[commedia] FW: * E-ACCESS BULLETIN

[Michelle McGuire]

Forwarded  From: Dan Jellinek [dan at headstar.com]
---------

* E-ACCESS BULLETIN.

The email newsletter on
technology issues for people
with visual impairment and blindness.
E-Access Bulletin web site (including archive):
<http://www.e-accessibility.com>

Sponsored by the Royal National Institute for the Blind
<http://www.rnib.org.uk>
and the National Library for the Blind
<http://www.nlbuk.org>

Please forward this bulletin to friends or
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full details at the end of the bulletin.
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NOTE: As a navigation aid to those using screen readers, all headings
begin with an asterisk and end with a full stop. Please let us know if there
is anything else we could do to make navigation of the bulletin easier.

[Issue starts.]

* ISSUE 27, MARCH 2002.

* CONTENTS.

News:
- 'Talking Link' portal set for September launch.
- Macromedia allows animations to be tagged.
- 'Dolphinaccess' addresses internet service problems.
- Government backs copyright exemption for visually impaired.
- Code implies UK disability act applies to web.
- Metadata initiative reviews access standards.

News in brief: Credit change; Athens Olympic site; New inexpensive
screen-reader.

Section two - 'The Inbox'
- Readers' forum

Section three: Focus. Music: Catching up with one's notes.
- Visually impaired people are often musical, but their progress is
hindered by unwieldy Braille notation. Derek Parkinson investigates
some high tech alternatives.

Section four: Product road-test. E-book readers: To Victor the spoils?
- With widespread adoption of e-books just around the corner, Saqib
Shaikh assesses three current reading technologies.

Section five: Communications. Regulation: Tough balancing act for 'uber
regulator'
The government is laying the foundations for a new single media and
telecoms super-regulator Ofcom, but recent US experience shows that
the difficulties are unlikely to end there. Derek Parkinson reports.

[Contents ends.]


* SECTION ONE - NEWS.


* TALKING LINK SETS A DATE FOR TRIPLE DELIVERY.

A new RNIB-backed 'Talking Link' project has set a September launch
date for all three of its major components: a searchable index to
accessible web sites; an accessible internet service provider; and a new
method for sending and receiving sound over the internet.

Not surprisingly Chris Knowles, managing director of the Chorley-based
company Five Links which is behind the project, says his team is
working flat out to hit the deadline.

Once complete the Talking Link site (http://www.talkinglink.com ) will
contain a searchable directory of web sites that satisfy the main
international accessibility standards. Knowles says he is very hopeful the
site will itself gain an RNIB's 'See it right' accessibility award.

The site will offer novices the option to download basic screenreading
and magnification packages for free. Knowles says these are simple
enough to learn in minutes.

Five Links has also developed a compression algorithm to allow audio
files to be played in real time over normal dial up modems, and is using
this at the core of a new audio-media distribution system.

In its third project, Talking Link will run an accessible internet service
provider, and is attempting to reach a further deal with cable company
Telewest to deliver accessible content through set-top boxes.

The RNIB has already provided financial and practical backing for the
project.

The company has received further assistance from the Department of
Work and Pensions, Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of
the e-Envoy, and is hopeful of receiving funds from the Small Firms
Merit Award for Research and Technology scheme
(http://www.smartwise.org.uk ).


* NEWS FLASH.

Web designers using Macromedia's 'Flash' web graphic animation
technology can now add text tags, allowing visually impaired users to
access animations with screen readers for the first time.

The silicon valley company has launched Flash MX
(http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash ), a new version of the
software which developers can use to add descriptive text to animations
and user interfaces. And the latest version of the web browser 'plug-in'
software that allows people to view the animations, Flash Player 6, now
also supports the screen readers used by visually impaired people.

"This will make more sites accessible to disabled people because up till
now there's been this thing with parallel sites. It's been either Flash or
HTML," said Matthew Carey, a designer at design agency Text Matters
(http://www.textmatters.com ). Underlying the new tagging capability
are tools that allow developers to split animations into separate
sequences. The animation flows seamlessly when played, but also for the
first time allows the user to navigate with the browser 'back' button, an
essential feature for accessibility.

GW Micro has become the first screen-reader software manufacturer to
respond to these developments, launching an upgraded version of its
'Window Eyes' product that is compatible with the new Flash tools.


* DOLPHIN ADDRESSES ACCESS PROBLEMS.

