Technology, Innovation, and Accessibility

Back in July one of the law-tech listservs I read had a flurry of posts about a discrimination lawsuit being brought by students and the National Federation of the Blind against Arizona State University. (Teknoids) The lawsuit alleged that the pilot program to distribute textbooks via the Kindle DX violated the Americans with Disability Act, section 504.  The ASU University Technology Officer posted a press release about the pilot program on May 6, 2009.  The comments from students there debated many of the pros and cons of the program, including the issue of accessibility for blind students.  While the KindleDX does offer text to speech capability, and allows users to zoom the print size, choose high contrast fonts and colors, none of its operational menus or navigation mechanisms are included in the text to speech function.  So the Kindle offers great advantages to the sighted and to those with low vision, not to mention those who might have disability issues that prevent them holding heavy textbooks; however, users who are blind are completely unable to make use of the reader.  The discrimination suit was filed on June 25, 2009.  (The full text of the filing is available at http://www.shandrow.com/kindle/complaint.txt)

Watching the blogosphere about this one has been interesting.  Many first reactions are ‘well, books aren’t accessible to the blind either’, followed by ‘Amazon has no obligation to make its hardware totally accessible to every kind of possible disability out there’, to dire prognostications about the chilling effect this will have on technological innovation.  Many complain about the extra cost for everybody to subsidize a very small set of users.  Others do comment that while Amazon may not be obligated, Universities are obligated by the ADA to make sure that technology adopted does not disadvantage those with disabilities.  Some with detailed knowledge of the underlying technology are dumbfounded as to why the accessibility wasn’t built-in in the first place.

Just last week three schools announced that they will not deploy the Kindle specifically because of the disability issue. (NFB news page) An opinion piece by a student at the University of Wisconsin sparked many comments where all these issues are raised again, especially the argument that to avoid disadvantaging the few, we are disadvantaging the many.  (Badger Herald)  As we at Penn State University Libraries consider offering materials in e-book format, and adopting potential readers these same issues are definitely being considered.  (PSUL White Paper)  Is the Sony Reader any more accessible?  If not, should we avoid any reader until there is at least one that is accessible?

As part of the part of the dialogue, where would you draw the line?

Old news – a speed dating study on race

A study came out in 2008 that attempted to capture dating preferences along racial and other lines of diversity among heterosexual pairings.  The link to full text for Penn State is below as well as one quote.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/119395824/HTMLSTART

“We find marginally significant evidence that those subjects that grew up in a ZIP code with a larger fraction of inhabitants of a particular race are less willing to date someone from this racial group. In other words, familiarity can decrease tolerance. This result is unaffected by controlling for the average income in the ZIP code. Finally, we also find that more physically attractive people care less about the race of the partner.”

There are a few stereotypes that are verified, but also other which are left unresolved (statistically).

“Training Rules” Showing a Success

Thanks to everyone involved in making this film showing possible, and for such a great discussion afterword: Including the LGBTA Student Resource Center, the members of the University Libraries Diversity Committee, Sue Rankin, and Jan Bortner.

Please post your thoughts on the film and the issues discussed!

Multiracial people become fastest-growing US group

Very interesting article.  Is it still necessary to define race? Why spend so much time trying to label people?  What are you thoughts?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090528/ap_on_re_us/us_multiracial_americans

“What ever happened to saying ‘I’m sorry’?”

I read a great op-ed piece from the Kalamazoo Gazette this morning I want to share that has a quote that sums up my feelings on a lot of diversity issues really well:

“When we physically step on another’s foot, we apologize. But, when we emotionally or psychologically step on another’s heart or mind, we often become defensive and go out of our way to prove that we were, or had, the right to step in the first place!”

Of course, the problem for many is in realizing when we do offend someone else, unintentionally. But I’m often amazed at how people what to focus on legal issues and rights (no doubt due to our country’s increasing litigiousness) rather than saying to ourselves, “I caused pain to someone else. I should start by apologizing.”

We often focus instead on our legal rights to say what we said–conveniently forgetting that having the right to say something does not mean that saying it will have no consequences. We often also choose to focus on why the other person/race/religion/whatever shouldn’t be offended. Personally, I’ve never told anyone how they should feel and had the situation work out well.

Ultimately, I’ve always looked at issues of diversity as just meaning a willingness to sympathize with people’s experiences and feelings, whether they look the same as you or not.

Race Matters

Greetings library bloggers!  I’m new to the blogosphere and looking forward to engaging in the world of “electronic bantering!”  I would like to take this opportunity to open up the discussion and invite others to comment on race matters. I noticed that previous blog entries were related to how Hollywood (film and television) deals with race, and also how race is handled in video games, but I wanted to broaden the discussion and include our personal lives.  Race is such a complex, complicated issue in this country. There is so much history, culture and politics wrapped up in race matters.

First, do you think race matters? In other words, do you define yourself by your race? If so, how does that affect the way you see yourself and others? This seems like a loaded question, and one that might invoke a strong reaction, but I am always interested to know how we define ourselves, how that affects the decisions we make and how we lead our lives.

There is a school of thought that proposes that one day there will only be one race…the human race. Children born of parents of two different races, will continue to create children of different races until there is no “white,” “black,” “asian,” etc.” What do you think of this idea? Will this lead to more harmony between people? Or should we attempt to save, preserve and celebrate our differences? Food for thought…I would love to have your feedback and comments. Thanks!

