B&D – moving forward

Welcome to the 3rd issue of
B&D - moving forward
Business & Disability’s quarterly newsletter

Europe has come to a point where the business community can no longer continue ignoring people with disabilities. In fact, at Business & Disability we believe that including people with disabilities into business is a source of sustained profitability for everybody. Our role as Business & Disability is to act as a proactive catalyst to promote this belief.

Business & Disability is the first European network to promote the business opportunities for the inclusion of people with disabilities and it is the only European network combining business and disability that works to stimulate and facilitate dialog among the various stakeholders and offers unique added value and expertise to our member companies.

• A network of expertise related to different aspects of business and disability
• Case studies, white papers, …
• Networking opportunities with peers, disability groups and policy makers.
• Visibility as practice faculties

Business & Disability addresses its members' priorities and is uniquely qualified to deliver them across Europe.

B&D events: what’s been happening?

Business & Disability’s awareness rising program co-sponsored by the European Commission is well underway after the success of the first four events in a two-year series of roadshows across the European Union.

Paris, Madrid, Stockholm and Amsterdam have meanwhile hosted the first four events of Business & Disability’s two-year roadshow across Europe promoting the business case for the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of our society, with a clear focus on accessibility to the built environment, e-accessibility and employment.

With the format customised to suit each host country’s cultural diversity, each roadshow event has provided a magnificent opportunity to introduce the European perspective of Business & Disability, share good practices and collect valuable insights into the particular situation in each country.

Paris
Hosted in the French capital’s Press Club of France, around 150 representatives of business, disability organisations and government congregated around a day-long programme of activities that was split into two main parts. In the Market Place, a lively and highly interactive exchange took place with a wide variety of companies exhibited their good practices to improve accessibility and inclusion. The following round table discussion featured a large panel of experts and dealt with issues concerning the reality of French business and disability.

Madrid
In Madrid, Business & Disability hosted numerous company leaders in the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for an event with an agenda focusing on the sharing of case studies from companies that actively include people with disabilities in their business strategies.

During the well-attended panel discussions, company directors from Adecco, MRW, Confortel Hoteles, Bankinter, IBM, Vodafone, Carlson Wagonlit, Carrefour, DKV Seguros, Ford, Manpower, Schindler, etc. explained their commitment and shared experiences in the three areas that are key to the inclusion of people with disabilities. Over lunch, all participants had the opportunity to “touch and feel” existing solutions to improve accessibility.

As Alfredo Morate, head of Schindler’s European Marketing and a Business & Disability board member, stressed during his closing address in Madrid, “Although as a society we are becoming increasingly aware of the necessary inclusion of people with disabilities, the business world can serve as an outstanding catalyst and we have to promote this across Europe. The business community has a lot to contribute to people with disabilities and vice versa. With no doubt, it is part of our corporate social responsibility but, taking into account that people with disabilities account today already for 10% of Europe’s population it is a magnificent business opportunity as well.”

Stockholm
Over 70 people gathered at Kista Entré in Stockholm for an agenda around "Open workplaces for greater profitability". Many disability organisations were represented, along with the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Adecco, IBM, Manpower and Schindler. Everyone involved strongly agreed that the initiative was very welcome and that much needs to be done to make working life accessible to all.

A special consideration was given to demographic changes which are anticipated in a few years’ time when the so-called “record generation" retires.

“With an ageing working population there is a need to counter a future labour shortage with technology and get more disabled people into work”, said Lars Lindberg from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. “In its political goals, the Ministry has decided that the State will take the lead and offer environments in which the disabled can also work."

Amsterdam
Facilitated by former top hockey player and Coach Tom van ´t Hek, some 100 representatives of Dutch business and the disability world shared their visions, experiences and practices with a well-represented audience.

The venue itself, the fully accessible football stadium “Amsterdam Arena”, offered a particularly interesting view on the benefits of including people with disabilities in a corporate business case. A lively discussion over lunch and a guided visit to the home of Ajax Amsterdam were just a part of the day’s programme.

It has been a great experience so far and everybody involved at Business & Disability looks forward very much to the upcoming events to continue stimulating the dialogue between all stakeholders and promote the business case for inclusion.

The next event is a Business & Disability roadshow which will be held on May 11 in Prague, Czech Republic.

One of the outcomes of this 2-year program is a Best Practices guideline to be published in November 2006 and showing a selection of the most innovative and relevant business practices in the field of disability inclusion. It will be available online, as a pdf file and also as a hard copy version, with translation into the 12 languages of the 12 countries that will have been visited.
An online database will also be available, and YOU can contribute now by sharing your experiences via the LINK.

60 Seconds with... Ben Kempner, IBM Program Director, Accessibility Solution Management and Marketing

“We must enable human capability through innovation, so everyone can maximize their potential, regardless of age or ability.”

