[blindlaw] FW: Politico Story re WH Petition Inaccessibility

Wed May 29 19:06:55 UTC 2013

I totally agree with you. Many sites seem to go overboard when it comes to 
use of captchas. The 508 standards are minimal when it comes to compliance 
with web accessibility and many Federal government web sites leave much to 
be desired.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott C. LaBarre" <slabarre at labarrelaw.com>
To: <ckrugman at sbcglobal.net>; "'Blind Law Mailing List'" 
<blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 9:04 AM
Subject: RE: [blindlaw] FW: Politico Story re WH Petition Inaccessibility

Chuck, you are correct.  The audio challenge comes when you establish an 
account, a mandatory step prior to  being able to to sign.  It is also true 
that one can take a bunch of extra steps and figure out a way to  defeat the 
challenge.  However, the point is that we shouldn't have to take so many 
extra steps to accomplish the same goal the a sighted person can achieve in 
one step in a situation like this where it is entirely possible to make the 
site completely accessible.  On our NFB site, we do petitions quite 
frequently and our process does not require a blind person to seek 
assistance or go through extraneous steps to complete the petition signing. 
We verify that the person wishing to sign the petition is a real person by 
sending them and email and asking them to send a confirming reply message. 
The Whitehouse alleges that they are fully compliant with 508 but the core 
concept behind 508 is that we are able to  use information technology on the 
same terms with the non-disabled.  The Whitehouse site along with the vast 
majority of other federal sites fall far short from this goal.

Finally, I ask everyone to go to our website and to the Whitehouse site to 
sign the petitions as best you can.  I know that ours will work just fine 
and perhaps you will find a way to mash through the audio challenge.

Whitehouse Petition:  http://wh.gov/hcED

NFB Petition:
https://nfb.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=2&reset=1

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
ckrugman at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 8:41 AM
To: Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] FW: Politico Story re WH Petition Inaccessibility

I have had an active account on the White House site for quite some time and 
I have had no problems signing many petitions there. I think that the only 
time I may have been confronted with a captcha was when establishing the 
account but as I recall it was solved with WebVisum. The layout of the web 
site however leaves much to be desired as it is repetitive and poorly 
organized with everything being displayed on every page.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott C. LaBarre" <slabarre at labarrelaw.com>
To: <slabarre at labarrelaw.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 6:43 AM
Subject: [blindlaw] FW: Politico Story re WH Petition Inaccessibility

> It is incredibly ironic that when we attempt to petition our
> government which is suppose to be a leader in accessiblity, we face such 
> an obstacle.
> When I signed the petition, I attempted to use the so-called audio
> challenge and it sounds like R2D2 on LSD speaking through a mouth full
> of cotton.  It is impossible to decipher the code you are suppose to type 
> in.
> I had to have someone who could see the screen read the code to me.
>
>
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Scott
>
> From: Adam Eisgrau [mailto:adam at eisgraualliances.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 9:19 PM
> To: Fredric Schroeder; John Pare; Chris Danielsen; Jesse Hartle; Scott C.
> LaBarre; mbrunson at acb.org; Gigi B. Sohn; Bartees Cox; Sean Meloy; Jon
> Band; Carrie Russell; prue at arl.org; Jamie Love; Manon Ress; Jim
> Fruchterman; khinton at mercuryllc.com
> Subject: Politico Story re WH Petition Inaccessibility
>
>
>
> <http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/05/blind-advocates-blast-white-house-164914.html>
> http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/05/blind-advocates-blast-white-house-164914.html
>
> <http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/05/blind-advocates-blast-white-house-164914.html>
> Blind advocates blast White House
>
> By  <http://www.politico.com/reporters/DonovanSlack.html> DONOVAN SLACK |
>
>
> 5/28/13 6:37 PM EDT
>
>
> The National Federation of the Blind is fuming mad over the White House
> web site, complaining that its members have been unable to sign an
> important online petition.
>
> The glitch, the group says, is in those often annoying tests that require
> users to type in a set of numbers and letters to prove they are human. On
> the White House web site, blind users can select an audio version of the
> test, but the audio is incomprehensible, according to federation spokesman
> Chris Danielsen.
>
> And if users want to send email notifying the White House about the
> problem, well, that also requires a computer-human test with garbled
> audio, too, he said.
>
> "We had asked people to sign the petition and we're getting these emails
> saying that people can't," Danielsen told POLITICO.
>
> "The Constitution allows all of us to petition our government for a
> redress of grievance. It says nothing about needing to be able to see in
> order to do so."
>
> The
> <https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/side-blind-over-obstructionist-companies-secure-treaty-blind-makes-books-accessible-globally/ZJtgcVph>
> petition calls for the Obama administration to support an international
> treaty making more books accessible to the blind. So far, some 6,100
> people have signed on since it was created May 23. But Danielsen said many
> more would have signed on had it not been for the web site issues. For an
> official White House response, it would need to reach 100,000 signatures
> before June 23. <x-apple-data-detectors://7>
>
> The White House says the web site is fully compliant with Section 508 of
> the Rehabilitation Act, which requires that federal web sites be
> accessible to people with disabilities, and it says it is looking into
> improving the site.
>
> In the meantime, the Federation of the Blind wants the signature
> requirement waived so the administration will respond to its petition.
> Danielsen said the federation had thought that the administration would
> support the international treaty, which is being brokered in Morocco next
> month, but there has been a barrage of lobbying by some big business
> groups against the treaty and so the federation wants to make sure the
> White House still supports it.
>
> "The administration has seemed supportive of it in the past, but lately
> the administration doesn’t seem to be commenting on it publicly," he said.
> "We're concerned that all of this intense lobbying is getting to this
> administration."
>
>
>
>
> Adam Eisgrau
>
> 202.215.6884
>
>
> On May 28, 2013, at 7:41 AM, "Adam Eisgrau" <adam at eisgraualliances.com>
> wrote:
>
> Good morning folks.  Just a reminder that we established Tuesdays and
> Thursdays at 11 am EDT for larger group coordinating calls on the dial-in
> number below.  (Have I missed any invitees?)  We appreciate your time and
> contributions!  Key items for today's call include:
>
>
>
>
>
> -- ongoing stakeholder conversations
>
> -- petition efforts' progress
>
> -- video effort
>
> -- messaging campaign status
>
> -- related event planning
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
>
>
> Adam
>
>
>
>
>
> Number: (877) 394-5901 <tel:(877)%20394-5901>
>
> <tel:(877)%20394-5901> Access Code: 4781852
>
> Adam Eisgrau
>
> 202.215.6884
>
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