[Ct-nfb] FW: [Nfbnet-members-list] ABA-3D] Monster.com agreement w/NFB announced

Elizabeth Rival erival at comcast.net
Fri Feb 1 16:13:56 UTC 2013


 

 

From: Nfbnet-members-list [mailto:nfbnet-members-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 9:58 PM
To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] ABA-3D] Monster.com agreement w/NFB announced

 


Subject: [ABA-3D] Monster.com agreement w/NFB announced
        
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


MONSTER.COM FIRST IN INDUSTRY TO MAKE WEBSITE ACCESSIBLE FOR BLIND USERS 

Effort a Result of Agreement Between Monster Worldwide and the Attorney
General's Office and National Federation of the Blind; First Job Search
Website to Be Fully Accessible

 

BOSTON - The popular job search website Monster.com will be the first job
search and recruitment website in the industry to provide job seekers who
are blind with full and equal access to all of its products and services
including mobile applications, Attorney General Martha Coakley, Monster
Worldwide, Inc. and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) announced
today.

 

The announcement is the result of an agreement with the AG's Office and the
NFB and provides meaningful benefit to individuals nationwide who are blind
or visually impaired, including more than 35,000 residents in Massachusetts.
As part of the agreement, Monster will contribute $50,000 to the
Commonwealth that will be used to fund the Massachusetts Commission for the
Blind's (MCB) job internship program. Monster will also make a $50,000
contribution to the NFB and serve as the title sponsor of the NFB's annual
convention in 2013. 

 

"Unemployment and underemployment in the blind community are significant
problems and given the extent to which computers and the Internet have
become integral to our daily lives, it is essential that websites are
accessible to everyone," AG Coakley said. "We are pleased to have worked
with the NFB and Monster to make the company's valuable products and
services accessible and to provide better employment opportunities to job
seekers who are blind, visually impaired or have other print disabilities
such as dyslexia.  We are hopeful that with the ability to access written
information in an audible text to speech format, these users will now have
access to jobs, and better jobs, than ever before.  We want technology to
improve people's lives, not create obstacles or barriers."  

 

"Over the past year, a team at Monster has been working closely with teams
from the National Federation of the Blind and the Massachusetts Attorney
General's Office to enhance our Monster.com website in a way that will
provide more opportunities for blind job seekers to find jobs," said Mark
Conway, Chief Information Officer, Monster Worldwide. "Although portions of
our site were already accessible, we all agreed we could do more. Based on
the work of these teams, the Monster.com site will be enhanced to make its
website and mobile applications accessible to blind job seekers. This has
been an enormous undertaking and is an exciting accomplishment for which we
can all be proud."

 

"The National Federation of the Blind works for full and equal access by
blind Americans to all forms of digital information," said Dr. Marc Maurer,
President of the National Federation of the Blind. "Access to digital
information and applications is critical to success in the twenty-first
century in all areas of life, including searching and applying for career
opportunities. We are therefore pleased that Monster is making this
commitment to full and equal access to its website and mobile applications.
We also thank the Attorney General of Massachusetts for being such a strong
partner and advocate for accessibility."

 

"We are excited to partner with Monster and the National Federation of the
Blind to provide access to job opportunities available to individuals who
are blind," said Commissioner Janet LaBreck of the Massachusetts Commission
for the Blind. "The MCB internship program enables individuals the
opportunity to access early work experience.  Utilizing accessible
technology available on Monster's website to conduct a job search ensures
that individuals who are blind can independently and successfully perform
the same tasks as other job seeking candidates." 

 

To make its website and mobile applications accessible to job seekers who
are blind, Monster is  making them compatible with innovative technology
called screen access software that renders on-screen information into
Braille or speech so that blind individuals can use keyboard commands to
access the same information as sighted users. 

 

In accordance with the agreement, Monster is in the process of making its
desktop and mobile websites fully and equally accessible and will have its
mobile applications accessible within two years. Monster has also ensured
the templates employers use to post job advertisements on its site will be
fully and equally accessible within six months. 

 

Monster will also train its customer service representatives to assist users
who are blind and will establish a standing committee to oversee
implementation of the agreement and other issues related to accessibility in
the future. In addition, Monster has agreed to work with the NFB to
encourage higher education programs to incorporate accessible design and
assistive technology in to their core curricula.  

 

            The agreement is the most recent result of collaboration between
AG Coakley's Office and the NFB. Past collaborations have included making
Apple's iTunes services and Cardtronics ATMs fully and equally accessible to
the blind.

 

            State and federal laws not only prohibit disparate treatment of
individuals with disabilities in employment and housing, but also require
that all businesses operating places of public accommodation provide people
with disabilities with full and equal enjoyment of their goods, services,
and facilities.

 

Monster.com is the worldwide leader in connecting people to jobs and
provides a full array of job seeking, career management, recruitment and
talent management products and services in more than 40 countries.

 

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Genevieve C. Nadeau
and Paralegal Bethany Brown of Attorney General Coakley's Civil Rights
Division, and Assistant Attorney General Maura Healey, Chief of Attorney
General Coakley's Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau.   

 

##########

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20130201/1a88940e/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: ATT00010.txt
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ct-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20130201/1a88940e/attachment.txt>


More information about the CT-NFB mailing list