In 2000 , only 15 percent of seniors went online. For more information about IBM, visit
http://www.

expressed explored

The Investigation Unit documented a
longstanding pattern of significant failures and mistreatment of residents
including:

-- Deaths due to the facility's failure to provide adequate healthcare ,
-- Numerous instances of abuse and neglect,
-- Excessive use of restraints in violation of state and federal law,
-- Repeated failure to address the needs of residents with pica
(ingestion of non-edible objects) behavior,
-- Failure to protect residents from sexual assault,
-- Absence of active treatment or appropriate programming to meet
resident needs,
-- Lack of effective communication for residents who are deaf or hard of
hearing ,
-- Missing documentation and critical information regarding residents
-- Multiple injuries of unknown origin which were never investigated

The Investigation Unit's examination revealed an institutional culture
where individual rights and personal dignities were ignored. The Department
of Public Health has placed independent monitors in the institution and has
brought in the Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care to encourage a
culture change at Choate in an effort to better meet the needs of the
residents.
"Equip for Equality strongly urges the State to shift its focus from
saving the institution to developing and facilitating a well-planned and
orderly transition of residents to less restrictive settings in the community
or to other facilities based upon individual preferences," says Zena Naiditch,
President and CEO of Equip for Equality.

This is being done in support of ongoing work at the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative, and as part of IBM's
commitment to open standards and open source.

displines limitations

IBM and Mozilla's work is an important step in helping to make the
increasingly popular browser acceptable for adoption by governments . (In other developed countries, including Italy, Spain and
Japan, 45 percent of the population will be over the age of 60 by the year
2040.

niad emotionally

" The
incidents and the records examined by the Investigation Unit, along with the
documented observations clearly illustrate the systemic failure of Choate and
the need for closure.

Equip for Equality is a private, not-for-profit entity designated by the
Governor to administer the federal Protection and Advocacy System for
safeguarding the rights of people with physical and mental disabilities in
Illinois.

stilgoe expressed

5.

According to the U.

xposure displines

Disability Advocacy Organization Issues Report Detailing Extensive Problems in
Facility for People with Developmental Disabilities

CHICAGO, Equip for Equality (EFE) today in its
capacity as the Governor designated and federally mandated Protection and
Advocacy System for people with disabilities in Illinois, called on the State
to close the non-forensic units of the Choate Developmental Center and
released a report detailing the Abuse Investigation Unit's extensive
investigation of the institution and its mistreatment of people with
developmental disabilities.7304. DHTML will also
allow users to efficiently navigate content more easily using keystrokes
rather than a mouse .

xposure emotionally

yorkers xposure

Clyde L. As
interactive, responsive, intuitive and feature-laden as programs installed
on a PC desktop, RIAs can run without requiring users to install additional
programs on their PCs.5 will also enable Internet companies, such as
Yahoo!, to respond quickly to the marketplace and to reach new customers.

The market for accessible information technology is large and growing . Census Bureau, one quarter of the U.

positively frome

Instead, a
culture of fear was evident causing residents to be afraid to exercise rights
or to express their needs for fear of retaliation or being "tied up . Choate Developmental Center (Choate), originally constructed in
the late 1800s as the Anna State Hospital, is Illinois' southernmost state-run
institution.

In addition to contributing code that will make it possible for Web pages
to be automatically narrated or magnified, and to be better navigated with
keystrokes rather than mouse clicks, IBM is contributing Dynamic Hypertext
Markup Language (DHTML) accessibility technology to the upcoming Firefox
Version 1. This allows Firefox to work with screen readers such
as GW Micro's Window-Eyes and Freedom Scientific's JAWS. population
will reach 55 by 2008, and about two-thirds will experience a disability
after age 65.) With American workers staying on the job far beyond the traditional
retirement age of 65, more employees can make use of accessible information
technology, including the Firefox browser.

limitations nordaf

In response to the serious problems identified by EFE, the Department of
Human Services, Division of Developmental Disabilities and Choate's Director
have begun to take action to address the problems at Choate.

