Learning Better Together is a long overdue report. Subtitled working towards inclusive education in NZ schools the report is a breath of fresh air in the so called ‘special’ education debate.

Making a strong case for including all children in our schools the report says “Inclusive education stands in contrast to ‘special’ education, where disabled children are educated in separate schools or classes, or treated very differently in the classroom to regular students.”

The report presents evidential research to show that disabled children will do better on many counts if they are included. This is not ‘mainstreaming’ or even ‘maindumping’ as I have heard it called, but it takes the next step.

Some people think that the increasing numbers of disabled students attending mainstream schools after the 1989 Education Act were the first disabled children in their local schools, but of course this isn’t true. Some of us were there more years ago than we care to think about, and we survived. We may not have been included in today’s sense, but I still think we are better off.

Of course some of us are barely literate or numerate but nonethe- less I would have hated to be sent away at five years old as were many of my contemporaries. I was sent away at thirteen, but that’s another story and another kind of institution!

When I worked in EEO a fair number of years ago I checked out all the disabled people I knew in Wellington who worked in the new improved public service. To a man and a woman they had all had the most significant part of their education in mainstream schools. I know it was a totally unscientific survey, but it supports the argument for good quality inclusive education.

I first came across Jude McArthur, who wrote the report, a few years ago when she presented her research with disabled children at an IHC education forum, I was so impressed that I asked her to speak to our Commission meeting. The voices of disabled children talking about their experience at school are telling. They show just how much work there is to do.

But of course true inclusive education is not just a slightly improved ‘special’ education. It is a whole new way of educating our children together in a learning environment which respects and values them all, and which enables them all to achieve.

If you have trouble with the link or want a hard copy or a copy of the accompanying DVD you can write to:

IHC Advocacy
PO box 4155
Wellington 6140

Last Friday night we went to Old St Paul’s to listen to Hot Club Sandwich on the recommendation of a friend. Malcolm McNeil was a guest and he is always good. I had thought Hot Club Sandwich would be quite jazzy because of Malcolm McNeil and they are. But I was pleasurably surprised though as I am not a fan of some kinds of really serious Jazz. They are a lot of fun and we intend to go again on July 3rd. As well as being great professional entertainers they have an appealing humorous touch. St Paul’s is a lovely venue and the concert was informal and friendly. Just the thing for a Friday night.

Bass player Terry Crayford is better known to many of us than we might think since he wrote the theme for Fair Go.

Last week I attended the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) conference, Policy About Us For Us. Since Australia has also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) I thought it might be useful to share some of the themes and threads.

Attention was given to monitoring, (the convention), liberation, (freedom), and capacity building in three streams. The latter simply means increasing the knowledge, skill and the use of tools by disabled people to achieve our rights.

One of the Keynotes was Tina Minkowitz. Tina was involved in the development of the CRPD from a mental health perspective. Her presentation centred on opposition to forced treatment and on supported decision making. She is a passionate advocate on both counts, and argues for law making which supports both concepts. Her arguments are compelling, but I think require a better mental health system than we have now, at least when it comes to forced treatment. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working hard to reduce forced treatment.

Supported decisionmaking also applies to people with intellectual disabilities. It seems to me to be a very sensible idea.

Other important themes which emerged were the necessity for ratification of the Optional Protocol to the CRPD and the importance of the first non disabled organisations’ (NGO) shadow report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which comments on the progress of human rights from disabled people’s perspective.

Some of the points I made in my presentation related to the formation of strong collaborative coalitions. I talked about the importance of moving away from silos and ghettos separating impairment groups, and separating non-disabled and disabled people. I also stressed the necessity to use the language of rights in everyday education. So, for “special education” simply say “education” or “education of disabled children.” For “special needs” say “needs” or “disability needs.” There is also no such thing as “special children” Our children are all special and unique.

The proceedings from the conference will eventually be published on the AFDO site.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be a panellist to discuss a film in the Human Rights Festival. The film was called Nobody’s Perfect. Since it has an English title I was unconcerned until I was given a copy to preview. Imagine my chagrin, well really my frustrated pissed offness when I couldn’t follow it because much of the dialogue was in German! We tried having it read to me but that is too slow and disruptive, so basically I had to say “no” and explain that subtitled movies are inaccessible to people with low vision or who are blind, and that’s even before you even consider audio description.

Its just as well I found out in advance or it would have been embarrassing for both me and the organisers.