Out of Context

Penny Arcade image copyright Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins

A recent web-comic that I read brought to my attention the controversy around the video game Resident Evil 5.  You can read the creator’s summary online, but the video game received national news coverage when a trailer for the game was released.  The game is the latest in a series of “zombie horror” video games, where the main character tries to survive being killed by hordes of undead humans.  The main character is Chris Redfield, an American Caucasian male.  The game in set in West Africa, so almost all other characters and zombies are African.  Put together, the images of the trailer and the game itself are of a white male killing (in various ways) dozens of black men and women (though zombies).  In a two-player game it is also possible to play as Sheva Alomar, a woman whose race/ethnicity is not specified.  The problem with the trailer and the game was summarized by Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal in on an MTV blog, “This imagery has a history.”

N’Gai’s initial reaction was, “Wow, clearly no one black worked on this game.”  My first reaction was not very remarkable and then I realized that my context was that of  a video game player who is:

1) Used to playing zombie “shooter” games where the object is to “kill” hordes of attacking undead (not human)
2) Able to easily identify with the main character of a video game (often without seeing what they look like)

I am interested in hearing other opinions outside of my context, about this game or the video game industry in general.

Are the Days of Yellowface in Hollywood Over?

This post was received from “gmasu” on WordPress:

Are the days of yellowface (caucasian actors playing asian) over? Not likely. Most of us who love the movies or television can reel of incidences of yellowface.

In all of the Charlie Chan movies, almost fifty and counting, Charlie Chan, a Chinese detective on the Honolulu Police Force, was played by caucasians (Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, Roland Winters, Ross Martin, Peter Ustinov). In eight movies, the Japanese detective Mr. Moto was played by Peter Lorre. Marlon Brando played Japanese interpreter Sakini in Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), Ricardo Montalban played Kabuki performer Nakamura in Sayonara (1957), and John Wayne (no joke) played Genghis Khan in the Conqueror (1956).

The list of actors and actresses who played yellowface is a who’s who of world cinema : Katherine Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Anita Ekberg, Alec Guinness, Tony Randall, Peter Sellers, Max von Sydow, John Gielgud, Mickey Rooney. And of course, David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine in the television series Kung Fu, and recently Jonathan Pryce who portrayed the Engineer in the broadway musical Miss Saigon.

To this ignoble list of yellowface movies, we can add another. In pre-production now is a movie called The Last Airbender. This movie is based on the Nickelodeon Animation Studios’s cartoon Avatar : the Last Airbender, the story of a twelve-year old boy named Aang who with his friends Katara, Sokka, Toph Bei Fong, and Prince Zuko must defeat the Lord of the “Fire Nation,” and thus bring peace to their troubled, “unbalanced” world. If anyone watches the cartoon, it is obviously a fictionalized Asian and Inuit world. The backdrops are mainly Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Inuit. Aang is a product of Tibetan philosophies, Katara and Sokka are Inuit, Toph Bei Fong (any guesses?) – correct – Chinese. Prince Zuko is an amalgam of Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian cultures. When the cast of the movie was announced, guess who got the parts : Noah Ringer as Aang; Jackson Rathbone (Twilight) as Sokka ; Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) as Katara ; and Jesse McCartney as Prince Zuko. Since this casting was announced, Jesse McCartney has withdrawn as Prince Zuko, noting conflicts with his singing career and has been replaced by Indian actor Dev Patel.

Of course, those who picked the original cast dismiss any prejudices. After all, they would say, this is a fictionalized world – yes, a fictionalized Asian and Inuit world with fictionalized Asians and Inuits. Maybe I am being too hard on them. Preproduction is preproduction, actors and actresses can be replaced, and who knows, maybe in the final movie, Katara will be Kenyan, Sokka (her brother) will be Fijian; Toph Bei Fong will be Italian; Prince Zuko will be Argentinian, and Aang will be Swedish. Who knows? Yet if this turns about to be another expression of Hollywood’s yellowface, we don’t have much to look forward to. This is the first part of a trilogy.

Call for Proposals: University Libraries Diversity & Programming Colloquium

Call for Proposals

What: University Libraries Diversity Research and Programming Colloquium, Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 10-11:30 am

Who: All members of the Penn State Libraries community: librarians, staff, part-time employees, interns, and volunteers in all Libraries departments and locations, and colleagues in Digital Library Technologies.  We encourage submissions from our friends and colleagues at Dickenson, Hershey, and the Penn State Press.

Where: Foster Auditorium and broadcast via MediaSite Live.

When: Deadline for submission: Friday, February 27, 2009;  notification of acceptance: Friday, March 13, 2008;  program: Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 10-11:30 am

Have you been working on a topic that relates to diversity?  Have you presented a paper at a conference? Written for a journal?  Been involved with a project? Designed an exhibit?  Planned a program?  Or conducted some research? Please consider sharing this important work with your colleagues here at Penn State.

The Diversity Committee is sponsoring a Research and Programming Colloquium on Diversity.  The Colloquium will be held in the Foster Auditorium and will be available to all locations through MediaSite Live.

The format of the program will include several short presentations (approximately 15 minutes each), and an electronic poster session (three to five Power Point slides).  It’s up to you: do you want to speak for 15 minutes, or just three or four minutes?

All Libraries’ faculty and staff from all locations are encouraged to submit proposals and to attend the colloquium.   Colleagues from any location may attend in person, or present from their own location via Skype (don’t worry about the details; we’ll handle the technology).

Submission is easy!  No need to send a detailed proposal; just a couple of lines about your program, paper, or other project.  Deadline for submissions is Friday, February 27, 2009.

Send your proposals to Daniel Mack at dmack@psu.edu.  Please put “DIVERSITY COLLOQUIUM” in the header.

Sincerely,

Dan and Lana, for the Diversity Committee

ALA Diversity Office calls for research grant proposals

The ALA Diversity Office is calling for research grant proposals for 2009. The three presecribed topics are:

• Meeting Diversity Goals in the Context of Economic Challenges
• Librarianship in Multicultural/Multigenerational Community Building
• Libraries’ Multicultural Involvement in Social Networking

Read all about it here.