of the popular commercial Web-based e-learning systems, the creators of ATutor came to the realization that these systems were all about managing courses and instructional content. Very little, if any attention was given to creating learning environments that catered to the learning tendencies of the students who used them. Many learners, and instructors, found the complexity and ridged structuring of these systems non- conducive to learning. And, if assistive technologies were being used to learn or create courses online, users would find that much in these learning environments was inaccessible to them, or at best somewhat accessible but difficult to use.
Based in cognitive science, and created at a centre where accessibility is the guiding philosophy, ATutor was developed to fill the accessibility/adaptability void created by other e-learning systems, creating a "Learning Content Management System" (LCMS) that was inclusive to all who might use it; it allows learners, instructors, and administrators, on slow internet connections, using older computers, or using assistive technology to access the Web, to participate fully in online learning activities.
As an adaptive learning environment the ATutor interface is extremely flexible, allowing users to configure the environment to suit their needs. Perceptual elements can be customized, adding graphical representations of tools, adding text alternatives for graphics, or adding direct keyboard access so ATutor can be used through the kinesthetic senses (i.e. by touch). Structural elements can also be customized, allowing learners to navigate through instructional content in a global, hierarchical, or sequential fashion.
As an accessible learning environment ATutor conforms with international accessibility standards, complying with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0), as well as the Canadian Common Look and Feel and the U.S. Section 508 accessibility standards. Preset settings allow users to apply an accessibility theme that strips away all the non-essential features of the interface, optimizing ATutor for use with screen readers and other similar assistive technologies.
ATutor is also the first open source system of its kind to adopt international content packaging standards, making it possible to import and export interoperable content. This is a big step for open source e-learning systems, allowing instructors who were once locked into expensive commercial systems, to move their content from those systems into an economical, more user friendly system.
As an open source tool ATutor is available at no cost for most purposes; it's free! The underlying technology on top of which ATutor runs is also open source, and free for most uses. With these roots in open source it is possible to setup a sophisticated Web based learning environment at a fraction of the cost associated with implementing similar commercial systems.
As of this writing ATutor 1.3.1 was the current released, with the primary goal in this version of adding interoperable content packaging and an updated version was expected shortly. Current development includes the creation on an interface that connects ATutor to The Inclusive Learning Exchange (TILE) learning objects repository, a project whose goal is to create a public repository of accessible e- learning content. TILE support will be available in the Spring or Early summer of 2004. Also part of the TILE project is the creation of a Web-based content accessibility assessor, which will also be linked into ATutor, allowing content developers to review the accessibility of the content they create.
Other accessibility related development currently underway includes the creation of ATalker, an ATutor add-on text-to-speech server that allows users to hear the environment as they navigate through it, and submit blocks of text content to the server to be returned in an audio stream that can be played in most common multimedia applications. ACollab is another accessible add-on for ATutor: a group work environment and file sharing application that allows learners to collaborate at a distance, and generate documentation, write shared papers, or work together on group projects. The inaugural release of ACollab was announced at the beginning of February.
ATutor's development is supported in part by the Learning Disabilities Resource Community (www.ldrc.ca) and Federally by the Office of Learning Technology (http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/). For additional information about ATutor visit the ATutor Web site (www.atutor.ca) . For more about the TILE project visit the TILE Web site (www.barrierfree.ca/tile/)
News Bits
- Congratulations to Lawrence Euteneier, Manager Web-4-All,
Smart Communities, who has been awarded the Head of the Public
Service Award for Excellence in Service Delivery. The award was
made in recognition for his work on Web-4-All, a suite of
applications that can be used to tailor Internet access methods
(input and output) to individual users in such public venues as
libraries and CAP sites. Users' access preferences are recorded
on a smart card so that the user can link independently to the
Internet from any place that has Web-4-All installed. The award
was presented by Alex Himelfarb, Clerk of the Privy Council, at a
ceremony on December 1, 2003.
- Tash Inc.'s line of flexible mounting arms were worth a
second look at this year's Assistive Technology Industry
Association conference in Orlando, Florida. Designed in Canada,
these arms can be adjusted to suit the needs of any user with
ease and reliability. In addition to being strong but light, they
are also very graceful in appearance, proving that assistive
devices don't have to sacrifice form for function.