Dolphin Computer Access, which runs an internet service provider aimed
at visually impaired people called dolphinaccess.net, this week issued a
statement to explain recent shortcomings in service brought to the
attention of E-Access Bulletin by frustrated readers.

The ISP's parent company Dolphin Computer Access said its connection
and support service supplier Affinity Internet Holdings had been
contacted and was now dealing with the matter. Affinity were said to be
making additional ports available at the end of March and to be hiring
extra help-desk staff.

"This means that we should see improvements in the next couple of
weeks," Dolphin's statement concluded. When contacted by E-Access
Bulletin, Affinity said the connection problems had been caused by a
"software glitch in the network" which it had cured this week.

Dolphin did not rule out compensating its internet customers for the
problems they have experienced with the service for more than six
weeks. Many are signed up to an 'anytime' package costing 14.99 pounds
a month, but are only able to establish a connection during office hours,
equivalent to a 'worktime' service that costs 9.99 pounds.
Dolphinaccess.net product manager Mark Hill encouraged disgruntled
customers to email him on mark.hill at dolphinuk.co.uk

One angry subscriber to the service who has had difficulty connecting
since January said: "From their perspective as a company, it is what they
need to say, but it doesn't address the fact that I've only had food in
because I've been able to shop from work."


* GOVERNMENT BACKS COPYRIGHT EXEMPTION.

The UK government has said it will support a private member's bill to
legalise the limited production of accessible digital versions of copyright
material on a non-profit basis, in its second reading today. Private bills
are brought to Parliament by backbench MPs, in this case the Labour MP
Rachel Squire.

If it is voted through, the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Bill will
enter the committee stage where amendments to its wording can be
made.

Though the government backing will mean it has a better chance of
making it into the statute books it is no guarantee of success, warns
RNIB campaigns officer David Mann. "It is still a private member's bill
and will get pushed out if other business comes along."

But if all goes well, sections of the proposed legislation that would allow
the distribution of single digital copies between qualifying individuals
could come into force as soon as July, Mann says. This would have
enormous immediate benefit, particularly for students, he says.


* LAW TIGHTENS ON WEB ACCESSIBILITY.

A new draft code of practice for the UK's Disability Discrimination Act
suggests that organisations may be legally obliged to provide websites
that are accessible to disabled people.

The act itself makes no specific mention of web sites but the new code,
which offers guidance on sections of the act due to come into force in
October 2004, refers to e-commerce sites. It says: "An airline company
provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its
website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the act."

According to observers, although the draft is not an infallible
interpretation of the act but the courts would almost certainly consider it
a guide. It could therefore help resolve the question of whether or not
websites would be subject to the same law that obliges service providers
to ensure that "a physical feature is not making their service impossible
or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use".

To read the code see:
http://www.drc.org.uk/drc/InformationAndLegislation/Page331a.asp


* ACCESS STANDARDS REACH METADATA CORE.

The 'Dublin Core' Metadata Initiative, an international forum committed
to developing metadata standards, has created an interest group to work
on accessibility issues.

The group (http://dublincore.org/groups/access ) is intended to be an
open forum, drawing together participants from all countries and sectors,
especially "those with experience in the development and use of
metadata relating to accessibility". The group has set up a mailing list
where discussions will take place at. To join see:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/dc-accessibility.html

Dublin Core, named after the Dublin, Ohio venue of the initiative's first
workshop in 1995, recently submitted a proposal to the European
Commission for a network of groups to work on implementing metadata
standards across Europe. Since 1995 a further eight workshops have been
held in England, Australia, Finland, Germany, Canada and the US. There
are currently 53 organisational members of the initiative.


* News in brief:

* CREDIT CHANGE: In our February issue we incorrectly stated that
Jim Fruchterman developed the 'JAWS' computer screen reader, which
was in fact developed by Ted Henter, founder of Henter-Joyce and senior
consultant with Freedom Scientific. Fruchterman's many achievements
include the development of OpenBook, the world's leading scanning and
reading software for people with vision impairments. Our apologies to
both parties.

* OLYMPIC ACHIEVEMENT: The Organising Committee for the
Athens Olympic Games in 2004 has informed E-Access Bulletin that the
games' official web site (http://www.athens.olympic.org ) conforms to
web accessibility standards. This is welcome news following the
notorious inaccessibility of the Sidney 2000 Olympics' site, which led to
a successful legal challenge (see E-Access Bulletin issues 9, 10, 11, 17
and 23).

