[nabs-l] advocating accessibility and feeling blamed, what to do

Tue Sep 30 02:26:47 UTC 2014

Hi Kaiti,

Thanks for your advice and I will most definitely start printing out 
corespondence.
As I read this disability coordinator's comments, not only did she blame me 
for failing to advocate to my ds counselor, but also
she fails to take any responsibility to address such issues. Further, her 
response was full of mistakes as if she could not even take the time to 
write a good gramatical free email. At least she did address my concerns one 
by one and label her responses with numbers.

I don't know the new digital accessibility coordinator's role. However, I do 
intend to ask him, all be it politely,
as well as ask him what steps he will take to solve such issues once I meet 
him.
He supposedly has something to do with web accessibility.

I agree you should not have to use a different browser. My jaws skills are 
intermediate to advanced but I also know that things have to be coded right 
for jaws to read, and its evident certain things are not. So, whether my 
skills are advanced is debatable, but either way, this is not the issue.

If I choose to write to a higher authority about it, do you think I should 
include past copies of my corespondence? I'm wondering if referencing what 
dates I wrote letters is enough.
I'm also debating how much time is reasonable to wait for them to redesign 
the site for greater access.
I'll start keeping track once I meet the digital coordinator of the time.
I'm guessing about a month and a half. I'm doing this now so when I take 
another business elective, the site will be fixed hopefully.

Sorry to learn your tech people give you the run around too.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Kaiti Shelton
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2014 3:24 PM
To: Ashley Bramlett ; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] advocating accessibility and feeling blamed, what to 
do

Hi Ashley,

I am so sorry you are having these issues.  It sounds like the DS
people are just being ignorant, and what is this Digital Accessibility
Coordinator doing anyway?

I would print out all copies of the emails you've sent to the person
who gave you those rude comments to show proof of your repeated
complaints of inaccessible web content.  If you've made phone calls
and can access the date and time of those calls, I'd write those down
and send them along as well.  Demonstrating to a higher authority that
you did indeed advocate for these serious issues to be resolved, and
the DS person said you didn't, will show them that you're the one with
the credibility and they'll be more likely to hold the DS person
accountable.

The tech people at my university have told me similar things when our
stuff doesn't work; they'll say, "Well, she needs to use a different
web browser."  While this isn't as bad as saying my JAWS skills suck
and I need more training, it is the same kind of thing.  I shouldn't
have to switch web browsers in order to access the same content
everyone else can get with the same web browser, or the web browser of
their choice for that matter.  I also don't know about you, but I
consider myself to be an advanced JAWS user but don't even use all the
commands in the book.  Nevertheless, the JAWS training you have really
shouldn't matter; even an advanced JAWS user would still have to deal
with that unlabeled table, have issues with the weird HTML5 tabs, etc.

Seriously, I wonder what this blind digital accessibility guy is
really doing, because it sounds like it should be his job to find
these problems and advise the tech people on how to troubleshoot them
on behalf of the students, or at least back them up when he doesn't
find something and they do.

On 9/28/14, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've mentioned here I've gone back to the community college, called Nova,
> for short, to obtain a writing certificate and have more electives; 
> figured
> it was better to do that while career exploring than sitting around. For
> instance, I've taken a general business class, public relations, and tried
> marketing. I ended up dropping marketing because of the style of lectures
> and unaccomodating atmosphere. I figured I was best off with a different
> professor later.
>
> I've encountered numerous accessibility issues on our college website.
> The following are the biggest issues.
> 1. PDFS don't read; the newsletters are often in that format.
> 2.  There are tabs that I cannot activate all links. I get into them with
> space bar, but after this, I have issues with in the tab. This is a new
> feature used in html 5.
> 3. unlabeled tables.
>
> I have barriers doing some research because I cannot click on all links 
> with
> in tabs for databases or encyclopedias.
>
> I'm quite frustrated because when I complained last year, nothing 
> happened;
> when I did that again, the campus wide disability coordinator blamed me 
> for
> failing to advocate. I felt her response was rude and abrupt when I asked
> for her address to send the formal letter; she says, you always had it.
>
> What should I do for advocacy other than meeting with the  digital
> accessibility coordinator who btw is also blind? I am hopeful he will
> understand being blind himself.
>
> I just feel quite ignored and cannot access all info I need to online due 
> to
> access.  She went so far as to say that all students need advanced jaws
> training or work arounds since not all sites are fully accessible. Okay, I
> agree we need to know jaws well,  but this tone seems to shift the blame 
> to
> students knowing all advanced settings in jaws menus and problem solving
> versus having a usable website up front.
> She should know I'm a good student, and I do not appreciate the 
> insinuation
> that I failed to know jaws enough. I've been told I know more than most
> people. can I learn more? Yes, but they need to do their part too.
>
> I'm taking my chances that using first names only will not yiled this
> message in google.
> The disability coordinator Estella said this with my comments first.
>
> 2.I told you a few months back that the website has not been designed to
> accommodate screen readers
> The website is bing redesigned and all issues are being solved as we
> advance. You are not the only blind student we have on campus and the more
> you know how to use Jaws, the less issues you have. I suggest you get an
> advance training in Jaws so you can learn the works around and succeed on
> any website which by the way, most of them are not 100%accessible.
>
>
> 3.For instance, I cannot click on the films on demand tab, so in order for
> me to watch the videos, I have to use sighted help.
> This is another issue that needs to be brought up to your instructor,
> disability counselor or inform Tim so he can work with the department to 
> fix
> the problem. If you keep it to yourself we will not be able to address it.
>
>
> 4.Please inform me what address to send my letter to.  My information is
> below my name and you have always had it.
>
>
>
> 6.I also have come across numerous powerpoints in my classes which are not
> as accessible as they can be. They need to have alt text on the graphics. 
> I
> suggest Nova train faculty how to make accessible documents.
> Once again, this is an issue you should have discussed with your 
> instructor
> and informed us. Our office helps faculty learn how to create accessible 
> PP
> and we are constantly training them. We have over 5000 faculty and staff 
> and
> believe me, you may have come across with one that was not yet trained but
> again, if you let us know, we fix the problem. It is not a matter of just
> complaining, it is a matter of informing in a timely manner when a problem
> is encounter so our office can address it.
>
>
> So, that is what she said in her own words. It seems like a rushed 
> response.
> I did inform my dss counselor and she shifts the blame to me saying I did
> not talk timely when this is something I've said before; maybe not to her,
> but my counselor who should have told her office rather than falling on
> deaf ears. I also informally complained of the website before so she is
> pretending she never heard.
>
> Should I send a copy of my letter when I write it to the dean of students?
> Has anyone encountered  similar issues?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Ashley
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-- 
Kaiti 