From the intro to a story in Global Atlanta:It is a statistic that simply does not make sense to Axel Leblois. In many countries, including the United States, the unemployment rate for blind persons of working age tops 70 percent.
“And yet we know – because you can see it every day – blind persons can have fully productive lives using technology,” said Mr. Leblois. “Why that gap?”
Mr. Leblois (pictured) is the founder and director of an Atlanta-based, United Nations-sanctioned organization, the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Technologies. It is pushing worldwide to make technology more accessible to the disabled.
The United Nations flatly declared in 2006 that access to technology is as important as access to a public building: it is a basic human right. The Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities has since been ratified by 47 nations. So far, the United States is not among those, although President Obama has said he supports it.