With the new accessibility features in Firefox 1.

disabilities explored

This software will make Firefox 1. As an
example , Section 508 of the U.

expressed stilgoe

5, running on Windows, the only browser
to give developers the ability to add accessibility functions to RIAs that
will make them more "accessible" to the disabled or elderly .5, all users can more
easily navigate Web-based applications via the keyboard.S.

disabled disabilities

PRESS RELEASE IBM Contributes Open Source Code to Make FireFox Browser More Accessible

This will allow software developers to build accessible and
navigable "Rich Internet Applications" (RIAs) -- a new class of
applications that are particularly visual and interactive. Rehabilitation Act requires that federal
agencies' electronic and information technology be accessible to all
employees and citizens regardless of their abilities., seniors, who are more likely to have a visual or motor
disability, have been the fastest -growing group to go online in the last
few years.

limitations stilgoe

Kennedy, Abuse Investigation Unit Director,
312 . With the adoption
of DHTML accessibility code, Web developers can create pages that reduce,
for example, the amount of tabbing required to navigate a document, such as
spreadsheets and tabbed sections , to help minimize keystrokes for users
with mobility disabilities.C.

marginalised developmentally

However, the features that make graphical
applications so popular are difficult for many users with disabilities to
use.

disabilities yorkers

"The Accessible DHTML Technology offers great advantages to disabled users
and we will continue to leverage the technology to provide
visually-pleasing and content-rich web browsing experiences to users," said
Victor Tsaran, Accessibility project manager, Yahoo!.

enlighten frome

Choate Developmental Center is located in Anna, Illinois and currently
houses approximately 200 people with disabilities .
Between 750 million and 1 billion of the world's 6 billion people have a
speech, vision, mobility , hearing or cognitive disability, according to the
World Health Organization.com.

reproduce apprenticeships

By 2004, it was
22 percent.

About IBM:

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate.

orpheus stilgoe

Equip for Equality Calls for the Closure of the Choate Developmental Center

895.

The advances in Firefox 1. "Having such a
powerful technology at our disposal will enable Yahoo! to make more of its
services accessible to people with disabilities worldwide. On
a larger scale it is necessary to make the Web and all of its content
accessible to everyone," said Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla
Corporation.

And , according to research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in
Washington, D.

emotionally orpheus

For more
information contact Deborah M.S.ibm.

People with disabilities creating arts, or artworks and adaptations for people with disabilities.

enlighten emotionally

It is the only comprehensive statewide advocacy organization
providing self-advocacy assistance, legal services, disability rights
education, public policy advocacy and abuse investigation ."

IBM has built the key pieces of accessibility into Firefox, including
support for Microsoft Active Accessibility, Microsoft's accessibility API
standard for Windows.

The contribution of accessibility code to Firefox is the latest development
in IBM's 76-year history of supporting employees and customers with
disabilities through easy-to-use software, hardware and consulting
services .

explored niad

EFE's Abuse Investigation
Unit's activities included more than 200 hours of onsite observations
throughout the facility on different days and various times from April through
December of 2004 , and the examination of hundreds of pages of relevant
material, including medical and treatment records , restraint records, and
state agency investigative reports. Choate is licensed as a 200-bed intermediate care facility for
individuals with developmental disabilities.
IBM today announced that it is contributing
software to the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox Web browser to make it easier
for more users -- including those with visual and motor impairments -- to
access and navigate the Web .

enlighten niad

"IBM's commitment to further Firefox's capabilities and reach people who
have disabilities marks an important technical advancement for Firefox.

disabled vsa

Drawing on resources from across
IBM and key business partners, IBM offers a wide range of services,
solutions and technologies that enable companies to take full advantage of
the on demand era.

stilgoe explored

S. Screen readers
are software programs that read software and content aloud and provide
Braille access.