[Blindtlk] Inaccessible conference website

[Arielle Silverman]

Dear all,

I'm attending an academic conference next month and as I was about to
submit my online registration, discovered an inaccessible slider that
had to be slid to the right before the website would let me submit my
payment info. I complained to the registrar that as a blind person I
couldn't access the online conference registration, and was told to
try a different Web browser. When I explained that the problem wasn't
with the browser's interface but with the use of  a slider, which to
my knowledge cannot interact with JAWS, the registrar offered me to
fill out a PDF registration form and said that they cannot remove the
slider because it offers enhanced security. She did seem attentive to
my concerns but I am not terribly confident that the problem will be
remedied on the website. I eventually decided to have my husband help
me with the slider because the PDF registration form could not be
filled out by computer and so I would have needed sighted help
regardless, and doing the slider required less sighted help.

I have a few questions for you guys. First, have any of you had
success handling these sliders with JAWS? I've never seen such an
element before on a Web page. Second, do you know if conference
websites are legally required to be accessible under Section 508? If
so, I would like to push the matter further. The website for this
conference had multiple accessibility issues although the slider one
was the most blatant. I complained to them back in 2009 and they fixed
some of the problems but not all of them. Third, is it really true
that a slider offers maximum security and if so, what accessible
remedy should I suggest to them that doesn't compromise security?

Thanks,
Arielle