[Athen] Fwd: Assistive Technology in the Senate

[Top Tech Tidbits]

Thanks so much Dan. Really appreciate the feedback. I couldn’t agree more. I’ll turn 50 this year. I’ve spent about 26 of those years in publishing and I still own and operate an agency today. I don’t personally agree with pay walls as a solution. I grew up (in marketing) believing that all information should be free as well. Despite newspapers always costing money, which is a great point. But I quickly ran into scenarios in publishing where this was difficult to impossible. Many people said to me when I volunteered to be the Publisher for Top Tech Tidbits that the only way to save the publication was to start charging subscribers. Something I knew would never work. So the only other option was advertising. But we also knew and understood first hand why the access community distrusted advertisements. They often prevented them from accessing content. So we wanted to implement them in such a way that readers would actually benefit from the information provided by those advertisers. Hence the sponsorship model that now allows both Tidbits and its new sister publication, to exist. People don’t inherently like to pay for information. I know I don’t. But I will. And I do. Happily. When I find the information valuable and I can’t get it anywhere else. Examples for me are Wired, MIT Technology Review, Medium, The Washington Post and Time Magazine. I hold subscriptions with each of these publications because I want that trusted information when it is released, and I know first hand the kind of work that it takes to provide that service at a high level.

 

But as to the question of whether or not we should include links to articles within our publications that lead to pay wall sites (which we sometimes do, though only when we cannot find that information anywhere else, and we believe it is crucial to the access community) I am always reminded of a single piece of feedback given to me by a reader back when we first took over the distribution of Tidbits. The reader asked me, quite simply, if it was my choice to make. I didn’t really understand the depth of their question at first. But what they were asking was this. Was it my choice, as the Publisher of a not-for-profit magazine dedicated to non-biased access information to deliberatly withhold important information? For any reason? I decided the answer was no. I’m sorry that some publications charge for their information. Even though I understand why they do. But I will not limit access to that information even further by withholding it from readers. So we ultimately decided to let readers make their own decisions about what information was important enough to pay for, and what information was not. :)

 

Aaron Di Blasi, PMP

 

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From: Dan Comden <danc at uw.edu> 
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2023 10:28 PM
To: enews at toptechtidbits.com; Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Fwd: Assistive Technology in the Senate

 

Those of us who have been around since before the web became ubiquitous came to assume that all news sources are free because they were for quite a while. Of course journalism that is worth reading costs money to pay writers and editors and all the infrastructure that supports their work. Newspapers weren't free before the web, and it's fascinating that we would assume they would be free into the future. We had a good few years of it actually being a no-cost experience for quite a lot of good online journalism. Now we either have to pay or put up with some of the worst advertising delivery that often literally obscures what we're trying to read. Sometimes it's both!

 

Most of us on this list work in higher education and have access to the majority of online publishing through our library portals. Additionally, many public libraries provide similar access. Both are worth investigating to get access to online articles behind paywalls. Yes, it is extra work and sometimes that effort is definitely non-trivial.

 

The accessibility of that experience may be another discussion entirely. I will say that getting to the online version of Time magazine through our library system at UW is neither intuitive or simple. But it *is* possible.

 

There are also a variety of tools to try and evade paywalls but I'm seeing that they are increasingly less effective. Or perhaps I'm just getting too lazy to jump through the hoops.

 

I have a side theory as some of this paywall stuff being the reason there has been such an explosion of disinformation but that's also another conversation :)

 

-*- Dan

 

On Mon, Feb 6, 2023 at 3:25 PM Top Tech Tidbits <enews at toptechtidbits.com <mailto:enews at toptechtidbits.com> > wrote:

We have struggled with this same issue for a very long time in both the Top Tech Tidbits newsletter, and now the Access Information Newsletter as well. It is incredibly frustrating to be interested in an article that only asks for money when you click. I share this frustration. Both personally and professionally. We even share ways in our publications to “work around it." But I am also a Publisher who has been tasked with delivering important and timely access and technology news to as many blind, vision impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, neurodivergent and/or disabled persons each week as possible. And sometimes, let’s be honest, most times, that information is behind a pay wall. So what should we do when we are unable to find that same information, for free, anywhere else? Should we simply not include the information? Even if it is incredibly important? Any feedback anyone might wish to provide on this topic would be incredibly informative for us, and I believe the access community as a whole. Thank you. :) 

 

Aaron Di Blasi, PMP

 

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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of Robert Spangler
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2023 9:57 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Fwd: Assistive Technology in the Senate

 

Thanks for forwarding this but, unfortunately, it's behind a paywall.

 

Robert

 

 

On Sun, Feb 5, 2023 at 2:54 PM Lissner, L. Scott <lissner.2 at osu.edu <mailto:lissner.2 at osu.edu> > wrote:

If you have not seen this article. I thought this article framed assistive technology & accommodations better than most - a little more emphasis on recovery rather than access to work but I think the right points come through: 

 

 


 John Fetterman Is Using Assistive Technology in the Senate <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/time.com/6251752/john-fetterman-stroke-recovery-assistive-technology/__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!n9JKxtQvflgIvx4wMr5yhn_DWhlM6hiBVwXBbGBERDTPHlIoI6Of1y078TFtDS_lyR5aKVEIeFQ0lfJiW22PtA$> 


The 164-year-old Senate chamber was not designed for wires and screens. Senators aren’t even allowed to use their phones when they’re inside. But to accommodate freshman Senator John Fetterman the chamber just got a digital upgrade ...

 

The new assistive technology installed in his workspaces requires some adjustment from colleagues in an institution known for its stagnancy. But in securing the devices that are helping him begin a new job during a very public recovery process, advocates say Fetterman is forging a path for people with disabilities and health challenges to make it in public office.

 

The Senate's Sargent At Arms worked with the office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Senate Rules Committee, and Senate leadership to get Fetterman’s assistive technology in place, although doing so did not require any rules changes, since the SAA has the authority to provide Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodations to Senators and staff who need them.

 

Read the full article <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/time.com/6251752/john-fetterman-stroke-recovery-assistive-technology/__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!n9JKxtQvflgIvx4wMr5yhn_DWhlM6hiBVwXBbGBERDTPHlIoI6Of1y078TFtDS_lyR5aKVEIeFQ0lfJiW22PtA$>  

 <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/time.com/6251752/john-fetterman-stroke-recovery-assistive-technology/__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!n9JKxtQvflgIvx4wMr5yhn_DWhlM6hiBVwXBbGBERDTPHlIoI6Of1y078TFtDS_lyR5aKVEIeFQ0lfJiW22PtA$> https://time.com/6251752/john-fetterman-stroke-recovery-assistive-technology/

 

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