[Faith-Talk] Accessibility At Churches And Advocacy

Fri Feb 11 04:41:13 UTC 2022

Sarah,

I followed that link and came to a page that was not really that friendly. I think if we want people to take our concerns and requests into consideration when they are starting from lack of understanding, we may need to communicate better about best practices and why they should be considered. 

I also fully agree about the fact that most churches do not invest in custom professional websites. There are several options for free church listings/pages/sites that are easy for a church to default to. Even when something is built just for that church, it often falls on a volunteer who uses what they know to have a web presence. 

From a broader perspective, web presence for many churches have more serious issues than accessibility. I say that not to put down our accessibility concerns, but to highlight that a site being accessible and still not having accurate up to date information still isn’t useful. I recently looked at five churches to try and find out about worship (is it still virtual and if so how do I access it) and two had not been updated since before the pandemic (one even still listed a pastor that left 5+ years ago), one provided a link for their virtual worship (but it turned out it wasn’t running as they were back in person), another detailed the process they used to reopen in 2021 but left it unknown what was going on, and the fifth said they were worshipping online until further notice built provided no way to access the online service (I actually preached there last Sunday and they only provided the link by email to members and will be back in person in two weeks). This is just an example of the type of problem church websites have in being up to date. 

Christopher

------
The Rev. Christopher L. Smith
New York, USA

Sent from a remote device. 
Please do not reply to this email address, rather use my regular email address (this may possibly be found in the cc)

> On Feb 10, 2022, at 2:41 PM, Sarah Blake LaRose via Faith-Talk <faith-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> There are existing guidelines at w3c.org. The primary problem is that most
> people who are designing church web sites are using point and click programs
> that don't yield accessible output. So there must be an active interest in
> learning, and this will be a volunteer effort.
> 
> 
> Rev. Dr. Sarah Blake LaRose
> sarah at sarahblakelarose.com
> http://www.sarahblakelarose.com
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Faith-Talk <faith-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Allen Zderad
> via Faith-Talk
> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 1:45 PM
> To: 'Faith-talk, for the discussion of Blindness in faith and religion'
> <faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Allen Zderad <ajzderad at midco.net>
> Subject: Re: [Faith-Talk] Accessibility At Churches And Advocacy
> 
> Hi Again - this is Allen,
>    Wondering if someone(s) of the leadership of this group could
> prepare a short checklist on tips & aids in making websites accessible.  I
> realize that the NFB may have such a checklist, but have not been able to
> locate such on their website.  Some members of this group may have served at
> NFB training centers, and would have contacts who could provide such a
> guideline/checklist.  A brief outline of what needs to be on this checklist
> would be a starting point.  Known website design software with good
> accessibility tools would also be helpful in assisting congregations in
> selecting a platform from which to begin.  
> 
> Allen
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Faith-Talk [mailto:faith-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Doug
> Lee via Faith-Talk
> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 10:49 AM
> To: Faith-talk, for the discussion of Blindness in faith and religion
> <faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Doug Lee <dgl at dlee.org>
> Subject: Re: [Faith-Talk] Accessibility At Churches And Advocacy
> 
> Just a funny related story: In the 90s in a reasonably large Methodist
> church in Illinois, I personally braille-labeled the church elevator with
> Dymo tape. However, I found all the labels gone the following week and have
> always wondered if kids or adults did that. I do figure it was due to my
> slight oversight of not using clear tape though.
> 
> On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 11:34:43AM -0500, VIAS, ARMANDO via Faith-Talk
> wrote:
> Hello all. I am new to the group!
> 
> 
> 
> I don't know if this is relevant to the group, but this is related to
> accessibility.
> 
> 
> 
> For those of you that go to church, have you ever had to advocate for
> accessible accommodations? For example, my church is switching websites, and
> I'm trying my best to ensure accessibility to include everyone. Had you had
> luck advocating with your church?
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Armando Vias
> 
> -- 
> Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
> A mailing list is like a car where brakes and accelerator are the same
> pedal:
> The effect of putting your foot down is a bit hard to predict!  (04/04/2012)
> 
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