[NABS-L] News organizations implementing Accessibility Discussion

Sun Mar 17 18:50:19 UTC 2019

I am a nontraditional student. So please take my following comments into 
consideration with that grain of salt.

I do not regard Facebook as a news organization. They are social media 
and that is it. They don’t disseminate news they don’t bad news they 
don’t deal with news.

News organizations that I trust quote AP, ABC, CBS, NPR, UPI, Reuters 
and the New York Times and other national newspapers. Those 
organizations are in fact truly news gathering and reporting 
organizations. The reason why I say those are news organizations as they 
gathered and disseminated news before the virtual world existed and the 
larger ones will continue to gather and disseminate news well into the 
future. As technology and access methods change however how we get news 
and consume news will change with it and you guys will help make sure 
that blind guys can access it appropriately. That means with non visual 
access techniques.

Now a bit of explanation about the background of where I come from in 
order to make these comments one I am a deaf blind nontraditional 
student. Taking ASL American sign language. But I hold bachelors degrees 
in political science and information systems. I did do grad work but did 
not finish a Masters at Northern Colorado and educational technology. 
And I have in the past  worked teaching adaptive technology. And the 
reason I am taking sign languages because I will need it both personally 
and professionally going forward. As I mentioned in the beginning of 
this post I am deaf blind. I want to use my sign language  skills to 
eventually work with I can connect. What is that I can connect? This is 
a program run by the Federal Communications Commission that distributes 
predominantly technology related equipment to enable deaf blind persons 
to communicate with the rest of the world. The program has been in 
existence since 2015. And five years previous was a pilot project. Just 
for your information who qualifies? This is been general. In every case 
of course is different. One the applicant must be deaf blind. This is of 
course determined by a physician. Two in general they must earn less 
than $50,000 a year gross. Three they must be evaluated to verify that 
they need the equipment and can use the equipment.

I certainly want to apologize a little for the length of this post but 
to explain everything, takes time, and space in the email. I may, see 
some of you at convention. In July. I can’t say those one would see me 
at the student meeting since unfortunately most of the topics covered 
are pretty much traditional student  topics, and or situations. That 
don’t exactly apply to me. Pretty much the comment would be quote been 
there, done that I’ve got the T-shirt in many cases. But my mind can 
be changed I do have an open mind. So enlighten me? Why does it really 
matter if nontraditional students care about the traditional student 
world?

Sincerely Maurice Mines.
Amateur station callsign kd0iko.
VP national Federation of the blind of California Bakersfield Chuck.

On 17 Mar 2019, at 9:33, Nina Marranca via NABS-L wrote:

> I think this is a relevant topic. However, I usually find that I can 
> get the info I need from the context of the post or the comments, if 
> we're talking about Facebook. Pictures are just always one of those 
> things that require a little extra accessability effort, I suppose.
> Nina
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: NABS-L <nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org> on behalf of Armando Vias via 
> NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2019 10:30
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Armando Vias
> Subject: [NABS-L] News organizations implementing Accessibility 
> Discussion
>
> Hey guys. Yesterday, I came up with an idea about advocating to news 
> organizations about implementing accessibility to the photos they 
> upload to their social media pages. What I am talking about is that 
> the photos doesn't have much information. For example, I follow some 
> meteorologists on Facebook, and guess what? They don't put photo 
> descriptions on their Facebook pages! One photo might say, "No photo 
> description available." Also, I created a poll as well about this 
> topic. You can vote on my website at 
> https://theblindadvocate.wordpress.com/vote/. I am wondering if other 
> people on this mailing list faced similar issues accessing information 
> in photos from news organizations.
>
> --
> Armando Vias
> Student
> Email: armando at theblindadvocate.com
> Website: https://theblindadvocate.wordpress.com
> Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/theblndadvocate
>
> "WE ARE THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND, AND WE CANNOT BE SHUT 
> DOWN!"
> -Mark A. Riccobono
>
> "The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the 
> characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day, we raise 
> the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create 
> obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life 
> you want; blindness is not what holds you back. Together, with love, 
> hope, and determination, we transform dreams into reality."
> Website: www.nfb.org
> Are you a blind student? Visit this website to learn about the 
> National Association of Blind Students, (NABS), a division of the 
> National Federation of the Blind.
> https://nabslink.org
> To find your student division, visit 
> https://nabslink.org/content/contact-our-state-divisions
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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