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News and Events
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news | events calendar
Past News Items
[ go to the Americans with Disabilities Act news page ]
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Universal Design Conferences in Japan
Adaptive Environments was recently involved with two conferences that took place in Japan.
[ more information ] -
Stair-Climbing Wheelchair Passes a Test
By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press, 11/21/2002
The first wheelchair that can climb stairs - plus shift into four-wheel drive to scoot up a grassy hill and even elevate its occupant for eye-level conversation - moved closer to the market yesterday, as advisers to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended it be allowed to sell.
[ read the complete article ] -
Presolicitation Notice for Universal Design
National Council on Disability, 11/13/02
The National Council on Disability (NCD) is interested in evaluating a number of technology products to determine whether the most commonly stated obstacles to technology accessibility are supported by research.
[ more information ] -
Descriptive Video Service (DVS) Listing for Turner Broadcasting Stations
DVS listings for the following stations:- TNT - Turner Network Television
- TCM - Turner Classic Movies
- TBS - TBS - Supperstation
- TSO - Turner South
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New Device Helps Blind People Cross Streets Safely
By Charnicia E. Huggins, Wed Aug 21, 5:41 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A team of Japanese researchers has proposed the use of a device consisting of a small camera and a wearable computer to help blind people cross the street.
[ read the complete article ] -
Hands-Free Writing Software May Aid Disabled Users
By Melissa Schorr Wed 8/21/02
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Two British computer programmers have developed a freely available software program that allows disabled computer users to "type" using only the gaze of their eyes, according to a report published in the journal Nature.
[ read the complete article ] -
Section 8 Ownership Plan Gets into Gear
By William GradyTribune staff reporter Published 7/19/02
A 2-year-old federal program has begun opening the doors of homeownership to single mothers, people with disabilities and others who often have struggled to find affordable housing. Buying a home has become an option under U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations that now allow mortgage payments to be made with Section 8 vouchers traditionally used to subsidize rents.
[ read the complete article ] -
Upcoming Conference: Web Design that Works for Everyone
Co-Hosted by Adaptive Environments & Rhode Island School of Design
Date: October 18/19/02
Location: Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, Rhode Island, USA
[ go to the conference web site ]
[ read the press release: Microsoft Word | Text Only ] -
Reconnecting with the Dots
By David Mehegan, Boston Globe, 7/1/02
Reversing decline in use of braille is mission of Boston-based publisher. [ more ]
[ read the complete article ] -
The Perils of Thoughtless Design
The Baltimore Sun - City Diary, 6/19/02
Good Projects take bad turns when their designers forget about the people who will use them.[ more ]
[ read the complete article ] -
Accessibility Not an Amenity for Many Home Buyers
By Alan J. Heavens, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/9/02
It's a different world today. Every new curb has a curb cut. It would be unthinkable for public buildings not to be accessible to everyone. Yet most private housing remains inaccessible to people with physical disabilities. [ more ]
[ read the complete article ] -
Disabled on Welfare Face Pressure to Work
By David Abel, Boston Globe, 6/17/02
As Congress presses states to put more of their welfare recipients to work, Massachusetts may be forced to change regulations on the largest pool of people now exempt from work requirements: the disabled. [ more ]
[ read the complete article ] -
Weary Wheels
By Nicholas Thompson, Boston Globe, 6/4/02
For years, the United States has shipped thousands of wheelchairs to the Third World that are designed for getting around the smooth surfaces of American streets, hospitals, and houses - not the rugged, crumbling pathways of Ghana where even a city road can stymie an SUV. [ more ]
[ read the complete article ] -
"Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age:
Universal Design for Learning"
New Book
The book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning, addresses the concept of Universal Design for Learning and its practical application in the classroom. There is also a companion web site for the book. [ more ]
[ detailed information ] -
Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift Proclaims Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness Week
To raise public awareness about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), an increasingly prevalent and often debilitating illness with exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment, Governor Jane Swift has named May 5-11 "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness Week."
[ read the complete article ] -
Mother's Day Leonard P. Zakim-Bunker Hill Bridge Walk
Event sponsored by WalkBoston
WalkBoston is proud to be a co-sponsor of the free, public walk on the Zakim-Bunker Hill Bridge on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12.
