[Diabetes-talk] Accessibility questions, help needed

Fri Jul 20 01:54:27 UTC 2012

Evening all,

Thank you for your responses.  I guess I should have been more specific on
which area it was of the site I could not use, but I didn't know if this was
even an appropriate topic for the list, so I kept it short.

To answer Mike's questions, I have tried this with both JAWS 13 and NVDA, no
luck on either.  This Weight Watchers group was started as an at work group,
where they hold the meetings at your job instead of you traveling to a
center.  Of the members, 4 of us are blind.

The specific area I'm having a problem with is the eTools portion of the
site.  This is an important area because you are supposed to be able to use
this to go and look up point values for servings of different foods.  For
people not familiar with how WW works, most foods have a point value
depending on what food it is and the size of your serving.  To stay with the
plan, everyone is given a pre set number of points, which they base on
things like your height, weight, gender, age, etc.  In order to have access
to this part of the site, you need a login and password, which they won't
let you create one unless you give them your credit card information so they
can bill you.  I did this.  I am able to get past the login and password
fields ok, but once you go here there is a section of the eTools that wants
you to personalize your information.  You can't bypass this, you can't skip
it to go to the food database (or anywhere else), it won't let you do
anything else until the information is confirmed.  I tried both with my
i-phone app and the site, but the phone version of it prompted me to go back
online and finish setting up the account.  Among other fields there is a
calendar they want you to fill in the date of your last meeting and what
your weight was at that time.  Using JAWS, you can't make any changes to
these combo boxes.  It won't let you go into forms mode, it won't let you
use the down arrow to access it, everything is silent when you try to move
around and no changes were made by using trial and error.

One of the other people who also uses adaptive technology told me that he
had a sighted person help him to set this up, but he said he still couldn't
get any further with it because everything was graphics.  According to the
terms of their agreement, I can't give my login and password out to anyone
so unless the person helping is sitting here with me, it's grounds for W W
to terminate my membership if I do.  Because of this, prior testing of this
part of the site for accessibility was not possible at that time.  It's
restricted to only people who have a login.

I'm sorry if I came across as not being tactful; I just am upset by this
because I feel like if they're charging me for it, I should be able to have
some way of having access to it -- privately and independently.  The group
leader's idea is to have me report to the other members what I ate or am
looking to eat and hope that someone will be willing to calculate the points
for me for the foods I don't know and aren't listed.  I just feel that this
opens me up to being judged by people and none of the other members have to
report what they do, which to be honest, me saying what I had and them not
reporting what they had makes it feel very one-sided.  I'm not comfortable
with that.  In speaking with the district manager, there position on this is
that they are not going to make materials available in another format such
as braille or audio because they feel the quantity is too limited for their
market.  I have checked on bookshare and BARD, but the specific materials
they make reference to are not listed.

For anyone that wants to respond, you can contact me off list if you like
because I realize some people probably aren't interested in this topic.  My
e-mail address is
Julie.kline at rochester.rr.com

Julie

-----Original Message-----
From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike Freeman
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:57 AM
To: 'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] Accessibility questions, help needed

I just checked out the site and although there's the usual clutter of
unnecessary frames (read ads) with odd labels, if you ignore the clutter,
the site seems quite accessible to me. I was able to see meetings in my
area, look at recipes and tricks and find other desirable information. The
site has plenty of landmarks, headings and "skip navigation" links for those
who like such things (I prefer headings). And the searches worked quite well
with all combo boxes, checkboxes and the like perfectly useable.

What version of JAWS, Window-eyes, SuperNova, NVDA or other screen-reader is
Julie using? So far as I am aware, the Department of Justice doesn't deem a
web site inaccessible because a user isn't using the latest/greatest version
of his/her screen-reader of choice.

To make this a bit easier on Julie, what aspects of the site are you having
trouble with? Perhaps we can coach you through it.

Mike Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Robert Shelton
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:07 PM
To: 'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] Accessibility questions, help needed

Is this maybe something to bring to NFB?  WW is a major organization with a
web page that's supposed to serve their customers -- I'm thinking the Target
Stores precedent here.  What say, Mike?

-----Original Message-----
From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie Kline
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 9:25 PM
To: diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] Accessibility questions, help needed

good evening,
i don't know if you guys remember, but a couple of weeks ago I had asked the
question here about Weight Watchers and whether or not their website and
online tools were accessible for someone using a screen reader. As a follow
up to that question, I am very upset to learn that most of site I'd need to
use is not at all accessible. it doesn't respond to screen reader commands
and you can't navigate the thing because it's all flash and graphics. of
course the sign up page reads beautifully. i brought this problem to our
local Weight Watchers people and asked if I could have the material in
another format like braille, but they will not give me a straight answer for
this and the only thing they've given me is a pocket guide.
do I have any recourse here? saying I feel cheated is pretty mild; I'm very
upset that I'm not getting the same opportunities as other participants
though I'm paying the same money, and while everyone else has multiple
options for doing tasks, I don't even have one.
if anyone can offer me somewhere to go for help with this, I'd appreciate
any suggestions. if I'm just plain SOL AND THERE IS no recourse here, then
thanks for letting me vent.
julie
sent from my iPhone
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