[gui-talk] Inaccessible Software!

[The Jacobs Family]

Wow Mr. Pepper!!  Ever think about publishing that phantabulous oration?  I 
mean it!!  I whole-heartedly agree with everything you said in your 
commentary!!  Yah--it was one of those things that when you read it, the 
more ya read, the better and better it gets!!  Like an adrenalin surge?  Oh 
Glory that was good!!  So inviggorating!!  I can think of one company in 
particular whose software needs a whole lot of help!  As a matter of fact, I 
told one of the people responsible for that that if they all scrapped the 
entire thing, and threw their mouse away, they could get into Excel really 
easily, put the whole thing together in one afternoon  on a really nice 
spread sheet andf WALA!!  They might be able to accomplish the first draft 
in about a day!!  Just making things accessible would save those companies a 
whole lot of time and money if they thought about it.  Man!  That was a good 
piece!!!  Thanks Mr. Pepper!  I don't think I could've done any better 
myself.  Now, like my friends and acquaintances tell me, "Now Bern!  Tell us 
how ya really feel!"  Keep up the good work Mr. Pepper and have a 
phantabulous weekend!!

Bern
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <gui-talk-request at nfbnet.org>
To: <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 12, 2010 1:00 PM
Subject: gui-talk Digest, Vol 70, Issue 12


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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: inaccessible software (James Pepper)
>   2. Purchase your Favorite Text-to-Speech Engine for SAToGo
>      (Serotek Announcements)
>   3. Re: Good morning everyoned (Jesse Johnson)
>   4. Re: Hi Everyone (David Andrews)
>   5. zip files (Mark J. Cadigan)
>   6. Internet Explorer 7 Question (Steve Jacobson)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:41:02 -0600
> From: James Pepper <b75205 at gmail.com>
> To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] inaccessible software
> Message-ID:
> <fe5b78281002111141n48d3c5c2y236a9fa473b0cfe2 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> There needs to be a meeting of the minds in all content. Party A creates a
> document.  Party B, the Blind, receive that document, they have to figure
> out what Party A meant by processing that file using many different
> programs, each resulting in a different document and in most cases the
> content is lost or not transmittable.  Party B gets a different document
> than was intended by Party A.  But Party A does not know that Party B has 
> a
> different document because it looks exactly the same as what they sent out
> Visually there is no difference.  So there is no meeting of the minds.
>
> I think this principle should be used to challenge every government form,
> every document made by the US government, because everyone here knows that
> when you process a document or if someone else processes a document made 
> by
> any agency, the content you receive is not what was intended.
>
> Every government form uses fonts that are too small for OCR software to
> decode, hence they all have to be replaced.
>
> And why is it only in English, isn't the government supposed to supply
> content accessible to every language under all of the civil rights acts?
>
> Also it is possible to make a document intentionally be different in 
> content
> for the blind than for the sighted as a matter of fraud.  So there is a
> great liability that insurance companies should consider when they 
> establish
> business insurance, particularly for the big corporations.
>
> Why do you have to rebuild the document to figure out what was intended, 
> you
> did not write it, someone else did!  The NFB, the AFB and the ACB need to
> demand a new level of accessibility, where All of the the content is
> accessible using free software and that a person can fill out a form, send
> it to the author just like anyone else without assistance.  As a matter of
> Civil Rights the blind should have access to all content and that they
> should not have to pay any fee for that level of accessibility.
>
> Access fees are poll taxes and in the case of Voter Registration, 
> violations
> of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have far more serious and immediate 
> impact
> on a state than accessibilty laws.  A state that refuses to be accessible 
> to
> the blind in voting looses its federal funding under ADA, gets 
> redistricted
> and for 25 years it is required to gather demographic information on the
> class that received the discrimination.  They loose their congressional
> representation under the 14th Amendment Section 2, which was used after 
> the
> Civil War if they refuse to comply, and that death sentence was what
> enforced the Civil Rights Movement!
>
> Since the blind and visually impaired in this country are twice the number
> of African Americans who voted in the 2010 election it seems that we 
> should
> be concentrating on this as a matter of Civil Rights.  The NIH is 
> currently
> tracking 33.5 million Americans over the age of 40 who have eye diseases
> that lead to blindness with 17 million of that figure being
> cataracts. Diabetes is taking its toll in the baby boomers! So the number 
> of
> visually impaired is a lot higher than you realize!
>
> We must demand that the US census count the blind, the disabled and the
> visually impaired and demand this as a matter of Civil Rights!  I 
> testified
> on this before a Department of Labor subcommittee that met in Dallas Texas
> and Operation PUSH was there and I demanded that Obama order the Census to
> count the blind and disabled and that met with a round of applause!
>
> The voter registration form requires the blind to purchase JAWS 10 or 
> later
> to fill most of it out, that is a poll tax and not all of it is 
> accessible,
> so it requires the blind to either get someone to read it to them and that
> is a poll tax and a literacy test. Their form actually depends on people
> helping the blind fill it out, even though for everyone else they can just
> fill it out and mail it in.  By the way when that form was made, JAWS 10 
> did
> not exist!  Also their form has a map on the back of it that you must draw
> where you live on the form.  Many states insist on this and so people who
> are blind cannot draw the map, so it is a literacy test designed to fail.