Q: What is IBM's Commitment to People with Disabilities?
IBM's long-standing commitment to people with disabilities began in 1914 when IBM hired its first disabled employee. In the 1940s significant hiring and training programs for people with disabilities were undertaken to replace workers inducted into the military for World War II. Accommodations were provided to them and to returning disabled veterans.

In addition, IBM has been committed to bringing technology to people with disabilities. In 1975, IBM developed the 1403 Braille printer. In 1980, IBM developed a talking typewriter for people who were blind, and this was followed by a talking 3278 terminal in 1981. IBM developed one of the best screen readers for the blind and solved the graphic user interface (GUI) problem with IBM's Screen Reader for OS/2. Since 1985, the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center (formerly Special Needs Systems) has developed technologies that assist people with disabilities. The most recent product is Home Page Reader, a self-voicing Web browser.

Q: What is the business importance of e-Accessibility for IBM?
The millions of people with disabilities who want and need to use technology have an estimated $175 billion in disposable income and are potential IBM customers. In addition, many techniques and solutions that address the needs of people with disabilities also address the needs of people as they grow older. The mature customer is the nation's fastest growing age group. Making IBM's products accessible is just good business.

The issue of accessibility is becoming a force in the marketplace. Businesses, vendors, and organisations are increasingly doing business only with those companies that offer accessible products because they must meet the needs of their employees and customers, as well as legislation and purchasing requirements.

Q: What about the compliance with Worldwide Regulations and Standards?
Many regulations and standards for accessibility are in effect worldwide.
The following basic principles should be followed when developing software.

Choice of input methods
Support the user's choice of input methods including keyboard, mouse, voice, and assistive devices via the serial port. The primary requirement is to provide keyboard access (mouseless operation) to all features and functions of the software application. The operating system usually provides support for input via the serial port, keyboard movement of the mouse pointer, and other keyboard enhancements.

Choice of output methods
Support the user's choice of output methods including display, sound, and print. The primary requirement is to provide text labels for icons, graphics, and user interface elements and to support visual indications for sounds. Implementing the accessibility APIs (e.g., Java Accessibility, Microsoft Active Accessibility, etc.) for the target platform will meet this principle.

Consistency and flexibility
Make the application consistent with the user's choice of system behaviour, colours, font sizes and keyboard settings. Provide a user interface that can be customised to accommodate the user's needs and preferences including fonts, colours and display layout.

Q: Is Research and Innovation a priority for IBM's assistive technologies?
IBM scientists, engineers, and developers have embraced the idea of "innovation that matters" to individuals, business and society. The most promising of those inventions have moved from the laboratory to alphaWorks, where developers and users, including people with disabilities, test the technologies and give valuable feedback. New emerging technologies making their first appearance on alphaWorks include the Head Tracking Pointer .

From there, developers move the technologies into commercial assets and products that are now available to disabled and older workers though IBM solutions. Recent examples of accessibility technologies now available to customers include Mouse Smoothing Software , which helps people with hand tremors use a mouse; Home Page Reader , which reads the content of Web pages aloud -- in a choice of languages -- for blind users; Easy Web Browsing , which helps seniors adjust the colour, contrast and font size of information on their computer screens; and Web Adaptation Technology (available in eight languages), which allows individuals to make adjustments to the way Web pages are presented and the way information is entered with the keyboard.

IBM is an industry leader in its commitment to make its own products accessible, in its active participation with advocacy groups for the disabled and in its promotion of uniform or “harmonized” accessibility standards around the world. More information about IBM's products and services in the area of e-Accessibility can be found here: http://www-306.ibm.com/able/index.html

Q: What's coming next?
Next, accessible technologies originally designed for the disabled will be applied to aid the aging workforce. As the world's population grows older and workers stay on the job well past traditional retirement age, the maturing labour force needs accessible information technology to stay productive. IBM is there.

After that, who knows? There are few limits to innovation. As Paul Horn, IBM senior vice-president of Research, says, "I think that out of our work making computing easier to use for people with disabilities, we will think of radically new approaches. Out of these approaches we will find not just ways of helping people with disabilities, but ways of making computing far more natural and intuitive."

Feature focus: e-Accessibility

If you're new to e-Accessibility…
When software and hardware is designed or modified to allow access by people with disabilities, it is made accessible . Accessibility is achieved by following “accessibility standards” (ie. the U. S. Standards for Electronic and Information Technology developed by the Access Board for Section 508, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendations).

Assistive technology is hardware or software that is used to increase, maintain or assist the functional capabilities of people with disabilities. In short, it can be any device or technique that assists people in removing or reducing barriers and enhancing their everyday life activities. Assistive technology includes:

• Screen readers that use text to speech to read software to people who are blind
• Screen magnifiers that enlarge information on the screen for people with low vision
• Closed captioning displays for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
• Special keyboards and input devices for people with limited hand use or mobility impairments

Assistive technology can only be effective when the software and hardware it interfaces with is accessible. A screen reader cannot read Web pages unless the developer has followed the standards to make them accessible. For example, a screen reader cannot read informational graphic images on the Web unless the developer has provided alternative text for those images. If the alternative text is missing, the screen reader cannot provide the information and the page is inaccessible.

