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Social Media and Accessible Technology

This summer, I participated in “CPD 23 Things,” an online continuing education opportunity sponsored in part by the Nebraska Library Commission. Participants (librarians) experimented with a variety of social media tools (e.g., Prezi, Pushnote, Google Docs, Evernote, citeulike and many more). We were to experiment with items discussed in one or more posts (“Things”) each week and blog about them. In addition, some weekly assignments asked us to think about our personal “brand,” library advocacy, and other elements of professional development.

So Much to Think About

The experience was almost overwhelming in that there were so many things to explore and often times we were comparing similar tools, (e.g., Google Docs and Dropbox). At the same time we were also asked to think about whether we would or could make meaningful professional or personal use of  any of the tools we were experimenting with.

Like many who participated, I tried some tools that I knew immediately that I would have no use for. There were other tools  that I need to think about and experiment with some more; there were a few tools  that I was already using or that I embraced and am using now.

The “23 Things”program was a positive experience and I’ve continued to read about and explore new tools and resources. Truthfully, it is daunting to not only try to remain aware of emerging technologies but also to sift out the gems from the dross and chaff.

Complexity Increases

Assistive technology or equipment adds its own layer of complexity to our computer dependent society. Being savvy about assistive technology and equipment can also be a formidable task. Sometimes identifying and acquiring the proper technology or equipment is not the only challenge. User-friendliness, learning curve, and price add to the issues that must be considered. In terms of computer software or equipment, issues of compatibility with existing hardware or software, and license requirements are additional considerations.

We indeed live in exciting, if dizzying  times. Some adaptive technology and/or software has gone “mainstream” now and is marketed to a broader audience (Dragon Dictate comes to mind). With the advent of “smart” phones (and similar “smart” technology), more and more apps are being developed that open up the world for individuals with disabilities. This is good!

Smart Technology Changing Lives

A recent article from Mashable Tech, 4 Ways iPads Are Changing the Lives of People With Disabilities is only one of several articles I’ve skimmed recently that talk about how IPads, and other “smart” tools are enhancing the lives of people with disabilities. An April 2011 post from the Blind Blogger entitled, Creating a Mobility App for Blind People, talks about a mobility app for the Android phone. Thomsen Young
compiled a handy list of the top 10 “most useful” iPhone apps for deaf and hard of hearing consumers.”

Educational apps are also beginning to proliferate and at our recent conference, WinAhead members were fortunate to have an informative presentation by Lenette Sprunk of ESU 3 about a number of useful apps and technology such as the LiveScribe smart pen (I want one!). The image below shows the apps Lenette shared with attendees.

It’s exciting to see how smart phones and similar technology are tools usable by everyone including individuals with disabilities. The pace of technological development is dizzying but exciting. Learning how to remain technologically savvy and aware is a significant challenge we all face but it is worth it.

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October is Depression Awareness Month

My last post noted that October was “Disability Awareness Month” and “National Disability Employment Awareness Month.” What I wasn’t aware of at the time is that October is also “Depression Awareness Month.”

The goal of this observance is to focus attention on the symptoms of this mood disorder, its reach and resources that are available to help. The idea is to increase understanding of depression to create a more accepting attitude about it from the public.

A Few Statistics

The statistics about the impact of depression are sobering: According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), 36,035 suicide deaths were reported in the United States in 2008. The rate of suicide has increased since 2000. Nationally, the suicide rate increased 2.6 percent over 2007 to equal 11.8 suicides per 100,000 people. This latest rise places suicide again among the ten leading causes of death in the US for the first time since 1998. This is the highest rate of suicide in fifteen years.

Other facts and figures noted by the AFSP include:

  • Every 14.6 minutes someone in the United States dies by suicide.
  • Nearly 1,000,000 people make a suicide attempt every year.
  • 90% of people who die by suicide have a diagnosable and treatable psychiatric disorder at the time of their death.
  • Most people with mental illness do not die by suicide.
  • Recent data puts yearly medical costs for suicide at nearly $100,000,000.00 (2005)
  • Men are nearly 4 times more likely to die by suicide than women.
  • Women attempt suicide 3 times as often as men.
  • Suicide rates are highest for people between the ages of 40 and 59.
  • White individuals are most likely to commit suicide, followed by Native Americans.

