[Faith-Talk] Faith Community Content Accessibility

[Ericka]

You have come to the right place! So I can’t give you any suggestions, I know that behind the scenes various chapters have been working to improve this. In our Lutheran Church we don’t use the slides for worship and now they have things on YouTube for the service. Our pastor and the staff have made a great effort to make things accessible to us. They’re willing to learn. We are blessed!
On the other hand not other places are as supportive. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s magazine gather for women has not been accessible for a long time. The last they were doing that was someone accessible was undecided but we all know work set so gone… Into the oblivion. So we are try to figure out how to make the magazine accessible. The website to get things was not accessible at all. They were very reluctant to do anything different. It’s a subscription-based magazine so they didn’t want to just give stuff away. Especially since whatever is done for the blind also will benefit seniors who are probably a big bass for their subscriptions. I’m not quite sure what the latest outcome is but I heard that they were finally willing to be at the table to modify things.

Ericka Nelson

> On Sep 19, 2020, at 4:06 PM, Allen Zderad via Faith-Talk <faith-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
>                My name is Allen Zderad, and am interested if anyone in this
> emailing group has worked on accessibility issues within faith communities?
> That is, there are various items of content within a faith community that
> may, or may not, be accessible to blind and low vision congregants.  These
> may include worship songs, sermon notes, study materials, and websites; to
> name a few.
> 
>                In providing these items to sighted congregants, faith
> community staff may not be familiar with tools and methods for preparing
> these  sources in a format accessible for blind congregants.  Additionally,
> such staff may not consider purchasing software used in creating these items
> that will create accessible content.  For example, if songs are projected
> for congregational singing, the software used to create the slides/video,
> may not also generate a digital file readable on a smart phone, or other
> device used by a blind congregant.  Similarly,  a website may not be created
> compliant with web accessibility guidelines; making it difficult to navigate
> and access pertinent  information.
> 
>                Unfortunately, a blind, or low vision congregant, may
> encounter resistance in convincing the leadership to provide reasonable
> accommodation.  Therefore, I am wondering if some of this group has been
> able to identify software and/or web design tools used by faith communities
> that have been used to create accessible content.  If the staff uses
> Microsoft WORD, or an equivalent, this does not become a problem.  However,
> I have encountered video projection software; i.e. ProPresenter used for
> songs and sermon notes, which does not render a digital file compatible with
> an iPhone.  Similarly , one may encounter a website, either improperly
> coded, or unable to be coded properly do to the web  design tool being used.
> 
> 
>                Welcome any recommendations, or resources  to assist.
> 
> Allen  
> 
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