Assistive Devices Industry Office (ADIO) June 2001
ACCESSIBLE NEWS No 11
WHAT'S NEW AROUND OUR SHOP
Since the last issue of Accessible News, Industry Canada, including the
Assistive Devices Industry Office (ADIO) has been very busy. In January,
our Minister, the Honourable Brian Tobin was confirmed when the new
session of Parliament was convened. Minister Tobin, like his predecessor,
the Honourable John Manley, is an enthusiastic champion of assistive
technology and disability issues.
The Speech From the Throne, which opened the Parliamentary session,
included the Government's commitment to invest in new and innovative
technology, including assistive technology for people with disabilities. This
commitment was also stated in the Prime Minister's response to the Throne
Speech. What this means for ADIO is that we have been working very hard
on the development of a proposal for an expanded program to support the
assistive technology industry. We will update you on this, in our next
newsletter.
NATIONAL LIBRARIAN LAUNCHES COUNCIL FOR ACCESS
The National Librarian, Roch Carrier, announced the launch of the Council
for Access to Information for Print-Disabled Canadians at an event on
Parliament Hill, February 22. The Council was established as a follow-up to
last summer's series of public consultations conducted by the Task Force on
Access to Information for Print Disabled Canadians and the October release
of its final report, "Fulfilling the Promise".
In his remarks to those gathered to witness the launch of the Council, Mr.
Carrier said, "progress will be made in providing access if individuals from
the public, private and not-for-profit sectors work together. This is an issue
of concern to all media -- print, television and radio -- and to all Canadians.
The Council has 11 members from across Canada. The purposes of the
Council are to provide advice, identify funding requirements, monitor
progress and make recommendations to the National Librarian regarding the implementation of "Fulfilling the Promise". The group will also identify and
recommend to the National Librarian opportunities for the Council to
connect, inform and facilitate the work of the federal government in the
advancement of the Federal Disability Agenda.
The Council's first meeting was on February 23-4. At that time, the group
reviewed the recommendations set out in "Fulfilling the Promise" and have
them into four groups: those which can be implemented now, those for
which work can begin in the short term, those which can be the focus of
presentation and discussion at the next meeting and those which require
more discussion, consultation and study.
The second meeting was in May. The Council reviewed its workplan, which
is on the Web site and set a number of processes in place for the summer.
The next meeting will be in the late fall.
It is intended that the Council will continue in existence for several years,
with its Terms of Reference being reviewed on a regular basis to ensure
their ongoing relevance. Meetings will be open to others, as appropriate and
all official documents will of course be available in both official languages
and in the format of the Council members' choice, be it traditional print or
alternate format.
More information on the Council can be found on its Web site at www.nlc-bnc.ca/access .
FIRST COURSE IN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
AND DISABILITY
by Nancy Marlett, University of Calgary
We live in a globalizing economy. One manifestation of this complex
process is the restructuring of the welfare state through a combination of
cutbacks to public service/supports and privatization. As this entrepreneurial
culture takes hold, individuals are increasingly expected to create their own
solutions to what have previously been viewed as problems of the larger
social body. Nowhere is this impact more pronounced than in the area of
work/paid labour. Here, governments of all stripes are addressing problems of unemployment through policies and programs that foster self-employment
and small business development.
Because of their varied needs and limited (capital) resources, some disabled
people and their allies question the viability of these strategies. They argue
instead for sustained processes of community economic development. There
are few formal models or best practices related to disability. The Community
Rehabilitation and Disability studies program at the University of Calgary
has secured innovations funding to enable Dr. Kathryn Church to connect
knowledge and practice from disability studies, community development and
economic development. This summer, twenty students from University of
Calgary, University of Toronto and Concordia University, will meet on-line
and in person with experts in consumer led small businesses that are using
Community Economic Development (CED) practices to create/extend
intellectual and practical resources for people with disabilities by training
practitioners to use CED as a strategy to extend autonomy, build community
and enhance democratic participation in work and employment.
It is anticipated that content will be available on line and an annual
collaborative course will be offered by participating universities. The
ongoing course will create project teams made up of students from different
perspectives and consumer communities wishing to start new businesses
based on CED practices. For more information contact Nancy Marlett, 403-220-5657, marlett.ucalgary.ca or www.crds.org.
FEDERAL/PROVINCIAL/TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENTS LAUNCH
FIRST "ONE-STOP" INTERNET SITE FOR PERSONS WITH
DISABILITIES
For the first time, persons with disabilities across Canada have a dedicated
Internet site, Disability WebLinks (www.disabilityweblinks.ca), that will
provide them with quick access to information on government-related
disability programs and services. Disability WebLinks was announced on
April 25 by the Honourable Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources
Development Canada (HRDC) and the Honourable Harry Van Mulligen,
Minister of Saskatchewan Social Services on behalf of
Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services.
Developed in consultation with persons with disabilities and service
providers, the site contains information on disability related programs,
services and initiatives, as well as key contacts. Information on the site is
categorized under key topics such as: accessibility, education, employment,
health, financial and personal support, housing and residential services, tax
programs, and transportation. Staff at all levels of government and others
who serve persons with disabilities and have access to the Internet will also
be able to use the site as a quick, convenient, supplementary information
resource to assist their clients.