* RJ SCREENREADER: RJ Cooper and Associates, a small US assistive
technology firm, is developing a screen reader for both PC and
Macintosh that will cost just 99 dollars:
http://www.rjcooper.com

[Section one ends.]


* SECTION TWO - 'THE INBOX'
- READERS' FORUM.
- Please email all contributions or responses to inbox at headstar.com

* FURTHER MATHS: Following our January piece on access to
mathematical computing, John Gardner, director of the Science
Access Project at the Department of Physics, Oregon State
University, writes in to provide some additional insights in this
field.

Of his department's research, he says: "We're not quite finished
yet, but we do have methods by which blind and sighted people
can now share math and science information in electronic forms
that both can read and write. Ideally both sighted and blind people
will soon be using web formats such as HTML/MathML.

"Until recently these weren't very useful even to sighted people but
that's about to change dramatically. We're facing the challenge of
catching up again by making MathML readable and writable by
blind people, but I'm fairly confident that we'll have that ability
within a few years. Then all barriers will be gone."

Gardner and four of his students are due to present a paper to the
CSUN access conference in California next week
(http://www.csun.edu/cod) that will demonstrate how the students
"are able to do things that nobody even dreamed of before". The
paper is online at:
http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf2002/proceedings/299.htm

And a further paper on how to teach students with print disabilities
is at:
http://dots.physics.orst.edu/~gardner/ScienceEd.html

* EDUCATIONAL ENDEAVOUR: Juan Carlos Benito, a special
education teacher in Santander, Spain, says: "I think this is the
appropriate forum to share concerns and seek solutions for one of
my pupils who has cerebral palsy. Bruno is 18 years old and he is
now in the fourth grade of secondary school. He was born with
cerebral palsy and he therefore has to use constantly a wheelchair.
He cannot speak and he cannot control the movement of his limbs
- only his eyes.

"With all these limitations, he has reached the described learning
level thanks to his high intelligence and to an education plan to
integrate people with disabilities in ordinary centres. The young
man needs every kind of help but, especially in the academic and
relational fields, he would acquire a new world of self-sufficiency
if he could have a technology that would enable him through the
movement of eyes, the cerebral waves or another means not
requiring to be manipulated, to use a computer.

"Unlike blind pupils this young man has useful eyes but he does
not know how to take advantage of them. We would be extremely
grateful if we could obtain information on experiences,
technologies or organisations that could offer Bruno solutions."


* MAPPING DILEMMA: Finally, Kate Page of the government-
funded conservation body English Nature says the organisation "is
all for accessible web sites but we seem to have become a bit stuck
on web mapping - the software used to produce this does not allow
for 'alt' tags. Does anyone have a solution?"

[Section two ends.]


* SECTION THREE: FOCUS
- MUSIC.

* CATCHING UP WITH ONE'S NOTES.
by Derek Parkinson  derek at headstar.com

Visually impaired people are often musically gifted: Louis Braille
himself was a talented player of the cello and keyboard instruments. But
curiously, at present, there is no system of music notation widely
accepted as a standard that meets the needs of blind people.

While versions of Braille music have been developed, it took until 1997
to produce an internationally agreed standard and its adoption has been
slow.

There are two likely reasons for this: low levels of general Braille
literacy and the intrinsic limitations of Braille music itself. "Only a
fairly 
small proportion of blind people use Braille. The RNIB has produced
statistics showing that only something like two per cent of young people
can read it," says Alistair Edwards, a computer science lecturer at York
University who has researched alternative notations. "Braille music is
quite cumbersome: it's a linear notation whereas conventional notation
uses the two dimensions of the page," he says.

In practice, this means that Braille notation forces the reader to absorb
all 
the information in a score or none at all. There is no flexibility allowing
a reader to switch between scanning for general features and concentrating
on particular details. "There are problems with grouping notes, for
example," says Edwards. "In printed form this is done with phrase marks
- which are easy to pick out - but in Braille, you get something like
'phrase begins here', and 'phrase ends here' further along, and without
any warning."

For all the difficulties, notation is essential if visually impaired people
are to study music beyond school, or find a career composing scores for
film and television, for example. "If you want to go to the Royal College
of Music or study as an undergraduate, the level of detail you need can
only be provided by Braille music or some kind of notation," says
Jacqueline Clifton, founder of Musicians In Focus
(http://www.musiciansinfocus.org ), an organisation that provides
training and support for visually impaired musicians.

