Blind Customers Take Action Against the Cell Phone Industry

Blind and visually impaired customers are taking legal action against the cell phone industry in an effort to improve cell phone accessibility. This week, 11 customers from across the United States filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which enforces Section 255, the law that requires phones to be designed to be accessible for people with disabilities. Complaints were filed against both the cell phone carriers and manufacturers.

"These complaints illustrate a market failure on the part of the cell phone industry to address accessibility," says Paul Schroeder, VP, Programs and Policy Group at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). "While some companies have taken steps, consumers with vision loss have few good options for accessibility, and almost no reliable information about accessibility."

There is a growing need for accessible phones given the increasing rates of vision loss, the foundation says. Experts predict that by 2030, rates of severe vision
loss will double along with the country's aging population.

For people with vision loss, finding a cell phone with a readable screen or with voice output of essential features like menus or text messages is almost impossible. Some companies, like AT&T, have taken the lead on providing accessible phones. But too often the handsets and services are not designed to be user-friendly for those who are blind or visually impaired.

Earlier this month, AFB initiated a campaign called 255 Action to help people with vision loss understand access requirements, and if necessary, file complaints. As part of that campaign, AFB sent letters to leading cell phone service providers and manufacturers asking what they are doing to meet the needs of people with vision loss.

Frequent complaints from blind and visually impaired cell phone customers include:

• cell phones do not provide for audio output of information displayed on the screen;
• the visual displays on most phones are hard to read;
• numeric and control keys are not easy to distinguish by touch; and
• product manuals or phone bills are not available in braille, large print, or other formats they can read.

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NASA Engineer Helps Train Puppy for Future Leadership Role

One of NASA's newest workers is a top dog ... literally. A golden retriever puppy named Aries goes to work every day at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. as part of the "Leader Dogs for the Blind" program. Her mentor is structural engineer Evan Horowitz.

As a child, Horowitz had seen a movie character raising a guide dog and it made a huge impression. "I've always wanted to give like most people do," says Horowitz. "Lots of people give money to charity, but I wanted to do something a little more, something more hands on, more from my heart."

Horowitz works on the rocket and capsule project that will take astronauts back to the moon, but he used to be in charge of structural engineering for a research aircraft known as ARIES, short for AirborneResearch Integrated Experiments System. That's how he came up with a name for his canine student.

Aries is Horowitz's third leader dog puppy, but his first since coming to NASA Langley two years ago. He put his name on a waiting list for a female golden retriever at the Rochester, Mich. based Leader Dogs for theBlind 18 months ago. During that time he made sure that he would be allowed to bring a puppy to work at a government aerospace research center.

"It took a little bit of diligence to get through to all the right people, especially trying to figure out who all the right people were,"says Horowitz. "I contacted the office of safety, security, questioned legal and of course the management and my co-workers to make sure they were okay with a puppy in the office."

"Leader Dogs for the Blind not only appreciates the love and efforts of our puppy raisers, but also the organizations like NASA that allow the puppies to experience the work environment," says Sam Ziegenmeyer of Leader Dogs for the Blind. "It shows a vision of not only the stars but of people and their needs on Earth."

The goal of Aries' training at NASA is not to turn her into a rocketscientist, but a well-socialized dog with knowledge of basic commands. Horowitz says he's supposed to walk around work with the puppy as if she wasn't there, but that's not easy to do considering the attention the golden retriever attracts. "She's adorable. She's a lot of love. She's a lot of fun," adds Horowitz. "She gets me to meet a lot of people ...because she's just a magnet for socializing."


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Getting a Feel for the Nano World

When it comes to research at the nanoscale, vision is not necessarily an advantage. The subjects are so small, no one can see them. To encourage people with visual impairments to pursue fields in nanotechnology, educators have developed a way to craft accurate, detailed and touch-friendly models of nanoscale objects like carbon nanofibers, allowing the students to "see" those objects for the first time.

While students have learned from abstract models of chemical structures for decades, the new technique creates 3-D versions of objects as they actually are.

Developed by educators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), the models are about the size of a textbook and are formed using rapid prototyping, a process that "prints" 3-D objects. Each model is a scaled-up replica of tweaked data from a scanning electron microscope. The creators hope they will soon be able to apply the same process to data from other instruments, including the patterns of atoms revealed by atomic force microscopes.

The approach was conceived by Andrew Greenberg, education and outreach coordinator for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center on Templated Synthesis and Assembly at the Nanoscale at UW-Madison and for the university's Institute for Chemical Education. He thought of the idea during a visit to the Indiana School for the Blind, which uses 3-D models of chemical structures in the classroom.

Greenberg partnered with two collaborators from the university's Center for Biology Education: undergraduate biochemistry student Mohammed Farhoud, who is skilled with the rapid-prototyping equipment, and the center director, David Nelson.

On March 27, Greenberg and Farhoud presented their novel approach at the 233rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

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Empire State Building's Bright Lights Go Dark For Blindness

The world famous tower lights of the Empire State Building will be turned off for 28 minutes on March 1, to remember the 28 million people around the world who are unnecessarily blind.

Before the lights go out at 20:20 (8:20 p.m. ET), the tower will shine blue and white in tribute to the 25th anniversary of ORBIS International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving sight worldwide. Through its work, ORBIS volunteers and staff have directly restored the vision and transformed the lives of millions of people in 85 countries.

"We see this as a tremendous opportunity to help advance the work ofORBIS and have an unprecedented impact, both in terms of raising awareness and making a global call for the eradication of unnecessary blindness,"says James Connors, Empire State Building general manager.

ORBIS President and Executive Director Oliver Foot says, "Most people hear '20/20' and think of perfect vision. When the Empire State Building turns off its lights at 20:20 this will draw attention to the plight of 28 million people who are blind and could be cured -- right now -- if they had access to the proper eye care. It is tremendously encouraging that the world's most famous building is supporting this initiative and lending its name to a global call for action."

March 1 has been proclaimed "ORBIS Day" by Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City.

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