[Blindtlk] store ads

Sun Oct 16 22:44:51 UTC 2011

Good afternoon Julie,

Here are a few thoughts. I have not researched if NFB has any particular initiative. 

I have to believe that all of us would benefit from accessible sales papers and advertisements. I would think that you (or fellow Federationists) could reach out to the National Associations for the independent grocers. At present there are over 50,000 independent grocers. I might suggest that you (or someone at NFB) start a campaign and approach the fine folks at the National Grocers Association at http://www.nationalgrocers.org/general_Info/contact_us.html. 

For the rest of the bigger store chains I suspect one would have to reach their corporate communications or executive offices for each individually.

I found the following resources on Wal-mart's site.

http://grocery.walmart.com/usd-estore/common/static/accessibilitycontainer.jsp?referrer=cookiesDetecting

Consider completing a Wal-mart shopping experience survey to give them feedback. All of us should do this. I just did.

Walmart shopping experience survey
Please look at the bottom of your receipt to see if you’ve been invited. If you’re invited, please tell us about your store experience.
Since I could not read my receipt I just elected that I could not find it, then it takes you to a different survey option.

Here is what I wrote "I am blind and find that your flash based advertisements are inaccessible to me and the 180 million blind individuals that lived in the United States. I (We) would greatly appreciate it, if you would make your site and especially your weekly advertisements accessible to those of us that do not have the ability to see graphical representations of your advertisements. A simple HTML page would be great. Even a downloadable text file would be a usable strategy. Possibly an audio file of some one reading the weekly flyer. You should strive to make all aspects of your web site accessible. Thank you in advance for your thoughtful and timely consieration."

Please write your own version, so they don't think we are just copying the same text over and over.

Walmart Global Ethics Office
1-800-WM-ETHIC
Questions or concerns regarding ourStatement of Ethics.

Customer Service
Customer Service
1-800-Walmart (1-800-925-6278)
We'd like to hear from you. Send your local store or our corporate headquarters a comment.

Corporate Mailing Address
Walmart Home Office
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 
72716-8611

Although not related, please check out this settlement I stumbled across. It addresses many accessibility issues with Wal-mart. Including issues with guide dogs.

http://www.ada.gov/walmart.htm

-------------------------------

For Walgreens:

Walgreen's offers an HTML version of their weekly adds. You have to click the HTML link to the right of the word broadband towards the top left of their page.

----------------------------------

For Bag n' Save:

I don't see any 
http://www.bagnsave.net/contact.php

I posted the following via Bag n' Save's shopping experience feedback link.

"I am one of 180 million blind individuals in this country and a member of the National Association for the Blind. A good many of our members shop at many of your stores. It is impossible for screen readers to read graphical representation of advertisements. We would greatly appreciate it if you would create a plain HTML / text representation of your weekly advertisements so that we can take advantage of your sales as well. Please also consider making your site fully accessible for people with disabilities that do not allow them to access print. You could even have some one read the advertisement and post an audio file as well."

------------------------------

For Dollar General:

http://www.hoovers.com/company/Dollar_General_Corporation/ryttif-1.html

On Oct 16, 2011, at 3:24 PM, Julie J. wrote:

> Hello all!
> 
> I have another shopping question for you!  Several years ago I used to get the local grocery store's weekly ad flier by email. It read great with JAWS.  I knew what was on sale and could plan my weeks meals around the sale items.
> 
> Since then I moved and no longer have that type of store in my town.  I got out of the habit of paying much attention to sale items.  I would like to get back into the routine of making better grocery shopping decisions.  This afternoon I've been looking for store ads on the internet and hopefully a way to sign up for them by email.  I'm okay with going to the website to read them though.  That's not a big deal.  My problem is that every store I've checked so far has their flier in flash or some other equally inaccessible format.
> 
> Do any of you read store fliers?  If so how do you access them?  I'm most interested in Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Bag'n'Save and Dollar General, since those are about the only chain stores I have in my small town.  I haven't checked every store's website to find out if their ads are available or accessible.  I thought I'd ask here  in case someone else has already figured this out.
> 
> TIA
> Julie
> 
> 
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