"We are concerned to promote the use of Braille music, but there is a
problem of availability: because it's difficult to get hold of, there's a
reluctance to learn it, particularly among young people," she says.

Despite this difficulty, Musicians In Focus has around 10 students
between the ages of 8 and 16 attending Saturday classes at the Royal
College of Music. "If you start them young it's much easier," Clifton
says. One of her 10 year-old students has become fluent in Braille music
after studying for one year, while a further 10 are studying at colleges of
higher education and two students are enrolled on undergraduate courses.

Musicians In Focus aims to achieve recognition as a National Training
Organisation for arts, but in the meantime Clifton is concentrating on
launching an apprenticeship scheme in September next year. The plan is
to allow suitable students to become trainers themselves, offering tuition
in Braille music and helping new entrants master the technology.

Blind musicians are highly dependent on technology for creating scores,
whether fluent in Braille music or not. At present, this is achieved by
recording a piece in a digital file format such as MIDI (Musical
Instrument Digital Interface) and editing it on a PC using sequencing
software and a screen reader.

"This can produce very accurate scores, but has the drawback that it
reproduces everything from the MIDI file, so any inaccuracies or traits
are carried through and have to be edited," says Clifton. Another
drawback to this approach is that it squeezes all the information from a
piece of music into very long lists of symbols - exactly the same kind of
problem that afflicts Braille music.

At York University, Edwards is keen to rethink the approach to notation.
He recently supervised 'Weasel'
(http://www.benchallis.com/research.htm#Weasel), a research project to
develop an interface made up of a tactile surface overlaid on a touch-
sensitive pad. Using the pad blind musicians are able to scan a piece for
general structure and then pick out aspects such as pitch or rhythm either
singly or in combination, or look at specific markings like fingering or
performance instructions.

Instead of Braille music output, Weasel can produce either music or an
audio description of the passage selected. At present the Weasel interface
is used for reading music rather than writing it, although Edwards is
confident that it will be adaptable for writing.

But while the technology might not be a problem, funding further
projects may well be. Edwards is keen to build a kit version of Weasel
for music teachers but has found that projects of this sort often fall
outside the remit of funding bodies. "There's no state funding so we have
to approach it like any other research project. The original Weasel
project was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council, but we tend to fall between two stools. We're seen as working
on something that's more education than engineering or vice-versa."

But if, with enough badgering, the team does manage to ferret out the
funds, the weasel will live again.

[Section three ends.]


* SECTION FOUR: PRODUCT ROAD-TEST:
- E-BOOK READERS.

* TO VICTOR THE SPOILS?
by Saqib Shaikh  ss at saqibshaikh.com

With an exemption to allow blind people to send and receive copyrighted
digital material looking likely to become UK law (see news this issue),
the age of the accessible e-book could be just around the corner. But will
the software and hardware available to read the books be serviceable
enough to inspire this renaissance in reading?

The DAISY (http://www.daisy.org ) consortium is likely to be the main
format the new breed of books will be distributed in, but we can expect a
multitude of specialised reading devices.

Those who already own computers may opt for software players because
no extra equipment will be required. But those who cannot use
computers, or computer users who wish to listen to talking books on the
move, may opt for a hardware player.

Each player will offer different ways of navigating such as skipping to
particular sections or pages, searching for keywords and ignoring certain
elements such as pictures, footnotes or side-bars.

E-Access Bulletin has tested three prototype DAISY e-book readers: two
pieces of software and one hardware reader. They were LPPlayer
software from Dolphin Computer Access subsidiary Labyrinten Data AB
(http://www.labyrinten.se ); Victor Reader Soft software from Visuaide
(http://www.visuaide.com ) of Canada; and Victor Reader Pro,
Visuaide's latest portable machine for reading e-books on CD.

LPPlayer has some built-in speech feedback, using an English voice with
a noticeable Scandanavian accent, as one might expect from a Swedish
company. While all dialogues are spoken, other parts of the program,
such as the menus, are not and you will need a screen reader to access
these. However, the non-talking parts are not crucial to the program's
operation.

As well as playing the book, LPPlayer has the ability to show the text
and images as it is being read. The user can change the font and size of
text.

