[nabentre] Website Accessibility For Contracted Salespersons And Franchisees

Mon Nov 30 17:57:13 UTC 2015

Thanks to all of you for the answers. I know that there are a number
of you who are either business owners and/or do contract work for
companies.

My hope is to be an independent contractor to bring in a little extra
income for myself. My ultimate goal is to build a business as a
braille transcriptionist in addition to training other people who are
blind to use the assistive devices and technology that is available.
So if there are others on this list working with companies like
Nikken, which I am going to take a look at, please let me know. I am
using both Windows and Mac on my laptop with the latest version of
JAWS and OpenBook. Currently I am writing this email using the Braille
Sense U2 which is often paired with my iPhone or Mac as a refreshable
braille display.

I am open to learning new techniques and procedures as well as
receiveing any training that will increase the probability of finding
what I am searching for.

Thank you again for the information.

Anita

On 11/28/15, Brandon Keith Biggs via nabentre <nabentre at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hello,
> There are 2 common states for a worker:
> employee and contractor.
> Employees are hired by the company and are on payroll. They do not
> really need to pay any tax above what is taken out of their paycheck.
> They have to follow employment law and can do pretty much anything for
> the company.
>
> Contractors are people that sign an agreement with a person or a company
> (their client) to do a service. The contractor sends their client an
> invoice saying the duties performed, cost and payment terms. The client
> then pays that exact amount to the contractor. Come tax time, the
> contractor needs to file their own tax return for the business. For sole
> props I think this is on the W2.
>
> Here are some examples:
> Employee:
> You get hired by Z and Company to be their secretary. You get payed $15
> an hour. You work 40 hours a week, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. This
> equals out to 160 hours for the month. At the end of your pay period (it
> is normally 2 weeks), you get a paycheck that is about $800 (1200 with
> about $400 taken out for taxes).
> This is pretty much all being an employee entails. There are often
> benefits and sometimes employers will offer payed time off, but they are
> not required. In California employers are required to give their
> employees 3 days of sick leave each year. Employees get payed over-time
> if they work over 8 hours in a day.
> There is a type of employee called exempt. These employees receive a
> salary which is not based on their hours worked, but is a set pay they
> get each month.
>
> Contractor:
> Z and Company asks you to program an IOS app for them. They give you
> their specifications and you tell them you will do it for $10000. They
> say OK and you both sign a contract saying what you will do and how much
> Z and company will pay.
> When you finish the IOS App you give it to Z and Company and send them
> an invoice for $10000. Z and Company then sends you a check for $10000.
> You deposit that $10000 check in the bank.
> Now Z and Company is out of the picture. You don't ever need to work
> with them again if you don't want. But every quarter (or every year,
> depends on you) Uncle Sam says that you need to pay him tax. This tax is
> around $40%+ (depending on your income) so it would be $4000 of this
> $10000. You jump out of your chair and shout "NO WAY!" and start wading
> through the U.S. Tax code (Or get an accountant). You find out that you
> can subtract costs of operation such as costs of computers, server
> expenses, office expense, utilities, furniture, business cards,
> marketing costs, website costs and all kinds of other costs. This
> reduces your $10000 to around $5000 which then reduces your taxes to
> only around $2000. This is still a lot, but it is much better than $4000!
>
> Why would someone choose to be a contractor? Because they get to be
> their own boss, they get to charge what they wish, they can higher their
> own employees and it is scalable (meaning that if you have 10 employees
> and each of them are working on a contract that is $10000 and you are
> paying them $4000 for their work, you are getting $60000 in income that
> you can use to pay your business expenses and you).
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Brandon Keith Biggs <http://www.brandonkeithbiggs.com/>
> On 11/29/2015 6:04 AM, Anita Ogletree via nabentre wrote:
>> 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,
>>>
>>> comKane
>>>
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—
"No, I have not achieved it'''b I focus on this one thing: forgetting
the past and looking orward what lies ahead.  I press on to reach the
end of the race and receive heavenly prize for which God through
Christ Jesus is calling us." Philippians 3:13-14

Anita Ogletree