[ read the complete article ] -
GM Designers Aim for Better Disabled Access
Associated Press DETROIT -- A group of engineers and designers at General Motors Corp. are working to create versions of the automaker's sedans geared toward aging and impaired drivers and passengers.
[ read the complete article ] -
Martinez and Home Builders Announce Historic Partnership to Promote Fair Housing and Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities
HUD Press Release
WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez today announced a historic partnership with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) to educate and train persons in the housing industry about their responsibilities to provide accessible housing to persons with disabilities.
[ read the complete press release ] -
Media Access Group at WGBH Publishes Guide to Recording Television Programs with Description
To increase awareness among educators about the availability of Descriptive Video Service (DVS®) on television - and specifically, its potential use in the classroom - the Media Access Group at WGBH has published a guide to recording TV programs with description onto VHS tapes.
[ read the complete article ] -
Revolutionizing a Device That Transmits in Braille
By Reid Kanaley, Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/25/02
The Tacti-com could become a $1,000 portable alternative to other Braille communication devices available to the almost 100,000 people in the nation who suffer impairment of both sight and hearing. The existing devices cost up to $10,000, according.
[ read the complete article ] -
Disability Museum Opens Online
As an expansion of her work in putting together the award-winning NPR documentary "Beyond Affliction," Block has opened the Disability History Museum at http://www.disabilitymuseum.org -- a searchable, theme-based digital collection that exists only online -- offering documents and images related to disability history in the United States, drawn from public and private collections around the country.
[ read the complete article ] -
Company Sees MEMS as Solution for Affordable Braille Displays
By Allen Bernard, Small Times Correspondent, 4/9/02
Development of a MEMS-based Braille display system may prove to be a miracle worker for the thousands of blind people unable to access information via computer.
[ read the complete article ] -
Video Description Fact Sheet
American Council of the Blind
A document prepared by the American Council of the Blind to assist users and potential users of video description, to know what the service is, what the Federal Communications Commission requires of those responsible for providing it, and what you can do to insure it is available to you.
[ read the complete document ] -
Boston Marathon: VanDyk Storms to Second Crown
By Bob Monahan, Boston Globe, 4/16/02
South African Ernst VanDyk - leaving his competition in another zip code - defended his wheelchair title in the Boston Marathon yesterday in fine fashion. The women's crown went to Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland.
[ read the complete article ] -
BHA Agrees to More Accessible Housing
By Thomas Grillo, Boston Globe, 4/5/02
The Boston Housing Authority, after lagging for years in meeting a federal mandate, will be forced to make nearly 400 public housing apartments accessible to people with disabilities by 2005, under an agreement announced yesterday by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel R. Martinez.
[ read the complete article ] -
In a First, Medicare Coverage Is Authorized for Alzheimer's
By Robert Pear, New York Times, 3/31/02
The Bush administration, in a major change, has authorized Medicare coverage for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, which afflicts nearly four million Americans and is expected to grow to epidemic proportions with the aging of the population.
[ read the complete article ] -
Postal Worker's Estate Helps Blind
By Martha Bryson Hodel, Associated Press Writer, 3/26/02
When he died at 91 in 1979, C.J. Teubert, a former postal worker, left an estate worth more than $3 million, most of which he dedicated to helping the blind.
[ read the complete article ] -
The Land of Oz
By Joanna Weiss, Boston Globe, 3/27/02
Oswald Mondejar works his magic with a charity for the disabled in Cuba, the country of his roots - even if it means helping one person at a time.
[ read the complete article ] -
Design for the Future: Architect Plans for America's Aging Population
By Kimberly Owings, Denver Business Journal
Two years ago, Denver architect William Brummett started his own firm specializing in designing homes and buildings for older people. Brummett said that he knew that if he became an expert in this field, he would have a lot of work when the predicted swell of need for facilities to care for the elderly hit.
[ read the complete article ] -
Many Architects Are Baffled by the Problems of Acoustic Design
By Roger K. Lewis, Washington Post
The great architect Le Corbusier said "architecture is the magnificent play of forms in light." Few would disagree that pleasing the eye is a primary mission of architecture. But pleasing the ear is also a mission.