Stigma Remains

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among those 18-25 and only 44 percent seek treatment. The tragedy is that depression is very treatable. For those with severe depression, a combination of therapy and medication is generally effective. Yet people continue to experience depression in silence; in the workplace, many people endure depressive symptoms, afraid their supervisors will find out. With high unemployment rates throughout the U.S., people worry about being passed-over for promotions, considered a liability or getting laid-off.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) states that approximately 18 million people suffer from depression in America alone. Depression does not discriminate across age, race, gender, or class. Among teenagers it is estimated that 20 percent will suffer from depression at some point by the time they reach adulthood. There are also as many as 8.3 percent of teens suffering from depression for at least a year at a time, compared to 5.3 percent of the general population.

More Reasons to Help

Each year in the U.S., there are eleven deaths by suicide for every 100,000 people. The risk is higher for those over 65. Among seniors, the suicide rate is fifteen deaths per 100,000. Many seniors experiencing depression go undiagnosed and untreated because symptoms are too easily dismissed as those of old age. Families and health care professionals need more awareness about depression among the elderly. It affects all of us; eventually.

Support Veterans and Military Personnel

Increasing awareness, about depression is also a way to support Veterans and military members. A 2008 survey found that 10 percent of U.S. Veterans aged 21-29, had one or more episodes of this mood disorder the previous year. Our service men and women deserve disgrace-free, easy to access treatment for depressive symptoms.

A 2003 report prepared by NIH, predicts that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of disability world-wide. Stripping depression of its stigma is critical. To see how much you know about depression, take this quiz from WebMD. To learn more visit Myths and Facts About Depression.

What I Take for Granted: Invisible Privileges

Not long ago I discovered an essay I’d written a few years ago. As October is not only Disability Awareness Month but also National Disability Employment Awareness Month, I thought I’d share part of that essay.

The ADA turned 20 in 2010, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1 in 5 Americans has a disability. With this level of frequency, surely we should be accustomed to disability as part of our mainstream culture but disability is often still seen as something different, and not as the experience of a large and growing minority of Americans. Sometimes this is simply because some disabilities are not visible to the naked eye.

Truth is, the invisibility of disabilities can stem from more insidious reasons: We fail to see people with disabilities as part of the mainstream because they are excluded, either unconsciously or occasionally deliberately. Unfortunately, those of us without disabilities rarely have opportunity to experience being invisible. Nor do we realize what societal privileges we have because we don’t experience disability.

The word “privilege” describes a complex societal phenomenon derived from our interactions with one another. Privilege is always in relation to others; frequently it denotes hierarchy. Privilege often bestows, or is an expression of power. When understood as a privilege, much of our daily experience really is not so ordinary after all. Each day, the majority of us do experience a collection of unacknowledged privileges thanks to our inborn genetics and good health — and because we are able to avoid crippling accident or injury.

What we are fortunate enough to experience can be described as “non-disabled privilege.” Seldom do we take time to acknowledge that over the course of our sociopolitical history, our laws and social policies have fostered a differentiated “system” of rights and privileges that is contingent on the presence or absence of disability. Take a look at the list below and think about which of the listed things you take for granted in your daily life.

Non-Disabled Privilege

Economic

  1. I can spend my money without having to get someone else’s legal approval.
  2. I don’t have to risk losing my benefits if I have too much money
  3. Businesses don’t refuse to let me shop in their establishment.
  4. Whether I use checks, cash, or credit cards, my visible disability will not work against the appearance of financial stability.
  5. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without co-workers suspect or think I got the job because I have a disability.
  6. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed, or harassed with very personal, or nosy questions.

Education & Employment

  1. My career and employment choices are not questioned.
  2. People don’t question my academic ability when I want to go to college or technical school.
  3. I don’t have to register with the DSS office and get special services so I can try to do my best in school.
  4. Nobody requests medical information or does a least costly and a minimal compliance analysis before working with me to determine educational or employment accommodations.

Civic/Religious Participation

  1. I can access polling places and voting equipment and exercise my right to vote.
  2. I can cast my vote in secret without asking others to fill in the ballot for me.
  3. I can go to church (transportation and building access are available).
  4. I can aspire to positions of leadership and have opportunities to serve in leadership positions.
  5. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, not isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.

