[nabentre] Website Accessibility For Contracted Salespersons And Franchisees

[Anita Ogletree]

Good evening and I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

It has been a while since I've commented or asked questions on this list.
If there's anyone whois willing to answer this question it would be most
helpful.

When you talk about being a contractor or doing contract work for
companies, what exactly does that mean. I am trying to research some
business ventures in hopes of starting a business and I came across this
email.

Thank you in advance for your help.


On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 12:54 PM Kane Brolin via nabentre <
nabentre at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> On 11/24/15, Lauren Merryfield via nabentre <nabentre at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> > I know what you mean about companies supposedly "upgrading" and becoming
> > inaccessible. I tried and tried to get Thirty-One Gifts to make, and
> keep,
> > their website accessible.  ...  Their attitude seemed to be that they
> couldn't make
> > changes for one person.
>
> Lauren, this is truly maddening, especially when you deal with a
> company that has recently made changes that made their Website less
> accessible than before.  One person probably made the decision to
> change the site's look and feel, without consulting their user base;
> but they refuse to acknowledge the need for accessibility because
> supposedly only "one person" wants it that way.  I have faced this
> problem with some companies I've contracted for in the past.  I'm
> still unclear as to how enforceable Section 504 and Section 508 are
> when one is a disabled contractor, not an employee; I sense most of
> the contract-hiring firms out there think it's not necessary to meet
> any accessibility standard whatsoever, because they're contracting for
> my services and not hiring me as an in-house employee--therefore, no
> need for ADA compliance either.
>
> I think that there is hope, though.  Overall this accessibility
> standard will become more universally met--not because of us who are
> blind, but because there is increasing pressure on commercial firms to
> make their sites mobile-friendly.  Most people now access the Web
> using tablets or smartphones, not laptops or full-sized desktop
> computers.  So a lot of the Java, Adobe Flash, and other garbage that
> used to populate Webpages is disappearing, as phones and tablets
> aren't very good at picking up on these gimmicks.  It is commercial
> considerations that are driving this trend, because I am told that
> search engines are rating Websites a lot more highly if those sites
> are optimized for mobile access, all other factors being equal.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -Kane
>
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