Disability issues and e-Accessibility
Understanding accessibility requires an awareness of the special needs of users with disabilities. Each person with a disability may encounter one or more barriers that can be eliminated or minimized by the software or Web developer, the assistive technology or the underlying operating system software and hardware platform.

Vision

• Assistive Technology: screen readers, Braille displays, screen magnifiers, OCR
• Issues: Cannot use the mouse for input, cannot see the screen or may need magnification and colour contrast

People with visual disabilities are individuals who are blind, have low vision, or are colour blind. Because using a mouse requires hand and eye coordination, someone with a visual disability uses the keyboard instead of the mouse for navigation. Someone who is blind needs text equivalents for the graphics because assistive technology cannot obtain the information from the image. Someone who has low vision needs the assistance of a hardware or software magnifier to enlarge the text beyond simple font enlargement. People who are colour blind or who have low vision, benefit from good contrasting colours.

Hearing

• Assistive Technology: Closed captioning, transcripts, ShowSounds
• Issues: Cannot hear audio, video, system alerts or alarms

People who are deaf or hard of hearing require visual representations of auditory information. The primary concern is to ensure that audio output information is provided in a redundant equivalent visual form.

Mobility

• Assistive Technology: Alternate input (e.g. voice), access keys, latches that are easy to reach and manipulate
• Issues: Limited or no use hands, limited range, speed and strength

People with mobility disabilities have physical impairments that substantially limit movement and fine motor controls, such as lifting, walking, and typing. Someone with mobility impairment may have difficulty using the computer's input devices or reaching buttons and latches on a copier. Accessibility support for someone with mobility impairment is often provided through accessibility settings in the operating system. For example, StickyKeys allows someone to type a sequence of keystrokes such as Ctrl-Alt-Delete one at a time.

Cognitive

• Assistive Technology: Spell checkers, word prediction aids, reading/writing comprehension aids
• Issues: Difficulty reading and comprehending information, difficulty writing

People with cognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia and short-term memory deficit, need more general solutions, such as consistent design and using simplified language. For example, by using a template, a Web developer can reuse the same layout and design for each page, so the Web site is easier to navigate. People with cognitive or learning disabilities can also benefit from redundant input, such as providing both an audio file and a transcript of a video. By simultaneously viewing the text and hearing it read aloud, they can take advantage of both auditory and visual skills to better comprehend the material.

The primary reason for producing accessible products is to make them usable by the millions of people who have disabilities. According to the World Health Organization, more than 750 million people worldwide have a disability (over 54 million are in the United States ). The number is growing, in part, because people are living longer. The good news is that with few exceptions, the technology is available to accomplish accessibility, and using this technology is not difficult or expensive if accessibility features are included in the initial product design.

B&D events: what’s coming next?

Within the framework of a project funded by the European Commission, B&D members organise a series of awareness raising and best practice sharing events throughout Europe that promote disability inclusion initiatives, and encourage the exchange of ideas among business, political actors and people with disabilities.
Two roadshows have taken place already in 2006, one in Stockholm ( Sweden ) in February and one in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in March. The next one will be in Prague (Czech Rep) in May.

The roadshow will feature:

• A discussion based on the local issues from a public and private perspectives in the area of employment and inclusion of people with disabilities
• a panel discussion involving all key stakeholders to address issues including awareness raising, changing mentalities and behaviours and legislation
• three workshops focused on the three major factors in favour of the integration of people with disabilities, namely physical accessibility, e-Accessibility and employment

For more information about the agenda and venue of the Czech roadshow, please click here.
 
B&D will be hosting other roadshows later in the year in Budapest , Milan , Warsaw , Berlin and Helsinki ... A closing keynote will be hosted in the UK in November 2006, with the launch of B&D's Best Practices guideline on the inclusion of people with disabilities.

