[blindlaw] National Federation of the Blind and Blind Business Owner File Complaint with Small Business Administration

[James Pepper]

OK a cursory look at their forms and yes I can fix these.  Who should I
contact to solve this problem?  I can make them work with free screen
readers so the blind do not have to buy JAWS or Window Eyes to fill out the
forms and I can do this in any language.

I received a response from the Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) which
was directed to my Congressman for my accessible voter registration form
which was tested by AFB Tech to be accessible in JAWS, Window Eyes and free
screen readers.  Anne Taylor at the Jernigan Institute at the National
Federation of the Blind has also tested my forms.  The EAC claimed that they
have an expert advisor with the AAPD who approved of their forms but this
same person personally presented my forms to the EAC in October.  So they
are relying on his reputation but they don't take his advice!

Also the EAC claims it is accessible on their website because they use the
Plone system, which is an open-source database.  Also, they pointed out that
they were given a mandate by Congress to make voting accessible to the blind
in 2003 to create their agency.  The letter really didn't say much of
anything about whether they would do anything about fixing the problem; they
are going to stick with their forms. It seems to me to be a letter to tell
the congressman that they have done all they can and that is that.

In 2006 the EAC certified to Congress that the states were accessible to the
blind in voter registration forms
and they released billions of dollars to the states for the elections.  The
National Form was an image of a form until mid September 2008, 3 weeks after
I sent them my forms.  They did a bad job; there is content that is not
accessible in the form and it is clear that they didn't test it with JAWS
because the problems are obvious.  They claimed in the letter that they had
a volunteer test it with JAWS and that the form is as accessible as
possible.

So which is it, are the forms as accessible as possible or are they
certified to be accessible to the blind in 2006 which released billions of
dollars to the states? This letter was sent to a US Congressman in response
to this inquiry. The EAC is run by the election officers of each state.  The
EAC concentrated their effort on election day, on voting machines and not on
voter registration forms. But if you are not registered to vote you cannot
use the accessible voting machines!

Their form requires the blind to use the full version of JAWS to fill it
out.  Not all of the content is accessible and it requires the blind to draw
a map of where they live and both of these requirements are literacy
tests! Also you must buy JAWS to fill it out; that is a Poll Tax.

Also they put alt text in two images which is a direct violation of section
508 regulations of the Rehabilitation Act.  The font is small and that is a
direct violation of the Help America Vote Act which created the EAC.  And
the form for South Carolina requires the applicant to state their race and
if they do not do so the form will not be processed.  That is a direct
violation of the Voting Rights Act.  The proper way to handle this is to
make it voluntary, every other state makes it voluntary but not South
Carolina.

I made the Voter Registration form accessible because the laws for voting
are far more extensive and affects states in terrible ways if they deny
people the right to vote compared to ordinary accessibility law.  You have
all the advantages of the Voting Rights Act which enables the Integration
laws of the Civil Rights Act, which has serious repercussions for the
states, especially the 14th Amendment Section 2 which removes electors from
the states when they deny a portion of their population the right to
vote. There is a procedure and the US District Court in DC has to create a
panel of Judges to hear these cases, with a direct appeal to the US Supreme
Court. And they were required to be accessible in voter registration in
1973, so its been 36 years of non compliance.

So I was wondering would a civil rights case on Voting Rights force the
issue of compliance to ADA faster than fighting the SBA?  Wouldn't it be far
more comprehensive to enable accessibility across this nation, especially
when you consider the consequences of the Voting Rights Act which directly
threatens the sovereignty of each States, its Electors (members of
Congress) and federal funding.  The same laws put into effect to limit the
sovereignty of the southern states after the civil war in Reconstruction!

And of course the public can get behind the idea that the blind deserve
access to voter registration, that they do not need literacy tests and poll
taxes to register to vote.  Having to buy the full version of JAWS to fill
out a voter registration form is a Poll Tax!

I contacted all the states, the elections officers in each state during the
2008 election trying to get them to be accessible.  The State of Washington
responded by claiming that they were not required to make voter registration
accessible to the blind.

So who should I contact to fix these problems?

Sincerely.

James G. Pepper