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Accessible News #23 — Spring 2005

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.

CSUN Wrap-Up

This year's 20th Anniversary Technology & Disability conference (CSUN) drew over 4,100 participants and 175 exhibitors over its four-day run. Once again, there was a very visible contingent of Canadians exhibiting, presenting and attending the show. The Industry Canada booth was staffed by ADIO personnel with assistance from Canadian Heritage colleagues on occasion. We were showing AT-Links (www.at-links.gc.ca) and the Accessible Procurement Toolkit (www.apt.gc.ca) as well as product literature from over 25 of our industry partners.

Visitors to the Industry Canada booth were steady throughout the conference and interest in Canadian assistive technology, products, systems and services remains high and enthusiastic. We provided a listing of all the Canadian booths on the showfloor, the number of which surprised many visitors.

By having a place for parties to meet, Industry Canada provides a focus for doing business for Canadians. That large Canadian flag and our distinctive red and white draperies in a sea of blue booths make us easy to spot in the exhibit hall and we are always happy to have our industry representatives make use of our location in support of their business networking activities.

CSUN's 20th anniversary keynote speaker was Dr. Al Cook, the Dean of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Al gave a retrospective of AT over 20 years. Those of us who have been around a while saw lots of familiar technologies.

Our Canadian flag pins continue to be a popular give away. Nearly everyone has a positive story to relate about Canada when they come by the booth.

We heard very positive comments on the papers given by our Canadian colleagues. The CSUN conference programme can be found at: (www.csun.edu/cod/conf/2005)

A number of visitors to our booth told us that they were familiar with Accessible News, as it had been passed along to them by colleagues and they asked to be added to our distribution list.

Visuaide disappeared from the showfloor this year and reappeared as HumanWare Canada, part of the newly merged company made up of Visuaide and New Zealand's PDI. The new company launched its look and feel at a lovely reception on March 17. There were several HumanWare product launches.

Madentec staff entertained us all by scooting around the showfloor on a Segway. They announced two new products: TrackerPro, which is a miniaturized head-pointer; and DiscoverUSB.

Compusult was showing its new line of products, including the Scotty LapTop Tray Systems; the Jouse2; two USB-based multi-switch controllers, the U-Switch and the 2-Switch; the Outspoken Communicator series of Tablet PC based augmentative communications systems; and the Outporter portable dedicated notetaker for blind users.

Sight Enhancement Systems was successful in finding distributors for their products including one arrangement that was facilitated by ADIO staff.

Tash once again delighted all comers with their most excellent access technologies.

The worldclass keyboards of Matias were on many people's lips.

DAESSY continued to provide its excellent line of wheelchair accessories.

Afforda-speech was back for its second year with their AAC devices.

Soneil Vision Enabling Solutions, a new exhibitor, showed some of their software and devices for blind people, including their CTravel Agent software, which is designed to enable blind persons to work as travel agents, their Mighty Braille notebook computer and the BDA Braille Data Assistant, which is the first Linux-based pocketsize Braille computer.

Ambutech's line of white canes and related products continued to be well respected.

The braille magic of Quebec's Braille Jymico continued to thrill participants.

The booth location for Quillsoft's WordQ was a frequent request.

Clearly, Canadian companies are developing products and systems that international industrial partners recognize as must-haves to integrate with their own technology!

Contents.

Europe: Looking for Canadian Partners — by Mary Frances Laughton

At the invitation of the eInclusion Unit of DG INFSO (part of the European Union Office), I was privileged to participate at the R&D Information Day on April 19 in Brussels. This event allowed me to make some very fruitful contacts. I have sent some detailed messages now to some of our partners.

The following documents have been placed on the Website:

presentations from the Commission which outline what is happening now and in the future with eInclusion R&D, especially planning for FP7
presentations from the participants who were looking for partners in their R&D
a list of participants (names and email addresses) for those who provided their express consent to be included.

The European Union Office Website is available at: (http://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/infso/e-inclusion/library?l=/meeting/info-day_2005-04-19&vm=detailed&sb=Title)

I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have about this day or this process. Contact me, Mary Frances Laughton, at tel: 613-990-4316, or email Mary Frances Laughton: laughton@crc.ca .