> Arkansas insisted that the blind were able to draw the map because they 
> have
> never had any complaints!
>
> Also the National Form is designed so badly that the blind have 5
> opportunities to change their status in a drop down list of being a 
> citizen
> or not, so you need to figure out how many people filled out that form 
> with
> JAWS and accidentally changed their citizenship status because that status
> determines whether they can vote or not.  So I am saying that people could
> have filled out the parts of the form that are accessible and still were
> denied the right to vote!
>
> So you need to coordinate with Civil Rights Organizations.  For instance
> during the 2008 election I was in contact with the Voting Rights Division 
> of
> the ACLU, but they did not understand the problems of the blind and they
> wanted help from the NFB and could not find it. Of course I did not know 
> of
> this list back then.  But you have a communication problem between 
> advocacy
> groups.  Because we had a state elections officer put in writing that the
> state was not required to make voter registration forms accessible to the
> blind!  That is their policy!
>
> Section 508 law is a mess because it assumes that somewhere and at some
> point in time, there existed a program that was capable of determining if 
> a
> person could diagnose each individual regulation of Section 508. Most of 
> the
> suggested programs do not exist anymore. And some of the regulations are 
> so
> obsolete that they are causing problems such as the use of specialized
> keyboard shortcuts that take over standard keyboard shortcuts used by the
> blind.  We need to get rid of that regulation!  And the tools to determine
> section 508 compliance do not have to be accessible to the blind.  It does
> not matter that the blind must use multiple techniques to find content, 
> that
> all of the content is not accessible in one sitting, all that the law does
> gives people an excuse to claim accessibility when none exists!
>
> The blind need to access content in about as much time as a sighted 
> viewer,
> with a consideration for content that is obviously needs more explanation.
> But there should not be a problem with most US government forms.
>
> Standardized tests are easy to make accessible to the blind so that they 
> can
> access all of the content using a free screen reader in about as much time
> as anyone else. Sure if there is some video that must be used, then yes it
> will take more time as you have to read the description.   I do not
> understand why people are resistant to making tests accessible.  It is 
> easy!
>
>
> The reason people are learning Universal Design is that Apple requires W3C
> compliance to work with the IPhone.  Most designers do not own screen
> readers and accessibility settings mess up Adobe software as well as other
> design programs.
>
> Also we have a problem where web design software fools the programs used 
> to
> test for Section 508 complaince so the accessibility is NOT being put into
> websites.  Web design software places placeholder text which say things 
> like
> "Button 1" into alternative text fields and of course the designer is
> supposed to change this text to indicate the intention of the button.  But
> if they do not do anything, the site will still pass the standardized 
> tests
> for web compliance because the alt text has text in it, albeit useless 
> text,
> but it is in there and so web designers can claim they made their content
> Section 508 complaint when it is not accessible at all!
>
> Also web designers know where everything is located on their pages so when
> they demonstrate the 'accessibility' to their boss they can show them how
> easy it is to access the content.  But try that on the public and they are
> lost.
>
> One company claimed that their program was accessible using a standard
> testing technique, which was discontinued 9 months before and they still
> have a link to this obsolete test on their website. Isn't it nice that 
> they
> care so much about accessibility!
>
> Why do the blind have to become computer programmers to access content?
> Face it everyone on this list is more adept at handling computers than 
> your
> average person.
>
> I could write a book on what is wrong with accessibility but I think the
> main problem is that there is a huge business in fixing things after they
> are made and some of these people are in charge of the standards for
> accessibility. So you have the fox guarding the hen house.
>
> James Pepper
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:58:09 -0600
> From: Serotek Announcements <noreply at serotek.com> (by way of David
> Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>)
> To: david.andrews at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [gui-talk] Purchase your Favorite Text-to-Speech Engine for
> SAToGo
> Message-ID: <auto-000139347397 at mailfront1.g2host.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>
> Users of Serotek's free SAToGo service now have two for-purchase TTS
> options, in addition to the default, free eSpeak speech engine. If
> you'd like to use System Access to Go with the Eloquence or DECTalk
> speech engine, you may purchase one or both of these options for $40
> each. A portion of this purchase will be donated to the Accessibility
> is a Right (AIR) Foundation. These engines, once purchased, will
> remain a part of your Serotek account for life, whether you choose to
> continue exclusively using System Access to Go or you decide to
> purchase Serotek products outright or through our Build a Bundle offering.
>
> To purchase your favorite TTS engine for use with System Access to
> Go, simply log in with your account credentials, at which point you
> will be prompted to choose whether you'd like to purchase a speech
> engine. Choose the link corresponding to the engine you'd like to
> purchase and follow the instructions to complete your transaction.
> Note that you can now use PayPal to complete your purchase, if you wish.
>
> If you'd like to convert your free SAToGo account to a paid account
> by purchasing Serotek products and services, doing so is easy. Once
> logged on to your System Access to Go account, press modifier+f to
> open the System Access menu. Note that the modifier key can be
> insert, capslock, numpad 0, or scroll lock. From the System Access
> menu, press the letter a for the "my account option." From this
> screen, choose the link which reads: "Purchase Serotek products and
> services", and follow the instructions to complete your transaction.
