Hello everyone... This is one intriguing site on the
issue of accessibility that may be of interest.  Notice
the emphasis on BASIC NEEDS of the disabled v.
TECHNOLOGY:

Rudy

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GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY: DISABIITY AND THE NEW MILLENIUM

Remarks of the People-to-People Committee on Disability
Chairman, Dr. David Waugh, on the occasion of the
celebration of the International Day of Disabled
Persons, December 1, 1999

The theme set by the United Nations Secretary General
for this year's International Day of Disabled Persons is
quite simply, Accessibility. He goes on to say that
accessibility can mean an education, a job and a
community that would otherwise be denied - that eighty
percent of the world's disabled population lives in
developing countries, that most have never used a phone.
Thus meeting basic needs is the first reality. I think
we must concede that for the many, today's reality is
about meeting basic needs, and for them it is all the
reality there is.

Nevertheless, there is another reality that is both here
and making great progress. It is the reality of
technology. Technology marches on at an accelerating
pace. What the human mind can conceive, it can believe
and can thereby achieve. It is in this context that I
speak today about the new era - and in this year- about
the new Millenium.

Some many years ago there was a television serial known
as the "Six Million Dollar Man." The central character
was referred to as the bionic man and had, on
installation of a number of manufactured replacement
parts, many super-human capacities. He was joined later
in the series by a bionic woman. The theme has been
repeated many times since, most recently in the Robocop
movies. But in the era of the six million dollar man,
computers, with computing capacity in the range of
today's low-end laptops, also cost about six million
dollars.

Friends, the prices have fallen. And in the United
States of America today, where our focus lies,
excellent, serviceable computers are everyday discarded
as if they were a dress or slacks that have been worn
only a few times and now are out of fashion. Their newer
replacement computers are often many times more
powerful, faster, and reliable, and usually cheaper. It
is a fact that some computer full-service access
companies are providing their customers free computers
as an inducement to use their service. At the Enterprise
Forum, an event held less than a month ago at the Geneva
headquarters of the International Labor Organization,
Mr. Charles Handy, world-renowned futurist, said that in
the world not far ahead, early in the next century,
telephones, computers, and access to them will be free
to people everywhere. As we have seen in the United
States, that thought is daily gaining relevance.

But, beyond communications, while vitally important,
lies a vast and growing industry- the industry of
assistive technologies, many of which are computer
assisted. These technologies are improving the quality
of life for many millions of Americans and in a great
many instances, prolonging life that would have been
lost without it. Moreover, it is not only in the
physical assistive technologies that great progress has
been made, the enormous progress in genetics, about to
get a super-charged boost as the human genome project
comes to an end, will make possible prospects for a
brighter future for tens and hundreds of millions of
people, both the already born and the yet unborn.

The possibility of conquering much disease and
disability is no longer in the realm of wishful
thinking. It makes one ask and wonder: What will life be
like in the millennium after this one, 1000 years later?
My surmise is that it is beyond our wildest speculation,
and that even if only the present pace of progress would
be maintained.

Celebrating with us today, and in some instances honored
by us today, are people who are daily and directly
concerned with the advance of technology as it applies
specifically to disease and disability. They represent
the ideal of access, a striving for it as they invent
and put into place an unending stream of technologies
designed to improve life prospects for all people.

There are many heroes leading up to, and presently
engaged in, today's revolution in science and
technology, not all have been physical and technical
scientists. As in all great endeavors, there were those
who came before and created an enabling environment. I
want to close today by reflecting on two men who led the
People-to-People Committee on Disability from its
earliest days. Both died only a few weeks ago, David L.
Brigham on September 7 and Bill McCahill on October 2.
Following President Eisenhower's 1954 proclamation
establishing the People-to-People Committees, our
departed colleague, Colonel William P. McCahill, signed
the original charter of the Committee on Disability. He
and David were key movers of disability issues for their
entire lifetimes of 80 plus years and of the People to
People Committee on disability for 45 of them. They were
active participants in honoring this special day since
it was set aside some several years ago, and, indeed,
were part of the group of activists who arranged and
helped put on this event only last year. We will miss
them.

You will hear it many times in the next few days, but,
since it is December with one month to go, and as I have
been reflecting on technology, disability and the new
Millennium, let me say on this first of a 31-day
countdown, "welcome to the new Millennium."

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