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Armed forces resist rights for disabled David Brindle, Social Services Correspondent Thursday July 15, 1999 Military top brass are digging in for a battle over pressure being put on them to give up the armed forces' exemption from disability discrimination rules. Police, prison officers and firefighters will soon come under the rules if, as expected, the home office agrees to surrender its exemption. But the defence ministry is standing firm. "They seem to think we are going to make them send disabled pilots to fly over Kosovo," said one of those involved in tense Whitehall negotiations on the issue. Ministers are anxious to demonstrate their commitment to greater rights for disabled people, particularly in view of the continuing ill-feeling over disability benefit cuts. Part of the strategy is to put the government's own house in order. Under the disability discrimination act 1995, the 209,000 members of the armed forces are not covered by rules outlawing "less favourable" treatment of people with disabilities. The services are also excluded from requirements to make "reasonable adjustments" to accommodate disabled people. The same exclusions apply to police, prison officers and firefighters. The home office has indicated it is willing to forgo its exemptions provided safeguards are agreed. A home office spokeswoman said: "We are considering the principle of opting out of the exemption for the fire service, police and prison officers. However, realistic sets of common selection standards for each service need to be set." Margaret Hodge, minister for disabled people, is leading efforts to persuade the ministry of defence to follow suit. But it has so far been unmoved by argument that the issue is not that the services should be made to recruit disabled people, but that those who become disabled while in uniform should have proper protection. Military leaders are now to appear before the government's disability rights task force to explain their reluctance. An MoD spokesman said it was not being rigid and was still considering its position. "The fundamental point here is that disability is not compatible with our need for a combat-ready fighting force that can be deployed at a moment's notice anywhere in the world," he said. Disclosure of the argument comes as a report published today by the Fabian Society, the left-of-centre think tank, calls on the government to develop a co-ordinated national disability strategy. It should be led by a central disability unit, says the report by Marilyn Howard, a social policy analyst. Disabled people should be involved systematically in policy development and there should be "joined-up", cross-government objectives on disability issues. "Government, locally and nationally, has an important role to play in making rights a reality and in setting an example as an employer and provider of services," Ms Howard says. U.S. FCC Passes Rules For Disabled Phone Access Full Coverage Disabilities and the Disabled By Aaron Pressman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Telephones and communications services like voice mail will become increasingly accessible to disabled people under rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday. The agency said telecommunications equipment manufacturers like Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news) and Nokia Corp. and service providers like Bell Atlantic Corp. (NYSE:BEL - news) will be free to decide how to include features to make telephones more accessible to an estimated 54 million people in the United States with disabilities. Solutions range from putting a small bump on the five key of a telephone keypad, allowing a blind person to figure out where each button is located, to including interfaces for text-based calling equipment or voice-activated controls. The agency ordered companies to evaluate accessibility features during the earliest phases of the design process and to include access features that can be accomplished easily and without much added cost. ``As technology becomes increasingly important in our economy and in our day to day lives, we've got to make sure that everybody has access to technology,'' FCC chairman William Kennard said at the agency's Wednesday meeting. The new rules also cover voice mail and interactive services, a requirement not directly called for by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. ``These are very critical features that are so widespread today,'' said agency commissioner Susan Ness. ``For those whose lives are dependent on being able to get through on a call this can be an extraordinarily frustrating and indeed life threatening situation.'' Disabilities groups praised the decision to include the nearly ubiquitous voice menus that have cropped up in everything from voicemail services to bank customer information lines. Deborah Kaplan, executive director of the nonprofit World Institute on Disability on Oakland, Calif., said manufacturers and service providers had resisted making products more accessible for fear of losing a competitive edge. ``We've been regarded as a very small niche market,'' Kaplan said. ``Now, everybody's going to do it so companies don't have to be afraid that they're going to take a huge business hit.'' Manufacturers, who had feared more burdensome government mandates, generally welcomed the new rules. ''We are confident that the commission will follow through on the reasonable balance being struck,'' said Matthew Flanigan, president of the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group representing manufacturers. Making Cell Phones Disabled-Friendly FCC to Require New Telecommunications Products to Be Easier to Use By John Schwartz Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 14, 1999; Page E01 Cellular phones that provide clear sound over hearing aids or "speak" usage instructions to the blind could become commonplace under rules that federal regulators plan to enact today. The new rules to be ordered by the Federal Communications Commission would require that new telecommunications products and services be usable by people who are physically disabled, and could ultimately transform the telephones and services used by every American, said FCC Chairman William E. Kennard. "This action represents the most significant opportunity for people with disabilities since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990," Kennard said, calling the new regulation "the ADA for the information age." The communications industry is largely on board with the new rules. Objections that some companies raised at the draft-rule stage were worked out, several industry representatives said. Disabled people have long complained that many of the mass-market products sold by the telecommunications industry are useless to them. People who use hearing aids, for instance, often have trouble talking on cell phones because the electronics in the two devices conflict. Simple modifications could make usable the high-tech devices that have become common in daily life for many Americans. Many of these features could come about simply by tweaking the software in today's phones, said Gregg C. Vanderheiden, a professor of industrial engineering at the University of Wisconsin. For example, the small screens that are showing up on more and more phones could be engineered to provide readouts for a text transmission system used by the deaf. Some of the benefits, such as voice commands for people unable to use their hands, would be enjoyed by anyone using the upgraded equipment, Vanderheiden said -- in the same way that television closed captions are used by people who want to watch TV with the sound off. Vanderheiden has created a prototype cell phone with special diamond-shaped button that allows users whose fingers might bump unwanted keys to select the buttons they want and then confirm the choice. That button can also be programmed to make the phone speak the function of the other buttons, so that the phone can be more easily used by the blind. Rather than mandate specific features and "micro-manage" manufacturing, Kennard said, the new rules will require companies to meet with advocates for the disabled and design access into phones from the start. Kennard said any added expense of creating these features will be more than offset by increased sales. The costs of implementing the features should not raise prices greatly, agreed Al Lucas, a vice president with cell-phone maker Motorola Inc. who is responsible for designing the company's products so they will be accessable to the disabled. Cellular companies are ready to comply with the new rules, Lucas said. "We are totally, 100 percent behind it," so long as the FCC does not require onerous record-keeping requirements for companies to prove that they are considering disability issues, Lucas said. Brian F. Fontes of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association said the FCC won't require that every phone and pager support every feature: "If every single product had to accommodate a variety of disabilities . . . some of those features may in fact be in conflict with each other," Fontes said. Instead, the FCC is calling for features that are "readily achievable," and will decide whether companies are living up to their obligations on a case-by-case basis. The FCC is pushing the industry in a direction it has already chosen, said Bradley A. Williams, an analyst with securities firm Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. "You don't have to be disabled to have desires to seek room for improvement in terms of design and features and functionality," he said. The benefits of the new rules could extend far beyond the traditional ranks of the disabled, said Jeff Kramer, legislative representative for the American Association of Retired Persons. "For our membership, it's an important issue" to have phones for those whose vision and sight might be fading with age. But "it's not just for people who are in their seventies and eighties," Kramer said -- "we're finding people who are reaching their fifties are having more problems than they had in the past" with hearing loss, possibly because of exposure to loud music in their youth. |
