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

[Ross Doerr]

Hello Jim:
Could you please contact me off list? My email is:
rumpole at roadrunner.com
I'd like to call youfor a short conversation.

Ross A. Doerr

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Pepper" <b75205 at gmail.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 12:36 AM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] National Federation of the Blind and Blind 
BusinessOwner File Complaint with Small Business Administration


> 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
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