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CTIA, Verizon Wireless and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski have lauded President Barack Obama’s passing of a bill that requires smartphones and other consumer
electronics be accessible to people with vision or hearing loss.

The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act includes a mandate that the web browsers, text messaging, and e-mail on smartphones be fully
accessible to people with vision or hearing loss and ensures that Internet-capable cell phones are compatible with hearing aids.

Not even an adorable puppy could distract West Perth council from the "stick" behind the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

Shelby Wilson, accessibility coordinator for Perth County, combined training a service dog with seeking input from council on proposed AODA regulations
at council's Sept. 27 meeting.

And while the puppy may have warmed hearts, the proposed rules, including hefty fines for individuals and organizations, extra costs and extra requirements,
raised tempers.

WASHINGTON – The House last night gave final approval to legislation that significantly expands access for the blind and deaf to technology such as the
internet, smart phones, and video.

“Whether it’s a Braille reader or a broadband connection, access to technology is not a political issue - it’s a participation issue,” said Representative
Ed Markey, a Malden Democrat and author of the legislation. “Two decades ago, Americans with disabilities couldn’t get around if buildings weren’t wheelchair
accessible; today it’s about being Web accessible.”

The measure, which was previously approved by the Senate, is expected to be signed into law next week by President Obama.

The US government is suing Post Properties (PPS: 28.68 ,0.00 ,0.00%) for allegedly failing to provide accessible features required by federal law at some multifamily housing developments in six states.

The US Justice Department said Post Properties constructed and developed at least 19 multifamily apartment complexes in Georgia, Texas, Florida, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia without accessible routes leading into and through buildings.

Stevie Wonder has recently explained to the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization that its current copyright system denies equal opportunities
for the blind.  He urged delegates to adopt an action plan that would allow the blind and near-blind to side-step copyright rules and give them easier
access to books and learning.  His stance was endorsed by the World Blind Union, which said that in developing countries less than one percent of published
works are available in Braille or audio format.  The number is not much better in industrial nations, to which WBU gave an estimation of five percent.
Wonder stated that reformatting these published works could give the blind and visually impaired access to billions of science, history, and other books
that they currently cannot read.

Donna Jodhan, who is blind, is taking the federal government to court because government websites are not accessible to blind and partially-sighted Internet
users.

Donna Jodhan was one of the first blind people in Canada to earn an MBA, in 1981, and one of the first in the world to obtain technical certifications from
software companies Microsoft and Novell.

So the Toronto accessibility consultant was shocked in 2004 when she had trouble applying for a position posted on the federal government’s jobs website.

A newly formed political fund-raising group supporting disability-friendly candidates is taking aim at Rand Paul, a Senate candidate from Kentucky who publicly
questioned the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Disability Power & Pride Political Action Committee, or PAC, is planning an event later this month to raise cash for Paul’s opponent, Jack Conway, a
Democrat.

The Lauriston Hotel must have some of the best sea views of any hotel in Weston-super-Mare – with the redeveloped Grand Pier just a stone's throw away and
the rolling waves of the Bristol Channel glistening all the way to Steep Holm.

The true grandeur of the view has become something of a recurring joke between the staff and the residents at the elegant Victorian hotel – because for
the past 50 years, this remarkable place has been a hotel for the blind.

Talk of inclusiveness and equal access for all is everywhere -- but that doesn't mean reality has caught up to rhetoric. As a Calgarian with a disability,
I constantly run up against barriers that turn routine activities into onerous challenges.

Improving accessibility for Calgary citizens has never been as high a priority for civic leaders as it should be, as Sharon Foo, a Calgary freelance writer
with a disability, noted in last Monday's Herald. I'd like to respond to the challenge she issued by setting out how, as Mayor of Calgary, I will confront
what is clearly a very personal issue.

The Kindle is an electronic book reading device produced by Amazon that provides access to hundreds of thousands of in-copyright books and well over a million
more that are either out of print or in the public domain. In other words, it’s pretty safe to say that if it’s not available on the Kindle it’s not available
in e-book format.

The question we must ask is, “how effectively does the new Kindle 3 make the books in this vast library accessible to blind readers”?