>
> <http://serotek.com/products>Get more information about Serotek
> products and services.
>
> <http://serotek.com/build-a-bundle-faq>Read more about Build a
> Bundle, which allows you to customize a monthly rental of Serotek
> products and services to meet your financial and technical needs.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:55:16 -0600
> From: Jesse Johnson <jayjohnson66 at att.net>
> To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Good morning everyoned
> Message-ID: <A356B960-2870-4EBF-A4CB-2C95DCD3D2C4 at att.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> In my opinion,  It would be good.D
> On Feb 11, 2010, at 10:16 AM, Nick Bennett wrote:
>
>> I was just wondering if I should download Dragon natural Speaking for my 
>> friend who is losing his eye sight. he already lost his left arm from the 
>> chemicals they used in Vietnam. So, I was just wondering, what are your 
>> thoughts? Should I help him get this program? What would you recommend 
>> for my friend Terry? I need to know if it's worth it or not. Please send 
>> me your feed back on this program.
>> Thanks
>> Nick Bennett
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gui-talk mailing list
>> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>> gui-talk:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/jayjohnson66%40att.net
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:16:56 -0600
> From: David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>
> To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Hi Everyone
> Message-ID: <auto-000139406982 at mailfront1.g2host.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> This is the wrong list for the discussion of NLS digital players -- 
> and most certainly the wrong place to request one!
>
> David Andrews, Moderator
>
> At 08:13 PM 2/9/2010, you wrote:
>>i wood like a edvanced player dtb
>>
>>On 2/9/10, George and Pamela Dominguez <geodom at optonline.net> wrote:
>> > They were the Library Of Congress digital talking book players.  The 
>> > victor
>> > stream is something that you have to buy.  These are not tiny like 
>> > that.
>> > They are the digital replacements for the Library of congress cassette
>> > talking book players.They are for residents of the U.S.  I say that 
>> > because
>> > I don't know where you are.  Pam.
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: "hmp" <humbertoa5369 at netzero.net>
>> > To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> > Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 8:00 PM
>> > Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Hi Everyone
>> >
>> >
>> >> What kind of players are they? Is there a victor reader stream?
>> >>
>> >>> ----- Original Message -----
>> >>>From: "Nick Bennett" <undergod14 at gmail.com
>> >>>To: <gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>> >>>Date sent: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 13:09:43 -0500
>> >>>Subject: [gui-talk] Hi Everyone
>> >>
>> >>>The N.L.S. Just had a large shipment of players come in. So if
>> >> you would like to have one, please call 1800-992-9012. Free for all 
>> >> blind
>> >> users. Please call soon.
>> >>
>> >>>_______________________________________________
>> >>>gui-talk mailing list
>> >>>gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>> >>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>> >>>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
>> >> for gui-talk:
>> >>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/humbert
>> >> oa5369%40netzero.net
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> gui-talk mailing list
>> >> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>> >> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>> >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> >> gui-talk:
>> >>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/geodom%40optonline.net
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > gui-talk mailing list
>> > gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>> > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> > gui-talk:
>> >
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/chikodinaka09021982%40gmail.com
>> >
>>
>>
>>--
>>mr. Chikodinaka Nickkindidm Oguledo
>>300NatickCourt
>>SilverSpring. Md. 20905 home telephone# 301-879-5881 On the go
>>mobile/reader\KNFB cellphone# 240-421-7868. Networks and websight
>>whur.com/whurkismat websight | networks use
>>chikodinaka09021982 at gmail.com as a username last.fm facebook.com
>>ustream.tv iseecolor.com minglecity.com youtube.com/chikodinaka my
>>chanal on youtube! tweet me on twitter.com where you can fowllow me.
>>and email chikodinaka09021982 at gmail.comwhur.com/whurkismat
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:30:16 -0500
> From: "Mark J. Cadigan" <kramc11 at gmail.com>
> To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [gui-talk] zip files
> Message-ID: <791F1EC480A9470FBB17E49ACAA4BB43 at SonyPC>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
> My computer suddenly decided not to open zip files. When I open them,
> internet explorer opens repeatedly to the point that I have to turn off 
> the
> computer with the power button. This just started happening yesterday. Any
> suggestions on how to fix this?
> Thanks
> Mark
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:49:50 -0600
> From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
> To: "GUI-TALK List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [gui-talk] Internet Explorer 7 Question
> Message-ID: <auto-000018258796 at mailback2.g2host.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Good morning,
>
> I have two computers in my household running Internet Explorer 7.  One of 
> them seems to be running just fine, but the other leaves the focus on the 
> address bar when a
> page is opened when Internet Explorer first comes up.  If I press ENTER, 
> focus moves to the page and everything seems fine, but does anyone know 
> why this is
> happening and if there is a setting I need to change?  I have already 
> experimented with a number of settings without success before turning to 
> this list for help..
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> gui-talk mailing list
> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>
>
> End of gui-talk Digest, Vol 70, Issue 12
> ****************************************
>