The Disability Agenda: upcoming events

Date	Title	Venue	Organisers
10/05/2006	Seminar on location based services for people with disabilities	London (UK)	PhoneAbility in collaboration with COST210ter and Ask-it E-mail : john.gill@rnib.org.uk
12-14/5/2006	EUD Seminar on “Multiple Discrimination” and Annual General Assembly	Vienna (AU)	European Union of the Deaf Visit the website
15-16/5/2006	EU Austrian Presidency Conference : Challenges facing participatory democracy in an enlarged Europe	Vienna (AU)	European Economic and Social Committee - Unit “Conferences” e-mail: Wien2006@esc.eu.int
17/5/2006	ECCL seminar “The right to live in the Community”	Brussels (B)	Contact person : Ines Bulic E-mail : coordinator@community-living.info
18-20/5/2006	Europe in Action Learning all our lives – Continuing learning opportunities for adults with intellectual disabilities	Brussels	Inclusion Europe - Visit the website
24-26/5/2006	14 th international conference on HPH “Integrating health promotion, prevention, treatment and care for chronic diseases across the health system'	Palanga (Lithuania)	E-mail : hph.soc-gruwi@univie.ac.at
31/5– 3/6/2006	NHS 2006 Conference – Beyond newborn hearing screening : Infant and Childhood Hearing in Science	Cernobbio (IT)	Visit the website
2-3/6/2006	DEAFSKILLS 2006 Deaf people : skills for work and life	Wolver- -hampton (UK)	For submissions and enquiries please contact deafskills2006@walsalldeaf.org.uk
NEW 6-16/6/2006	Disability Discrimination Summer School 2006	National University Galway , (EI)	Visit the website
7-8/6/2006	Salons Autonomic 2006, including conferences on independent living and accessibility	Paris (FR)	Visit the website
8-9/6/2006	European Conference “Disability and Ageing”	Graz (AU)	Jointly organised by EASPD, Inclusion Europe, EDF, AGE, ARFIE and Austrian umbrella organizations
7-9/6/2006	1 st International Conference of the ASKLEPIOS European Foundation   Social Inclusion in Europe : Perspectives and developments in social psychiatry, care for the mentally handicapped and the elderly	Athens (GR)	Conference Secretariat: c/o Maria Margeti, tel +30 210 7665822. E-mail: maria@invgolf.com
11-13/6/2006	Ministerial Conference on eInclusion entitled " ICT for an Inclusive Society "	Riga (Latvia)	EU Austrian Presidency and Latvian government Visit the website
12-16/6/2006	15 th International congress for the psychotherapy of schizophrenia and other psychoses	Madrid (Spain)	Visit the website
14-17/6/2006	International symposium Mobilities in Transit - Rethinking the artefacts, images and surroundings of human motion and movability	Trondheim (Norway)	Visit the website
19-21/6/2006	14 th European Social Services Conference “ Young and Old in a Changing Europe: the demographic challenge for social care and health”	Vienna (AU)	E-mail : sarah.wellburn@socialeurope.com
29-30/6/2006	Historical and Heritage Buildings and Accessibility - Conference on Accessibility of the Built Environment	Budapest (H)	European project with support of the EC DG Employment and Social Affairs   Deadline for registration : 31/3/2006   Conference secretariat : Ms Eva Caesar Phone/Fax: 00-36-1-250-9013 Email: international@meoszinfo.hu
10-13/7/2006	World Forum on Human Rights	Nantes (FR)	For more information contact Franck Barrau, General Coordinator at franck.barrau@nantesmetropole.fr Visit the website
10-14/7/2006	10 th International Conference	Linz (Austria)	Call for papers – Deadline : 25January 2006 Visit the website
17-21/7/2006	One week course “Design for All in ICT”	London (UK)	Middlesex University Summer Registration on the website
27-29/9/2006	5 th International Respite Care Conference	Evry (France)	Under the high patronage of Jacques Chirac Organised by the reflexion group and respite care network for disabled people Deadline call for abstracts : 25 February 2006 For information/preregistration: Tel : +33/5/57.97.19.19 Fax : +33/5/57.97.19.15
30/9-1/10/2006	European Symposium – Improving the lives of young people with intellectual disabilities in the areas of health, social inclusion and sport	Rome (IT)	Symposium in conjunction with Special Olympics European Youth Games E-mail : MDeurinck@specialolympics.org
6-7/10/2006	Final Conference “Mainstreaming Mental Disability Policies”	Brussels	Inclusion Europe Visit the website
11-13/10/2006	4 th World Conference : The promotion of mental health and prevention of mental health and behavioural disorders	Oslo (Norway)	Visit the website
6-9/11/2006	International online conferences – Supporting Deaf People 2006		Visit the website
8-10/11/2006	XIV World Congress : Building an inclusive future : a challenge for globalization	Acapulco (Mexico)	Inclusion International Visit the website

Keep on visiting the B&D website to learn more…

Tell us what you think?

We appreciate your thoughts!
If you have any comments or thoughts about B&D – moving forward or have any information you would like to share with us, we would like to hear from you. Please email B&D at info@businessanddisability.org

For more information and updates on all B&D events, visit the Business & Disability website: www.businessanddisability.org

B&D members:

B&D contact details:

Address:
Business & Disability: a European Network
402 Avenue de Tervuren
B-1150 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32 2 777.05.17
Fax: + 32 2 777.05.30
Email: info@businessanddisability.org
Website: www.businessanddisability.org