[gui-talk] inaccessible software continued

[James Pepper]

The principle is that Content that is made by one person is not the same
content the blind receive and that creates a disconnect between the intent
of the author and the reception by the blind.  And if we demand that
connection where all of the content is accessible to the blind, then people
will step up and make it happen.  It is possible to do this now!

Take for example the voter registration form where you get different content
depending on which program you use to access the content.  The experience of
the blind is not the same as that the sighted person, content is missing.
If you are going to have a contract between two parties, they have to be on
the same page.  That's the principle here, that the blind are not getting
the same documents, the same content as everyone else!

If we rely on weak definitions of software accessibility, where not all of
the content is accessible, then what's the point of accessibility laws?   Do
you think it is OK for people to only hear the words "You have the right"
when a person is being read their miranda rights, is that good enough for
you?  Lawyers will tear you to shreds!  So when lawyers find out that the
blind are not receiving all of the information, it will create an entire
industry in challenging every government action relating to the blind, the
visually impaired and the disabled.

That's right lawyers, go for it!  We need a change!

The blind require a copy of every form to be accessible to them before and
after it is filled out, so they can call up that record.  So they have to
print up that form to have their record.  If they want to access that form,
they have to run OCR software on it.  If the font is too small, the OCR
software won't work.

The only reason we do not have content in Spanish is because people choose
to not do it!

Misleading alternate content is possible right now, if you want to bury your
head in the sand and pretend it is not there then that is your problem.
Anyone can write anything in the alternative text including "button 1" and
the only way to check to make sure the content is the same is to actually
turn on a screen reader and  check it to the visual document.  Since most
people do not do that, the potential for fraud is there; intentional or not,
it is still a risk.  If insurance companies recognize this risk then
businesses will demand that their I.T professionals prove their work.

In DAISY format, content goes missing.  It happens all the time and the only
way to realize this is happening is to compare the original document with
the DAISY version.

Are the blind emancipated? It is assumed the blind will get assistance to
help them read and fill out content.  Documents are designed with the
defeated attitude that people will get others to help them. In the case of
Voter Registration we saw the effect of literacy tests on the right to vote,
when african americans were required to read to register to vote.  It is the
blind's right to register to vote, not a gift of the state.

Accessility is not a gift from I.T. personnel at government agencies, it is
a right.  Accessibility is depending right now on the good graces of the
people who choose to act and care about their work. But we need for everyone
to "get it" not just the good people.

In 2008 I made the National Voter Registration form to be accessible to the
blind using conventional techniques and this form was tested by AFB Tech,
the technology division of the American Foundation for the Blind, and by the
Jernigan Insititute of the National Federation of the Blind and Jim Dickson,
the Vice President of the American Association of People with
Disabilities personally presented that form to the Elections Assistance
Commission (EAC).

I had originally presented the form to the EAC in August of 2008 and that is
when I contacted the Voting Rights Division of the ACLU.  The National Voter
Registration form at that time consisted of some text instructions and that
was all, the form was a mess, unreadable and inaccessible, it was an image.
Of course the Elections Assistance Commission was created by Congress to
make voting accessible to the blind in the Help America Vote Act of 2002 but
for some strange reason they never got around to the Voter Registration
form. And everyone who went through the civil rights movement understands
that if you are not registered to vote, you cannot vote, even if the voting
machines are accessible. Of course if the blind and disabled actually showed
up for a national election it would probably overwhelm the polling stations
and be a logistical nightmare for elections officials.

The EAC is made up of all the elections officials of every state and they
were required to make voter regsitration accessible to the blind in 6
different federal laws passed since 1973, so there is no excuse!  One state
elections officer actually wrote in writing that they were not required to
make the voter registration form accessible to the blind. I handed that over
to the Voting Rights Division of the ACLU.

That form requires equal access to all people to be able to register to vote
and any impediment to that access is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of
1965. The blind and disabled were added to that law in the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973.  If you put a literacy test on that form, then that is a
deterent to a person to vote.

In 2008 that was particularly important as many states purged their voter
registrations and people had to register again.  You might have noticed this
when I think it was New Mexico or Arizona that purged its voting records
and older americans were denied the right to vote because they no longer had
their birth certificates and state records did not go back far enough to
prove these people as citizens.  So everyone had to register to vote again.

You don't see a lot of blind people registering to vote at the DMV!

19 days after I submitted the forms, the EAC came out with their new form,
which is different depending on which screen reader you use to read the form
and not all of the content is accessible and it violated Section 508
law.  Most states stopped voter registration 2 weeks after that form was
delivered.  The entire form is designed for people using JAWS and the blind
still needed to get someone to help them fill it out. Having to buy JAWS is
a poll tax in voter registration.  You could not fill out the form with the
demo of JAWS, you did not have enough time. Getting someone to help you can
be a poll tax depending on who it is that helped you.

My forms were designed so that the blind could fill it out all by themselves
without assistance using free screen readers so there was no poll tax on the
blind.

So the Elections Assistance Commission made the form that required the blind
to buy software to register to vote. That is a poll tax.  And if you have to
ask people to read something for you that is a literacy test.  And if you
cannot access the form it is also a literacy test. And the form requires
people to draw a map on the backside of the form and that is a literacy
test!

I wrote about the numbers of people involved because in a civil rights
movement, numbers count to Congress and Congress has to change the
regulations and the laws to enable greater access. You can get all academic
about civil rights but is you want to change policy, you have to make
Congress realize they are dismissing a large voting block and given the
recent elections, every vote counts!

Right now, policy is made based on a census poll made in 2006 where they
determined that there were about 1 million sensory impaired americans in the
US, including the deaf.  It was interesting because the person who did that
study was there at the hearing in Dallas and he told me that the study was
actually intended for a very specific set of disabilities and the study was
not intended to demonstrate the numbers of the actual disabled in this
country.  But those figures are used to set policy and so the blind and
disabled are under-represented in policy decisions.

The NIH is tracking 33.5 million people with the 6 most common eye disease
that result in blindness. Most of the blind are not on government
assistance. They cannot afford JAWS!

So I suggested that we have the census count the number of blind and
disabled in this country so we know who is disabled, where they are located
so we can direct better coverage to them.  Why is that a bad idea?

The people who applauded me were the people at that hearing.

If you do not recognize the problems of accessibility, how are you going to
fix them?

James Pepper