"I am very pleased that all governments across Canada are participating in
this initiative," said Minister Stewart. "Disability WebLinks is a collaborative
and practical tool that helps ensure persons with disabilities and other
Canadians have access to an easy-to-use Internet resource that gives them
quick and up-to-date information on disability related programs and
services."
HRDC is managing the site under the direction of the
Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services. The
site has been specifically developed for persons with disabilities and the site
design, layout and technical features reflect the requirements identified by
members of the community and internationally accepted guidelines for
accessibility.
"The Internet is a growing communication and information tool that more
and more Canadians are using," said Minister Van Mulligen. "It is important
that governments and other information providers ensure the needs of
persons with disabilities are reflected when making information available on
the Internet. Disability WebLinks is a very good site and I hope others will
follow this example."
To ensure Disability WebLinks remains relevant for persons with disabilities,
comments submitted on the site and other feedback mechanisms will be used
as part of an ongoing evaluation process.
INCLUSION BY DESIGN - PLANNING THE BARRIER-FREE
WORLD
The Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work (CCRW) hosted an
international event, "Inclusion by Design - Planning the Barrier-Free World"
at Montreal's Palais des Congrİs from June 1-5, 2001. The congress
highlighted the benefits of a barrier-free and inclusive world for all people
regardless of diversity, age, ability or disability.
Inclusion by Design had three major themes: Inclusive Employment,
Inclusive Communities and Developing Universal Access. In addition to
plenary sessions each day, there was also a series of workshop presentations,
given by a wide range of speakers from all points on the globe and ADIO
was among the exhibitors, showing off our Accessible Procurement Toolkit.
About 20% of the 500 people who attended the conference came from
outside of Canada and the US and included delegates from such places as
Australia, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Finland, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Nepal,
Singapore and Sweden, to name a few.
The conference produced a declaration on Universal Design, which was
tabled in Parliament by Carolyn Bennett, Chair of the House Sub-committee
on Disability Issues.
For more information about Inclusion by Design, visit the CCRW Web site
at www.ccrw.org.
COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS WRAPS UP WORK ON IMPACT OF
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the impact of new
technologies on the quality of life of persons with disabilities completed its
terms of reference at a meeting in Strasbourg, France, March 26-28. The
Committee has developed a set of recommendations that will be forwarded
to its parent group, the Committee on the Rehabilitation and Integration of
People with Disabilities when it meets in The Hague at the end of June.
A number of important events are taking place or have recently taken place
in several of the Council's member states. The Committee of Ministers have
agreed to adopt the principles of Universal Design into their countries'
curricula in areas that include engineering, architecture and design. Portugal has recently mandated the use of Priority One of the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines for government Web sites and has instituted Web
design training to make this happen and a number of other countries are also
in the process of adopting the Guidelines. The Council's E-Europe Plan
includes the concept of E-participation to increase access to electronic
information and services by people with disabilities and older adults and an
E-accessibility group has been formed to further these goals.
CSUN ROUND-UP
Canada, once again, was very well represented at CSUN, both on the show
floor and with presentations.
Victor(TM) the DAISY digital talking book player, developed and marketed
by Montreal-based company, Visuaide, competed head to head with the only
other talking book system, Plextalk, which is the product of a Japanese
company, Plextor. The two products were tested on a number of criteria,
including ease of use, speed, accuracy, ruggedness etc. and Victor(TM) was
the winner, on all points. DAISY is the new international digital talking
book standard which links natural speech and a text stream. Victor(TM)
provides print-disabled persons (blind, low vision and learning disabled) with
fast and easy navigation of talking books recorded on CD-ROM. Users can
jump straight to a specific section or passage, skip pages, consult the table of
contents and insert bookmarks. Industry Canada was involved in a very early
contract in the development of Victor(TM).
The VisAble Video Telescope(TM) was introduced at CSUN and created
quite a buzz. It is a hand-held portable video vision aid developed by
Betacom Corporation of Mississauga, Ontario, in conjunction with the Centre
for Sight Enhancement (University of Waterloo), the Ontario Rehabilitation
Technology Consortium and the Wilmer Eye Institute (Johns Hopkins
University). Due for release in Canada and the United States this spring and
in Europe later this year, the VisAble Video Telescope(TM) provides
partially sighted users with the high magnification, wide field of view and
contrast enhancement normally associated with video reading stations
(CCTVs). This means visually impaired people will be able to use video for
more than just reading. It will allow them to scan an intersection, spot a correct bus, recognize a friend, examine a cash register receipt, find a
dropped object on the floor or a product on a store shelf, read a menu in a
dim restaurant or perform other routine sight-related tasks that would
otherwise difficult or impossible to accomplish independently. Industry
Canada assisted in the development of a very early prototype of this product.
Presentations can be found on the CSUN Web site at www.csun.edu/cod.
