DO-IT News July 2008: All Articles

2003 DO-IT Scholar, Josh Niklason

I am sad to report that Josh Niklason, '03 DO-IT Scholar, lost his battle with cancer. Josh cherished his family and friends and enthusiastically engaged in sports—basketball, swimming, baseball—and academic studies. After high school graduation he attended Landmark College in Vermont. He hoped to someday have a career in elementary education. Josh will be receiving an honorary degree from Landmark College, which will be presented to his family this fall.

We will always remember Josh's positive attitude and enthusiasm in everything he did. He worked tirelessly as a DO-IT Intern during Summer Study 2006 and was always focused on making sure that the new Scholars felt welcome and encouraged. Josh will be greatly missed.

Demon On Wheels

by Josh Niklason

'05 Scholar Sakina engages in a mock interview with an employer during Summer Study.

The Workforce Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities (WRP) is run by the U.S. Department of Labor. Each year, the program sends recruiters to college campuses nationwide. This year, a WRP recruiter came to the University of Washington campus in Seattle to meet with fourteen students. The students had many different disabilities and career interests.

Participants who complete WRP interviews are included in a database that captures their major, their skills, and locations where they would like to have an internship or job. The student information in this database is made available to employers in the public and private sectors. The database remains active for one year. During that time, employers contact students and invite them to apply for open positions.

One student explained why she participated in the WRP interview: "Meeting the WRP recruiter was good practice for me, because I will be graduating in June, and I will be needing to talk to LOTS of employers. The interviewer asked a couple of questions that surprised me, but next time I'll be ready with a better answer."

Last year, one student participant was offered a summer civil engineering internship for the USDA Forest Service. He said, "It was a great internship, people were very friendly and showed a strong interest in my learning." He also discovered that the Forest Service offers a range of career opportunities.

DO-IT participation in this event was funded by the National Science Foundation as a part of the AccessSTEM project. For more information on WRP, consult their website at: www.dol.gov/odep/pubs/brochures/wrp1.html.

Colleges and universities in Alaska face unique challenges to providing education access for students with disabilities, due to remote locations and low population density in many parts of the state. To increase access to education, the College Access Project for Rural Alaska (CAPRA) was founded. In February, I visited two of the CAPRA program sites. I delivered two presentations that focused on how faculty, staff, and community members could incorporate universal design strategies into their programs and classes. The first presentation was located on the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Matanuska-Susitna campus in Palmer, and was connected via satellite to four other UAA campuses. The second presentation was held in Soldotna on the UAA Kenai campus.

Several participants commented on the thoroughness and relevance of the presentations. One parent, who is working on new ways to help her son self-advocate, said she felt like I was talking about her son.

This outreach was funded by the U.S. Department of Education as a part of the AccessCollege project.

2007 DO-IT Scholar, Blake

Hello. I'm Blake and am a senior at River Ridge High School. I have a sister who will be a junior at Washington State University this fall and a dog named Krystal. My disability is cerebral palsy.

I'm a percussionist in my school's band. I mostly play bass drum, but I have played other instruments such as the gong, triangle, and the cymbals. Every year in September, the band takes a trip to Leavenworth, WA to march in the Autumn Leaf Festival Parade. I hold the school banner, since I cannot play and drive my electric wheelchair at the same time. Last school year, the band also took a trip to San Francisco. We had clinics at two universities, where we learned how to improve our music and conduct a band. We also played outside of Monterrey's city hall, and inside Oregon State's capitol building.

I enjoy going to Starbucks and getting a Mocha Frappuccino, camping, and using a computer. My plans after high school are to go to either Saint Martin's University, South Puget Sound Community College, or Seattle Pacific University to study computer science.

DO-IT Staff member Rebekah

Hi. I'm Rebekah and I am the publications coordinator at DO-IT. I work on the team that creates publications, like DO-IT News and Snapshots. I am in my second year at DO-IT and enjoy using my degree in English writing to create publications that share useful information to people all over the world. I am also a student in the University of Washington's Master of Communication in digital media program. Through my current graduate work, I hope to expand my ability to contribute to the field of disability studies and communications.