LPPlayer offers a variety of methods of navigating a book. You can
either move through section by section; move one page or paragraph at a
time; or move through the book page by page, or jump to a particular
page. It is also possible to search the book for a particular word or
phrase. There is no method for manually fast forwarding or rewinding
the book however - you will need to navigate by paragraph instead.

The program also allows you to set up to nine bookmarks, which you can
jump back to at a later time. Also, you can make audio notes (up to 60
seconds) or text notes (up to 80 characters) to record thoughts on
particular passages.

Victor Reader Soft (VRS) contains all of the features of LPPlayer except
the ability to record audio notes, and many extra features as well.

One of the major differences between VRS and LPPlayer is that the
former is almost completely self-voicing, using a male Canadian voice.
For those users who prefer to use their existing screen reader, VRS
provides scripts for some readers, including JAWS.

VRS also provides a much more comprehensive set of navigation
features. It is easy to move by various amounts, skip in and out of
sections, and even get an overall outline of the document. VRS also has
full fast-forward and rewind features, as well as the ability to skip
forwards and backwards a specified amount of time. A history feature
keeps a record of the past five places in which you were listening to this
book, and you can skip back and forth through the history.

VRS also provides many more features than LPPlayer for annotating a
book, including more bookmark facilities. It also provides more
information about the book, and allows the user to build up a 'bookshelf'
on their hard disk. There are many other extra features, such as greater
control over the reading voice and the display. Users may even create
their own user profiles to store their own personal preferences.

Finally, one of the nicest features about VRS is its comprehensive help
system. The software includes a 'key describer' mode which is useful to
learn all the controls. There is also a getting started guide, a reference
guide and a quick reference guide. All three are provided in DAISY
format, allowing you to practice using the software as you read them.

Finally, Victor Reader Pro, Visuaide's hardware DAISY e-book reader, is
similar to its software stablemate, but also has some extra features. The
unit itself is approximately 20 centimetres by 15 centimetres, and weighs
around a kilogram. It can either be used with a mains power supply or a
built-in rechargeable battery.

The controls for Victor Pro are on the top of the unit. In the centre there
is a numeric keypad. The majority of the reading features are executed
from this keypad. Below the keypad there are play/stop and fast-
forward/rewind keys. Running vertically down the right-hand-side, there
are a number of buttons for changing the way in which the unit reads,
while down the left there are more navigation and bookmark-related
keys. Like Victor Reader Soft it also has a key describer feature. This is
even more useful on this hardware unit for learning what the various
buttons do.

The feature set is very similar to that of VRS. The unit uses a British
female voice to speak all prompts and messages. In addition to volume
and speed controls, Victor Pro also has a tone control. The other main
extra feature is the ability to play audio CDs. In fact, since you can use
many of Victor's e-book reading features with audio CDs, it makes for a
rather powerful CD player!

On the other hand, Victor Pro does not have a display, and you cannot
make text notes with it since there is no keyboard, but you can still set
bookmarks and make other annotations. Other features absent in the
hardware device include support for multiple users and screen readers.

My personal preference is for the Victor software and hardware. While
LPPlayer certainly had a wide set of features, I found Victor's interface
more intuitive, I liked the fact it was fully self-voicing, and the help
feature is excellent - one can never have too much help with technology!

[Section four ends.]


* SECTION FIVE: COMMUNICATIONS
- REGULATION.

* TOUGH BALANCING ACT FOR 'UBER-REGULATOR'.
by Derek Parkinson  derek at headstar.com

This week, legislation was enacted that lays the foundations for Ofcom, a
new regulatory body for the entire communications sector that will have
an enormous impact on the lives of disabled people. Ofcom will be
tasked with ensuring that new communications technologies are
accessible to all. But recent experience in the US has shown that even a
forward-thinking regulator may not be enough to get disabled people the
services they deserve.

In the UK, a new Communications Act has received its final reading in
the Commons and is in line for Royal Assent. The first part of the act
lays down the responsibilities of the new 'uber-regulator' Ofcom, which
draws together the duties previously discharged by the telecoms
regulator Oftel, the Radiocommunications Agency, the Broadcasting
Standards Commission, the Independent Television Commission, the
Advertising Standards Commission, the Advertising Standards Authority
and the BBC Board of Governors. The second part of the act, which
formalises Ofcom's aims, scope and powers, is not expected to become
law before the second half of 2003.

