The Sterling Creations winter 2010 newsletter Hello and welcome to the Sterling Creations summer 2010 newsletter, which is produced quarterly. We hope that you enjoy it and encourage you to pass it along to those who may be interested in the types of services that we offer. We welcome your feedback and invite you to give us your comments for it is only through you and with you that we can improve our services. Table of contents 1 Message from the president 2 The year in review 3 Sterling services 4 List of blogs 5 Contact info Message from the president Greetings everyone and a very happy New year to all. I would like to start by extending wishes to you on behalf of the Sterling Creations team and to thank you most kindly for your continuing support for the past year. As many of you would probably know by now, 2010 was an especially busy year for me and one that culminated in a landmark victory for me on a personal basis; victory in my charter challenge court case over the Canadian Federal Government. However, I am not going to take all of the credit for this landmark victory. Instead, I would like to thank the following persons and organizations for having helped to obtain this milestone. To my lawyers David Baker and Meryl Gary. To my accessibility experts Jutta Treviranus and Jan Richards. To Robin East president, and John Rae first vice president, of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC). To my support team of Susan Pinder, Sharlyn Ayotte, Denise Sanders, Jeff Stark, Derek Wilson, and Everett Zufeld of the AEBC. To Sue Archibald of Balance, John Rafferty and Cathy Moore of the CNIB, Jane Blaine of the Canadian Blind Sports Association, Kim Wrigley Archer and Jane Sayer of the Canadian National Society for the Deaf/Blind, and the ARCH, CCD, the Inclusive Planet and E accessibility Bulletin websites, and the Accessible Channel organizations: I thank you all for your support. If I have missed anyone, then my apologies. November 29 shall forever always remain engrained in my mind. This was not mine to win but ours not to lose and we did it in fine style! As Richard Quan president of the AEBC’s Toronto chapter so eloquently put it, “A victory for us all.” I am extremely humbled, delighted, and excited for all of us. So, glasses raised to our community and to a brighter future for all blind and sight impaired kids! With very best wishes, Donna J. Jodhan; president Sterling Creations. The year in review As mentioned by our president, 2010 was an extremely successful year for not just her but for the Sterling Creations team as a whole. Despite a challenging economy, we managed to hold our heads relatively high above water and continued to service clients across Canada as well as around the world. In 2010, we did some reorganization to our websites. We used Wordpress to transfer our blogs from the Google facility to the www.sterlingcreations.ca and www.sterlingcreations.com websites and 2011 has started off with us doing a bit of revamping to our major site www.sterlingcreations.ca. We hope to have this completed some time in the first quarter and we would like to mention our partner Evideo Solutions and its head developer Eric Martin. We look forward to a long and fruitful associationwith Eric Martin. In 2010, our writing and research teams continued its blogging and writing work for the Fredshead blog; an American Printing House for the Blind sponsored blog. In addition, for the Diversity in the Workplace monthly online magazine, and for the Melanie Mama’s Corner daily newsletter. Our teams also continued to churn out multiple weekly articles for the Avalanche Networks Toronto based company. Avalanche Networks is a TSE listed company. Donna thanks Jill Walters of Diversity in the Workplace, Michael McCarthy of Fredshead, and Melanie (Mama Peach) for their continuing alliances with us. Our president continued her relentless work in advocacy; writing and speaking for and to various groups on her court case against the Canadian Federal Government. She wrote two articles for ARCH, and one for Tristan Parker of the E Accessibility Bulletin; a United Kingdom based organization. In addition, she entered into a business relationship with the folks at www.inclusiveplanet.com; a website based in India and Donna would like to thank Anurita Chandrappa for helping to set this up. Donna's ice skating adventures were also highlighted by Andrew Liebs at http://www.suite101.com/content/blindness-no-barrier-to-ice-skating-for-toronto-writer-a298941. Andrew Liebs is a United States based writer and is presently writing a book on recreational sports for blind and sight impaired persons. In December, Donna was invited to speak at a gathering of National Union of Provincial and General Employees in Ottawa and her presentation focused on what it is like to be an advocate. Donna thanks Derek Fudge of NUPGE for having helped to set this up and Derek has asked Donna if she would be willing to work with NUPGE to promote her causes. This would entail a joint venture between NUPGE and the AEBC. In June, our tireless president was appointed to the board of the Citizens with Disabilities of Ontario; CWDO and in December, she was appointed to the board of the Canadian Blind Sports Association; CBSA. Donna thanks Jeff Stark and Jane Blaine for having facilitated these two