Where It's AT – Assistive Technology Blog

Assistive Technology Meets International Patent Law

Contributed by Joel Zimba, Technology Outreach Specialist, MDTAP

If you’re lucky, the ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung has not intruded upon your life in the last 3 years or so.  The legal jockeying for intellectual property is yet another way in which corporate giants attempt to gain an edge on their competition.  This is all well and good until consumers feel the fallout from these battles.

One recent lawsuit in Germany claims that Apple violated Samsung’s patent concerning speaking the contents of the screen aloud.  This suit has been temporarily stayed pending the resolution of other lawsuits.  If it has legs, this suit could cause problems for VoiceOver users.

At the outset, it seems that “triple-clicking” the “Home” button– that is, pressing the “home” button 3 times quickly in order to activate VoiceOver violates a specific Samsung patent. This is the downside of incorporating assistive technologies into commercial products natively.  All aspects of mobile technology can be brought into the court room.

For now, this case is on hold.  Also, the media backlash and the attention from many disability groups will probably give the judges, if not Samsung themselves, pause.

If VoiceOver became too difficult either financially or politically for Apple to maintain, disabled users would be greatly effected.  While this is a small group, let’s hope the public relations nightmare which would result will keep future accessibility feature patents off the table.

BALTIMORE, MD (February 14, 2013) -The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) is launching a new online resource database for children and youth with special health care needs.

In Maryland, over one third of families of these children report that they cannot easily access needed community based services and half of the same families report that they need help finding services for their youngsters.  For families in rural areas of the state, it can be even more difficult to find specialty services.

“This database provides a wealth of information for families in need of specialized health care services,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, DHMH Secretary.

In order to improve access to information about needed services and resources, Maryland’s Office for Genetics and People with Special Health Care Needs created the resource database, the Maryland Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Resource Locator. The database is available at http://specialneeds.dhmh.maryland.gov.

“The database features information about more than eight hundred resources for Maryland families, said Dr. Laura Herrera, Deputy Secretary of Public Health Services. “It is accessible in over 50 languages, and offers user-friendly features including helpful search features, interactive maps and directions to each resource, and is 508-compliant for those with visual impairments.”

“The database was developed in partnership with Maryland families is designed to assist parents, caregivers, families, providers, and youth in locating needed resources,” says Josie Thomas, Executive Director of The Parents’ Place of Maryland.  “This gives families a convenient, easy-to-use way to find needed services in their communities. It’s wonderful and we are so excited!”

For more information about the Maryland Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Resource Locator, please visit the online database at http://specialneeds.dhmh.maryland.gov or contact Angela Sittler, Parent Resource Coordinator, at 1-800-638-8864 or by email at anglea.sittler@maryland.gov. To learn more, visit the Office for Genetics and People with Special Health Care Needs website at  http://fha.dhmh.maryland.gov/genetics/SitePages/Home.aspx.