From: Kelly Pierce 
Subject: senate panal told disabled left behind in technology
      
Senate Panel Is Told Disabled
May Fall Behind in Information Age
      By JERI CLAUSING Bio 
      
     W ASHINGTON - The information technology explosion threatens to
     leave the disabled behind, so Congress must ensure that the
     infrastructure being built now has accessibility features at the
     outset, advocates for the disabled told a Senate committee
     Wednesday.
     
     "Just sit down at any computer or walk up to a public information
     kiosk, close your eyes, and try to use it," said James Gashel of
     the National Federation of the Blind. "Then, think about the fact
     that devices such as these are rapidly becoming the centerpiece of
     information exchange."
                                                                         
     Gashel was among a number of witnesses testifying before the Senate
     Committee on Labor and Human Resources about extending and
     redefining the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals Act,
     or Tech Act, which for the past 10 years has provided grants to
     states to improve access to technology, services and information
     for the disabled. The committee is now drafting a sequel to the
     act.
     
     Gashel and other panelists urged the committee, headed by one of
     the law's original sponsors, Senator James M. Jeffords, a Vermont
     Republican, to make universal access to fast-developing information
     technology a focus.
     
     "The need for statutory provisions on access, particularly
     non-visual access, could not be more compelling," he said. "I say
     this because of the growing extent to which the effective use of
     information technology is a controlling factor in our ability to
     communicate.
     
     "Speaking to this situation as a blind person, I can tell you that
     the prospect of being locked out technologically from professional,
     commercial and social interaction is a frightening and very real
     possibility."
     
     Judith E. Heumann, the assistant education secretary who heads the
     Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services , also
     stressed the need for new legislation to address universal access
     to information technology for the blind, the deaf and those whose
     mobility is impaired during the development phase of the product,
     not after barriers have already been erected.
     
     "New software applications replace currently marketed applications
     at a pace that exceeds current research capability to keep up with
     them," she said. "Blind people, for example, are having difficulty
     using the Internet" because of the increased use of graphics and
     visuals that can't be read by screen-reading software.
     
     Representatives of Microsoft Corp. reviewed for the panel the steps
     it is taking to increase accessibility to its products. But Sam
     Jadallah, vice president for the company's customer unit, said
     significant challenges remain.
     
     Companies developing new technology need to make accessibility a
     higher priority, he said.
     
     "One of the challenges is, when you are upgrading products on short
     time cycles, things on a lower priority are going to fall behind
     ... That's what brought it to a head for us," he said of
     Microsoft's release last year of an Internet Explorer browser
     software upgrade that omitted the accessibility features of earlier
     versions.
     
     After that, Microsoft's founder, Bill Gates, called 3,000 employees
     to an awareness day to emphasize that accessibility must be a
     fundamental part of software design. Jadallah said the company now
     has 25 employees devoted full time to making sure products
     developed by both Microsoft and its partners are accessible.
     
     Windows 95, he said, has features specifically designed for
     individuals who have difficulty typing or using a mouse or who have
     hearing or vision problems. Windows 98, he said, will have even
     more features, including a new magnifying option.
                                                                         
     The company has also developed Synchronized Accessible Media
     Interchange - known as SAMI - that enables webmasters and software
     developers to easily add captions and audio descriptions to
     multimedia that is sent over the Internet.
     
     But he and all the witnesses stressed that more financing for
     research by small companies and increased awareness are needed to
     make sure more barriers aren't erected as technology develops.
     
     In addition, Jaddah said, the government needs to make sure that it
     only buys products that can be used by everyone.
     
     "Once commercial enterprises see that major agency purchases are
     based on accessibility ... we will see great innovation in this
     area," he said.
     
     Heumann said her office has been holding public meetings to help
     define the goals new legislation should take. The administration,
     she said, will present Congress a proposal later this spring.
     
     "A vision of our continuing role in assistive technology in the
     21st century must support crucial systemic change and the removal
     of barriers," she said. "But it also has to provide the framework
     to meet and lead in the information age."
                                             
                 Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
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