[Nfbc-info] Conversations with Jeff wieland

[ckrugman at sbcglobal.net]

Thanks for this information. It is always best to exhaust other remedies 
before proceeding with legal action as this is generally a requirement that 
will be eventually occur if legal action is taken. It is good to know that 
Facebook is concerned. Other social networking sites suchas Myspace present 
problems and issues for sighted users as well.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Peterson" <its.mike at att.net>
To: "NFB of California List" <nfbc-info at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "California Association of Blind Students Mailing List" 
<cabs-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:50 AM
Subject: [Nfbc-info] Conversations with Jeff wieland


> Here are exerpts of my correspondence with Jeff wieland at Facebook He is 
> very aproachable and I think if enough of us dialogue with him so he sees 
> blind people really are concerned he will assist us in doing everything 
> possible to improve accessability.
> He isn't standoffish like MySpace where you can't even contact the right 
> people. Accessability is a problem with games on all the social networks 
> not just Facebook.
> Sometimes we can do as much without using the sword of the law other times 
> we must.  This time I really urge each of you to write Jeff.  Share the 
> dialogue with the group if you like.
> I could change my mind if we have a communications breakdown but I don't 
> think that's the situation here at least not just yet.
> I really wish Jeff could have attended the convention but he wasn't able 
> to perhaps though he will be able to attend if he's invited by another 
> State or Better still National.
> I think he will listen and help.
> His email is jeffw at facebook.comConversations follow Mike
> Hey Michael,
> Awesome - I really appreciate it. Also, feel free to point folks in my 
> direction
> (jeffw@) if you come across any complaints or feedback about our product. 
> I'm always
> available to talk about improvements to Facebook.
> How did the panel and conference go?
> Best - Jeff
> On 10/25/09 8:11 PM, "Michael Peterson" <
> its.mike at att.net
>> wrote:
>   Thanks Jeff.
> Sounds great.
> I will definitely keep you in the loope regarding conferences that you 
> might be able
> to participate in and will let our state president know of your interest 
> to be involved
> in anything on the horizon.
> Mike Peterson
> ----- Original Message -----
> From:  Jeff Wieland <
> mailto:jeffw at facebook.com
>>
> To: Michael Peterson <
> mailto:its.mike at att.net
>>
> Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:11  PM
> Subject: Re: An idea
> Hey Michael,
> Sorry for the late reply. I'm not  sure I'm going to be able to put this 
> together
> by Saturday (I'm OOO starting  today). I'm still extremely interested in 
> participating
> in any panel  opportunities with the NFB - are there more opportunities 
> coming up
> for  that?
> I'm actually in the process of coordinating some training for our  design 
> team with
> regards to improving our code accessibility, so once that's  over let's 
> revisit the
> idea of building ownership in the developer community  on this issue. 
> Sound good?
> Best - Jeff
> Hey   Mike,
> Definitely keep me posted on any events in the future -  I'm very 
> interested in
> having an opportunity to chat more in-depth  with the community  on web 
> accessibility,
> and Facebook's  accessibility in general. I think it  would be interesting 
> to do
> an  open workshop with developers interested in  improving their app's 
> accessibility
> at some point but this is a tricky  problem.  We  have thousands of 
> developers building
> applications on top of  our  platform, so if we were to try to improve 
> accessibility
> on that front I'd   like to come up with a solution that is as scalable as 
> possible.
> I  do urge you  to reach out to the developers of the individual 
> applications that
> you use to  inform them of your experience and any  difficulties you've 
> encountered
> (either  via Facebook or their main  web site) - I've found that 
> ultimately the best
> way  for developers  to learn of bugs/fail points is to hear it from the 
> people that
> experience these issues.
> Best - Jeff
> On  10/16/09 1:02 PM, "Michael Peterson" <
> its.mike at att.net
>>  wrote:
> Hi Jeff.  I didn't see a   contact link there might be I didn't scroll 
> down I'm
> not really  sure how  they could adapt it Litterally you can't use the 
> applications
> to much in  window-eyes, or access to go from what I  know my wife has a 
> small amount
> of  sight and says it would be  impossible to use these type applications. 
> I wonder
> if  perhaps you and I could try to set up a meeting where we  could get 
> some of
> these developers together with you me and some of the NFBC   students or a 
> broader
> group of blind consumers.  Maybe even  in a  setting where hands on we 
> could work
> with the developers and  show them what  needs to be done or at least what 
> doesn't
> work.
> We could call it an  accessability developers clinic or  something.
> One experiment I tried was  to switch to mobile.   That helps for many 
> things but
> not for the game   applications.
> Interestingly at least so far not one of the game   applications is 
> accessible at
> least not in my experience.
> if  you look at  my facebook account you probably can see some of what 
> I've tooled
> with.
> You could download the window-eyes demo or  access to go and see if  for 
> example
> you could build a farm in  farmville without using the mouse. If  you used 
> the mouse
> affectively could it be done not looking at the   screen?
> The one application I did use that worked was a   twitter application that 
> connected
> facebook and twitter but that  got anoying  to people so I took it off.
> We will definitely  advise you of other events  and I'll do my best to see 
> the invites
> are always open to you to advance our   dialogue.
> Mike
>
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