Several people in my family have disabilities—both visible and invisible—and shared knowledge, from organizations like DO-IT, is helping them be successful in their endeavors. Knowing how information and resources empower people is very motivating to me in my work at DO-IT.

When I am not thinking about grammar, punctuation, and page layouts, I like to go on long bike rides, plant flowers in my garden, go ballroom dancing, and take my labradoodle Afton to the dog park, so he can go swimming and chase tennis balls.

CSUN 2008 is a great resource to find the latest in accessible technology.

Every year for the last twenty-three years, the coming of spring has been marked not only by the return of songbirds, flowers rising from the soil, and the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, but also the annual International Conference on Technology and Disability, which is hosted by the California State University at Northridge (CSUN). This conference features 150 exhibitors and 300 break-out sessions related to assistive technology (AT) and technology accessibility.

The vast array of AT can be mind-boggling to first-time conference attendees. It was at my first CSUN many years ago that I learned that if a person has only enough physical ability to move his or her eyes or control brain activity, there are technologies available that allow that person to operate a computer, use an augmentative speech device, and control the electronic devices in their environment. This year, the most exciting news wasn't about amazing new technologies, but it was about the growing number of AT products that are available for free, particularly software for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. For example, Orca, a free screen reader and magnifier for the UNIX and Linux operating systems, announced a new version at CSUN; Apple demonstrated its screen reader VoiceOver, which is built into the Mac OS X operating system; and many presenters talked about NVDA, a free and open-source screen reader for Microsoft Windows that is rapidly improving with support from the Mozilla Foundation.

Despite all the AT that's available, individuals with disabilities still face major barriers in accessing mainstream information technology (IT). There are websites that require eyesight, software applications that require the ability to move a mouse, and video and audio content without captioning or transcription that requires hearing.

An example of a student using assistive technology

Barriers to access was a hot topic at CSUN, and the conference provided an opportunity for people on the forefront of the IT accessibility movement to brainstorm and share ideas. Much of this interaction occurred informally, outside of scheduled conference activities. However, there were also many scheduled sessions that addressed IT accessibility involving representatives from Microsoft, Google, IBM, AOL, Yahoo!, and the Mozilla Foundation, all of whom described their efforts to increase the amount of accessible software and online content.

For web developers, there is a growing trend to build complex web applications by plugging in widgets from code libraries and toolkits, rather than developing everything from scratch. This simplifies the process of creating rich Internet applications. This trend could be a good thing for accessibility, as long as the widgets in the toolkits are accessible. Several of these libraries and toolkits, including Google Web Toolkit, Dojo Toolkit, and jQuery, are moving towards ensuring accessibility.

CSUN began with a keynote presentation by Jim Fruchterman, one of the pioneers and leading innovators in the field of AT. Jim is an outspoken advocate for social enterprise, creating, and investing in businesses whose goods or services solve social needs. His latest venture, Benetech, is the non-profit parent organization of several companies that use technology to improve human rights, literacy, and access to books for individuals with print disabilities. In his speech, Jim described his vision of a future where individuals with disabilities have full access to information on devices they already use—cell phones, MP3 players, or public terminals at the library—without having to purchase or download specialized software.

Another example of a student using assistive technology

He also spoke enthusiastically of the power of human networks that can achieve more than one person or small group. Wikipedia is an example of this type of collaboration. It offers a platform to collect knowledge by harnessing the efforts of millions of people at little or no cost. Jim's own project, Bookshare.org, is another example. Bookshare.org members scan and convert books to accessible electronic format and then contribute them to a growing library. This library can be accessed by other members. Currently there are over 37,100 books and 150 periodicals available through Bookshare.org. The open source movement is another example of the strength of human networks. Open source allows developers to contribute to software applications. This collaboration has spawned free products such as the Linux operating system, Firefox web browser, and assistive technologies described earlier in this article.

According to Jim, "We take this economic thing a little too seriously." The mindset that "if it's not economically successful, you shouldn't do it" stifles true innovation and does nothing to solve the world's problems. In closing, he said "I look forward to working with all of you toward making the world a more inclusive place for everybody on this planet." These were excellent words to kick off the conference and to carry with us in our daily lives, long after CSUN has ended.

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