[blindlaw] inaccessible employment qualification test

[Hyde, David W. (ESC)]

There are several things you can do. First, and you probably have already done this, post it to the computer science list. Curtis may have an idea, and some of the other programmers may have experienced the same thing. Secondly, you may want to find out who else they work with, particularly the Government. All though I am not qualified to speak to the law, it would appear to be a violation of Federal accessibility law. Those of you who have passed the bars can speak to it better.

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Aaron Cannon
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 5:24 PM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindlaw] inaccessible employment qualification test

Hi all.

I am rather frustrated, and I'm wondering if folks can offer any input on a situation I am having.

I recently had a job interview that I feel went very well.  The employer seemed reasonably impressed by my qualifications, and seemed to have no issue with my blindness.  As part of the hiring process, they asked me to take a PHP test (PHP is a programming language).

This test, along with many other employment qualifications tests are offered by a company known as PreVisor.  Anyway, I went to take the test, but as you might have guessed, it was not accessible.  The exam was actually just fine for the first couple of questions, but on one of the questions, I was asked to look at a section of source code, and the source code was unreadable by my screen reader.

Here's what I suspect happened.  In order to preserve the security of the exam, they thought it would be a good idea to make the source code snippet into an image.  They likely did this so you can't just copy and paste the text.  Otherwise, I can think of no other reason to do that.

Now, my employer has been really great about this.  They have been working with me, and I'm sure we'll find some alternative means for me to show them my PHP skills.  However, the inaccessibility of PreVisor really disturbs me.  What's worse is their seeming complete disinterest in fixing the problem.

When I contacted them about it, they basically told me that there was nothing that could be done.  That's just how it was.  When I asked if they would give me a little extra time to answer each question so the source code could be read to me, (normally you get only 3 minutes) the answer was again, "no."

What really upsets me is these people are in many instances the gatekeepers for jobs.  For a lot of folks, they determine whether or not a person gets hired.  How many people are going to be shut out of jobs, or at the very least not considered on the same level as their sighted co-applicants because of this companies apathy?

I don't know if anything can be done about this, legally or otherwise, hence my email to this list.  I just know that it seems very wrong to me, and is something that is likely to harm the job chances of other blind folks in the future.

As a side note, their testing services appear to be used by many different companies and organizations, including by the government (which branch or at what level, I don't know).

Anyway, any thoughts or ideas on this situation would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Aaron

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