- Dr. Geoff Fernie, Vice President, Research at the Toronto
Rehabilitation Institute, has been honoured by MEDEC — Canada's
Medical Device Technology Companies. The MEDEC Award for Medical
Achievement was awarded to Dr. Fernie on February 12. Dr. Fernie
was recognized for the work he and his team have undertaken to
develop a number of award-winning assistive devices for people
with mobility disabilities, including the Staxi Transport Chair
system used in such places as many major airports. In addition to
his work at the Rehabilitation Institute, Dr. Fernie is a
professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of
Toronto and has cross-appointments in the Institute of
Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and the Graduate
Department of Rehabilitation Science as well as the U of T's
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Physical Therapy and
Occupational Therapy Departments.
- A recent accessibility
survey of French-langauge Web sites showed that many
performed poorly when evaluated for compliance with Priorities 1
and 2 of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines. The survey, which was conducted jointly
by the Quebec Foundation for the Blind, W3Qébec and the
Nazareth & Louis-Braille Institute revealed that 84% of the
200 sites surveyed were non-compliant. About 95% of the
inaccessible sites had HTML or CSS programming errors, 77%
provided no alt text for graphics, buttons and maps and 77%
either lacked headers or used them in illogical order. The survey
tested Web sites from federal and provincial governments,
corporations and the disability services sector. The best
performers were disability services, rehabilitation centres and
disability organizations. The federal government sites were
fourth overall and the Québec government sites came in
10th out of 17. The worst performers were in the subcategories of
sports and leisure, arts and culture and careers and employment.
The study, which is only available in French, can be found at:
(www.accessibiliteweb.org/accessibiliteweb.htm) .
- Sinclair-Nicolson has installed NexTalk-VM computer-based
TTYs in Industry Canada's Strategis call centre. The company
reports that the system has also been installed at Natural
Resources Canada and more installations in federal government
sites are expected in the near future.
- Microcomputer Science
Centre Inc. has developed KBook, a highspeed scanning
interface for use between a Canon DR-5080C scanner and the
Kurzweil 3000 reading software. KBook streamlines the process of
scanning a book, converting it to Kurzweil, performing a quality
check on the Kurzweil files, burning the files to CDs and
creating book specific CD labels and tracking scanned books. To
find out more, call the Microcomputer Science Centre at
1-800-290-6563 (fax: 905-629- 2321, TTY: 905-629-4369) or visit
their web site at (www.microscience.on.ca) .
- Federal Elevator
has just completed several installations of Accessibility
Elevators in high profile projects. One of them is the new AOL
Time Warner building in New York City where 6 residential
elevators with special accessibility features were installed. The
other one is the Belaya Gora project in Moscow where 2 specially
designed elevators were supplied. The Company products have now
been installed in more than 25 countries. For additional
information, please contact Richard Piatti, P. Eng. at Federal
Elevator or visit their website (www.federalelevator.com).
- The Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Novartis
Opthalmics, Pfizer, AMD Alliance International and the Canadian
Institute of Health Research were the presenting sponsors of a
symposium called "The Cost of Blindness: What it means to
Canadians" in Toronto, January 31 and February 1. The purpose of
the symposium was to establish a coordinated, nationwide approach
to secure a body of research that will indicate measures that
must be taken for Canada to reduce both the financial and social
impacts of vision loss.
- Our heartiest congratulations go to James Sanders, President
and CEO of the CNIB, who was named a Member of the Order of
Canada in January. Mr. Sanders also serves on the Minister of
Industry's Advisory Committee on Assistive Devices and Persons
with Disabilities. The citation naming him to the Order of Canada
stated that "he has been tireless in his efforts to improve the
quality of life for visually impaired, deafblind and blind people
living in Canada and around the world.... An energetic lobbyist,
he fought to preserve the use of Braille while encouraging the
organization and its clients to embrace and harness technological
advances like computers. By helping to open up more avenues of
accessibility, he has provided new options for individuals
seeking greater independence."
Our Web Site
Our Web site can be found at (www.at-links.gc.ca/as/) . At this site are all our old newsletters as well as different listings and links to other sites of interest. Should you be using these old newsletters, please bear in mind that the web addresses were correct when the newsletter was created but that they may not be accurate now. We do not plan to change the back issues of the newsletters.
Communications From ADIO
If you would prefer to receive our newsletter on disk or by
e-mail, please contact us at the address below.
Where To Find Us
For more information or to get on our mailing list, please
contact:
Mary Frances Laughton or Deb Finn
Assistive Devices Industry Office
Industry Canada
P.O. Box 11490 Station H
Ottawa, Ontario
K2H 8S2
Tel: 613-990-4316 or 613-990-4297
fax: 613-998-5923
TTY: 613-998-3288
Internet: adio@crc.ca
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