This past week I've been to New York. It has been an interesting week to be in the U.S. with the congress voting no to the 700 billion bailout plan, then stock market crashing and senate preparing another vote for congress. Stock markets around the world are declining like crazy and the depression mentality is speading in every country. I have been reading both USA Today and Helsingin Sanomat daily, and the news have been the same every day. We really do live in a global economy.

The others news this week over here is of course the presidential campain. Yesterday Sarah Palin and Joe Biden met in their first and last debate. I try to stay out of politics in this blog - and to be nice to the american people - so I won't comment Mrs. Palin at all.

Perhaps the most striking memory from the week is how accessibility is regarded as something as natural as environmental sustainability is in Europe. TV adds boast accessibility features in for example phone plans. Sprint is advertising their prodcuts and deals on national TV. Also another company which name I didn't write down is offering voice-over-IP service that allows a hard of hearing person to read the lips of the person the are talking with. I haven't seen any TV ads like this in Europe.

I searched the lip-reading technology and it seems there are many applications of this technology, also for mobile phones. This is fantastic news. Now let's all put pressure to phone manufacturers and operators to bring this technology out to the users who could really benefit from it. Too many helpful technologies are not being implemented for one reason or another. Strong customer demand is the only way to take this forward.