Contents.

New Features in the Accessible Procurement Toolkit

ADIO continues to add new features to our Accessible Procurement Toolkit to make it even easier to use. The toolkit now includes a Product code lookup form that allows users to search for items by federal GSIN product codes and their American counterparts, the FSC/PSC codes. We are also planning to add the UNSPSC codes as well.

The Accessible Procurement Toolkit has been providing procurement officers and purchasers with product-specific accessibility requirements, standards and best practices that can (or should) be applied when purchasing electronic and information technology, office products and services.

Another use for the toolkit is to show product designers and developers the range of accessibility standards that apply to their products. However, a commonly expressed concern is that either the reason for making such design decisions is unclear, and/or that the technical or functional standards are difficult to envision as actual product features.

To address the concerns of developers and designers the Accessible Procurement Toolkit is bringing together a series of design resources, demonstrations and mock-ups to illustrate aspects of accessible design or products and implementation of services.

As resources are identified, the Toolkit links to them from the appropriate locations:

A resource that illustrates a particular standard is linked from that standard and will appear in the requirement or prerequisite list of any technology for which that standard applies.
Some resources apply to specific products or services and those are linked from the Definition of the product.

This Design Resources page will collect links to all the design resources for people who want to browse the range of solutions for many different products or standards.

The first series of illustrations have already been developed for the toolkit. The Neil Squire Society prepared demonstration drawings relating to mobility disabilities. Galbraith Communications developed the demos on blind and low vision issues and they also worked with Deb. Finn on a demo relating to deaf and hard of hearing employees. This work was coordinated by the Human Oriented Technology lab (HOTlab) at Carleton University and the Web design was done by Starling Access Services. As soon as the new contents are available in both official languages, it will be posted to the Accessible Procurement Toolkit site on the Web at: (www.apt.gc.ca) .

Contents.