[ read the complete article ] -
Olympic Website Targets Disabled
By Daniel Howden in Athens
Athens is claiming an Olympic first this week as organisers for the 2004 Games unveil what they say is the first website in the Olympic family to meet international standards for disabled access.
[ read the complete article ] -
UD 2002
International Conference for Universal Design in Japan
November 30 - December 4, 2002
Yokohama, Japan
[ go to the conference web site ] -
This PDA's To-Do Lists Can Be a Lifeline
by Suzanne Robatille, 2-20-02
Cogent Systems' Randy Dayle discusses ISAAC, a mobile device that keeps vital info at the fingertips of the cognitively impaired.
[ read the complete article ] -
Putting Books Online for the Visually Disabled
by Samar Farah
Imagine spending hours tediously scanning hundreds of pages and converting them to a special digital file every time you wanted to read the latest bestseller. (Not to mention the cost of the scanner itself.) Until now, many who are visually impaired have resorted to just that. Less than 5 percent of books are available in Braille or audiotape formats, by some estimates.
[ read the complete article ] -
Mobile Phones Useful to People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
by Jon Wurtzel, BBC Go Digital, 2-8-02
Over the last few years, the mobile phone has emerged as a popular device for what at first may seem an unlikely user group: the deaf and other people who are hard of hearing.
[ read the complete article ] -
For Deaf Signers, a Glove That Translates
by Mindy Sink, 2/7/02
Ryan Patterson, a high school senior, has developed a sensor glove that can take the finger movements of American Sign Language and translate them into text on a small display screen.
[ read the complete article ] -
Wheelchair Users Achieve Milestone in 2 Ordinances
by Jodi Wilgoren, 2-7-02
Aperville, Illinois is one of the first two municipalities in the nation to require that all new private homes be built with 32-inch-wide ground-floor doorways and other elements of wheelchair-accessible design.
[ read the complete article ] -
Paper: Northwest Airlines to Settle Claim
2-20-02
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Northwest Airlines plans to spend $550,000 to improve service for passengers with disabilities as part of an agreement to settle allegations that it neglected disabled travelers on at least 250 occasions, USA Today reported on Wednesday.
[ read the complete article ] -
Social Security Administration (SSA) Fact Sheet on Ticket Program
The Ticket to Work Program and Other Provisions of The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act
[ read the Fact Sheet ] -
Voyage of Discovery
By Joseph P. Kahn, Globe Staff, 1/27/2002
"How's Your News?", a new 80-minute documentary film about disability and self-discovery, has been a surprise hit at recent film festivals.
[ read the complete article ] Funding from Massachusetts Cultural Council
The Massachusetts Cultural Council recently notified Adaptive Environments of its award for the third year of its three-year Organization Support grant.
[ read more ]Funding from the Boston Foundation
With the award of $55,000 at its December meeting, the Boston Foundation provided support for the fourth year to Adaptive Environments for the Boston initiative, A Neighborhood Fit for People, Universal Design in the South Boston Waterfront.
[ read more ]Designing for the 21st Century III:
An International Conference on Universal Design
[ announcement regarding plans for the next conference ]New Book Promotes Accessibility in Design & Construction,
Helps Assure Fair Housing Act Compliance
Press Release from Steven Winter Associates, July 24, 2001
Featuring only the facts and technical guidance needed to help ensure compliance with the Guidelines, A Basic Guide to Fair Housing Accessibility is an indispensable resource for architects, builders, contractors, site engineers, and developers who need to know that their work is in conformance with federal guidelines.
[ read the complete press release ]Jeffords's Special-Ed Plan Revived
by Susan Milligan, Globe Staff, 6/4/2001
Newly empowered by the defection of Republican Senator James Jeffords, Senate Democrats take control this week with plans to push for a project he has championed for more than a quarter-century: a special-education program that would funnel as much as $100 million yearly to Massachusetts.
[ read the complete article ]As Parents Age, Future for Disabled a Worry
by Tatsha Robertson, Globe Staff, 5/28/2001
According to the University of Illinois at Chicago, 480,000 adults with disabilities are living with parents who are 60 years of age or older. And many of these parents do not know what will happen to their disabled children once they have died.