ANNOUNCING ATLAS AND GPS-TALK FOR CANADA
Sendero Group, a Davis, California company is now taking take orders for
the long awaited Canadian version of its talking map and GPS system, Atlas
and GPS-Talk. The early development of this product, originally called Atlas
Speaks, was in part carried out by Visuaide with some support from Industry
Canada. The current Atlas and GPS-Talk products were developed with
input from blind and visually impaired Canadians and with the cooperation
of Statistics Canada, GDT Corporation and the CNIB. The result is the first
accessible location information product for blind and visually impaired
people in Canada, Atlas and GPS-Talk.
Special introductory prices are available on-line from Sendero for a limited
time only. For more information or to purchase Atlas and GPS-Talk go to
www.SenderoGroup.com/Canada.htm. You may also call toll free within
Canada, 866-757-6800.
NEWS BITS
The Accessible Procurement Toolkits were demonstrated at the Government
on the Net conference in Hull, Quebec, April 23-4. Audience reaction to the
Toolkits has been very favourable and several federal departments around
Ottawa are already making use of the databases' requirement statements,
including them in their procurement contracts to ensure the technology and
services they buy will be accessible to employees with disabilities.
This spring, Betty Dion Enterprises released its final report on a study the
company conducted on Accessible Dispensing Machines. This study was commissioned by Transport Canada's Transportation Development Centre
and the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Issues such as problems in
using electronic check-in kiosks at airports, automated parking lot attendants,
carwash and gas pump automated payment systems were identified. The
report's findings will be of assistance in the preparation of a draft Canadian
Standards Association (CSA) standard. The CSA is expected to establish a
Barrier-Free Design sub-committee to develop this standard and ADIO's
Deb. Finn will chair that sub-committee.
Ottawa-based company, ADAPTIF has completed an overview study of the
Canadian assistive technology industry for the ADIO. The report identifies
some of the industry leaders, key success factors and the strengths and
weaknesses of the Canadian AT industry. The findings of this report will be
instrumental in the development of a comprehensive picture of the industry
and help Industry Canada determine strategies for its further growth and
penetration of world markets.
ADIO has been researching companies that manufacture and sell
orthotics/prosthetics. This sector of the Assistive Devices Industry is quite
large with 1,301 companies. The breakdown by province is: 143 companies
in British Columbia, 51 companies in Alberta, 11 in Saskatchewan, 25 in
Manitoba, 539 in Ontario, 450 in Quebec, 36 in New Brunswick, 20 in Nova
Scotia, 19 in Newfoundland, 6 in Prince Edward Island, and 1 company
serving the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut. ADIO has
assembled a list of these companies and a list of Canadian Orthopaedic Shoe
Manufacturers. Please contact us if you would like a copy in electronic
format.
The Winnipeg office of HRDC is the lead on the Government-on-line
Disability Cluster which was successful in getting funds in the lasted round
of GOL funding. ADIO is one of the partners in this initiative. For more
information, contact Ian Cumming 204-983-1755 e-mail:
[log in to unmask]
FPS-JAN had its latest partner day on June 11. There were presentations on
environmental sensitivities, the CTA Airport/Flying Accessibility Survey, the
Accessible Procurement Toolkits, the government response to the Lyrette
Task Force and the CIDA and HRDC Act Centres. For more information, contact Noreen Leblanc.
The CSA (www.csa-international.org) released a new standard, B651.1-01
Barrier-free Design for Automated Banking Machines this spring, making
Canada the first country to develop and adopt such a standard. Deb. Finn
was a member of the sub-committee responsible for the development of this
ground-breaking document.
The report of the House of Commons Sub-committee on Disability. "A
Common Vision: Interim Report", was tabled in the House on June 12. One
of its recommendations is to increase support to the AT industry. The report
can be found at:
www.parl.gc.ca/InfoCom/CommitteeReport.asp?Language=E&Parliament=8&Joint=0&CommitteeID=149
The Information Highway Applications Branch (IHAB), home of CAP,
Schoolnet, Volnet and 11 other programmes has a new Director General. He
is David Fransen who was last at Health Canada in the Population Health
Directorate. Web-4-All, one of the IHAB projects has just been awarded
funding for pilots through the Government On line initiative.
For those of you who use Canadian Company Capabilities (CCC), there are
two new tags to sort disability related capabilities. They are Multiple Format
Producers and Accessible Web Consultants. If there are other breakdowns
that would be useful, contact us. You can get to CCC through our Web site:
strategis.ic.gc.ca/adio.
ADIO is working on the development of the Manager's Guide to Multiple
Format Publishing. You can find more information on this project and make
comments by going to: www.galbraithcom.com/guidebook.
PALS, the Participation and Activity Limitations Survey which is the
postcensal survey on disability , will be in the field in the early fall. If you
are contacted, we urge you to participate. We need better statistics on which
to base our planning. If you want more information on the PALS, contact
Ren*e Langlois
Survey Manager
Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS)
Statistics Canada
1 B-18 Jean Talon Bldg.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0T6
Tel: 613-951-0878
Fax: 613-951-4378
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
OUR WEB SITE
Our Web site can be found at strategis.ic.g.ca/adio . 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
Internet: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Aussi disponible en français.
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