[blparent] PresidentialOpenQuestions.com - Questions for Upcoming Presidential Debates

[Robert Shelton]

Apologies to anyone for which this is a repeat.

For those of you who might try this with a screen reader, it worked for me
using firefox. IE 11 was a non-starter in that the fields were not read
correctly so you couldn't tell what information was being requested. Also,
when I used firefox, the page accepted my word that I wasn't a robot.

From: NFBNet-Members-List [mailto:nfbnet-members-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Danielsen, Chris via NFBNet-Members-List
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2016 10:54 AM
To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] PresidentialOpenQuestions.com - Questions for
Upcoming Presidential Debates

 
Dear Fellow Federationists:
A website called PresidentialOpenQuestions.com is accepting ideas for
questions to be asked of the two major party presidential candidates  in the
upcoming televised debates. Users of the site can also vote on submitted
questions that they would like for the candidates to be asked. CNN and ABC,
the networks hosting the final two presidential debates, have agreed to
consider the top thirty questions voted upon by the public for inclusion in
the debates. One of the questions being heavily promoted relates
specifically to disability rights and reads as follows: How would you value
disability rights in your presidency? It is currently among the top sixty
questions, out of some ten thousand submitted.
While the wording of this question is broad, it is better than no question
related to people with disabilities at all. We should engage in every effort
we can to get the candidates to talk about how blind people and others with
disabilities will be enabled to live the lives we want under their
administrations. Some members have therefore circulated the question and
website address to various lists, and it was promoted yesterday on our
official NFB social media channels.
That said, we have since learned that members who have attempted to vote
have experienced usability and accessibility issues with the site, and its
behavior is inconsistent. While some of us have voted for the question
successfully with little difficulty, others have been unable to do so. We
have contacted the owners of the site to urge them to fix these issues and
to point out that the votes of tens of thousands of blind people are being
lost while they remain unresolved. However, since some of us have been able
to complete the process, and if that fact encourages you to try voting for
the question, you might have the best experience by following these steps:
1. Click the Register link near the top of the page and then, on the next
screen, create your account.
2. As part of creating your account, you will have to check a box that says
"I'm not a robot."  When you check that box, you may or may not be asked to
solve one or more captchas. If you are asked to solve captchas, there will
be an opportunity for you to click a button that says "Get an audio
challenge," or you may receive a captcha that simply asks you a question to
which you must check the correct answer.
3. Once you have successfully registered, go to the "disability question"
and vote. Here's the direct link:
https://presidentialopenquestions.com/questions/7313/vote/ 
Note that the vote button will be above the text of the question, not below
or after it.
4. When you have voted successfully, the word "voted" will appear above the
question's text, along with the total number of votes that the question has
received; this is how you will know your vote has been counted.
I hope that many of you are able to vote successfully, and again we have let
the site owners know that they can and should make it much easier for blind
users to vote on their site.
Warmly,
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind


-----Original Message-----
From: BlParent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
blparent-request at nfbnet.org
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2016 7:00 AM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: BlParent Digest, Vol 149, Issue 2

Send BlParent mailing list submissions to
	blparent at nfbnet.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
	blparent-request at nfbnet.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
	blparent-owner at nfbnet.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than
"Re: Contents of BlParent digest..."