The new regulator aims to reflect the growing convergence between
communications technologies and will operate within an extremely broad
rubric, combining the licensing and consumer protection role of its
predecessor bodies with enhanced powers to enforce competition
legislation.

The responsibilities of communications service providers have been
sketched out in a separate government white paper
(http://www.communicationswhitepaper.gov.uk ) but these have not
given campaigners for disabled access much to cheer about. The
government commits itself 'to ensure everybody has easy access to
communications services, either free at the point of delivery - in the case
of public service broadcasting - or at an affordable price - in the case of
other communications services'; but this commitment will have to be
balanced against its role to encourage competition, which led to
controversial results in the case of the old telecoms watchdog Oftel.

Oftel was proud of its so-called 'regulation with a light touch', which
loosely translated as intervening only when market forces were seen to
fail. Oftel's critics often accused the regulator of a 'do nothing'
approach, or of doing too little, too late.

It is too soon to tell how well Ofcom will balance its various
responsibilities. But there are already signs that forcing broadcasters to
make content available to the visually impaired by including audio
descriptions, for example, is only half the battle.

Peter Wilkins of the National Federation of the Blind of the UK
(http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nfbuk) expresses concern that even if
broadcasters provide audio descriptions of content, many blind users in
the UK will be unable to use them: "By our estimates, only 45 people in
the whole of South East England have the necessary technology. Audio
descriptions are now available for digital terrestrial services, but you
need a set-top box to access them. The question is - who pays for or
subsidises them? The RNIB can't really afford to, which leaves the
manufacturers or the government."

In fact, there are other funding candidates: service providers such as Sky
have received state subsidies to promote low-cost set-top boxes as part of
the government drive to stimulate the take-up of digital TV. Wilkins is
unimpressed by their efforts, however: "Their electronic guides have
menus that list programmes with audio descriptions, but a blind person
can't access the guide!" he says.

Wilkins' concerns were echoed by the RNIB: "We estimate it will cost
about 3 million pounds to produce 20,000 audio modules. [Government
minister] Kim Howell has said that the Department of Culture, Media
and Sport is determined to increase the take-up of these things, but how?
- the DCMS doesn't have a spare 3 million pounds, so it will have to be
extracted from the Treasury," says a spokesman.

If the US is any indicator of what the UK can expect to experience
further down the line, Ofcom may have its work cut out ensuring that
broadcasters stick to their obligations in providing even a statutory
minimum level of access. Last month the American Council of the Blind
(ACB) reacted angrily after a group of US television, video and cable
companies tried to stall Federal Communications Commission
regulations that would make audio captions compulsory for a small
proportion of TV content in the US.

ACB president Christopher Gray called on the National Association of
Broadcasters, the National Cable Telecommunications Association and
the National Motion Picture Association of America to "stop this
senseless attack on the needs and rights of blind people". Gray's reaction
followed a move by the broadcasters to block regulations that require top
commercial networks to provide 50 hours per quarter of prime time
and/or children's programming with video description.

The US regulations, which also set requirements on emergency broadcast
information, have been available for consultation since the end of 2000.
However, one month before they were due to come into effect the
broadcasters jointly filed a petition to the District of Columbia Appeal
Court, claiming the regulations are inconsistent with the
Communications Act of 1934, impose a scheme of 'compelled speech'
on the petitioner's members, and are inconsistent with the first
amendment of the US Constitution. Surprisingly, they were joined by the
National Federation of the Blind, which claimed in a separate filing that
the rule is arbitrary, capricious and not in accordance with the law.

It is worth noting that this debate is about more than access to
entertainment. In April 2000, FCC chairman William Kennard supported
the amendments to the 1996 Communications Act by citing the case of
Sharon McLawhorn, a deaf woman who missed a flood warning
broadcast on local networks because it was not captioned properly, and
was stranded for 24 hours before rescue arrived.

[Section five ends.]


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Copyright 2002 Headstar Ltd. http://www.headstar.com
ISSN 1476-6337
The Bulletin may be reproduced in full as long as all parts including this
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PERSONNEL:
Editor - Dan Jellinek  dan at headstar.com
Deputy Editor - Phil Cain  phil at headstar.com
Senior Reporter - Derek Parkinson  derek at headstar.com
Reporter - Tamara Fletcher  tamara at headstar.com
Editorial Advisor - Kevin Carey  humanity at atlas.co.uk

[Issue ends.]