[Cinci-nfb] A victory concerning making a Website accessible

[Christopher Sabine, ONH Consulting]

Elif. That's really awesome that you were able to get that intersection in place. I haven't traveled the area around the Xavier Campus in years, but I understand there are some intersections around campus that are particularly problematic for blind people to cross (not impossible if you know the traffic patterns and the general area, but problematic nonetheless), so I'm glad you were able to have an audible traffic signal installed.

Chris.

-----Original Message-----
From: Elif Emir Öksüz [mailto:filerime at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 10:27 PM
To: Christopher Sabine, ONH Consulting; NFB of Ohio Cincinnati Chapter List
Subject: Re: [Cinci-nfb] A victory concerning making a Website accessible

I agree with Deborah.
Congrats Chriss.
One success story from me
There is an intersection on Dana avenue with the other way going into Xavier University.
I was using that intersection everyday, and I requested traffic lights voice signaling in January 2014. After my graduation I learnt that they made it in January 2015.
Now that intersection is safe, it is my gift to future Xavier Students.

2015-04-27 18:23 GMT-04:00, Christopher Sabine, ONH Consulting via Cinci-nfb <cinci-nfb at nfbnet.org>:
> Thanks, Deborah. I think this really demonstrates how access barriers 
> of this type are usually organizational / cultural, not technological. 
> It took almost 18 months for my problem to entirely resolve, but eventually it did.
>
>
>
> Chris.
>
>
>
> From: Deborah Kendrick [mailto:dkkendrick at earthlink.net]
> Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 6:13 PM
> To: 'Christopher Sabine, ONH Consulting'; 'NFB of Ohio Cincinnati 
> Chapter List'
> Subject: RE: [Cinci-nfb] A victory concerning making a Website 
> accessible
>
>
>
> Chris,
>
> Thank you so much for sharing this experience with the rest of us.
>
> It is exactly this kind of persistence and perseverance that can make 
> a dfference.
>
> Thanks for making  it happen!
>
>
>
> Deborah
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Cinci-nfb [mailto:cinci-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
> Christopher Sabine, ONH Consulting via Cinci-nfb
> Sent: Monday, April 27, 2015 2:39 PM
> To: NFB of Ohio Cincinnati Chapter List
> Subject: [Cinci-nfb] A victory concerning making a Website accessible
>
>
>
> Hello all. With everything going on in my life and the Chapter, I 
> wasn't able to mention a success that I experienced earlier this month 
> concerning a Website that is now accessible thanks to my efforts.
>
>
>
> About a year and a half ago, I tried to schedule an appointment for a 
> blood draw through quest Diagnostic's Website, http://www.questdiagnostics.com).
> The link to schedule an appointment had a series of radio buttons 
> where you could select the reason for the appointment (i.e. routine 
> blood test, drug screen, etc.). However, when I activated the radio 
> button for blood draw in my browser using JAWS, evidently another edit 
> field would pop up, and I would be kicked out of forms mode-rendering 
> the form inaccessible. I encountered the issue on multiple versions of 
> JAWS, System Access to Go, and both Internet Explorer and Mozilla 
> Firefox-always the same issue.
>
>
>
> I tracked down the CIO at Quest's corporate office and got the 
> assistant to let me send her an email with a detailed description of 
> the issue I was facing. About a week later, I received a call from 
> Mark Yarison, Director of Customer experience at Quest. I explained 
> the problem and the reason I needed to use a screen reader to access 
> their site and asked to schedule a brief phone conference with their 
> Web development team, so I could demonstrate the problem.
>
>
>
> They were able to replicate the issue with the form using JAWS in 40 
> minute demonstration mode several different times. It turned out the 
> problem was introduced when they recently upgraded their site and 
> failed to account for the site's accessibility with screen readers. It 
> took the rest of this time to resolve the issue, and I had to have 
> staff from Corporate schedule my appointments for me while the site was being redesigned.
>
>
>
> Earlier this month, I received an email that the Website had been 
> updated and was now accessible. I checked, and indeed , I was able to 
> schedule an appointment for a blood draw at my nearest Quest 
> Diagnostics location with the site.
>
>
>
> I just wanted to pass this along, as I know many of us need to 
> schedule blood tests and Quest is one of the major providers in the 
> country of lab testing services.
>
>
>
> Very Best,
>
>
>
> Chris.
>
>