Social/Interpersonal Relationships

  1. I don’t have to call ahead to make sure a restaurant; theater or other public facility is wheelchair accessible.
  2. I am presumed to be intelligent, capable, and able.
  3. I don’t have people talk to me as though I were a small child
  4. Waitresses talk to me, *(not to my dinner companions about me) and my meal and beverage choices,
  5. Others don’t get upset or panic if I have a date, boy(girl)friend.
  6. No one questions my competence or sanity.
  7. Nobody tells me I shouldn’t get married.
  8. People don’t patronize me.
  9. People ordinarily don’t stare at me.
  10. I don’t find myself only in the company of other disabled people; I have friends who don’t have disabilities and they know me well enough not to treat me as different.
  11. I am welcomed and wanted at family gatherings and events.

Transportation

  1. Buses don’t pass me by.
  2. I don’t have to use paratransit services
  3. I have the choice to drive (or not)
  4. My freedom to come and go is not restricted by whether there is an accessible vehicle available.
  5. My freedom to come and go is not limited to the days and hours the transit service operates.

Insurance & Medical Care

  1. I don’t have riders attached to my insurance policy
  2. I can get insurance including major medical, life, and dental.
  3. I don’t have Medicare/Medicaid as my primary insurance.
  4. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, I will receive it in a timely manner.
  5. My health needs will be fully evaluated and not assumed as “merely” because of my disability.

Decision Making

  1. I can make choices and decisions in my life without having to discuss them with a group of people.
  2. I don’t have to have a payee, conservator or guardian
  3. Others don’t tell me that: “They know what’s best for me.”
  4. Others don’t make decisions for and about me.
  5. Other people don’t worry about whether I have an alcoholic drink (medication interaction).

Privacy

  1. I’m not a client of a human services agency and the subject of discussion during staff meetings.
  2. I don’t have strangers ask me if I can go to the bathroom by myself.
  3. I don’t have strangers ask me if I need help eating/feeding myself.
  4. I don’t have people telling me I’m brave, courageous and/or an inspiration.
  5. I don’t have others thinking it is a major catastrophe if I stumble or fall; they realize it is an accident.
  6. I don’t have strangers comment on my gait, appearance, stature or speech.
  7. I don’t have strangers, family members or caregivers talk about me as though I were deaf, or not in the same room.
  8. I can have privacy – I don’t have caregivers, service providers etc. in and out of my home.

Housing & Facility Access

  1. I don’t have to drive my wheelchair in the street if there are no sidewalks, or curb cuts.
  2. I don’t have to wonder if my guide dog or service animal will be welcomed.
  3. I can go to a movie (or other public event) and know there will be a bathroom I can use.
  4. I don’t need to have my home modified or remodeled so I can move about easily or be able to enter/exit it
  5. I don’t live with the fear that I may end up in a group home or nursing home if my care becomes too expensive or funding dries up.
  6. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure I will be able to rent or purchase housing in an area I can afford AND will want to live in.
    1. Wherever I chose to live, I don’t have to FIRST make sure that:
    2. It is on a Transit line
    3. It is on first floor
    4. It is handicapped accessible
    5. The handicapped accessible features are actually suitable for me and my needs;
    6. It is close to shopping, work and church
    7. The leasing company will accept Housing/Section 8 vouchers
    8. The leasing company won’t object to my service animal
  7. I can be reasonably sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
  8. I can go to a shopping mall and I am able to maneuver through the narrow isles in the shops and get in and out of the dressing rooms.
  9. Family members make sure I can actually enter their homes (accessibility issues).
  1. I don’t have to wear braces, wear special shoes, or other use other types of adaptive devices
  2. I don’t need to have adaptive equipment or tools to be able to do basic tasks.
  3. “Off the rack” clothing fits me reasonably well; I don’t need to have specially made clothing or wear clothing not appropriate for my age or sense of fashion.

Media/Public Image

  1. I can turn on the television, open the newspaper or look at other print publications and see people with disabilities widely represented.
  2. I don’t risk being a poster child for someone’s charity (pity) drive.
  3. Others don’t generally claim to represent my views. (It is common for persons without disabilities to be spokespersons for disability projects–even projects that endorse self-determination.)
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