Earlier this year I had the opportunity to stop by Cheaha state park in Alabama, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had a robust wheelchair-accessible experience.

The park is known for having the highest point in Alabama, and offers some excellent scenic views. My purpose for stopping by on a road trip was to get out of the car and take one of the hiking trails to an overlook. Instead I found the raised boardwalk and followed that.

The path is sturdy and well maintained, with covered seating areas every so often to stop and rest and informational placards.

At the end of the walkway is an overlook with incredible views across Alabama-the-Beautiful.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/16448519

No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years — including the brutal convict leasing era that replaced slavery — it has constructed a template for the commercialization of mass incarceration.

Most jobs are inside facilities, where the state’s inmates — who are disproportionately Black — can be sentenced to hard labor and forced to work for free doing everything from mopping floors to laundry. But more than 10,000 inmates have logged a combined 17 million work hours outside Alabama’s prison walls since 2018, for entities like city and county governments and businesses that range from major car-part manufacturers and meat-processing plants to distribution centers for major retailers like Walmart, the AP determined.

https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-alabama-3b2c7e414c681ba545dc1d0ad30bfaf5

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/26729948

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23368377

Summary

Alabama profits from a vast prison labor system, earning over $250 million since 2000 by leasing incarcerated workers to private companies like McDonald’s and Home Depot.

While inmates earn at least $7.25/hour, the state deducts 40% plus additional fees, leaving many with only $100-$200 weekly.

Inmates working outside prisons face risks, including unsafe conditions and lack of oversight, leading to fatalities like a recent van crash that killed two prisoners.

Critics argue this system exploits incarcerated workers, many denied parole despite holding jobs deemed too dangerous for release.

Advocates call for fair pay, workplace rights, and reform.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/29463281

cross-posted from: https://rblind.com/post/3405642

W3C, DAISY and NISO are co-hosting a webinar: Advancing Digital Accessibility for Scientific & Technical Publications

The DAISY Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) invite you to this Webinar happening on December 17, 10:00-11:30 AM Eastern time, 15:00–16:30 UTC.

This possibly falls under "surgical" instead of AT, but it's still an encouraging development in technology to help people with mobility constraints.