Movies in mainstream cinemas or festivals are never advertised as being subtitled, unless they are captioned for Deaf audiences.

I didn’t attend the screening but heard afterwards that one of the panellists was from the medical school! I know the film was about so called “thalidomides” and no disrespect is intended to that person. But surely we should expect anyone who is involved in human rights activities to have got beyond medicalising disability – even if the subject is related to impairment as the result of drug companies marketing a product after it was know to have side effects.

Disability and human rights are obviously not yet subjects that everyone in the human rights community in New Zealand has quite got to grips with yet. How long will it take?

The festival has finished in Wellington and finishes today in Auckland, but has still time to run in Christchurch and Dunedin.

A recent exchange on Twitter.

A
NZ Parliament: Sign language on Parliament TV, 5 and 6 May [why not all the time?!?]

B
How many hip operations would a sign language on Parliament TV cost?

A

Don’t know. How many deaf voters/citizens have to wait 10 days or more for Hansard? Why do they matter less than hips?

And, I might add a Deaf person might also need a hip replacement occasionally. I know A and he isn’t Deaf. Good to see there are more people out there who ‘get it”.

Sign Language Week is this week and the publication of an international report Deaf People and Human Rights that shows that NZ isn’t doing too badly but does still have a few things left to do, particularly around education of Deaf children.

It is obvious that there will be no human rights for Deaf people anywhere without Sign, so maybe we need to start talking about a Sign Language Commission modelled on the Maori Language Commission.

The beautiful colourful butterfly logo is great. Butterflies are free, and Deaf I am told.

“Braille is to fingers what print is to eyes” (RNZFB)

It would be very remiss if a blog entitled Low Visionary did not acknowledge the birthday of the man who was one of the initiators of accessible information, at least in hard copy. Louis Braille’s 200th birthday is being celebrated around the world this year.

A celebration in Wellington to mark his birthday drew attention to the contribution of this man from a humble background to the lives of millions of blind people.

January 4, 2009, was the 200th birthday of the creator the tactile code of raised letters and numbers and musical notation that has allowed blind people around the world to read and achieve the great gift of literacy.
While many think that the advent of computers, assistive technology and the Internet have made Braille obsolete, nothing could be further from the truth. Children who are born blind need Braille to learn to read and write, and refreshable Braille displays on computers now provide access to information such as email in a way that Louis Braille could never have imagined. Technological developments have revolutionised the lives of blind and deaf blind people, making new information more readily and cheaply available in Braille.

Louis Braille

Louis Braille was French. He was blind from the age of three as a result of an accident. As well as inventing the code that is named after him he was also a skilled musician, playing the cello and the organ to a high standard. He was only 15 when he invented the code that was to be named after him, but died of tuberculosis in his forties.
“Braille is knowledge and knowledge is power” was one of the catch cries at the celebration. There is still some way to go if blind and deaf blind people world-wide are to achieve that power. Only 5% of printed material is available in formats that blind people can read, according to the Foundation of the Blind.

I don’t read Braille, but if I lost my sight completely I would still want to be able to read and write. I might well learn Braille. You can find out more about Braille and the celebrations from the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind.

Recently I have been talking with a few people about these three ways of conveying information, and have noticed a fair bit of confusion in how people understand them. I want to establish some clarity.

Plain English and plain language are essentially the same thing. Both are concerned with communicating in language that the audience can easily understand on a first reading. Plain English and plain language are not about dumbing down language, but about everyday clearly written prose which is free of jargon so the reader can find what they need, and understand and use the information.

Plain English applies equally to electronic and to all printed material.

Easy Read is quite different. It is an accessible alternative information format along with others such as large print or audio. Some features of easy read documents or web pages are easy words, big writing, and clear pictures. Sound - so that you can listen to the words can be used on web sites. Whether the information is in print or on the web it must also be easy to find the page you want.

The creation of Easy Read requires a careful simplification of the information which is usually targeted at adults not children. Those readers may have learning disabilities of various kinds, or have English as their second language. This format will also be useful for people who have poor literacy.

There is information on how to create Easy Read material on the Office for Disabilities Issues web site.  Information in easy read format is available from IHC Advocacy who have produced some excellent material in that format.

I have been revelling in having more family around me than I have had for a long time. Both daughters were at home and we have family for the UK here as well. It has been full on socialising with good food and wine, and a bit of work squashed in around the edges.

