[nfb-talk] Technology accessibility, recent healthcare.gov rollout

[Bill Outman]

Good day.  

 

We all have our opinions on the new health care law which I will not debate
here.  

 

Given the difficulty some of the general public has had in accessing the
poorly designed healthcare.gov web site since it went live, there may now be
a greater appreciation for the problems we can experience in Internet and
other technology access, even with our adaptive tools such as Jaws.  

 

My most recent experience with this, ironically enough, was attempting to
access a 60 Minutes story about investigations of disability benefits
claims.  I was able to google the location of the story but could not make
the video play because the buttons were not labeled correctly or have easy
activation.  

 

It would be helpful if those who rightly criticize the problematic design of
healthcare.gov would expend some energy addressing our accessibility issues
as well.  

 

William H. "Bill" Outman 

Secretary, Greater Daytona Beach Chapter 

National Federation of the Blind of Florida