Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
Volume 5, Number 2, 2000
Smarter Dissemination: A Word from the Director
Using Market Research for the Dissemination and Utilization of Disability Research
→ Who's in the News
NCDDR staff are on the lookout for popular and disability media pieces that present research funded by NIDRR. In this issue, we share news items from:
On March 21, 2000, the New York Times published
an article in their Capital Dispatch section entitled Report Highlights Digital Divide for the Disabled. The story highlights a report prepared by the Disability Statistics RRTC, University
of California at San Francisco. Dr. Stephen Kaye, Principal Analyst at the Center, was quoted: "The barriers for online access among disabled people stem from a combination of things. Income
is a big factor. People with disabilities tend to be poor. People with disabilities tend to have less education, or they are lacking job experience and skills, things that computers could help them
overcome."
The article was written by Times reporter Jeri Clausing. Dr. Kaye initially contacted her because "I knew she was the reporter at the Times most likely to cover digital divide issues (note that she is not a reporter who covers disability issues, which would have been another avenue of approach)." Dr. Kaye sent Ms. Clausing the recent RRTC report entitled Computer and Internet Use Among People with Disabilities (available from the RRTC for Disability Statistics Web site, http://dsc.ucsf.edu). Ms. Clausing subsequently followed up through email and a telephone interview with Dr. Kaye. According to Dr. Kaye, "One result of the story was that traffic on our Web site (which was mentioned in the article) doubled during the week that the piece appeared."
An online version of the New York Times article is available at: http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/capital/21capital.html
NOTE: Free registration is required to access New York Times articles.
In addition, on April 17, 2000 the President issued a fact sheet on The Importance Of Bridging The Digital Divide and Creating Digital Opportunity For All Americans that referred to Dr. Kaye's report:
"People with disabilities are less likely to have access to technology. 11 percent of people aged 15 and above with a disability have access to the Internet at home, compared to 31 percent of people without disabilities (Current Population Survey, 1998 Computer and Internet Use Supplement, as cited in H. Stephen Kaye, Computer and Internet Use Among People with Disabilities, Disability Statistics Center, March 2000)."
The fact sheet is available at
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/4/19/12.text.1
For further information contact Dr. Stephen Kaye at 1-415-502-7266, or email: skaye@itsa.ucsf.edu
On March 23, 2000, the CNN Financial Network
(CNNFN) broadcast a story entitled Jobs for the disabled: Employment options have improved for people with developmental disabilities. The broadcast included quotes from Dr. William Kiernan,
Principal Investigator of the RRTC on State Systems and Employment: "About 30 to 50 years ago, we didn't think
people with disabilities could do anything, and we treated them accordingly, about 20 to 25 years ago, we assumed they could do things but only special things, light assembly work, like putting stickers
on things. Around 15 years ago, so called "supported employment" caught on. Developmentally disabled people received on-the-job training and support to help them keep their jobs." The
broadcast was developed by CNNFN staff writer Alex Frew McMillan. The CNNFN story can be found at: http://cnnfn.com/2000/03/23/career/q_disability/
The CNNFN story followed earlier interactions between Dr. Kiernan and Peter Imber of ABC News which broadcast a story about employment of people with disabilities on February 22, 2000. The ABC broadcast did not include footage of Dr. Kiernan or other RRTC staff, yet they did consult them on the contents of the broadcast.
For further information contact Dr. William Kiernan at 1-617-355-7074 or email: KIERNANW@A1.TCH.Harvard.edu
On March 22, 2000 the Sun Technologies' java.sun.com
Web site posted an article entitled Bridging the Gap: Java (TM) Access Bridge Links Window-based Assistive
Technologies to the Java Platform. The article quotes Neal Ewers, Instrumentation Specialist, at the Rehabilitation Engineering
Research Center on Telecommunication Access, Trace Center, Madison, Wisconsin: "The challenge for assistive technologies, specifically screen readers, is to help blind users see the page.
If I am blind, I have to hear what I 'see,' and I can only 'see' one thing at a time. The challenge to the screen reader in multifaceted applications is to be able to provide the complete picture
when you're only seeing one thing at a time."
An online version of the java.sun.com article is available at: http://java.sun.com/features/2000/03/accessbridge.html
The article was developed by Mary Smaragdis at Sun Technologies who initially contacted Trace Center when she began developing the story. According to Ms. Smaragdis, "The Java 2 platform specifically made enabling technology--the Java Accessibility API--a core component. As such it facilitates the development of accessible applications and enables assistive technologies, such as screen readers or speech recognition technology, to get at the information contained in applications."
For further information contact Neal Ewers at 1-608-262-6966 or Email: web@trace.wisc.edu
Grantees can greatly help by letting us know when an item representing their project appears in the media.
Please call or send an e-mail to the NCDDR when your project has an interaction with the media and we will review the piece for inclusion. You may also use the online form: http://www.ncddr.org/forms/newsrecognition.html
Criteria for Inclusion in Who's in the News are:
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