DisABILITY Accessibility Information Resources

July - August 2005
Number 34

e-Bility News is a bi-monthly newsletter distributed by e-Bility Inclusive IT. It presents information on updates to e-Bility's web site, news about disability related issues on the Web, as well as other information of general interest to the disability and health sector.

What's new on e-Bility.com?

Brochure Stand

FitRec: Orest Pawloff is a personal trainer with fifteen years disability experience, Certificate IV - Fitness and a BA in Leisure Studies. He set up FitRec to assist small groups of children, people with disabilities and the aged to exercise and stay fit.
Round Table 2005 conference proceedings: Papers and abstracts on the conference theme "The Vision for accessible information: Celebrating achievement, seeking fulfilment" are available for download.
ARATA 2006 National Conference: The conference committee has just announced the call for abstracts from people interested in presenting at the 2006 National Conference: Connecting People & Community Through Technology.

Buy and Sell

Secondhand Vehicle: A wheelchair accessible Ford Flashcab is available for sale.

Articles

Nothing about us without us: Gareth Wreford, Executive Director of Arts Access Australia advocates participation in the arts for people with disabilities is an important part of broader inclusion strategies that develop employment skills and social networks. He fears that the right of the one in five Australians with a disability to participate in the nation's cultural life may be overlooked in the the Australia Council restructure.
Assessing a child for learning difficulties: Barbara Pheloung from Move to Learn looks at the assessment process and asks: Who benefits? She discusses simpler and less stressful processes, that from her experience are also more useful. Barbara is also currently involved in a research project through the University of Sydney and looking for teachers who may be interested in introducing her movement programs in their schools. See article footnote for contact details.
Thoughts on access: Robyn Perham is a well-known disability rights advocate. In her latest article she puts forward her plan for creating greater access in our community and calls for all Australians to help make Australia an accessible country.

Book Reviews

Management Guidelines: Development Disability, 2nd edition: This title is a very practical and informative book, not only for health professionals, but also for carers of those with a developmental disability. The focus is on the health needs of the population with disabilities, both in general practice and in community health, covering the health care issues appropriate throughout the life-span from infants through to the elderly.

Directory of links

Disability blogging: An interesting collection of personal weblogs by people with disabilities, documenting individual experiences, opinions and discussion on topical issues.
Enabling software: This popular resource continues to expand as new affordable software options come onto the market, such as iZoom magnification and Talking Desktop.

News Items

Autism Survey: The publishers of From Autism to All-Star, have teamed up with author Rhonda Brunett, along with Wendy Williams and Diane Gedik, to compile this short 8-question survey. Through the answers to these questions, they hope to be able to raise awareness and share insight into autism, making the struggles created by this disability just a little less difficult (see postscript of book review for details).
Accessible tourism research: Tegan Muir is a fourth year occupational therapy honours student at Curtin University. For her honours project she is researching the importance of a first trip or new experience for people travelling with a disability. The study will assist in understanding the relationship between travel and disability and the factors that affect the travel experience. Tegan is currently recruiting participants and beginning data collection, which will continue until September 2005.
Parking poster: This poster was produced by the Bundaberg access committee in North Queensland who received permission from Queensland Transport to reproduce the illustrations. It was designed for display in public areas, such as staff lunch rooms, shop windows, medical waiting rooms, schools, community notice boards and copies are available.

What's new on the WWW?

Technology

Access to Telecommunications Status Report June 2005: In November 2003, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) convened a Forum to discuss issues that people with disabilities experience when accessing telecommunications products and services in Australia. This update provides HREOC's assessment of recent developments in the 8 areas discussed at the Forum.
OSAT Project: This is an access technology project that seeks to advance the state of the art in access technology. Anything related to future improvements in access technology, software development practices, the situations in which access technology could be used to improve the lives of it's users and related issues are on topic and messages can be posted to the list.

Services

Comfort Discovered Online: Discover the wonderful range of comfort products designed to help make life more comfortable for older people and people with disabilities, at this new online retail store.
Free ABS Statistics: Many thousands of community groups, non-government organisations and businesses will benefit from 1 July when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) drops most current charges for information via the internet. The service means that access to electronic copies of ABS publications and related statistical tables (currently costing from $20.00 to $40.00 each) will be more affordable.

Arts

Writing Centres and Disability: Abstracts for potential contributions are invited for a new edited collection tentatively titled Writing Centers and Disability. This collection will investigate the vital, but often ignored intersection of Writing Center Studies and Disability Studies. Deadline: October 1, 2005.