[blindlaw] Accessibility of Florida State Court Document Filing System

[Marc Grossman]

When I was a consultant for a company that provided accessibility remediation services, we faced this type of dilemma on a daily basis. The technique that worked best was to plug speakers into my laptop and demonstrate a simple "use case to those people that were unfamiliar with accessibility." A use case is a common task that one might have to perform in order to achieve a goal. Maybe it is navigating to a web page and downloading a PDF form. Make sure it is something that most site visitors would likely do on a regular basis.

For example, invite people to gather around a conference table and read one of those documents posted on the county web site, navigate to the page and download the PDF or Word document and let your screen reader do its thing. You will literally hear people's jaws drop and the cheeks turn red with embarrassment. Bet you did not ever imagine that you could hear those things, huh? 

Finally, offer to work with people instead of against them. Point them to sites like www.w3c.org/wai and www.adobe.com/accessibility . Invite tech colleagues to download trial versions of Jaws or free versions of NVDA. Ask them to invite local blind people to test their sites and documents. Ultimately, accessible sites and documents end up being better for all users, not just screen reader users.

Hope that helps.

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan Kelly via blindlaw
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 8:45 AM
To: 'tim at timeldermusic.com'; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Accessibility of Florida State Court Document Filing System

When you find and speak with that lawyer, would you ask if he/she is willing to share some tips with the rest of us?  I can't say that the court administrators here in Arizona are intentionally denying access, but they are being persistently and, perhaps, intentionally ignorant.  There is a pervasive misconception among webmasters here that by virtue of something being posted on the internet, it magically becomes accessible.  No amount of discussion with various IT personnel seems to alter this misconception.

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tim Elder via blindlaw
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 6:45 PM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindlaw] Accessibility of Florida State Court Document Filing System

I am trying to reach the blind lawyer who recently worked with the DOJ to address the accessibility of Florida's state court document system.  Does anyone know this individual or how I might reach him?

Regards,

Tim Elder

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