[Faith-Talk] Faith Community Content Accessibility

[Allen Zderad]

Hi Ericka,
	Thanks for sharing your experience with accessibility from both within a congregation and denominational publications perspective.  Having the publication in an accessible digital format should not necessarily exclude purchasing a subscription.     The convenience of digital copy may be an advantage in eliminating shipping costs, since the publication may be delivered via email.
	It will be good to hear from other members of the faith-talk community about their successes and challenges in obtaining materials pertinent to participation in faith communities.
Allen 

-----Original Message-----
From: Faith-Talk [mailto:faith-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ericka via Faith-Talk
Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2020 8:36 PM
To: Faith-talk, for the discussion of Blindness in faith and religion <faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ericka <dotwriter1 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Faith-Talk] Faith Community Content Accessibility

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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