respective appointments. On a final note re coverage for this landmark case, the press coverage across Canada was extremely dense and the case also received coverage from the United States, Britain, and India. Donna's work is far from over as she now awaits the Canadian Federal Government's next move. Will they be appealing the decision or not? The Judge has given the Government 15 months to put their house in order and he has retained monitoring jurisdiction over the entire process. You can read more about this landmark victory at www.bakerlaw.ca. Our president along with Robin East, president of the AEBC, have launched a Human Rights case against the House of Commons for their refusal to accept an online petition which was launched in March 2010 by the AEBC in support of Donna's charter challenge. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has accepted the complaint and it is now at the investigations stage. Donna continues to be a part of the AEBC's board. She is also one of the AEBC's reps to the CBRC; Canadian Blind Rightholders of Canada. Our teams continued their work in their respective areas, working with, supporting, and expanding their respective customer bases. The radio show project for the American Council for the Blind is still ago and will hopefully be a reality some time in the first quarter. So what's on the drawing board for this year you may be asking? Well, a continuation of business with our clients across Canada and beyond. More work for our president with regard to her advocacy projects, and an overall optimism for Sterling Creations. Sterling Services OUR ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES Meet our accessibility team! Made up of a hard working group of very dedicated professionals. This team offers compliance and evaluation services. They can help you to test and evaluate your websites for W3C compliance. They are experienced at what they do and some of their tasks include: Accessible website design and development. Accessible website testing and evaluation. Accessible content development. Creation of user testing, technical support, high level, and detailed evaluation documents. Managing of user testing teams. User and technical support. Hardware and software evaluations of access technology. Presentations, seminars, and workshops. Meet our research services team! Our newest edition. This team can help you to research info on all kinds of topics. From simple subjects to the more complicated ones. This team can do it. At the present time the research team is heavily involved in helping clients to research info for some very complicated Human Rights cases and in addition, they are assisting several authors to find ways to market their books. They also offer their research services to home businesses, small businesses, and to individuals. Some of their tasks include: Researching of requested info. Producing well-written documents containing the requested info. This team can carry out Internet, phone, and library research on your behalf. Meet our writing team! Known as the one stop writing shop. This team is probably the busiest of our groups. Working with authors, students, and marketing personnel from companies of all sizes. Some of their tasks include: Proofreading and editing. Copy writing. Re-writes. The writing team can help you to enhance and expand your articles, blogs, newsletters, online magazines, and web content. Meet our translation team! Made up of translators and language coaches. This team works in English, French, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin. They are heavily involved in the translation of storybooks for kids into several languages. Their language coaches are also heavily involved in helping business professionals and new Canadians to become more proficient at writing and speaking English. Our dynamic team of translators and language coaches can help you to improve and translate your articles, blogs, emails, faxes, newsletters, and online magazines. In addition, they offer services to help you improve your phone conversation. Some of their tasks include: Translation. Language coaching. Transcription. Proofreading and editing. To learn more about our accessibility, research, translation, and writing services, please visit www.sterlingcreations.ca. Our sister website! If you would like to make some light hearted contributions at absolutely no cost, then please send your contributions to info@onestopbookcafe.com. Visit our sister at www.onestopbookcafe.com and there you will find a lot of interesting information, books to read, plus more. List of blogs The following is a list of websites where you can read blogs and editorials written by Donna J. Jodhan: Donna Jodhan! Advocating accessibility for all http://www.donnajodhan.blogspot.com Sponsored by the American Printing House for the Blind www.fredshead.info Weekly feature on important answers to consumers concerns http://www.sterlingcreations.com/businessdesk.htm A weekly blog for language professionals and accessibility consultants http://www.sterlingcreations.ca/blog Editorials: Issues and concerns on diversity in the workplace http://www.diversityintheworkplace.ca Contact info To contact us by email: Please send your email to info@sterlingcreations.ca To contact us by phone: Please give us a call at (416) 491-7711