News Bits

At the beginning of this year, Brookdale Medical Specialties Ltd announced the addition of the Endorphin line of cardio rehab products and the new expanded line of Response fitness and rehab exercise equipment to its catalogue. To find out more, contact Dee Hache at 418 Hanlan Road, Unit 27, Woodbridge, Ontario L4L 3P6, call them at 905-856-5006 or toll-free at 1-800-655-1155, fax them at 905-856-5019 or e-mail Brookdale Medical at: brookdalerehabfit@on.aibn.com .
In March, Aroga Group Inc., (www.aroga.com) was named as the exclusive Master Distributor for Freedom Scientific blindness and low vision products throughout the province of Quebec. The Aroga Group Inc. is Canada's largest and most diverse distributor of assistive technology in Canada with offices in Vancouver, B.C., Edmonton, Alberta, and Montreal, Quebec. Their Montreal office is currently their fastest growing location, and will be expanding even further in the next few months to meet the needs of all customers in Quebec. In addition to supporting the visually impaired and blind communities, Aroga assists individuals with physical disabilities who require computer access, augmentative and alternative communication systems for those who are non-verbal, educational products that enhance learning, and special education products for people with learning disabilities. Freedom Scientific's products include JAWS for Windows, MAGic large print and speech, OpenBook scanning software, PAC Mate portable devices and Focus Braille displays. Aroga will assume distribution responsibilities previously performed by VisuAide and after June 1, Aroga will be solely responsible for all product sales, information, technical support and repair in Quebec.
HumanWare, the new business issued from the recent merger of VisuAide and Pulse Data International, made a number of announcements, during and just after the CSUN conference. The company's new compact DAISY player, Victor Reader Wave and its integrated Trekker GPS orientation product/Maestro accessible PDA were both launched at CSUN. Immediately after the conference, HumanWare announced that it has been contracted by the Federal Technology Service of the (US) General Services Administration on behalf of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped as a member of a consortium led by Battelle and including the National Federation of the Blind and the Trace Center to design and develop their next generation of digital talking book players. The new players will be flash-based and a complete book will fit on a single flash memory card. Last but not least, the company also announced that Version 3.0 of the Victor Reader firmware is now available for the Pro and original Classic model 100/101. To find out more about these products, visit the Visuaide website at (www.visuaide.com) .
In April, ErgoCanada (www.ergocanada.com) added several new products to its line of ergonomic office products. The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based company is the exclusive North American distributor of the ErgoClick, a new mouse accessory that enables you to use your left palm to click, double click and right click and your right palm to move the cursor on your current mouse, while keeping both hands completely relaxed. The other recent addition to the company's catalogue is the Savant Elite Foot Switch series of stand-alone programmable foot switches from Kinesis. These switches provide the user with foot-controlled mouse clicks, keyboard action, macro or combination keystrokes. To find out more about these and the rest of ErgoCanada's products, contact them at: P.O. Box 9022, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7K 7E7, tel: 306-222-3203, fax: 306-382-4995, toll-free: 1-866-335-3746 (ERGO) or email ErgoCanada at: sales@ergocanada.com .
Catherine Smart has been elected as the new Chair of the Canadian Standards Association's B651 Barrier Free Design Committee. Ms. Smart has extensive experience in establishing and implementing programs designed to assist people with disabilities in participating in the recreational and cultural life of their communities, first with the Ontario March of Dimes, then with Tourism Toronto — Convention and Visitor's Association and most recently in her own consultancy, Smart Move Training and Development Inc. Catherine replaces Betty Dion, who shepherded the B651 standard through two upgrades and a change from its old title, "Barrier Free Design" to "Accessible Design for the Built Environment". During Ms. Dion's distinguished tenure as Chair of the B651 committee, two sub-committees were established to develop related standards: the B651.1, "Barrier Free Design for Automated Banking Machines" standard, which was released in 2001 and will be updated in 2006; and B651.2, "Accessible Design for Self-Service Interactive Devices", which is currently still in draft form and expected to be released later this year.
On April 6, Jacques Paquin was appointed General Manager of Galbraith Communications (GC — www.galbraithcommunications.com). Mr. Paquin, formerly in charge of GC's web conferencing projects, will now oversee all day-to-day operations including project management, human resources and promotions. His primary objective will be to ensure maximum efficiency, productivity and profitability of the company. Prior to coming to Galbraith Communications, Jacques was in charge of attracting major corporations to the Gaspé Region of Quebec. He will take over daily office operations from Cory Galbraith who will now focus on business development and strategic planning on behalf of GC and its major clients.
North Vancouver-based Vision Office (www.visionoffice.com) will present the second of three workshops on web accessibility and usability in the Philippines, May 24-26. Entitled "Empowering Persons with Disabilities through ICT", the workshops target webmasters of the Philippines government and NGO websites. They are organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (NCWDP), in cooperation with the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT). Leo Valdes, Managing Director of Vision Office, is the main resource person and presenter of the workshop series. The Commission on ICT aims to make the Philippines the first country where websites in all levels of government are accessible to persons with disabilities. The workshop series will help webmasters understand current legislation and initiatives related to persons with disabilities. In addition to website development, some specific technologies are discussed. For example, the usage of text messaging in the Philippines is reported to be the highest in the world. The third workshop is scheduled to take place in October.
In Ottawa, a group of Human Computer Interaction specialists from academia, industry and government have come together in response to an initiative by the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) to orchestrate a World Usability Day this November 3. The objective of the day is to raise awareness of usability matters globally. Many countries are taking part in a series of events aiming to do exactly that. The Ottawa group is in the early stages of brainstorming and planning activities for the day as well as for the week leading up to the World Usability Day. Among the possibilities being pursued is a possible trade show with ongoing talks, seminars, tutorials, perhaps a poster or a UI design contest, possibly a student "interactionary" competition, and the like. Although the emphasis is on usability, this event is also seen as an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how accessibility and usability really go so closely hand in hand that it is unsafe to ignore one or the other when planning, designing, developing, or evaluating interactive technology intended for use by people, any people anywhere any time. For more information please contact Gitte Lindgaard by email: gitte_lindgaard@carleton.ca .

Contents.

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.

Contents.