Enjoying my family and holidaying with them have been responsible for the lack of posts over the last few weeks. We travelled around the North and South Islands mostly by car which was very cool for someone who doesn’t drive.

We stayed at motels ancient and modern and visited places as diverse as the Bay of Islands where the weather was warm and the sun shone, and Lake Wanaka where it rained, and many places in between.

We introduced our English rellies to tuataras and the summer pleasures of birds and bush at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary and the culinary delight of Bluff oysters. Yum! Visitors are always a good excuse to sample great kiwi kai and wine! I will really have to start swimming again!

We tried the paddle steamer on the Wanganui or is it Whanganui river. The Waimarie is pleasantly slow and rather smutty – I mean coal smuts not the other kind. It was interesting to learn something about the history of the river, but I suspect it was sanitised.

Visiting the Govett Brewster gallery in New Plymouth was noisy and rather challenging with some very modern art – not quite sure about the continuous rounding up of the same mob of sheep, but I really like Len Lye’s work and look forward to visiting the planned Len Lye Centre one day. (The web site is hideous I have to say though.)

At the kiwi house at Otorohanga and I got closer to a large speckled kiwi than I have ever been to any kiwi! Another horrible web site.

We dove straight through Auckland (for once) and headed north to the Bay of Islands, stopping to see the huge graceful swamp Kauri carvings just outside Wellsford. The best bit for me though, was the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi. I understand that 80% of visitors are from overseas, yet there is so much of our own history there that I was very surprised by that figure. It is really worth a visit, and should be a ‘must do’ for all kiwis.

After all that, I took a flight to Christchurch with a change to some southern scenery. Omarama was our destination, with a call at Geraldine and Lake Tekapo on the way. The McKenzie County is just as breathtaking as I remember it, even with very little snow on the tops. Trees were beginning to turn; we ate salmon from the local salmon farm, watched our host and hostess water ski from their boat in late afternoon sunshine and spent an evening soaking steamily under the stars in a hot tub with scented wood smoke drifting lazily from the heating chimney. (They said they have an accessible tub and they are keen to attract older and disabled customers so check it out southerners.)

All good things must come to an end. Our UK rellies have gone home and our globe trotting daughter has set off on the next instalment of her OE, while the other one is immersed in work to save up for hers. Sadly I have no excuse now not to be working.

Three ways to beat the recession with accessible information

It is important in tough times to make the most of the market.
Accessible information can help you make money by increasing your market reach. Not everyone is the same – 20% of people in NZ have disabilities. Our population is ageing, with numbers of people over 65 approaching 14% of the population. There are increasing numbers of people for whom English is a second language

You will save money by careful planning to provide multiple sources of information. An accessible web site can mean fewer calls to call centres. If I can’t use a site easily I will use the phone to find the information I want. This will cost the information provider more.

You will prevent waste. If people have access to clear and understandable information they will be able to use products and services properly and minimise waste. In the health services people need clear, understandable and accessible information so they can make the most of their medication and treatment.

Webaim has released its Survey of Preferences of Screen Readers Users conducted December 2008 through January 2009  It makes interesting if somewhat frustrating reading. While 1121 responses were received we are not told where they came from – I know some kiwi users responded – that might make a difference as different countries have different access to resources for users to have up to date technology.

The survey covered preferences in the following areas:

• Home Page Behavior
• “Skip” Links
• Access Keys
• Headings
• Search
• Site Maps
• Text-only Content
• Screen Reader-only Content
• Pop-up Windows
• Web 2.0
• Images
• Repeated Links
• Flash
• Frames
• Acrobat/PDF

The conclusions the survey draws are hardly surprising.
“What it tells us is that there is no typical screen reader user.”
It goes on to say “This survey emphasizes that screen reader accessibility is about real people - and people that have diverse abilities and preferences. As developers, we must do our best to accommodate the needs of this diverse group.”

“In general, these results suggest that following accessibility guidelines and standards, using technologies that support high levels of accessibility, and providing users with options is of the highest importance.”

There was a wide range of responses to the survey so it was difficult to make any hard and fast recommendations Webaim said.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the number of respondents who had more than one impairment, 118 respondents (10.4%) reported multiple disabilities.  Perhaps since the respondents were self-selected people with more than one impairment are more likely to experience accessibility barriers and therefore more likely to respond. Developers might take this into account.

It is worth a read, and I recommend it to developers in particular. It is also worth noting that of course screen reader users are not the only people who experience web site accessibility barriers.