[ read the complete article ]US Access Board Issues Guidance on Movie Captioning
The Board has issued a new technical bulletin on closed captioning technologies for movie theaters to provide access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. This bulletin describes several new systems that present movie captions in a discreet manner that does not interfere with the typical viewing experience. Guidance is provided on how the different systems work, their design requirements, costs and availability.
[ read the announcement from the Access Board ]Governor Swift Proclaims Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness Week
To raise public awareness about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), an increasingly prevalent and often debilitating illness associated with exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment, Governor Jane Swift has named May 6-12 "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness Week."
[ read the complete press release ]World of Options Scholarships
Individuals with disabilities from the Greater Boston Area who apply and are accepted to participate in an international exchange program offered by several organizations, colleges and universities, may be eligible for a World of Options Scholarship between $1000-$2000. Detailed information is available on the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) web site.
[ read the complete press release ]International Access Engineering Awards
News Release - The International Coalition of Access Engineers and Specialists announced the kick-off of its 2001 International Access Engineering Awards Program.
[ detailed information ]New Publications from ICI
The Institute for Community Inclusion is pleased to announce three new publications.
[ detailed information ]Assisted Living Services Pondered
By Mal Leary, Special to the NEWS
AUGUSTA — Maine has received a $156,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to plan how to handle the growing demand for assisted living, a level of care proving very popular across the country and in Maine. But some lawmakers and advocates say the study is not enough, and they want a commission with public members to explore the issue.
[ read the complete article ]Scholarship Opportunity for Women with Disabilities
The ELA Foundation is announcing their annual scholarship for women with disabilities who are pursuing a graduate degree at any college or university in the United States. The application procedure and form can be found on the ELA website at www.ela.org under Grants/Scholarships. All applications must be received by June 15, 2001. The ELA Foundation will be awarding two scholarships worth $2000 in August, 2001. The scholarship money is contingent upon the winner's acceptance to or continuation in an accredited college or university graduate school program and will be made payable to the educational institution for tuition. Additional information on the ELA Foundation can be found on the website at www.ela.org.
[ go to the ELA Foundation web site ]- New HalfthePlanet Web Site
HalfthePlanet Foundation is pleased to announce that it has relaunched the HalfthePlanet web site, accessed either at http://www.halftheplanet.org/ or at http://www.halftheplanet.com/. The web site has been redesigned and is currently operated as a program of HalfthePlanet Foundation.
[ go to the HalfthePlanet web site ] - Human Service Transportation Coordination in Massachusetts
Massachusetts state agencies are developing a coordinated system for brokering and providing human services transportation for individuals in programs such as MassHealth (Medicaid), Early Intervention, rehabilitation, day and other services. Eight regional forums are being held during March-April 2001 to share information and seek input from service participants, transportation providers and other interested parties.
[ read more about upcoming transportation forums ] - Access Expressed New England: A Cultural Access Directory
VSA arts affiliates in all six New England states have formed a partnership with the New England ADA & Accessible IT Center and the Adaptive Environments Center to update the popular Massachusetts directory of accessible cultural facilities and programs and expand its reach to the entire region.
[ read the complete announcement ] - Adaptive Environments: Recent Funding Highlights
Adaptive Environments recently received generous support from various funders for several of its ongoing projects.
[ read recent funding highlights ] - NEC Foundation of America: Nurturing a New Generation of Universal Designers
By funding programs and projects with national reach that encourage future engineering and design professionals to embrace the idea that good design works for everyone, NEC Foundation of America has made universal design a major focus of its grant making since 1991.
[ read the complete press release ] - The Boston Foundation supports 'a neighborhood fit for people'.
With the award of $65,000 at its December meeting, the Boston Foundation provided support for the third year to Adaptive Environments for the Boston initiative, A Neighborhood Fit for People, Universal Design in the South Boston Waterfront.
[ read the complete announcement ]
Please e-mail us at adaptive@adaptiveenvironments.org to let us know about any news that you would like to see listed here. News items can be of a regional, national or international scope.